


iii HH iiii>illi m ii 



i WmmH I M II H i 



«*M>»^«MiM«M«M»M«>«M->i 



I • •antta n «t vw tt 1 1 





ROPS 

I F" 








Class SB I %A 
Book-^, B 3- 



Cyclopedia of Farm Crops 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON ■ BOMBAY ■ CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Lti;» 

TORONTO 




Plate I. Maize. The flint type, much grown in the northeastern country. 



Cyclopedia of 
Farm Crops 



A popular survey of crops 
and crop-making methods in 
the United States and Canadia 



EDITED BY 

L. H. BAILEY 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1922 

All rights reserved 






CoPYHIGHT. 1901 

By the MACMILLAN COMPANY 



Set up and elcctrotyped. Published September, 19(K' 






PREFACE 

Within the area of North America north of Mexico, the range of agricultural cropping comprises one 
hundred to two hundred kinds of plants, not counting the many horticultural and very special things grown 
fur ornament and personal satisfaction. An account of these plants, together with the methods of growing 
them, is contained in this Cyclopedia, to which more than one hundred experts have contributed. 

It is not sufficient, in these days, merely to know the kinds of plants and how to grow them. The 
reader should have a background of other plant knowledge, as a part of his agricultural education. This 
Cyclopedia aims to provide this introduction and preparation in such articles as those relating to the struc- 
ture and physiology of plants and to their response to artificial stimulus, and in those touching the modifica- 
tion of plants under the hands of the plant-breeder. The diseases of plants and the insects that attack 
them come also within the range of this knowledge of preparation; and the kind of efforts now undertaken 
to enrich our agriculture and horticulture by the introduction of promising plants from other parts of the 
world should also be understood. These aU contribute to the education of the mental attitude. 

The reader having come intellectually prepared to the subject of crop-growing, he will want to know 
the principles underlying cropping and rotation systems, the management of weeds, the growing of plants 
under covers of various kinds, and the accumulated experience of seeding, planting, and transplanting. 
To this part of the subject are added tables and lists of yields and legal weights' in the United States and 
Canada. 

The foregoing subjects comprise about one-fourth the text of the volume, covered in Part I with seven 
chapters. Part II covers the manufacture of crop products in the way of canning, preserving, evaporating 
and pickhng, and the making of juices. The larger commercial operations in these fields are, of course, not 
described, for they belong in industrial manufacture rather than in agriculture. 

These general subjects having been dismissed, the reader comes to the alphabetic hst of crops. For the 
most part, the horticultural crops and plants are omitted as they are very numerous, and they are specially 
discussed in the Editor's Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. To add them would increase the size and 
expense of this work beyond aU bounds, for the subject requires, even for brief treatment, six large volumes 
in the other Cyclopedia. However, fruit-growing and truck-growing are treated, as these run to large- 
acreage operations and partake of the nature of general agriculture. Particular attention is given to the 
farm forest subject. Although it is sometimes said that forestry begins where farming ends, the two are 
only complements one of the other, comprising different ways of cropping the land. To grow a woodlot is 
only one form of agriculture, and it is a form that must greatly increase in importance as we enter the domain 
of public economy that demands the best utilization of neglected lands. It is a sharp reflection on our State 
pohcies thafso many of these lands in natural forest regions still remain repulsive and waste. 

As an educated point of view is essential to the joyful approach to the subject of cropping, so is a similar 
mental preparation useful in the discussion of the particular crop. Therefore, something of the nativity, 
naming, distribution and other factors introduces the crops, in a form as condensed as is consistent with 
accurate statement. A closer study of the plants themselves is essential to a masterful hold on the cropping 
subjects. The trained observation is directly useful, also, in the understanding of the diseases and insects 
that follow the crops of man as they also follow the crops of nature. 

The reader may find in this volume much information on crops that are scarcely agricultural in a large 
sense and which are not included in the Cyclopedia of Horticulture. Thus the article on Medicinal Plants 
provides a ready cyclopedic reference in an interesting field, as also those on Fiber Plants, Incidental Forage- 
Eke Plants, Oil-bearing Plants, Paper-making Plants, Dyes and Dyeing. It is often difficult to find such 
information in available form. 

The book is not unrelated to the home, as the article on the Home Gardens testifies, as well as that on 
Ornamental Plants. It is the aim of educators to converge all the agricultural riches into the betterment 
of rural homes. 

This much the Editor has felt impelled to say as a reason for the re-pubUcation of this volume. The 
Cyclopedia of American Agriculture is for the present out of print, as such. The great expense of book 
manufacturing at present precludes the immediate reprinting of it as a whole, and the demand has disposed 
of all the stock of former printings. The volumes on Crops and Animals are separately called for to such 
an extent that they are repubhshed, however, to continue as much as possible of the old work, each as a 
Cyclopedia in itself. The work of the many persons who wrote the articles^s timely and useful and deserves 
perpetuation. 

L. H. BAILEY. 
November 14, 1921. 



CONTENTS 

PART I— THE PLANT AND ITS RELATIONS 

CHAPTER I 

PAGE 

Structure and Physiology of the Plant 5-35 

The Plant : Its Structure, Life-Processes and Environment. W. J. V. Osterhout 11 

Response of Plants to Artificial Lights. G. E. Stone 22 

The Stimulation of Plant Growth by Means of Weak Poisons. Howard S. Reed 28 

Effect of Electricity on Plants. G. E. Stone 30 

CHAPTER n 

Insects and Diseases 35-53 

Means of Controlling Insects. M. V. Slingerland 40 

Means of Controlling Plant Diseases. Henry L. Bolley 46 

CHAPITER HI 

The Breeding of Plants 53-69 

Some of the Principles of Plant-Breeding. Herbert J. Webber 57 

CHAPTER IV 

Plant Introduction. David Fairchild 70-80 

CHAPTER V 

Crop Management 81-118 

Farm Management. A. M. TenEyck 90 

The Triennial Crop Rotation System. Hugh N. Starnes 98 

Examples of Crop Rotation Systems in Canada, United States, and Elsewhere. S. Eraser ... 99 

Weeds, and the Management of Them 110 

Chemical Weed-Killers, or Herbicides. L. R. Jones 115 

CHAPTER VI 

Growing Plants Under Cover 119-130 

The Shading of Plants. B. M. Duggar 119 

Glasshouses for Vegetable Crops. L. R. Taft 123 

Plants in Residence Windows. Charles E. Hunn 128 

CHAPTER VII 

Seeding, Planting and Yields 131-155 

Practical Advice on Seed-Testing. E. Brown and F. H. Hillman • 141 

Growing Seed Crops. W.W.Tracy ' 144 

The Growing and Transplanting of Field-Crop Plants. L. C. Corbett 147 

Legal Weights of Agricultural Products 148 

Yields of Farm Crops 15L 

(v) 



vi CONTENTS 

PART II— THE MANUFACTURE OF CROP PRODUCTS 

CHAPTER VIII 

Preserved Products 157-177 

Canning Industry in California. C. H. Bentley 158 

Home Preserving and Canning. Anna Barrows 161 

The Commercial Canning Industry. Samuel C. Prescott 168 

Home-made Pickles and Ketchup. Anna Barrows 173 

Evaporating as a Home Industry in Eastern United States. G. F. Warren 174 

CHAPTER IX 

Juices and Liquors 177-190 

Grape and Other Fruit Juices. A. M. Loomis • 178 

Wine, Cider and Vinegar. Samuel C. Prescott 181 

Industrial Alcohol— Denatured Alcohol. H.W.Wiley 186 

Brewing. Samuel C. Prescott 188 

PART III— NORTH AMERICAN FIELD CROPS 

Alfalfa or Lucern. J. M. Westgate 19i^ 

Alfalfa in the Central West. F. D. Coburn 19b 

Alfalfa in the East. F. E. Dawley 197 

Alfilaria. J. J. Thornber 197 

Arrow-root. S. M. Tracy 199 

Banana-Growing in American Tropics. G. N. Collins 199 

Barley. R. A. Moore 202 

Bean, Field. J. L. Stone 206 

Bean, Broad. John Fixter 212 

Beggarweed. H. Harold Hume 214 

Berseem. V. A. Clark 215 

Broom-corn. C. W. Warburton 216 

Buckwheat. J. L. Stone 217 

Cabbage for Stock-Feeding. S. Eraser 221 

Cacao. G. N. Collins 224 

Cacti as Forage 226 

Cassava. S. M. Tracy 227 

Castor-bean. E. Mead Wilcox 229 

Chicory Root. T. Lyttleton Lyon 231 

Clover 232 

Red Clover Seed-Growing. C. B. Smith 235 

Clover: Its Culture and Uses. Joseph E. Wing 237 

Coffee and Coffee-Growing. J. W. Van Leenhoff 239 

Cotton. Herbert J. Webber and E. B. Boykin 247 

Practical Suggestions on Cotton-Growing. W. B. Mercier 257 

Cover-Crops. E. B. Voorhees 258 

Cowpea. J. F. Duggat 260 

Dyes and Dyeing. C^. Doggett 267 



CONTENTS vii 

North American Field Crops, continued pagk 

Farm Garden 273 

The Farm Fruit- and Vegetable-Gardens. S. T. Maynard 274 

Fiber Plants. Lyster H. Dewey 281 

Flax. C. P. Bull 293 

Forage Crops 803 

The Significance of Forage-Cropping. Charles S. Phelps 304 

Incidental Forage-like Plants. The Editor, C. F. Wheeler, and others 306 

Forests . .' • 312 

Farm Woodlot : Its Place in the Farm Economy. B. E. Fernow 313 

Factors in Timber Production. Raphael Zon 319 

Raising the Timber Crop. Samuel B. Green 323 

Practical Protection and Improvement of the Farm Woodlot. Alfred Akerman 330 

Harvesting and Marketing the Timber Crop. E. E. Bogue 333 

Insect Enemies of Woodlot Trees. A. D. Hopkins 343 

Forest and Timber Diseases. Hermann von Schrenk 345 

Frnit-Growing 348 

Handling and shipping fruit. G. Harold Powell 355 

Ginseng, American. B. L. Hart 357 

Grain : Shipping, Grading and Storing. C. S. Scofield 362 

Grasses. A. S. Hitchcock 365 

Hemp. J. N. Harper 377 

Hops. Jared Van Wagenen, Jr 380 

Kafir and Durra 384 

Cultivation of kafir and durra. E. G. Montgomery and C. W. Warburton 385 

Kale for Stock-Feeding. H. W. Smith 388 

Jersey kale 389 

Kohlrabi for Stock-Feeding. J. W. Gilmore 389 

Legumes 391 

Legume Root-tubercles. George P. Atkinson 392 

Lespedeza. Samuel M. Bain 395 

Lupine. H. N. Vinall 397 

Maize, or Indian Corn. John W. Harshberger .' 398 

Maize-Growing. C. P. Hartley 402 

Maize-Growing for the Silo. Jared Van Wagenen, Jr 414 

Popcorn. J. G. Curtis 418 

The Breeding of Maize. Cyril G. Hopkins 421 

Maple-Sugar and Maple-Syrup. J. L. Hills 427 

Maple-syrup-making from Ohio Experience. W. I. Chamberlain 430 

Meadows and Pastures. S. Fraser 434 

Grasses and Clovers Used in Meadows and Pastures. W. J. Spillman 442 

Native Meadows and Pastures of the Plains and Ranges. P. Beveridge Kennedy 453 

Medic 456 

Medicinal, Condimental and Aromatic Plants. R. H. True, and others 457 

Melilotus. J. F. Duggar 467 

Millets. M. A. Carleton 469 

Mushrooms and TufBes. B. M. Duggar 474 

Nurseries 481 

Organization of a Commercial Nursery Business. M. McDonald 483 



viii CONTENTS 

North American Field Crops, continued page 

Oats. A. L. Stone 485 

The " Open Furrow " Method of Seeding Oats. Hugh N. Starnes 493 

Oil-bearing Plants. R. H. True 494 

Ornamentals 502 

Paper-Making Plants. F. P. Veitch 503 

Pea, as a Field Crop. J. L. Stone 510 

Peanut. L. C. Corbett 514 

Potato. S. Fraser 519 

Potato-growing in the South. H. Harold Hume 527 

Pumpkin and Squash for Stock-Feeding. S. Fraser , 529 

Rape. A. L. Stone - 530 

Rice. S. A. Knapp 534 

Root Crops. S. Fraser ' 539 

Root Cellars and Storage Houses. L. C. Corbett 550 

Rubber, or Caoutchouc. H. N. Ridley and J. H. Hart 554 

Rye. Jared Van Wagenen, Jr 559 

Sainfoin. C. V. Piper 564 

Saltbushes. P. Beveridge Kennedy 565 

Serradella. C. V. Piper 566 

Silage-Cropping : Its History, Processes and Importance. J. W. Sanborn 566 

Soiling: Its Philosophy and Practice. F. W. Well 569 

Sorghum. Carleton R. Ball 574 

Sorghum-growing. C. W. Warburton 580 

Soybean. J. F. Duggar 582 

Spice-Producing Plants. R. H. True 586 

Spurry. C. V. Piper _ 587 

Sugar-Beet. C. 0. Townsend 588 

The Manufacture of Beet-Sugar. G. M. Chamberlin, .Jr 595 

Sugar-cane. N. A. Cobb 599 

Sunflower. A. M. TenEyck 611 

Sweet-potato. M. B. Waite 613 

Tanning Materials. F. P. Veitch • 623 

Taro. J. E. Higgins 629 

Tea. Charles U. Shepard 631 

Teasel. C. W. Clark 636 

Teosinte. W. J. Spillman 638 

Tobacco. A. D. Shamel 639 

Truck-Growing. John W. Lloyd 653 

Velvet bean. H. Harold Hume 656 

Vetch. J. F. Duggar 658 

Wheat. E. E. Elliott and T. Lyttleton Lyon 660 



PLATES 



PACixa 

PAGE 



•^ I. Maize, the great American cereal. This picture represents the flint corn, grown in the 
northeastern and northern parts of the country Frontispiece 

* II. Fruits of North and South. Crab-apple from Indiana and Orange from Southern California 50 

^ in. Wheat harvest in the mid-country 100 

^ IV. Pea-canning scene 156 

V V. Alfalfa 192 

^ VI. Heads of barley 204 

"^ VII. Red clover 232 

Vni. Coffee in Cuba 244 

V IX. Cotton-picking scene 256 

X. Forest devastation 312 

^ XI. Forest protection and management. Courtesy of the Forest Service, United States 

Department of Agriculture 820 

Xll. Grasses for hay and pasture 365 

^Xm. Kafir, a very important non-saccharino sorghum 386 

"'XIV. Types of maize 398 

^ XV. Haying scene 434 

^ XVI. Permanent hill pasture 455 

■^ XVn. Foxtail millet 468 

^XVm. Well-tilled apple orchard. .• 481 

- XIX. Potatoes 519 

- XX. Rice : panicle and field 535 

- XXI. Heads of rye 560 

" XXII. Silo, under construction and completed ; also silage machinery 570 

. XXIII. Sugar-planter's residence 600 

-XXIV. Header at work in wheat-field 660 

^ XXV. Field of wheat 666 



(ix) 



COLLABORATORS 



LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS 

Many of the contributors have assisted in reading proof and in other ways. 



AtajRMAN, Alfred, Professor of Forestry, University of 
Georgia, Athens, Ga. {Practical Protection and Im- 
provement of tlie Farm Woodlot.) 

Atkinson, Geo. F., Professor of Botany, Cornell Univer- 
sity, Ithaca, N. Y. (Legume Root-Tubercles.) 

Bain, Samuel M., Professor of Botany, University of 
Tennessee, and Botanist of the Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station, Knoxville, Tenn. (Lespedeza.) 

Ball, Carleton R., Agronomist in Sorghum Investiga- 
tions, Office of Grain Investigations, Bureau of Plant 
Industry, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
(Sorghum.) 

Barrows, Anna, Teacher of Domestic Science, Lecturer 
at Chautauqua Institution, New York State College of 
Agriculture at Cornell University, Teachers' College of 
Columbia University and Simmons College, Boston, 
Mass. (Home Preserving and Canning. Home-made 
Pickles and Ketchup.) 

Bentley, Charles Harvey, Manager, Sales Department, 
California Fruit Canners' Association, San Francisco, 
California. (Canning Industry in California.) 

BOGUE, E. E., Professor of Forestry, Michigan Agricul- 
tural College, Agricultural College, P. 0., Mich. (Har- 
vesting and Marlccting the Timber Crop.) 

BoLLEY, Henry L., Professor of Botany and Zoology, 
North Dakota Agricultural College, and Botanist, 
Agricultural Experiment Station, Agricultural College, 
N. D. (The Means of Controlling Plant Diseases.) 

BOYKIN, E. B., Assistant in Plant-Breeding Investigations, 
Bureau of Plant Industry, Department of Agriculture, 
Washington, D. 0. (Cotton, in conjunction with Her- 
bert J. Webber.) 

Brown, E., Botanist in Charge of Seed Laboratory, Bureau 
of Plant Industry, Department of Agriculture, Wash- 
ington, D. C. (Practical Advice on Seed-Testing, in 
conjunction with F. H. Hillman.) 

Bull, C. P., Assistant Professor of Agriculture, Univer- 
sity of Minnesota, and Assistant Agriculturist, Minne- 
sota Exp. Sta., St. Anthony Park, Minn. (Flax.) 

Carleton, Mark Alfred, Cerealist in Charge of Grain 
Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry, Department 
of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. (Millets.) 

Chamberlain, W. L, Editorial Department, "The Ohio 
Farmer," Cleveland, Ohio. Private address, Hudson, 
Ohio. (Maple-si/rup-making from Ohio Experience.) 

Chambbrlin, G. M., Formerly Manager, The Little Empire 
Investment Company, and Chief Chemist and Asst. 
Supt., The Western Sugar and Land Company, Grand 
Junction, Colo. Present address, in care of C. R. Glea- 
son & Co., Chicago. (The Manufacture of Beet-sugar.) 

Clark, C. W., Fanner, Skaneateles, N. Y. (Teasel.) 

Clark, V. A., Formerly Agriculturist and Horticulturist, 
Arizona Experiment Station Farm, Phoenix, Ariz. Ad- 
dress, Urbana, 111. (Berseem.) 



Cobb, N. A. , Chief, Division Crop Technology, Bureau of 
Plant Industry, Department of Agriculture, Washing- 
ton, D. C. (Sugar-Cane.) 

COBURN, F. D., Secretary State Board of Agriculture, 
Topeka, Kansas. (Alfalfa in the Central West.) 

Collins, G. N., Assistant Botanist, Binomic Investiga- 
tions, Bureau of Plant Industry, Department of Agri- 
culture, Washington, D. C. (Banana-Growing in, 
American Tropics. Cacao.) 

CORBETT, L. C, Horticulturist, Bureau of Plant Industry, 
Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. (The 
Growing and Transplanting of Field -Crop Plants. 
Peanut. Root Cellars and Storage Houses.) 

Curtis, J. G., Farmer, South Greece, N. Y. (Popcorn.) 

Dawley, F. E., Breeder of Animals and Director of State 
Farmers' Institutes, Fayetteville, N. Y. (Alfalfa in 
the East.) 

Dewey, Lyster H., In Charge of Fiber Plant Investiga- 
tions, Bureau of Plant Industry, Department of Agri- 
culture, Washington, D. C. (Fiber Plants.) 

Doggett, C. S., Director of Textile Department, Clemson 
Agricultural College of South Carolina, Clemson Col- 
lege, S. C. (Dyes and Dyeing.) 

Duggar, B. M., Professor of General Botany and Plant 
Physiology, University of Missouri, and Botanist, Agri- 
cultural Experiment Station, Columbia, Missouri. 
(The Shading of Plants. Preserving and Preparing 
Mushrooms. Mushrooms and Truffles.) 

Duggar, J. F., Director and Agi'iculturist, Experiment 
Station of Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Auburn, 
Ala. (Cowpea. Melilotus. Soybean. Vetch.) 

Elliott, E. E., Head Professor of Agriculture, Washing- 
ton State College, and Agriculturist, State Agricultural 
Experiment Station, Pullman, Washington. (Wheat, 
in conjunction with T. Lyttleton Lyon.) 

Erwin, a. T., Associate Professor of Horticulture, Iowa 
State College of Agriculture and Experiment Station, 
Ames, Iowa. (Lists of Fruits for Home-planting in 
Iowa.) 

Fairchild, David, In Charge of Office of Seed and Plant 
Introduction, Department of Agriculture, Washington, 
D. C. (Plant Introduction^ 

Fernow, B. E., Professor of Forestry, Toronto I 'niversity, 
Toronto, Ontario, Can. (Farm Woodlot : Its Place in 
the Farm Economy.) 

FiXTER, John, Farm Superintendent, The Macdonald Col- 
lege, St. Anne de Bellevue, P. Q. (Bean, Broad.) 

Fraser, S., Farmer ; Manager, Fall Brook Farms, and 
Consulting Agriculturist, Estate Major W. A. Wads- 
worth, Geneseo, N. Y. (Examples of Crop Rotation Sys- 
tems in Canada, United States, and Elsewhere. Cab- 
bage for Stock- Feeding. Meadows and Pastures. 
Potato. Pumpkin and Squash for Stock -Feeding. 
Root Crops.) 



(») 



£11 



COLLABORATORS 



GiLMORE, John W., Assistant Professor of Agronomy, 
New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell 
University, Ithaca, N. Y. {Kohlrabi for Stock- Feeding. 
Silage Cutters.) 

Green, Samuel B., Professorof Horticulture and Forestry, 
University of Minnesota, St. Anthony Park, St. Paul, 
Minn. (Raising the Timber Crop.) 

Harper, J. N., Director of South Carolina Experiment 
Station and Professor of Agriculture, Clemson College, 
S. C. Formerly of Kentucky Agricultural Experiment 
Station. (Hemp.) 

Harshberger, .John W., Assistant Professor of Botany, 
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa. (Maize, 
or Indian Corn, botanical discussion.) 

Hart, B. L., General Manager, Consolidated Ginseng 
Company of America, Rose Hill, N. Y. (Ginseng, 
American.) 

Hart, J. H., Superintendent of Botanical Department, 
Trinidad, B. W. I. (Rubber, or Caoutchouc, in conjunc- 
tion with H. N. Ridley.) 

Hartley, C. P., In Charge of Corn Investigations, Bureau 
of Plant Industry, Department of Agriculture, Wash- 
ington, D. C. (Maize-Growing.) 

HiGGiNS, J. E., Expert in Horticulture, Hawaii Experiment 
Station, Honolulu, H. T. (Taro.) 

Hillman, F. H., Assistant in Seed Laboratory, Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, (Practical 
Advice on Seed-Testing, in conjunction withE. Brown.) 

Hills, Joseph L., Dean, Agricultural Department, Uni- 
versity of Vermont, and Director, Vermont Experi- 
ment Station, Burlington, Vt. (Maple-Sugar and 
Maple-Syrup.) 

Hitchcock, A. S., Systematic Agrostologist, Bureau of 
Plant Industry, Department of Agriculture, Washing- 
ton, D. C. (Grasses.) 

Hood, S. C, Assistant in Drug and Poisonous Plant 
Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry, Department 
of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. (Medicinal Plants: 
Ijovage. Seneca Snakeroot. Valerian.) 

Hopkins, A. D., In Charge of Forest Insect Investigations, 
Bureau of Entomology, Department of Agriculture, 
Washington, D. C. (Insect Enemies of Woodlot Trees.) 

Hopkins, Cyril G., Chief in Agronomy and Chemistry, 
Agricultural Experiment Station of University of 
Illinois, Urbana, 111. (The Breeding of Maize.) 

Hume, H. Harold, Vice-President and Secretary, Glen 
Saint Mary Nurseries Company, Glen Saint Mary, 
Florida. (Beggarweed. Potato-Growing in the South. 
Velvet Bean.) 

Hunn, Charles E., Gardener, New York State College of 
Agriculture at Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 
(Plants in Residence Windows.) 

Jones, L. R., Botanist, Vermont Agricultural Experiment 
Station, Burlington, Vt. (Chemical Weed-Killers or 
Herbicides. Notes on European Experience in Potato- 
Growing.) 

Kennedy, P. Beveridge, Professor of Botany, Horticulture 
and Forestry, Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station, 
Reno, Nev. (Native Meadows and Pastures of the 
Plains and Ranges. Saltbushes.) 

Klugh, G. F., Assistant in Drug and Poisonous Plant 
Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry, Department 
of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. (Medicinal Plants: 
Anise. Belladonna. Caraway. Fennel. Foxglove. 
Golden Seal. Lobelia. Pennyroyal. Tansy. Thyme.) 



Knapp, S. a.. In Charge of Farmers' Cooperative Demon- 
stration Work, Bureau of Plant Industry, Department 
of Agriculture. Address, Lake Charles, La. (Rice.) 

Lloyd, John W. Assistant Professor of Olericulture, Col- 
lege of Agriculture, and Assistant Chief in Horticul- 
ture, Experiment Station, Urbana, 111. (Truck-Growing.) 

LooMis, A. M., Editor of " The Grape Belt," Dunkirk, N. 
Y. (Grape and Other Fruit Juices.) 

Lyon,T. Lyttleton, Professor of Experimental Agronomy, 
New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell 
University, Ithaca, N. Y. (Chicory Root. Wheat, in 
conjunction with E. E. Elliott.) 

Mackintosh, R. S., Professor of Horticulture, Alabama 
Polytechnic Institute and Agricultural Experiment 
Station, and State Hortioulturist, Auburn, Alabama. 
(Lists of Fruits for Home-planting in Alabama.) 

Macoun, W. T., Horticulturist and Curator of the Botanic 
Garden, Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, Ont., 
Can. (Lists of Fruits for Home-planting in Ontario 
and Quebec.) 

Maynard, S. T., Horticultui'al Specialist and Landscape 
Gardener, Northboro, Mass. (The Farm Fruit- and 
Vegetable-Gardens.) 

McDonald, M., President, Oregon Nursery Company, 
Salem, Ore. ( Organ' ration of a Commercial Nursery 
Business, under N.'V3eries.) 

Mercier, W. B., Farmer, Centerville, Miss. (Practical 
Suggestions on Cotton-Growing.) 

Montgomery, E. G., Field Crops, Nebraska Agricultural 
Experiment Station, Lincoln, Neb. (Cultivation of 
kafir and durra,m conjunction with C. W. Warburton.) 

Moore, R. A., Professor of Agronomy, Wisconsin Agricul- 
tural College and Experiment Station, Madison, Wis 
(Barley.) 

Osterhout, W. J. v.. Professor of Botany, University of 
California, Berkeley, Cal. (The Plant: Its Structure, 
Life Processes and Environment.) 

Paddock, W., Botanist and Horticulturist, Experiment 
Station, Fort Collins, Colo. (Lists of Fruits for Home- 
planting in Colorado.) 

Phelps, Charles S., Superintendent of Grassland Farms, 
Chapinville, Conn. (The Significance of Forage-Crop- 
ping.) 

Piper, C. V., Agrostologist, Bureau of Plant Industry, 
Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. (Sain- 
foin. Serradella. Spurry.) 

Powell, G. Harold, Pomologist in Charge of Fruit 
Transportation and Storage Investigations, Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. (Handling 
and Shipping Fruit.) 

Prescott, Samuel C, Assistant Professor of Industrial 
Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and 
Director, The Boston Bio-Chemical Laboratory, Boston, 
Mass. (The Commercial Canning Industry. Wine, 
Cider and Vinegar. Brewing.) 

Reed, Howard S., Soil Physiologist, Bureau of Soils, 
Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. (The 
Stimulation of Plant Growth by Means of Weak 
Poisons.) 

Ridley, H. N., Botanic Gardens, Singapore, Straits Settle- 
ments. (Rubber, or Caoutchouc, in conjunction with 
J. H. Hart.) 

Sanborn, J. W., Wilson Farm, Gilmanton, N. H. Post- 
office, Pittsfield, N. H. (Silage-Cropping: Its History, 
Processes and Importance.) 



COLLABORATORS 



xifi 



ruitENK, Herman von, Pathologist, Missouri Botanical 
Giirden, St. Louis, Mo. (Forest and Timber Diseases.) 

ScoFiELD, Carl S., In Cliarge of Western Agricultural 
E.xtension, Bui'eau of Plant Industry, Department of 
Agriculture, Washington, D. C. {Grain: Shipping, 
Grading and Storing.) 

•JuAMEL, A. D., Physiologist in Charge of Cotton and 
Tobacco Breeding Investigations, Bureau of Plant In- 
dustry, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
(Tobaceo.) 

Shepard, Charles U., Special Agent Tea Culture, Bureau 
of Plant Industry, Department of Agriculture. Ad- 
dress, Pinehurst, Summerville, S. C. (Tea.) 

Blingerland, M. v.. Assistant Professor of Economic 
Entomology, Nev.' York State College of Agriculture 
at Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. {Means of Con- 
trolling Insects.) 

Smith, C. B., Office of Farm Management, Department of 
Agriculture, Washington, D. C. {Red Clover Seed- 
Growing.) 

Smith, H. W., Experimental Farm, Truro, Nova Scotia. 
{Kale for Stock-Feeding.) 

Spillman, W. J., Agriculturist in Charge of Farm Man- 
agement Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry, 
Washington, D. C. {Grasses and Clovers Used in 
Meadows and Pastures. Teosinte.) 

Starnes, Hugh N., Biologist and Horticulturist, Georgia 
E.^periment Station, Experiment, Ga. {The Triennial 
Crop Rotation System. The "Open Furrow" Method 
of Seeding Oats.) 

Stone, A. L., Instructor in Agronomy, College of Agri- 
culture and Agricultural Experiment Station, Madison, 
Wis. {Oats. Rape.) 

Stone, George E., Botanist, Massachusetts Agricultural 
Experiment Station, Amherst, Mass. {Response of 
Plants to Artificial Lights. Effect of Electricity on 
Plants.) 

Stone, John L., Assistant Professor of Agronomy, New 
York State College of Agriculture at Cornell Univer- 
sity, Ithaca, N. Y. {Bean, Field. Buckwheat. Pea, as 
a Field Crop.) 

Taft, L. R., Horticulturist, Experiment Station of Michi- 
gan Agricultural College, Agricultural College, Mich 
{Glasshouses for Vegetable Crops.) 

PenEyck, a. M., Professor of Agronomy, Kansas State 
Agricultural College and Experiment Station, Man- 
hattan, Kans. {Farm Management. Sunflower.) 

Thornber, J. 1., Professor of Biology, University of 
Arizona, and Botanist, Agricultural Experiment Sta- 
tion, Tucson. Ariz. {Alfilaria.) 

Townsend, C. 0., Pathologist in Charge of Sugar Beet 
Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry, Department 
of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. (Sugar-beet.) 

Tracy, S. M., Special Agent, Grass and Forage Plant In- 
vestigations, Bureau of Plant Industry, Department of 
Agriculture, Washington, D. C. Addre.ss, Biloxi, Miss. 
{Arrow-Root. Cassava.) 

Tracy, William W., Vegetable Seed Breeding and Grow- 
ing, Bureau of Plant Industry, Department of Agri- 
culture, Washington, D. C. (Growing Seed Crops.) 

True, Rodney H., In Charge of Drug and Poisonous 
Plant Investigations and Tea Culture Investigations, 
Bureau of Plant Industry, Department of Agriculture, 



Washington, D. C. (Medicinal, Condimental and 
Aromatic Plants. Oil-Bearing Plants. Spice-Produc- 
ing Plants.) 

Van Leenhopp, J. W., Coffee Expert, Porto Rico Agri- 
cultural Experiment Station, Mayaguez, Porto Rico. 
Address, Ponce, P. R. (Coffee and Coffee-Growing.) 

Van Wagenen, Jared, Jr., Farmer, Lawyersville, N. Y. 
(Hops. Maize-Growing for the Silo. Rye.) 

Veitch, F. p.. Chief of Leather and Paper Laboratory, 
Bureau of Chemistry, Department of Agriculture, 
Washington, D. C. (Paper-Making Plants. Tanning 
Materials.) 

Vinall, H. N., Scientific Assistant in Agrostology, 
Bureau of Plant Industrj-, Department of Agriculture, 
Washington, D. C. (Lupine.) 

Voorhees, Edw.^rd B., Director, New Jersey Agricultural 
Experiment Stations, New Brunswick, N. J. (Cover- 
Crops.) 

Waite, Merton B., Pathologist in Charge of Investigatons 
of Diseases of Fruits, Bureau of Plant Industry, 
Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. (Sweet- 
Potato.) 

Warburton, C. W., Assistant Agronomist, Bureau of 
Plant Industry, Department of Agriculture, Washing- 
ton, D. C. (Broom-Corn. Cultivation of kafir and 
durra, in conjunction with E. G. Montgomery. 
Sorghum-Growing. ) 

Warren, G. F., Assistant Professor of Agronomy, New 
York State College of Agriculture at Cornell Univer- 
sity, Ithaca, N. Y. (Evaporating as a Home Industry 
in Eastern United States.) 

Webber, Herbert J., Professor of Experimental Plant 
^Biology, New York State College of Agriculture at 
Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. Formerly in Charge 
of Plant Breeding Investigations, Bureau of Plant 
Industry, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
(Some of the Principles of Plant-Breeding. Cotton, in 
conjunction with E. B. Boykin.) 

Westgate, J. M., Assistant Agrostologist, Bureau of 
Plant Industry, Department of Agriculture, Washing- 
ton, D. C. (Alfalfa, or Lucern.) 

Wheeler, Chas. F., Expert Consulting Botanist, Bureau 
of Plant Industry, Department of Agriculture, Wash- 
ington, D. C. (Incidental Forage-like Plants.) 

Wilcox, E. Mead, Professor of Botany, Alabama Poly- 
technic Institute, and Plant Physiologist and Patholo- 
gist, Alabama Experiment Station, Auburn. Ala. 
( Castor-Bean.) 

Wiley, H. W., Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. (Industrial 
Alcohol — Denatured Alcohol.) 

Wing, Joseph E., Secretary, Continental Dorset Club, and 
Editorial Correspondent " Breeders' Gazette," Mechan- 
icsburg, Ohio. (Clover: Its Culture and Uses.) 

WOLL, F. W., Professor of Agricultural Chemistry, Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. (Soiling: Its 
Philosophy and Practice.) 

YofNG, T. B., Assistant in Drug Plant Investigations, 
Bureau of Plant Industry, Washington, D. C. (Medi- 
cinal Plants : Red Pepper. Wormseed, American.) 

ZON, Raphael, Chief. Office of Silvics, Forest Service, 
Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. (Fac- 
tors in Timber Production.) 



xiy 



COLLABORATORS 



A PARTIAL LIST OF THOSE WHO HAVE ASSISTED IN READING 
PROOF AND IN OTHER WAYS 



Adams, G. E., Agriculturist, Rhode Island College of Agri- 
culture and Mechanic Arts, and Associate in Agron- 
omy, Rhode Island Experiment Station, Kingston, R. I. 

Albertson, Emery, Nurseryman, Plainfield, Ind. 

Armsby, Henry Prentiss, Director, Institute of Animal 
Nutrition, The Pennsylvania State College, State Col- 
lege, Pa. 

Arthur, J. C, Botanist, Purdue University, Lafayette, 
Ind. 

Atkinson, Alfred, Agronomist, Montana Agricultural 
Experiment Station, Bozeman, Mont. 

Baker, Hugh P., Associate Professor in Charge of 
Forestry, Iowa State College of Agriculture and 
Mechanic Arts, and Agricultural Experiment Station, 
Ames, Iowa. 

Baker, W. H., Landscape Photographer, Downers Grove, 
111. 

Barrett, 0. W., Plant Introducer, Office of Seed and 
Plant Introduction and Distribution, Department of 
Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 

Bate, T. C, of H. N. Bate & Sons, Wholesale Grocers, 
Ottawa, Can. 

Beal, W. H., Chief, Editorial Division, Office of Experi- 
ment Stations, Department of Agriculture, Washing- 
ton, D. C. 

Beal, Wm. J., Professor of Botany, Michigan State Agri- 
cultural College, Agricultural College P. 0., Mich. 

Beaty, J. H. M., Assistant to the President, Victor Manu- 
facturing Company, Greenville, S. C. 

Bedford, S. A., Manager, A. E. McKenzie Company, 
Seedsmen, Nurserymen and Florists, Brandon, Mani- 
toba, Canada. 

Beer, William, Librarian, Howard Memorial Library, 
New Orleans, La. 

Berckmans, p. J., Pomologist and Nurseryman, Augusta, 
Ga. 

Behry, W. J., Bureau of Chemistry, Department of Agri- 
culture, Washington, D. C. 

Bessey, Charles E., Professor of Botany, Dean of the 
Industrial College of the University of Nebraska, 
Lincoln, Neb. 

BiGELOW, W. D., Chief, Division of Foods, Bureau of Chem- 
istry, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 

Black, W. J., President of Agricultural College, Winni- 
peg, Manitoba, Can. 

Blackman, L. G., Editor of "Hawaiian Forester and 
Agriculturist," Honolulu, H. T. 

Boardman, Samuel Lane, Editor of the " Bangor Com- 
mercial," Bangor, Me. 

Boss, Andrew, Professor of Agriculture and Animal. Hus- 
bandry, College of Agriculture and Experiment Sta- 
tion, University of Minnesota, St. Anthony Park, Minn. 

Bowman, M. L., Associate Professor in Charge of Depart- 
ment of Farm Crops, Iowa State College of Agricul- 
ture and Mechanic Arts, Ames, Iowa. 

Bradley, Charles H., Superintendent, The Farm and 
Trades School, Thompson's Island, Boston, Mass. 

Brewer, Vincent C, Farmer, Hockanum, Conn. 

Brooks, Wm. P., Director, Massachusetts Agricultural 
Experiment Station, Amherst, Mass. 



Broome, F. H., Librarian, Tennessee Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station, Knoxville, Tenn. 

Bruner, T. K., Secretary, North Carolina Department of 
Agriculture, Raleigh, N. C. 

Bufpum, B. C, Professor of Agriculture and Horticulture, 
College of Agriculture, and Director, Wyoming Ex- 
periment Station, Laramie, Wyo. 

Burbank, Luther, Plant-Breeder, Santa Rosa, Cal. 

Burkett, Charles Wm., Director, Kansas Experiment 
Station, Manhattan, Kans. 

Burnette, F. H., Professor of Horticulture, Agricultural 
College and State Experiment Station, Baton Rouge, La. 

BURRILL, T. J., Professor of Botany, University of Illinois, 
and Chief in Botany, Illinois Exper. Station, Urbana, 111. 

Card, Feed W., Ex-Professor of Agriculture, Rhode 
Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. 
Address, Sylvania, Pa. 

Cavanaugh, Geo. W., Assistant Professor of Chemistry, 
New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell 
University, Ithaca, N. Y. 

Chase, Mrs. Agnes, Assistant in Taxonomic Investi- 
gations, Bureau of Plant Industry, Department of 
Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 

Clark, Geo. H., Seed Commissioner, Department of Agri- 
culture, Ottawa, Can. 

Clark, Geo. M., President, The Cutaway Harrow Company. 
Higganum, Conn. 

Clinton, L. A., Director, Storrs Agricultural Experiment 
Station, Storrs, Conn. 

Close, C. P., State Horticulturist, Maryland Agricultural 
College and Experiment Station, College Park, Md. 

Cole, John S., Agronomist, South Dakota Agricultuial 
College and Experiment Station, Brookings, S. D. 

Conner, C. M., Professor of Agriculture, North Carolina 
College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Weft 
Raleigh, N. C. 

Conner, S. D., Assistant Chemist, Purdue University 
Agricultural Experiment Station, Lafayette, Ind. 

Cook, A. J., Professor of Biology, Pomona College, Clarc- 
mont, Cal. 

Cook, H. E., Farmer, Denmark, N. Y. 

Cook, 0. F., Bionomist in Charge of Bionomic Investi- 
gations of Tropical and Subtropical Plants, Bureau of 
Plant Industry, Dept. of Agriculture, Washington. 

Craig, John, Professor of Horticulture, State College of 
Agriculture at Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 

Dain Manufacturing Coshpany, Manufacturers of Farm 
Implements, Ottumwa, Iowa. 

Dean, Arthur L., 93 Broad St., Boston, Mass. 

Deere & Mansur Company, Manufacturers of corn an ! 
cotton planting tools, disk-harrows, hay loaders, corn 
shellers, etc., Moline, 111. 

Dickson, A. G., Farmer, Chatham, New Brunswici;. 

DoDSON, W. R., Director of Louisiana Experiment Stations, 
■ Baton Rouge, La. 

Dryden, James, Poultryman, Oregon Agricultural Coliego 
and Experiment Station, Logan, Utah. 

DuvEL, J. W. T., In Charge of Laboratory Methods, Grain 
Standardization, Bureau of Plant Industry, Departrnei.t 
of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 



COLLABORATORS 



Farrington, E. I., Woburn, Mass. 

Felt, E. P., State Entomologist, Albany, N. Y. 

Fields, John, Editor, " Oklahoma Farm Journal," Okla- 
homa City, Okla. 

Forbes, R. H., Director and Chemist, University of Ari- 
zona Agricultural Experiment Station, Tucson, Ariz. 

Foster, 0. L., Commercial Photographer, Lafayette, Ind. 

Fox, William F., Supt. of State Forests, Albany, N. Y. 

French, Hiram T., Director and Agriculturist, Agricul- 
tural Experiment Station, Moscow, Idaho. 

Fuller, F. L., Superintendent of Agricultural Societies, 
Department of Agriculture, Truro, Nova Scotia. 

Galloway, B. T., Chief, Bureau of Plant Industry, 
Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 

Garma.m, H., Head of Division of Entomology and Botany, 
Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station, and State 
Entomologist, Lexington, Ky. 

Georgesov, C. C, Special Agent in Charge of Alaska 
Investigations (United States Department of Agri- 
culture), Sitka, Alaska. 

GiPPORD, John, Cocoanut Grove, Dade County, Florida. 

Goodspeed, C. M., Editor and Publisher of " Special Crops," 
Skaneateles, N. Y. 

Gould, H. P., Pomologist in Charge of Fruit District 
Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry, Department 
of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 

Greiner, T., Editor, LaSalle, Niagara Co., N. Y. 

Griffiths, David, Assistant Agriculturist in Charge of 
Range and Cactus Investigations, Bureau of Plant 
Industry, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 

Gully, Alfred G., Professor of Horticulture, Connecti- 
cut Agricultural College, Storrs, Conn. 

Hale, C. F., Shelby, Mich. 

Hall, Frank H., Editor and Librarian, New York Agri- 
cultural Experiment Station, Geneva, N. Y. 

Harding, H. A., Bacteriologist, New York Agricultural 
Experiment Station, Geneva, N. Y. 

Hare, R. F., Professor of Chemistry, New Mexico College 
of Agriculture, and Chemist, Experiment Station, 
Agricultural College, N. M. 

Harris, T. J., Superintendent, Agricultural Experiment 
Station, Bermuda. 

Henry, Wm. Arnon, Emeritus Professor of Agriculture, 
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. 

Herrick, Glenn W., Professor of Biology, Mississippi 
Agricultural College, Agricultural College P. 0., Miss. 

Holden, P. G., Superintendent, Department of Agricul- 
tural Extension, Iowa State College of Agriculture and 
Mechanic Arts, Ames, Iowa. 

Howard, L. 0., Chief, Bureau of Entomology, Department 
of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 

Hunt, Thomas F., Dean of the School of Agriculture and 
Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station of the 
Pennsylvania State College, State College, Pa. 

HuRD, William D., Dean, College of Agriculture, Univer- 
sity of Maine, Orono, Me. 

HussMAN, George C, Pomologist in Charge of Viticul- 
tural Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry, 
Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 

Hutt, William N., State Horticulturist, State Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, Raleigh, N. C. 

International Harvester Company of America, Chi- 
cago, 111. 

James, C. C, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Toronto, 
Ontario, Can. 



Jardine, William M., Agronomist in Charge of Experi- 
ments with Dry Land Cereals, Bureau of Plant Indus- 
try, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 

Jeffrey, William H., Historical Writer and Editor-in- 
Chief, Historical Publishing Company, East Burke, Vt. 

Jenkins, E. H., Director, Connecticut Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station, New Haven, Conn. 

Jones, C. H., Chemist, Vermont Agricultural Experiment 
Station, Burlington, Vt. 

Jordan, Whitman H., Director, New York Agricultural 
Experiment Station, Geneva, N. Y. 

Kearney, Thomas H., Physiologist in Charge of Alkali 
and Drought Resistant Plant Breeding Investigations, 
Bureau of Plant Industry, Dept. of Agric, Washington. 

Keeney, Calvin N., of N. B. Keeney & Son, Produce 
Dealers, Bean Hybridizers and Growers of Seed-beans 
and Peas, Le Roy, N. Y. 

Killbn, J. W., Farmer, Flour and Feed Manufacturer, 
Felton, Del. 

Kimbrough, J. M., Vice-Director and Agriculturist, Geoi, 
gia Experiment Station, Experiment, Ga. 

King Construction Company, Greenhouse Construction 
and Equipment, North Tonawanda, N. Y. 

KiNNE, Hiram E., Jr., General Manager, Star Farm, 
Cortland, N. Y. 

KiNNE, Lee, Farmer, Hartwick Seminary, New York. 

Kyle, E. J., Professor of Horticulture, Texas Agricultural 
and Mechanical College and Experiment Stations, Col- 
lege Station, Texas. 

Lake, E. R., Forester and Botanist, Oregon Experiment 
Station, Corvallis, Ore. 

Lane, C. B., Assistant Chief Dairy Division, Bureau of Ani- 
mal Industry, Department of Agriculture, Washington. 

Latta, W. C, Superintendent of Farmers' Institutes, Pur- 
due University, Lafayette, Ind. 

Lauman, G. N., Assistant Professor of Rural Economy, 
New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell 
University, Ithaca, N. Y. 

Lighty, L. W., Dairy Farmer and Lecturer, East Berlin, 
Penna. 

Little, Arthur D., Chemist and Engineer, Official Chem- 
ist, American Paper and Pulp Assoc, Boston, Mass. 

LiPMAN, Jacob G., Soil Chemist and Bacteriologist, New 
Jersey Experiment Station, and Associate Professor of 
Agriculture, Rutgers College, New Brunswick, N. J. 

Lloyd, E. R., Professor of Agriculture, Mississippi Agri- 
cultural and Mechanical College, and Director of 
Farmers' Institutes, Agricultural College P. 0., Miss. 

Marseilles Manufacturing Company, Makers of Farm 
Machinery, Marseilles, 111. 

Martin, T. E., Fanner, West Rush, N. Y. 

McFarland, J. Horace, Mount Pleasant Press, Harris- 
burg, Pa. 

Miller, M. F., Professor of Agronomy, Missouri College 
of Agriculture and Experiment Station, Columbia, Mo. 

Miller, W. W., Ex-Secretary, State Board of Agricul- 
ture, Columbus, Ohio. 

Moore, Charles V., Vice-President John T. Moore Plant- 
ing Company, Ltd., Schriever, La. 

Moorhouse, L. a.. Professor of Agronomy, Oklahoma 
Agricultural and Mechanical College and Experiment 
Station, Stillwater, Okla. 

Morgan, H. A., Chairman of College of Agriculture, Pro- 
fessor of Zoology and Entomology, University of 
Tennessee, and Director of Exper. Sta., Knoxville, 'Tenn. 



COLLABORATORS 



MoTT, Samuel R., Jr., President, Conesus Lake Ice and 

Ice Cream Company, Rochester, N. Y. 
Mulligan, James J., Editor, " The Canner and Dried Fruit 

Packer," Chicago, 111. 
MuMFORD, F. B., Animal Breeder, Missouri Agricultural 

College Experiment Station, Columbia, Mo. 
Myrick, Herbert, Publisher, Springfield, Mass. 
Nagant, H., Assistant Editor, "Journal d' Agriculture," 

Quebec, Can. 
Nelscn, Aven, Professor of Botany, University of 

Wyoming, and Botanist, Agricultural Experiment 

Station, Laramie, Wyo. 
Norton, J. B., In Charge of Oat and Potato Breeding 

Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry, Department 

of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
Olin, W. H., Vice-Dean of Agriculture, and Professor of 

Agronomy, Colorado State Agricultural College and 

Experiment Station, Fort Collins, Colo. 
Olivieri, F. E., Toco Estates, Trinidad, B. W. I. 
Orange Judd Company, Publishers, New York City. 
Pammel, L. H., Professor of Botany and General Bacte- 
riology, Iowa State College and Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station, Ames, Iowa. 
Parr, Samuel W., Professor of Applied Chemistry, 

University of Illinois, Urbana, 111. 
Peachy, Miss Hattie R., Irondequoit, N. Y. 
Perkins, Wm. T., Cortland, N. Y. 
Peterson, C. W., General Manager, Canadian Pacific Irri- 
gation Col. Co., Calgary, Alberta, Can. 
Pierce Bros., Greenhouse Construction and Equipment, 

Waltham, Mass. 
PiNCHOT, GiFPORD, Forester, Department of Agriculture, 

Washington, D. C. 
Pitman, J. B., American Manufg. Co., New York City. 
Prendergast, Mrs. Felix, East Battery, Charleston, S. C. 
Price, Overton W., Associate Forester, Forest Service, 

Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
Rane, F. Wm., State Forester, Boston, Mass. 
Rathbun, R., Assistant Secretary, Smithsonian Institution, 

in Charge of National Museum, Washington, D. C. 
Readey, J. C, Heidelberg Farm, Tisdale, Saskatchewan. 

Ex-Secretary of Agriculture for Prince Edward Island. 
Redding, R. J., Ex-Director, Georgia Experiment Station. 

Address, Griffin, Ga. 
Rolfs, F. M., Vegetable Pathologist, Missouri State Fruit 

Experiment Stations, Mountain Grove, Mo. 
riUDDicK, J. A., Dairy and Cold Storage Commissioner, 

Department of Agriculture, Ottawa, Canada. 
Saunders, William, Director of Experimental Farms, 

Department of Agriculture, Ottawa, Canada. 
Schulte, J. I., Editorial Division, Office of Experiment 

Stations, Department of Agriculture, Washington. 
Severance, Geo., Professor of Agronomy, Washington 

State College, Pullman, Washington. 
Sharpe, Thos. a.. Superintendent, Experimental Farm, 

Agassiz, B. C. 
Shaw, D. A., President, Florida Tobacco Co., Quincy, Fla. 
Shaw, Thos., Northwestern Editor, "Orange Judd Farmer," 

St. Anthony Park, St. Paul, Minn. 
Shepperd, J. H., Dean of Agriculture, and Vice-Director 
and Agriculturist, North Dakota Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station, Agricultural College P. 0., N. D. 
Shoesmith, V. M., Agronomist, Maryland Agricultural 

Experiment Station, College Park, Md. 
Sifton, Wm., Farmer, Minitonas, Manitoba, Canada. 



Smith, C. D., Director and Agriculturist, Experiment 
Station, and Dean of Special Courses, Michigan Agri- 
cultural College, Agricultural College P. 0., Mich. 

Smith, Jared G., Special Agent in Charge Hawaii Agricul- 
tural Experiment Station, Honolulu, H. T. 

Soule, Andrew M., President, Georgia State College of 
Agriculture and Mechanical Arts, Athens, Ga. 

Steinwender StO'FREGen &Co., Importers, Members of 
the Coffee Exchange of the City of New York, Wall 
St., N. Y. 

Stewart, F. C, Botanist, New York Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station, Geneva, N. Y. 

Stubbs, J. E., President, University of Nevada, and Direc- 
tor, Agricultural Experiment Station. 

Stubenrauch, Arnold V., Fruit Tra.isportation and 
Storage Investigations, Bureau Plant Industry, U. S. 
Dept. of Agric. Address, Berkeley, Cal. 

Taylor, F. W., Professor of Agriculture, New Hampshire 
College and E.xperiment Station, Durham, N. H. 

Thornber, W. S., Horticulturist, State Agricultural Ex- 
periment Station, Pullman, Washington. 

Tiebout, C. a.. Truck-grower, Roseland, Louisiana. 

TiNSLEY, J. D., Soil Physicist, New Mexico College of Agri- 
culture and Agricultural Experiment Station, Agri- 
cultural College P. 0., N. M. 

Troop, James, Professor of Horticulture and Entomology, 
Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind. 

True, Gordon H., Agriculturist and Animal Husband- 
man, Nevada Experiment Station, Reno, Nev. 

Van Slyke, L. L., Chemist, New York Agricultural 
Experiment Station, Geneva, New York. 

Wadhams, S. W., Elmwood Fruit Farm, Clarkson, New 
York. 

Waters, H. J., Dean and Director, College of Agriculture 
and Mechanic Arts, and Exper. Station, Columbia, Mo. 

Wathen, James C, Supervisor, Fermenting Department 
and Second Division, Kentucky Distilleries and Ware- 
house Co., Louisville, Ky. 

Watson, G. C, Professor of Agriculture, Pennsylvania 
State College and Agricultural Experiment Station, 
State College, Pa. 

West, Geo. W., Grower and Exporter of Bermuda Bulbs, 
Shelly Bay, Bermuda. 

Wheeler, H. J., Director, Rhode Island Experiment Sta- 
tion, Kingston, R. I. 

Whetzel, H. H., Assistant Professor of Botany, New 
York State College of Agriculture at Cornell Univer- 
sity, Ithaca, N. Y. 

Wiancko, a. T., Professor of Agronomy, and Agricul- 
turist, Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind. 

WiCKSON, E. J., Horticulturist, Experiment Station of 
University of California, Berkeley, Cal. 

Wight, W. F., Assistant Botanist, Taxonomic Investiga- 
tions, Bureau of Plant Industry, Dept. of Agriculture. 
Williams, C. B., Field Crops, North Carolina Department 

of Agriculture, Raleigh, N. C. 
Wilson, C. S., Instructor in Horticulture, New York State 

College of Agriculture at Cornell University. 
Wilson, T. B., Fruit-Grower, Halls Corners, N. Y. 
Withycombe, Jamks, Director and Agriculturist, Oregon 

Experiment Station, Corvallis, Ore. 
Woods, Charles D., Director, Maine Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station, Orono, Maine. 
Zavitz, C. a.. Professor of Field Husbandry and Director 
of Experiments, Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph. 



PART I 



THE PLANT AND ITS RELATIONS 



PLANTS AND ANIMALS COMPRISE THE PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. The plants make it 
possible for the animals to live. The purpose of this volume is to discuss the plant products of the 
farm ; and the first general subject that may receive attention is a discussion of the plant in its physio- 
logical relations with its environment and with various practices of the cultivator. 

In its broadest application, agriculture is concerned with all plants that are grown by man, whether 
for his own direct use in food and clothing and shelter, or for his animals, or for the gratification of his 
iEsthetic tastes. The kinds of plants that are grown for his own sustenance and protection and for his 
animals are comparatively few, and they are the ones intended in this Cyclopedia. The number that are 
grown to satisfy his artistic tastes are legion and they cannot be enumerated here ; these are recorded, 
for this country, in the Editor's Cyclopedia of American Horticulture. All so-called horticultural plants 
and crops, whether for food or ornament, are included in that work, and therefore the 
fruits and vegetables are given only short and summary treatment in the present vol- 
ume ; and for the same reason, discussions of horticultural practices are omitted here. 
The vegetable kingdom is of marvelous diversity. Any observing person has only to 
recall the range of his own observation to illustrate how true this is. From trees to 
water-plants and ferns and mushrooms and sea-weeds is a far sweep 
of organic forms. A glance at the contrasts of Figs. 1 to 3 enforce 
this range of the vegetable kingdom. Some of its members, as the 
bacteria, are even microscopic and not attached to the earth or 
other support. Some of these minute forms have the power of 
moving in their liquid habitation. The bacteria subsist on food organ- 
ized by other plants or by animals, sometimes existing on the living 
body, when they are said to be parasitic, sometimes on disorganizing 
or decaying matter, when they are said to be saprophytic. Some 
plants, of larger size and more complex structure, become individu- 
ally attached to a host plant, practically taking root thereon, as the 
mistletoe. Such plants may have foliage or green leaves, or they 
may be blanched and unable to organize food for themselves. The 
mushrooms and toadstools, representing the so-called higher fungi, 
are saprophytic on decaying matter in the ground or in old logs 
and litter. Most plants, however, are earth-parasites, fixed in the 
soil, drawing their food from it and supplementing this supply from 
the carbon of the air. Plants have become adapted to all places on 
Y" ^"'^y-iW j' ^ " '''^^331 '^^ earth where life is possible, modified in duration, form, stature 
I ^^f ^^' r •'' ^ ^ and physiological action. They have also become adapted to the 

struggle for existence with each other, contending for space and 
light. Some are creepers on the ground ; others climbers on rocks 
and on their fellows ; others tower above all competitors. Some are 
adapted to shady places. Some inhabit the water ; others have 
escaped to the marshes, the plains and the hills. In the long pro- 
cesses of time, one kind has given rise to other kinds. Some forms 
have died and are lost. The plant creation is plastic, abounding 
and living. This creation stands between man and the soil of the 
earth. 




Fig. 1. The parts of one of the flowering 
or seed-bearing plants. One of the 
ornamental beans. 



Bl 



(1) 



THE PLANT AND ITS RELATIONS 



The most marked division line in the' vegetable kingdom is between the flowerless plants and the 
flowering plants, the former including all bacteria, yeasts, fungi, algae (to which the sea-weeds belong), 
liverworts, lichens, mosses, ferns. The demarcation between these two groups is not so marked morpho- 
logically as it was once supposed to be, and the present tendency is to drop the distinction as respects 
the flowerless or flowering feature, and to speak of one group as spore-bearing and the other as seed- 
bearing ; even this distinction is not wholly true, but the morphological phase of the subject does not 
need consideration here, and the two groups, being natural, may be maintained even if the terminology 
is unsatisfactory. The seed-bearers naturally divide into the gymnosperms, in which the ovules are 
naked (not inclosed in an ovary or pericarp), and the angiosperms, or ovary-bearing plants. The former 
include the pines, spruces, firs, larches, cedars, yews, and some other woody plants. Geologically, the 
group is old. The angiosperms comprise all the remainder of the flowering plants, making up by far the 
larger part of the conspicuous flora of the earth. 



^/^-^-^^^^^^^' # 

^'-^m^^'^-^^ -^^ 











^ —V'^-^'^ 

'p/^^^ 

w^^ 






^x^ 



" MM//// ,wv;-.<^l 



^,--^csf-^:? 



^^-- 




Fig. 2. A fern, one of the vascular (or vessel-bearing) flowerless plants. The fruit-bodies, bearing spores, are shown 

on the back of a leaf at O. 

The custom has arisen of designating the kinds or species of plants by Latin-form names in two 
parts, — the first part or word standing for the genus or race-group, and the second part standing for 
the particular species or kind. Thus, all kinds of true clover belong to the genus Trifolium. The alsike 
clover is Trifolium hyhridum; the white clover, T. repcns; the common red clover, T. praknse; the 
berseem, T. Alexandrinum. Varieties of species, or subordinate forms, are designated by a third Latin- 
form word, as Trifolium, pratense var. perenne, for the true perennial form of red clover. These names 
are always used with precision for one particular kind of plant, and they afford the only means of desig- 
nating them accurately. Common or English names are of little service, as now used, in distinguishing 
species accurately. 

Plants are also assembled in families, which are groups comprising genera that naturally resemble 
each other in certain bold or general characters. The farmer is specially concerned with the members 
of some of the family associations. The grass family, or Graminea:, includes all the true grasses and the 
cereal grains, such as maize, wheat, oats, barley, rye, rice ; also, sorghum and sugar-cane. The rose 
family, Rosacece, contains many of the fruits, — all the stone-fruits and pome-fruits, raspberry, black- 
berry, strawberry. The pulse family, Le.(7Mminosa5, comprises the nitrogen-gatherers, — all peas, beans, 
clovers, vetches, alfalfa. The mustard family, Cruciferm, includes all the mustards, cabbages and kales, 
rape, turnip and rutabaga, radish. The nightshade family, Solanacece, includes potato, tomato, egg- 
plant, pepper, tobacco. The rue family, or RutaeecB, comprises all the citrous fruits, as orange, lemon, 



THE PLANT AND ITS RELATIONS 



.3 



lime, kumquat, grape-fruit. Other families contain only one or two agricultural plants of commanding 
importance ; as cotton, of the Malvacece or mallow family ; flax, of the Linacece or flax family ; buck- 
wheat, of the Polygonacece or knotweed family ; beets and mangels, of the Chenopodiacea: or pigweed 
family ; sweet-potato, of the Convolvulacem or morning-glory family. 

The number of distinct species of flowering plants now described is about 125,000. What this vast 
number has so far contributed to the food requirements of man has been made the subject of an inquiry 
by Sturtevant (Agricultural Science, iii, p. 174). Basing his list on Bentham and Hooker's "General Plan- 
tarum" (1862-1883), in which about 110,000 species of flowering plants are recognized, in some 200 fam- 
ilies and 8,349 genera, he arrives at the following figures : 4,233 species, belonging to 170 families and 
1,353 genera, are known to have furnished food for man either habitually or during famine periods ; 
1,070 species, belonging to 92 families and 401 genera, are or have been cultivated for human food. Among 




Fig. 3. A mushroom, one of the non-vascular flowerless plants. It is saprophytic. 

flowerless plants 431 species have been recorded as edible, but only 5 or 6 are cultivated. In other words, 
about 3J per cent of the known species of flowering plants furnish parts which can be eaten, and nearly 
1 per cent are or have been cultivated for human food. About 300 species are cultivated to an impor- 
tant or commercial extent. 

De Candolle, in "Origin of Cultivated Plants," discusses the origins of 247 species which are 
" cultivated on a large scale by agriculturists, or in kitchen-gardens and orchards." These belong to 51 
families. They may be tabulated as follows : 

Native to the Old World Native to the New World 

A. Cultivated for more than 4,000 years . 44 D. Very anciently cultivated 5 

B. Cultivated more than 2,000 years ... 47 E. Cultivated when America was discovered, but 

C. Culture less than 2,000 years 61 less ancient 24 

Doubtful 47 F. Cultivated only since discovery of America . . 6 

Doubtful 10 

199 

45 

Of A, 50 per cent are annuals, 5 per cent biennials, 4 per cent herbaceous perennials, 41 per sent 
ligneous perennials. 



4 THE PLANT AND ITS RELATIONS 

Of C and P, 37 per cent are annuals, about 8 per cent biennials, 33 per cent herbaceous perennials, 
and about 22 per cent ligneous perennials. 

Among all seed-bearing plants, "the annuals are not more than 50 per cent, and the biennials 
1 or at most 2 per cent. It is clear that at the beginning of civilization plants which yield 
an immediate return are most prized. They offer, moreover, this advantage, that their cultivation 
is easily diffused or increased, either because of the abundance of seed, or the same species may 
be grown in summer in the North, and in winter or all the year round in the tropics." 

Of the 247 species, 193 have been found wild, 27 half-wild or spontaneous and 27 are entirely 
unknown in a wild condition. Of the species in A and D, 63 per cent are known wild, and, of less than 
2,000 years, 83 per cent. 

Seven species (including the broad bean, tobacco, wheat and maize) appear to be extinct (or at least 
unknown) in a wild state. 

The nativity of three ancient species of the group A is unknown — common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) 
and two squashes {Cucurbita moschata and C.ficifolia). 

The very ancient species, group A, "are especially plants provided with roots, seeds, and fruits 
proper for the food of man. Afterwards come a few species having fruits agreeable to the taste, 
or textile, tinctorial, oil-producing plants, or yielding stimulating drinks by infusion or fermentation. 
There are among these only two green vegetables, and no fodder. The orders which predominate 
are the Cruciferfe, Leguminosfe, and Graminese." 

In De Candolle's discussion are not included several North American species that are now cultivated, 
as the native plums, cherries, raspberries, blackberries, and even the native grapes (on which a good 
part of our viticulture is founded). The addition of these would modify some of the above figures. 
For accounts of these plants, see Bailey's " Evolution of Our Native Fruits." 

The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture (1914-1917), the six-volume work founded on the earlier 
Cyclopedia of American Horticulture, accounts for 20,602 species of plants, offered by dealers and known in 
cultivation for food, ornament, fancy, medicine and other uses. In addition to these species, 6,715 recog- 
nized Latin-named varieties are accounted for, making a total of 27,317 plants known to cultivation within 
the range of the Cyclopedia. The total number of binomial and trinomial botanical names admitted is 
39,775, a good many of which, of course, are regarded as synonyms or duplicates. Of the more than 27,000 
Latin-named species and varieties, 2,753 are native in North America north of Mexico. It is seen, therefore, 
that the western hemisphere is contributing great numbers of plants to domestication; if to this number are 
added the species derived from the hemisphere south of the Rio Grande, the contribution takes on great 
importance. Yet the species desirable for cultivation and known only in the wild are more numerous than 
we appreciate. 

Cultivated plants may be thrown into four broad classes : those grown for domestic animals ; those 
grown to provide shelter and clothing for man ; those that provide edible, condimental or medicinal 
parts or products for man ; those that appeal to the artistic impulses. These are not cultural groups 
however ; nor is it possible to make any consistent cultural classification, since all groups overlap. 
Perhaps we cannot do better, as a rough working classification, than to make the following somewhat 
indefinite associations : 

Forage and fodder crops Stimulants 

Cereal grains Aromatic and medicinal plants 

Root crops Perfumery plants 

Fiber crops Fruit (pomological) crops 

Sugar plants Vegetable-garden crops 

Oil plants Ornamental plants 

Dye-stuff plants Timber crops 

Beverage-producing plants Manuring crops 

In the present volume it is proposed to consider in some detail the important field crops, excepting 
such as ordinarily fall under the department of horticulture. The leading medicinal crops are admitted 
for brief discussion, and many incidental plants are mentioned, in order to make the book useful for 
reference. It is the purpose of this Cyclopedia to catch the spirit of the main agricultural industries 
in North America. 



CHAPTER I 




STRUCTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE PLANT 

LANTS EXERCISE TWO SETS OP FUNCTIONS— GROWTH AND REPRODUCTION. 
The higher plants may be said to have three sets or classes of organs : those that have 
relation with the soil ; those that have relation with the atmosphere and sunlight ; those 
that are concerned in reproduction. For purposes of identification and description, and 
to enable him to read current literature intelligently, the farmer needs some account 
of these organs, and perhaps, also, 
of some of the gross features of 
the anatomy of the stem. 

The external organs. 

The organs of the root series 

are the least differentiated. We do not 

distinguish plants by means of their root 
characters, both because the roots are not 
clearly designative in most cases and because 
they are hidden. The most that we ordinarily do 
is to divide roots into fibrous-form and tap-form. 
The parts of the root are distinguished as to 
their physiological functions rather than their 
taxonomic or descriptive values. The general 
form of the root is determined by the species ; 
but its details are conditioned on the particular 
soil in which it grows. It is often said of 
orchard trees that the roots extend as far as the 
branches of the top ; but the root system may be less or 
more than the top in horizontal and vertical extent, depend- 
ing on circumstances. Yet there is a distinct root " habit " 
even as between varieties of apple trees. In the annual 
crops, the root habit is often characteristic, and it needs 
much more attention than it has yet received by cultiva- 
tors (Fig. 4). The farmer may examine carefully the leaves 
and stalks of his grass and wheat, but he seldom examines 
the roots. Food for man and his animals is provided by 
many thickened roots, as the greater part of the substance 
of carrots, parsnips, turnips and beets. 

The stem, as named by the botanist, is the framework 
on which the leaves and flowers are borne. The younger 
growing parts of it, containing chlorophyll, may function 
as foliage ; but the main office of the stem is to provide 
support. The stem may be very short and thick, as the 
"crown" of turnips and beets, carrying the leaves ; it may 
be exceedingly slender and light, as in the straw grains 
and grasses ; or it may be high and massive as in the 
trunks of trees. Sometimes the stem is subterranean, in 
which case it is distinguished from roots by its buds or 
"eyes," and rudimentary leaf-scales: the tuber of the Irish 

(5) 




Fig. 4. Comparison of root systems of barley 
(above), and Indian corn (below). (Minnesota 
Experiment St.-ition.) 



6 



STRUCTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE PLANT 




or round potato is an example, and also the creeping rhizomes of quack-grass and other grasses. It 
will be noted, from this discussion, that the botanist, by the word stem, means to designate the leaf- 
bearing axis and its branches and modifications, and not the 
stalks of leaves and flowers. Thus, in the plantain and dandelion 
(Figs. 5, 26), the stem is very short, bearing a rosette of leaves 
at the ground ; and from this arise the flower-stalks. In useful 
products, the stem provides timber, some of the fibers, and 
much of the forage ; and it also provides human food, as in 
the potato, asparagus, onion, kohlrabi, sugar-cane. 

The leaves arise normally from the joints or nodes of the 
stem. Usually a bud is borne in the axil or upper angle made 
by the leaf with the stem. The bud is a very short and unde- 
veloped branch. If the plant is dormant a part of the year in 
consequence of cold or dry, or because of other hereditary habit, 
the leaf usually falls and the bud remains quiescent till the 
growing season returns : it is then spoken of as a winter bud. 
Sometimes the bud remains quiescent, but alive, 
for a longer period, in rare cases even for 
years : it is then called a dormant bud (Fig. 
6). The older the dormant bud, the less the 
likelihood that it will grow, in case necessity 
should arise. The common notion that old dor- 
mant buds are readily forced into growth by 
pruning needs correction. In cases of heavy 
pruning, new shoots on old wood are more 
likely to arise from buds that are formed for the 
occasion, without reference to leaves and with- 
out order ; these are known as adventitious 
buds (Fig. 7). 

If the bud " grows," — that is, if anything issues from it — it produces a branch. The branch may be 
exceedingly short, and bear only one or two leaves, or it may be several feet long and bear many leaves. 
If its destiny is to produce only foliage, it is known as a leaf-bud ; if to produce flowers, it is known 
as a fruit-bud or flower-bud. Peaches and apricots produce typical fruit-buds (Figs. 8, 9). Apples and 
pears bear both true leaf-buds, and fruit-buds that give rise to flowers and leaves (Figs. 6, 10) — for 
the flowers of these trees are in clusters or bouquets accompanied by foliage. 

Fruit-buds are distinguished by shape and position. In shape, 
as compared with leaf-buds they are usually relatively broader 
and more rounded, and they are likely to be more conspicuously 
fuzzy (Figs. 6, 8, 11). The posi- 
tion of the fruit-bud varies with 
the species. In most of the pome 
fruits — apples and pears — these 
buds are on spurs (very short 
branches. Pig. 6), or sometimes 
terminal on long axial shoots. In 
peaches, the fruit-buds are lateral 
on the current year's growth, usu- 
ally one on either side a leaf -bud 
(Fig. 8). In plums and apricots, 
they are both on spurs and lateral 
on the long growth. The produc- 
tion of fruit-buds may be influ- 
enced to some extent by pruning, 
although this influence is not ex- 
act and definite. Pruning should ^^ ^ Fruit -buds of apple, on 
always be practiced in full knowl- spurs; a dormant bud at the top. 



Fig. 5. A so-caUed stemless plant (narrow -leaved plantain), the 

stem rising little above the ground. Tlie long flower-stalks (iu 
such cases called scapes) spring from the stem. 




Fig. 7. Adventitious shoots or "suckerB." 



STRUCTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE PLANT 




barberry ; 



edge of the position of the fruit-buds, in order that such buds may be saved or thinned, as the case may 
require. Merely to cut oif limbs does not constitute pruning. 

A leaf may comprise three parts, — the expanded part or blade ; the stalk or petiole ; appendages at 
or near the base of the petiole, known as stipules. These parts are shown in Fig. 12. Very many kinds 
of leaves bear no stipules. Many leaves also lack petioles or are sessile. The blade of the 
leaf is distinguished in form by comparing it with geometrical figures, as circular, rhom- 
boidal, ovate, oblong, linear; or with familiar objects, as kidney-form or reniform, heart- 
shaped, lanceolate or lance-form, needle-shaped. The margins are distinguished as serrate 
or saw-toothed, dentate or toothed, sinuate or wavy, or as entire ; and many other techni- 
cal terms are used in descriptive works to distinguish leaves, in order to identify the species 
to which they belong. The leaf-blade may be of one piece, when it is said to be simple ; or 
of two or more separate pieces, when it is said to be compound (Fig. 13). Leaves are com- 
mon sources of food for domestic animals, forming a good part of the substance in hay and 
forage ; they also afford human food in lettuce, rhubarb (petioles), celery (mostly petioles), 
salads and "greens." 

All plant organs are usually explained in terms of roots, 
stems or leaves, — that is to say, the other organs are supposed to 
be derived from one or the other of these three types. Thorns 
and spines are branches (stems) in the hawthorns ; leaves in the 
stipules in the common locust ; outgrowths of the stem in common 
briars and many desert plants. Climbing organs are roots in the English ivy, 
trumpet creeper and poison ivy ; main stems in hop and morning-glory ; 
branches in the grape and Virginia creeper; leaf-blades in peas; petioles in 
some species of clematis; probably stipules in some kinds of smilax. 

Flowers are supposed to be historically derived from leaves, as explained 
in the succeeding article. The parts of a flower may be in as many as four 
series (Fig. 14), — the calyx or outer part, usually most like the foliage leaves ; 
the corolla, usually the showy part ; the stamens or pollen-bearers ; the pistils 
or seed-bearers. If the calyx has separate leaves, they are called sepals ; if the 
corolla has separate leaves, they are called petals. The 

end of the stem on which the flower sits is called the receptacle or torus. All these 

parts are explained in Figs. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 40. Often, numbers of flowers are 

combined into one group or cluster ; sometimes the cluster is so dense and definite 

as to appeal to the non-botanist as one flower, as in all the composites, of which 

^- _ . / --^^ the sunflowers and asters and goldenrods and thistles are examples (Fig. 16). 

St^ m ^^a Sometimes the cluster is less definite and yet compact enough to make a single 

V' g ^K impression, as in the clovers. Dried flowers form part of the substance of hay and 

forage. Flowers or flower parts or heads are sometimes eaten by man, as in the 

true artichoke, and also in cauliflower and pineapple in which the edible part is 

made up of a mass of thickened stem and flowers. 

The fruit, in technical and botanical usage, is the ripened peri- 
carp (or ovary) and all the parts that are coalesced with it. In the 
agricultural plants, the pericarp may or may not be wholly free 
of adjacent parts. It is free in the cereal grains, and also the pod-fruits of the legumes 
(peas and beans and all their kin), the fruits of the orange kind, of tomatoes and pep- 
pers, the stone-fruits, and cotton, and the banana. The apple and pear are carpels (a 
compound pistil) imbedded in a thickened stem, the carpels forming the core. Melons, 
pumpkins and squashes are of similar morphology, — the turban squashes show the struc- 
ture. The strawberry has many fruits imbedded in a pulpy stem or torus. The raspberry 
is formed of many cohering drupes. The blackberry is formed of cohering drupes 
attached to a specialized torus or stem. The fig is a hollow torus or stem with many 
fruits on the inside ; it may be likened to a strawberry turned inside out. The mulberry 
is a cluster of ripened fruits ; the bread-fruit is similar. The gooseberries (Fig. 19) are „. gtM^of 'fruit- 
ripened ovaries, the dried flower-parts remaining attached. Currants are similar, but buds of sweet 
the flower-parts usually drop early. Some fruits, as the chestnut (Fig. 20) and walnut, '^''^'ted leaf-bul 
are contained in burs or husks that are no part of the fruit itself. in center. 





Fig. 9. Flowers of peach, 
from each bud. 



Fig. 10. A spur of 
apple, showing the 
leaves and flowers 
that came from the 
terminal fruit-bud. 




8 



STRUCTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE PLANT 




Fig. 12. Leaf of apple, showing 
blade, petiole, and small nar- 
row stipules. 



WW 



Tlie stem structure. 

The internal structure of the plant does not give rise to such definite parts or organs as appear in the 
external conformation. The plant-body is made up of cells. Some of these cells perform one work and 

some perform another work. The fundamental tissue 
is parenchyma. In this tissue the cells are very simi- 
lar one to another, more or less cubical or equal- 
sided, or at least not greatly elongated. The vital 
processes take place in the parenchyma. Out of the 
' parench3'ma the other and special kinds of tissue develop. 

The special cellular structures in the stem are chiefly mechanical tis- 
sues of two general kinds of elongated cells, — those that support the plant 
or contribute to maintain its form and stature, those that transport the 
fluids. The supporting tissues, giving rigidity to the plant, are of two kinds in 
respect to the structure of the cell-wall : those in which the cells are thick- 
ened or strengthened in the angles (collenchyma, Pig. 24), and those in which 
the cell-walls are thickened throughout (sclerencyhma). The conducting 
tissues are also of two kinds : those with trachea-like walls, marked with 
rings or pits, and those with punctured or sieve-like walls. The supporting 
tissues may be in the epidermis of young or of small stems, in the bark, or 
placed inside the 
woody cylinder. 
The conducting 
tissues are usu- 
ally definitely 
placed, and these we may consider further. 

The development of these mechanical tis- 
sues (for transportation and support) results p£l- 
in the formation of vessels, or systems of spe- 
cialized tissue in particular parts of the stem. 
Vessel-bearing plants are said to be vascular, 
in distinction from certain very low orders of 
plants in which no special tissues of this kind 
have been developed. 

It is well known that trees of temperate 
climates and very many other plants have a 
distinct and separable bark and that they increase in diameter by "rings" added on the woody cylin- 
der. On the other hand, palms, grasses, bananas and many other mostly herbaceous plants increase in 
diameter by means of tissues scattered through the stem; these plants do not make an annual ring, and 
they rarely branch extensively. The former kinds of plants were formerly called exogens, or outside- 
growers, and the latter endogens or inside-growers. These terms are now given up, however, as not 
expressing good anatomical distinctions. These classes of plants are now named from the cotyledon or 
seed-leaf characteristics, — the former having two leaves on the embryo plant, and called dicotyledons ; 

the latter having one leaf in the seed 
or embryo, and called monocotyle- 
dons. 

In most dicotyledonous plants we 
all recognize three fairly distinct 
parts of the stem, at least at some 
epoch in the life of the plant : the 
bark, the woody part, the pith. These 
parts are usually not clearly set off 
in the minute anatomical structure, 
however ; but we may pause a mo- 
ment to discuss them. Long tissues, 
extending lengthwise the stem or 
leaf, formed of elongated cells placed 




Fig. 13. A compound or branching leaf (Udo, a 
new vegetable from Japan, a species of aialia). 
The loaf at the left is in three parts, each 
part again divided. 




Fig. 14. Parts of the plum flower, se, 
sepal; p, petal (three are shown); sta, 
stamens; os, jiistil, in tlu-ee parts — o tlie 
ovary, s the style, st the stii^nta. The 
top of the stem (below o) is the torus. 



Fig. 15. Flowers of a lily, show- 
ing six leaf parts, siz stamens, 
and one style. 



STRUCTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE PLANT 



or wood 





end to end or closely interlapping, are usually associated in more or less definite strands or bundles 

(Fig. 21). It is these .strands, or parts of them, that produce the commercial fibers. 
The bundle, running lengthwise the stem, is composed of two parts or regions : 

part, lying on the inward side of the bundle as it stands in the stem ; the 

phloem or bark part, lying on the outward side. These bundles stand side by 

side around the outside of the woody cylinder, with the pith or undifl'eren- 

tiated parenchyma at the center of the cylinder. These bundles therefore 

make a continuous ring. However, the bundles are themselves supplied, 

when growing, with living parenchyma, called cambium, from which new cells 

are formed for both the xylem and phloem regions of the vascular bundles. 

Inasmuch as the bundles form a ring about the stem, so the cambium that 

accompanies them also forms a ring. The parenchyma tissue extends outward 
from the pith between the bundles (or the bundles are 
imbedded in the parenchyma), causing the rayed appear- 
ance of the stem in cross-section. 

The xylem part of the bundle contains the trachea- 
like spiraled or pitted vessels. These are the routes 
through which the water ascends from the root. The 

° Fig. 17. 

phloem part containing the sieve-tubes transports the Begonia flowers, 

organized food, or "elaborated sap," after it has been 

formed in the leaves; this food is transported to all parts 

of the plant to build new cells, or sometimes to be stored 

until needed. The supporting tissue may be associated with 

the vascular, or fibro-vascular, bundles. Bast is schleren- 

chyma tissue growing with the phloem. The xylem and phloem regions separate 

as they grow, the former becoming part of the wood and the latter part of the 

inner bark. The outer separable part commonly called bark is a very complex 

structure, being formed of the cortex or skin of the stem and the cork and 

strengthening tissues formed therein, the old and dead or dying phloem, and the 

new phloem that is just forming from the cambium in the vascular bundle. The 

xylem grows old and dies ; the dead tissue becomes filled and hardened in firm 

wood ; new xylem tissues are /. 

added on the outward side. The / \ 

phloem grows old and dies ; the , ,/ ,/ / 

dead parts are added to the bark ; 

new phloem tissues are added on 

the inward side. The fibers of hemp 

and flax are derived from the 

phloem. 

In monocotyledonous plants, as 

grasses, sedges, orchids, bananas, 

ily-like plants, there 

are vascular bundles with xylem 



showing the 
sexes separate. ' 
StHiiiiiKite or male flower 
above: pistilh-ite or fetuMle 
beneath. Tlie seed-pod or 
ovary is shown at B; at A 
tliere is none. 



^ZV.'l):\.t) 



Fig. 16. A daisy or white- 
weed, one of the com- 
positae. Very many palms and all 
flowers compose tlie 
head, the outer ones 

each bearing one long ^^^ phloem regions, but the bun- ' 
dies are scattered through the - 
stem and therefore do not form an exterior ring, and 
there is no true pith. Moreover, these bundles do not 
contain cambium, and therefore, the stem does not 
increase much in thickness and does not have a distinct 
separating bark (Fig. 22). The fibro-vascular bundles are 
very evident in the stem of Indian corn, and can be pulled 
out. There are some commercial fibers produced by 
plants of the dicotyledonous kind. Manila hemp is from a species of banana, and sisal hemp, 
from an agave, one of the century plant group ; these fibers are derived from the entire bundle, 
both xylem and phloem, and this origin probably accounts for their stifi'ness and hardness and their 
resistance to abrasion. 




iV^ 



Fig. 18. Separated sexes in black walnut. The stam- 
inate flowers (in clusters called catkins) at B; pistil- 
late flowers, each with two stigmas, at A. 



10 



STRUCTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE PLANT 





Fig. 19. The gooseberry is a true fruit, 
or ripened ovary. The remains of 
a flower are shown at c. 



Fig. 21. Vascular bundles in 
stem of moonseed. The 
xylera part, with large open- 
ings, is on the inner side, 
the phloem on the outer 
side. Pith at P. 




Longevity of the plant. 

In duration, plants are of extreme types. Some kinds live only a few weeks ; some of the trees live 
for many centuries. It is customary to classify all plants into three groups as respects duration : 
annuals, living not more than one year from seed to seed, as the cereal 
grains and most garden vegetables ; biennials, living two years, usually 
perfecting seed the second year, as beets and parsnips, common mullein ; 
perennials, living more than two years, as asparagus, alfalfa, bushes 
and trees. These divisions are not at all exact, however. Annuals are 
of longer or shorter life within the year, some maturing and dying 
very quickly from the seed, as the garden cress, and others requiring 
practically the twelvemonth. Some plants are annual because they are 
destroyed by frost, and others because they 
normally complete their growth : the latter, 
of course, are the true annuals. Those that 
would outgrow the year if they had oppor- 
tunity have been called plur-annuals : they 
are plants that have been taken into a 
shorter - season year, as tomato, castor 
bean. Plants that are annual in one region, 
therefore, may be biennial or perennial in 
another region. Some plants are appar- 
ently annual although they live from year 
to year, carrying themselves over by 
means of bulbs or tubers, as onions and 
potatoes : these have been called pseud- 
annuals (false annuals). The mullein, bull 
thistle and teasel are true biennials, part 
of the growth occurring one year and the 
completion of the life-cycle the second year. Certain perennials have 
been bred by man to be biennials, as the cabbage and probably some 
root crops. Some of the root crops are really annual, as they complete the full cycle in one season if 
started early, as the radish. Whether a plant is biennial is often determined by the region in which it 
grows. There is the widest range in the length of life of perennials. Red clover is a perennial, but very 
imperfectly so; some forms of it thrive only two years, although they may persist longer. Most peren- 
nial herbs are at their greatest vigor the second and third years, as the strawberry, and then gradu- 
ally weaken, and sometimes even die before very old, new plants having been formed in the meantime. 
Gardeners know that the best bloom with pinks and hollyhocks and many other showy perennials is 
secured from plants that are only two or three years old. Sometimes the renewal is accomplished by 

dividing the old roots. 

Societies of plants. 

Since plants contend with each other and 
since different kinds have been driven into 
similar places or regions, it follows that 
certain kinds have come to grow together, 
forming plant societies or communities. A 
certain set of plants live together in a 
swamp, and another set on a hill, another 
in a meadow, and another set in a cotton- 
field or a corn-field. Certain plants grow 
under or over other plants : grass and 
bushes may grow under trees ; corn grows 
above the pumpkins that are planted with it. 
Wherever plants grow, they are in societies ; 
that is, they grow together for certain rea- 
sons, — they are adapted to each other or to 



Fig. 20. In the chestnut, the nuts arc 
the true fruits. They are contained 
in a husk. 








XMi^^y^ 









.,^ 



,-i»H-^. 






'W- 



Fig. 22. The columnar trunk or stem of a monocotyledonous plant, 
not increasing much in diameter. Henequen {^S^gave rigida var. 
elongata). sixth crop being cut, two outer rows of lenves cut 
every eight months. Yin^ntan. 



THE PLANT: ITS STRUCTURE, LIFE -PROCESSES AND ENVIRONMENT 



li 



the place. Some societies seem to be largely accidental in population, however, and others seem to be 
governed by definite laws or relationships. These laws of adaptation are very little understood. It is 
now suspected that there may be positive physiological incompatibility between some kinds, and toler- 
ance, congeniality or even symbiotic relationships between others. Under some kinds of trees, for exam- 
ple, certain kinds of herbaceous plants may thrive and others may perish, even when both are equally 
exposed to sunlight : it is doubtful whether this difference is to be explained by competition for food or 
moisture. We do not know why some weeds thrive in a corn-field and others do not. There may be 
bacterial or other organic relations between some kinds. There may be root-excretions that are hurt- 
ful to some plants and harmless or even useful to others. Perhaps the crop rotations that experience 
has found to be useful are dependent in some measure on such vital relationships as these. 



THE PLANT: ITS STRUCTURE, LIFE-PRO- 
CESSES AND ENVIRONMENT 

By W. J. V. Osterhout 

Plants resemble animals in their fundamental 
life-processes and in their essential requirements 
of food, air, water, warmth and light. But the 
green plants possess an important advantage over 
animals since they are able to manufacture food 
from air and soil-water. This process depends on 
the action of chlorophyll (leaf-green) in the sun- 
light, by the absorption of which the necessary 
energy is supplied. Other differences between 
animals and plants, as that plants take up food in 
dissolved form only and have cellulose walls, are of 
minor importance. 

The cell : protoplasm. 

Plants are composed of cells of microscopic size, 
the outer walls of which are usually of cellulose 
(the substance of which paper is made). Figs. 23, 
24 represent plant-cells. Within the non-living 
cell-wall is contained the living part, consisting of 
a transparent, jelly-like colloid substance called pro- 
toplasm. Its principal constituents, besides water, 
which constitutes 80 to 90 per cent of the plant, 
are proteids (white of egg substance), fats and oils, 
sugars and various salts. 

Protoplasm is able to build new living protoplasm 
from the lifeless materials at its disposal ; it can 
grow and reproduce ; it has the power of movement 
and of responding to stimuli. It conducts complex 
chemical processes (metabolism), by means of which 
the living substance is built up (constructive me- 
tabolism) or torn down (destructive metabolism). 



s»a::(»,:(^_'^^;,?S^,;^.# .,<a: .,*!.> ',^:f«5»;-';i"']j 



^M -$i ■■ 



.'<fe'"'^::'.^''W 



® e 



Fig. 23. 



A plant ceU. 
toplasm. 



The figure shows the rotation of pro- 
{Elodea, or Anacharis.) 



All the characters of the organism are an ex- 
pression of the activity of its protoplasm. As long 
as certain chemical and physical processes take 
place in t?.e protoplasm we say the organism is 
alive ; when these stop, we say that it dies. Such 
substances in the cell as enter into these processes 
we regard as living ; others, as starch grains, which 
take no part in them, we regard as dead. The latter 
may at any time enter into these processes, as when 




starch is converted into sugar, and so become 
part of the living substance. The transformation 
of lifeless into living substance, and vice versa, is 
constantly taking place. Protoplasm may be killed 
in a variety of ways, as by electric shock, heat, 
light, mechanical injury or poisonous substances. 

Within the protoplasm, or cytoplasm, of the cell 
is contained a body, usually spherical or ellipsoid 
in shape, called the nucleus. It contains a deeply 
staining substance 
called chromatin. 
There is abundant evi- 
dence that the heredi- 
tary characters, those 
handed down from par- 
ent to offspring, are 
somehow bound up in-:-^* — ^ 
the chromatin, and~\r V 
that it is the union of ^X — f(^ 
chromatin from both y/ 
parents in the act of Fig. 24. common ceU forms. The 

fertilization which wiiiis are thii-iiened .it the 

., a, . . angles, forming sti-engthen- 

CaUSeS the offspring to Ing tissue. This Isind of tis- 

partake of the char- sueis knownas coUenchyma 

acters of both. It has 

been demonstrated that if the offspring receives 
protoplasm from both parents but chromatin from 
only one, it shows the characters of only that one. 
The division of the cell is accompanied by a 
division of the nucleus, which may be either direct 
(amitosi-s) or indirect (mitosis). In direct division 
the nucleus constricts in the middle and the two 
halves simply pull apart. In indirect division the 
chromatin breaks up into a number of bodies 
(chromosomes), whose number is constant in each 
species. They arrange themselves on a spindle- 
shaped body, known as the mitotic spindle, and 
each chromosome breaks into two, the halves going 
to opposite ends of the spindle and there forming 
daughter-nuclei. A cell-wall is fornned midway 
between these, dividing the cell into two (Fig. 25). 

Plant organs: structure and function. 

The plant body is divided into root, stem and 
leaf. The structure of each of these organs is 
adapted to the work it performs. Structure and 
function will here be considered together. 

The root. — The principal work of the root is to 
explore the soil for moisture. It is unerringly 
guided downward by gravity, which acts as a 
stimulus, causing the upper side of the root to 
grow faster than the lower side, hence forcing the 



12 



THE PLANT: ITS STRUCTURE, LIFE - PROCESSES AND ENVIRONMENT 



tip downward, no matter how it be placed. Mois- 
ture attracts the root very strongly ; roots have 
been found in cisterns as much as 200 to 300 feet 
from a tree. 

There are two principal kinds of roots, one of 




Fig. 25. Four steps in process of cell-division. Mother-cell .it 
left, fill" advanced in divison; daughter-cell at right. 

which, the tap-root (Fig. 26), goes deep into the 
soil, growing straight down and sending out lateral 
roots at intervals. The other spreads out near 
the surface of the soil (Fig. 27) and consists of a 
mass of fine rootlets. It has the advantage of estab- 
lishing itself quickly and absorbing moisture vigor- 
ously from the start, thus inducing a rapid growth 
of the plant. But it cannot utilize the deeper soil 
food nor withstand drought. On the other hand, 
tap-roots many endure long periods of drought: the 
long-rooted Peruvian cotton is said to survive a 
rainless period of six years. 

A well-developed root system forms a mass of 
finely interlacing filaments that thoroughly ex- 
plore the soil. The total length of these has been 
estimated at a quarter of a mile for a vigorous 
corn plant, while measurements on a squash vine 
proved the rootto be over fifteen miles in length, 






uj}&^-^. 




Fig. 26. Tap-root. Dandelion. 

the greater part of this being produced at the rate 
of a thousand feet per day. 

Because of need of air, most roots are unable to 
thrive in wet soil, and their best work is done in 



soil in which the water is held in a thin film around 
the soil-particles. Each particle constitutes a 
minute water reservoir. To reach and tap these 
reservoirs is the work of the root-hairs, which ap- 
pear just back of the root-tip as outgrowths from 
the surface cells of the root (Figs. 28 and 29). 
They force themselves energetically between the 
soil-particles and attach themselves so closely 
that they often break oif rather than loosen their 
hold when the root is pulled up. Thus they come 
into contact with the water-films that surround 
the particles, and by means 
of water -attracting sub- 
stances within the root-hair 
they pull the water away 
from the particles. As each 
tiny reservoir is emptied of 
its supply, water flows in 
from surrounding ones and 
these also yield up their 
stores. 

The water passes from 
the root-hair through the 
soft outer tissue (cortex) to 
the wood-cells, in which it 
passes directly to the leaves. 
These i;hick-walled wood- 
cells form groups that al- 
ternate with groups of thin- 
walled tissue or bast which 
conveys proteids and other 
food from the leaves to the 
root and to other parts of 
the plant. The wood and 
bast are surrounded by a 
row of small cells (endoder- 
mis), whose closely joined 
walls prevent the entrance 
of air, which would im- 
pede the progress of water in the wood-cells. 

The absorptive surface of the root may be in- 
creased from seven to seventy-five times by the root- 
hairs. The fine roots, on which the root-hairs are 
principally produced, are known as "feeding roots," 
and all tillage should be practiced with special 
reference to them. Tillage aids the work of the 
root by increasing the air and water-supply, and 
by loosening the soil. Roots will penetrate hard 
soil, or even hard substances like sealing-wax, but 
they grow very slowly under such conditions. They 
may develop a pressure of 50 to 100 pounds per 
square inch. The root-cap protects the delicate tip 
as it is forced into the soil. 

The water absorbed by the root contains mineral 
substances. If the plant is burned, these will 
remain in the form of ashes. By growing plants 
in distilled water, to which has been added chemi- 
cally pure salts in various combinations, it has 
been found that certain substances are indis- 
pensable to the plant while others are not. The 
indispensable substances comprise four bases and 
four acids. The bases are potash, lime, magnesium 
and iron ; the acids are nitric, phosphoric, sul- 
furic and carbonic — the carbonic acid absorbed from 
the air by the leaf. If all these substances, with the 




Fig. 27. Fibrous roots. 
Maize. Aerial or brace 
roots are shown at o o. 



THE PLANT: ITS STRUCTURE, LIFE - PROCESSES AND ENVIRONMENT 



13 



exception of carbonic acid, be dissolved in distilled 
water, plants can be grown in the solution and 
will produce mature seed ; but if any of the sub- 
stances be lacking in the solution, except carbonic 
acid, growth will soon cease. All these substances 
are present in the soil, together with others of little 
or no value, as alumina, silica and others, but in 
order that the plant may absorb them they must be 
dissolved in the soil-water. Most of them exist in 
the soil in compounds that are but little soluble in 
water. The soil-water contains carbonic acid, derived 
principally from decaying organic matter, which 
has a decidedly solvent action. In addition, the root 
constantly excretes carbonic acid, which dissolves 
the plant-food within its reach. By the excretion of 
acid, roots may etch polished marble surfaces ; and 
they impart to distilled water an acid reaction. 

Roots of many members of the pea family supply 
themselves with nitrogen from the air by means of 
the bacteria which inhabit tubercles on their roots. 
Roots of forest trees frequently 
make use of decaying matter by 
means of fungi, which grow in 
close contact with them. 

The leaf. — The seed-leaves are 
commonly gorged with food, con- 
sisting of proteids (nitrogenous 
substances, like white of egg), 
fats, oils, sugar and starch. This 
food is mostly manufactured in 
the foliage leaves. 

When starch is heated it sepa- 
rates into water and carbon di- 
oxid (CO2). Evidently it may be 
formed by causing these two 
substances to unite. This is just 
what the foliage leaf brings 
about. It is supplied with water 
by the activity of root and stem, 
and it absorbs carbon dioxid from 
the air. By utilizing the energy 
of the sunlight the leaf is able to 
break the bond of union between 
the carbon and the oxygen of the 
carbon dioxid, thus leaving the 
carbon free to combine with water and so to pro- 
duce starch, and the oxygen free to escape into 
the air. The energy used in this process is set free 
again if the starch be burned, either by ordinary 
combustion or by the .slower combustion that takes 
place in plant or animal cells. All elaborated foods, 
such as proteids, fats, oils and sugars, yield up their 
stored energy in the same way. 

In order to make as much starch as possible, the 
leaf must expose the greatest possible surface to 
the sunlight and air, but in so doing it runs the 
risk of losing too much water by evaporation. To 
meet this difficulty, it has devices that enable it to 
increase or diminish evaporation (transpiration) 
according to its needs. Its surface is made water- 
proof by waxes, varnishes and resins, so that water 
can escape only at the pores or stomata that are 
thickly scattered (Fig. 30) over one or both of its 
surfaces, — as many as 3,500 per square inch in some 
instances. A section through a stomate is shown in 



Fig. 81, and a diagram of a stomate in Fig. 32. In 
the guard-cells, which surround the stomata, the 
plant pos.sesses automatic devices of wonderful 
efficiency for regulating transpiration. When the 




j^ 



Fig. 28. 
Parts of a young 
plant, r, root- 
hairs: ft, hypo- 
cotyle, between 
the seed-le.ives 
and the root: c, 
seed - leaves or 
cotyledons : I, 
true leaves. 




Fig. 29. Cross-section of a root, as it grows in the soil, show- 
ing the lel.itions of the root-hairs (tIi) to the soil particles 
(s/>) and the air spaces (a) : this soil is represented as con- 
taining the m.aximum amount of water compatible with 
good plant-growth, 

water-supply is abundant, especially in the presence 
of sunlight, the guard-cells absorb water and ex- 
pand. The pre.ssure causes the walls that bound the 
pore or stomate to curve away from each other, thus 
causing the stomate to open. This is due to the fact 
that these inner walls are thicker than the outer 
walls. The effect is the same as would be produced 
on a rubber tube by thickening one side by cement- 
ing an extra strip of rubber on it. If such a tube 
be closed at one end while air or water is pumped 
in at the other, it will bend so that the thickened 
side becomes concave. 

The absorption of the water by the guard-cells 
is aided in sunlight by the action of the chloro- 
phyll grains which they contain ; these produce 
sugar, which aids the cell in taking up water from 
the other cells of the epidermis that have no chloro- 
phyll grains. 

When, therefore, the water-supply is sufficient, 
and especially when sunlight, temperature and 




Fig. 30. Stomatesof 
geranium leaf. 



Fig. 31. Stomate of ivy, sbowing 
compound guard-cells. 



other conditions are favorable for leaf activity, 
the stomata open and permit the leaf to absorb 
carbon dioxid. On the other hand, lack of water 
and unfavorable conditions cause them to close. 



14 



THE PLANT: ITS STRUCTURE, LIFE - PROCESSES AND ENVIRONMENT 



The stomata are usually closed at night; hence it is 
then possible to fumigate plants with poisonous 
gases that would kill them if applied through the 
day. Closing at night prevents the stomata clog- 




Fig. 32. Diagram of a stoma or stomate (of Iris) in section, 
ing guard-ceUs and neighboring ceUs of epidermis. 

ging with dew. Water-proof materials, as well as 
hairy coverings of the leaf, protect the stomata 
from dew and rain. Leaves so protected appear 
silvery under water and do not become wet for a 
long time. If such protection is found on the lower 
side only, the stomata will be found on that side 
only. House plants should have the leaves wa.shed 
occasionally to prevent the clogging of the stomata 
with dust. The devices by which desert plants 
check evaporation will be discussed later. 

The carlDon dioxid, passing through the stomata, 
comes directly into contact with the leaf-cells, 
which are sufficiently separated from each other to 
allow it to pass freely between them (Figs. 33, 34). 
The great absorptive surface which they expose is 
kept continually moist and is thug able to absorb 
with great rapidity, much as the moist lung sur- 
faces absorb oxygen. The ab.sorbed carbon dioxid 
passes into the cells and comes into contact with 
the green chlorophyll grains. The chlorophyll (leaf- 
green) in these bodies is divided into very minute 
drops (Fig. 35), thus giving it an enormous ab- 
sorptive surface. At the same time that it takes 
up carbon dioxid it absorbs sunlight, and with the 
energy thus received decomposes the carbon dioxid 




Fig. 33. Cross-section of ivy leaf, which grew in shade, and 
has only one layer of palisade-cells, v, upper epidermis; 
p, paUsade cells; c, a crystal: s/). spongy parenchym.i; 
■(', intercellular space; t, lower epidermis. The plant here 
intended is the true or English ivy, Hedera helix, 

and causes the carbon to unite with the water, 
thus forming sugar. This may be illustrated by the 
equation : 



This equation, however, states merely the begin- 
ning and end of what is probably a long and com- 
plicated process. Oxygen is given off and may be 
seen arising in bubbles from water plants. Air 
that has been "vitiated" by animals may 
have its o.xygen restored by green plants in 
sunlight. Aquaria are often maintained for 
long periods when a proper balance is struck 
between plant and animal life. 

The process just described (photosynthe- 
sis) furnishes not only all the food, but prac- 
tically all the fuel in the world. The leaf 
utilizes, that is, stores up, only about one- 
half of one per cent of the energy it re- 
ceives in the form of sunshine. It makes 
use of the red and orange rays almost exclu- 
sively, and forms little or no starch in blue 
light. The rays that affect the photographic 
plate, therefore, have little part in photo- 
synthesis, while the red and orange rays, so 
important in this connection, are the ones 
that also produce the greatest effect on the 
eye. A square meter of sunflower leaves 
is estimated to produce about 25 grams of starch 
in the 15 hours of sunlight of a summer day. This 
would use up the carbon dioxid contained in 50 
cubic meters of air (a meter is nearly 40 inches); 
or, in other words, should the leaves take all their 



ahow' 




Mi^ — j 



ecoo + 

Carbon dioxid 



6H2O = CeHioOe 
Water Grape sugar 



• 6O2 
Oxygen 



J i 



Fig. 34. Leaf of common wild yellow mustard; e, epidermis; 
/>, palisade cells; sp, spongy parenchyma; cttl, collecting 
cells: cotiv, conveying cells; sh. conducting she;ith of vein: 
w. woody tissue of vein; b, bast of vein; s, stoma: a, air- 
space; c/ii. ffr., chlorophyll graniJes. 

carbon from the air directly above them, they 
would in a day consume all of it to a vertical 
height of about 165 feet. 

The sugar formed in the chlorophyll grains is 
transformed, in great part at least, into starch, 
which makes its appearance in the form of glis- 
tening white bodies embedded within the substance 
of the grain. This starch mostly disappears during 
the night, being changed back into sugar, and 
conducted away into the stem and thence to the 
roots, flowers or other parts. Leaving the palisade 
cells of the leaf (Fig. 34 p.), it passes through the 
collecting cells (col.) into conveying cells (conv.), 
and on to the conducting sheath (sh.) of one of the 
veins, by which it passes through the leaf-stalk 
into the stem. 

The evaporation of water is of great advantage 
to the plant, for it concentrates in the leaf the salts 



THE PLANT: ITS STRUCTURE, LIFE - PROCESSES AND ENVIRONMENT 



15 



contained in the water. The leaf thus becomes the 
meeting place of air food and soil food. These two 
sorts of crude food combine to form elaborated 
food. The first step is probably the formation 
cf sugar, which then, by combining with nitrogen, 
sulfur, phosphorus and other elements, forms pro- 
teids. These move from place to place, principally 
in the bast, and so reach the regions where they 
are needed. 

The energy needed to elaborate food comes from 
the sunlight. The leaves have various devices to 
absorb all the sunlight possible. Some " follow the 
sun " all day long, thus facing eastward in the 
morning and westward at evening. At mid-day they 
are horizontal, except when the sunlight is exces- 
sive, in which case they assume the " profile posi- 
tion" with the edges pointing upward, thus avoid- 
ing injury due to too strong light. Many such 
leaves assume a "sleep position" at night by fold- 
ing ; they diminish thereby the loss of heat and 
avoid the precipitation of dew on the protected 
surfaces. 

Most leaves have the power of turning toward 
the light, and so move out of the shadow of other 
leaves. Thus arise the beautiful " leaf-mosaics," 
e. g., of English ivy or of maple, in which no leaf 
unduly shades another. The usual arrangement of 
leaves on the stem is in regular vertical rows. 
The arrangement is known as phyllotaxy. 

The stem. — The stem bears the leaves and fur- 
nishes them with a constant supply of water, which 
it conveys from the root. On placing a plant with 
its roots in diluted red ink or other colored solution, 
we can trace the colored solution up through the 
wood-cells in the root (Fig. 29), through the stem 
(Fig. 36), into the finest veins of the leaf. It is 
easily seen that the colored solution travels only in 
the wood-cells and not in the other cells of the stem. 
We usually find the wood-cells associated with 
bast-cells, forming together the fibro-vascular bun- 
dles (Figs. 21, 37). In dicotyledonous plants (e. g., 
squash, sunflower) the.'^e bundles form a circle near 
the outside of the stem ; while in monocotyledonous 
plants (e. g., corn, lilies) they are scattered through 
the stem. [See page 9.] 

The largest passages in the wood are called 
ducts, and in them the water travels faster tL_n 



^^' 




■ *^^\ 


m- 


^ 


%/ 


V "^ 






Fig. 35. 


A 


chlorophyll 


grain containing young 


starch 


grams . T h e 


dotted 


shading is toin- 


dieate 


the 


chlorophyll 


drops. 








Fig. 36. Diagram of 
cross - section of 
squash stem. «fr, 

strengthening fibers. 

in the other cells. They are formed by the breaking 
down of partitions, thus converting "a long row of 
cells into a single continuous passage that may be 
as much as forty feet in length. 

In the tracheids — long, narrow, tapering cells — 
the water travels more slowly than in the ducts, 
being hindered by the frequent end walls. The 



markings seen on the walls of the wood-cells are 
pits or thin places in the walls, by means of which 
water passes more readily from one cell to another. 
The passage of air is prevented by a delicate mem- 
brane stretched across the pit. 

The question may be asked. What causes the 
sap to rise ? Various explanations have been 




Fig. 37. Fibro-vascular bundle (cross-section) of Indian com, 
much magnified. «, unnnhir vessel: a', annular or spiral 
vessel, t' , thick-walled vessels; v), traeheids or woody 
tissue: /, sheath of fibrous tissue surrounding the bundle: 
H, fundamental tissue or pith: s, sieve tissue; %>, sieve 
plate; c. companion cell; i, intercellular space, formed by 
tearing down of adjacent cells; w' , wood parenchynia. 

advanced and proved unsatisfactory, such as capil- 
larity, barometric pressure, action of air-bubbles 
and root-pressure (the action of the root in forcing 
water upward, as seen in the bleeding stumps of 
the grape-vine). The one at present most in favor 
is that the sap is drawn up by water-attracting 
substances in the leaves, just as the water is pulled 
away from the soil -particles by the root -hairs. 
This process is known as osmosis. Sugar is a sub- 
stance that acts in this way. For example, the 
conversion of the stored starch of the maple into 
sugar, in the spring, causes a rapid rush of sap 
into the stem, even though no leaves are present. 
This theory is not satisfactory in all respects, 
especially when applied to the rise of sap in very 
tall trees. 

Among the wood-cells are found short cells, 
wood-parenchyma, that remain alive long after the 
other cells are dead. One of their chief functions 
is to store starch and other foods that are conveyed 
to them by the medullary rays or silver grain. These 
consist of elongated cells that run at right angles to 
the course of the wood-cells ; they serve to convey 
gases as well as food. Much elaborated food, espe- 
cially proteids, is conveyed by the bast. Most pro- 
teids are unable to pass through cell-walls and so 
are able to move only in the large cells, or sieve- 
tubes of the bast, whose end walls or sieve plates 
are pierced with holes. The bast contains smaller 
cells known as companion cells and bast parenchyma 



16 



THE PLANT: ITS STRUCTURE, LIFE - PROCESSES AND ENVIRONMENT 



which remain alive after the sieve cells are 
apparently dead ; their function is not clearly 
understood. 

In dicotyledonous plants, between the wood and 
the bast is found the cambium, an embryonic tissue 
that forms new cells whose growth causes the stem 
to thicken year by year. The inner part of this 
growth becomes wood, which adds an "annual ring." 
These rings are clearly marked, because the wood 
formed in the fall is denser and has smaller cells 
than that formed in the spring. The outer part of 
the new growth becomes ba.st, which wears away 
on the outside almost as fast as it forms within, 
and, in consequence, does not thicken much from 
year to year. Monocotyledonous stems have no 
cambium and do not grow thicker from year to 
year. 

The cambium causes the cion to unite to the 
stock ; it heals wounds, such as are made by 
pruning, by forming a tissue called callus. This 
sometimes produces new bud.s, whose growth com- 
pensates for the part cut away. At the tip of the 
stem the cambium does not form a complete ring 
but is confined to the fibro-va.scular bundles. In 
trees and shrubs it gradually extends itself from 
one bundle to another, thus forming a complete 
ring. As soon as this is accomplished, it begins to 
form a complete ring of wood within and of bast 
without. In herbs no such complete ring is formed. 
Outside the bast is found the rind or cortex, 
which is usually green, and, in consequence, manu- 
factures starch. It also serves to convey starch. 
This is easily seen when it is cut away all around 
the tree, in the process of " ringing," whereupon the 
tissues below lose their starch. If the bast be cut 
through also, the supply of proteids is cut off and 
death soon ensues. As the stem grows older, layers 
of cork are formed in the rind. These cut off the tis- 
sues lying outside them, which soon die and so form 
bark. The very first layers of cork are formed on 
the extreme outside of the stem, and are interrupted 
at frequent intervals by 
breathing pores or lenti- 
cels. 

At the very tip of the 
stem is found embryonic 
tissue which continually 
forms new cells ; this is 
called the growing point, 
.lust back of this, new 
leaves arise as protuber- 
ances (Fig. 38). These 
rapidly grow larger and 
fold over in such a way 
as to protect the growing 
point from mechanical in- 
juries as well as from dry- 
ing. The various waxes, 
resins and furry coverings 
of buds are not for protection against cold, as popu- 
larly supposed, but for protection against drying. 
The crowding of the young leaves at the grow- 
ing point, forces them to take on a regular ar- 
rangement which largely determines the arrange- 
ment of the branches, since these arise from the 




Fig. 38. Bud of brussels 
sprouts cut lengthwise. 
/, i^bi'ous bundles: Id, 
the crumpled lent"- 
blade. 




Fig. 39. 
Diagram showing the gir- 
der-like arrangement 
of strengthening tissues 
(str) in a bulrush. 
Scirpus. 



point (axil) where the leaf is joined to the stem. 
Not all branches develop. Many that start cannot 
get sufficient light and soon die. This is known as 
" self-pruning," and is seen especially in forest trees, 
which produce lumber free from knots. Many buds 
do not even start to de- 
velop but remain dormant, 
often for many years, 
growing just enough to 
keep pace with the annual 
thickening of the tree. 
They may be traced back 
to the center of the tree, 
sometimes several feet 
long, but no thicker than a 
lead-pencil. New or adven- 
titious buds may be formed; 
such buds, becoming 
crowded and distorting the 
grain of the wood, cause the appearance familiar 
in bird's-eye maple. 

The stem requires strengthening tissue in order 
to su.stain the weight of its branches and the force 
of the wind. In the tree the accumulated wood 
serves every purpo.se, but in the herbaceous stem 
special strengthening tissue is formed, quite dis- 
tinct from the wood. In parts of the stem that 
are lengthening, this tissue consists of collenchyma 
cells, whose walls, thickened at the corners only, have 
thin places by means of which food and water may 
be absorbed (Fig. 24). Their growth keeps pace 
with that of the stem, otherwise they would soon 
break and become useless. In older parts of the 
stem that have ceased lengthening, the mechanical 
cells, sclerenchyma, have walls equally thickened 
all around, except at the pits ; when the thickening 
reaches a certain point the cells die, but their use- 
fulness is not impaired thereby. 

The distribution of mechanical tissue in the stem 
presents a wonderful example of useful arrange- 
ment to secure the highe.st degree of strength 
with the lea.st expenditure of material. The prin- 
ciple of the girder and of the hollow cylinder is 
everywhere employed (Fig. 39) in leaf and stem. 
It results that a wheat stalk is a model of light- 
ness and strength, and at the same time it is elas- 
tic enough to bend sufficiently in the wind. In the 
root (Fig. 29) the strengthening tissue forms 
strands in the center, known as cable construction, 
that enable it to resist pulling strains. Some 
stems economize material by climbing on walls, 
trees, or other supports. Some weave themselves 
in and out of the branches of other plants (black- 
berry), others form tendrils by modifying a branch 
(squash, grape), or a leaf (pea), or a leaf-stalk 
(clematis). The coiling of the tendril is due to 
a stimulus such that the contact side grows less 
rapidly than the opposite side. The tendril, and 
the tip of the stem as well, usually has a sweeping 
circular movement that assists in finding a sup- 
port. The tendrils of the Boston ivy fasten them- 
selves to walls ; the roots of the English ivy 
answer the same purpose. 

Plants which twine do so apparently under tha 
influence of gravity, which causes one side to grow 



THE PLANT: ITS STRUCTURE, LIFE - PROCESSES AND ENVIRONMENT 



17 




faster than another, so that the tip circles in 
the same direction as the hands of a watch, to the 
right, or with the sun (as in the hop), or in the 
opposite direction (as in the morning-glory). 
Such plants unwind and reverse their direction if 
placed upside down, and they will not twine on a 
horizontal or nearly horizontal support. 

Tiie flower. — When the work of root, stem and 
leaf has stored a sufficient surplus of food, the 
plant proceeds to flower. The century plant spends 
many years in this process ; trees usually take 
four or five years or more ; biennials, as the beet 
and turnip, require two, while annuals complete 
their preparation in a 
few days or weeks. 
The food is stored in 
roots, tubers, root- 
stocks, stems, or in 
modified leaves such 
as we find in bulbs. 
In the latter ca.se, the 
fully formed minia- 
ture flower.s can often 
be seen on cutting 
open the bulb. 

The flower is usu- 
ally spoken of as a 
modified branch. In 
their early stages, 
flower -buds are so 
much like leaf -buds 
that they cannot be 
told apart. But the 
growing leaf-bud pro- 
duces leaves that soon 
become separated by the elongation of the stem, 
while in the flower-bud they remain crowded to- 
gether, and become modified into dissimilar struc- 
tures. 

The outermost set of these structures, the calyx 
(Fig. 14), consists of green, leaf-like sepals whose 
function is to protect the internal parts, much 
as the outer leaves of a bud protect the innermost. 
Ne.xt comes the corolla, consisting of petals, which 
are leaf-like except in color. Instead of chloro- 
phyll they possess a number of pigments that are 
either held in solution in the cell sap or appear in 
solid form. These, by their combination, produce 
an endless variety of coloration. The appearance 
of white petals is due (like that of snow) to the 
presence of air. 

The next set of organs, the stamens, often have 
a leaf-like basal part, while the upper part pro- 
duces an anther, i. e., a .structure consisting u.sually 
of four cavities filled with pollen-grains or micro- 
spores. At maturity the.se cavities open and dis- 
charge their pollen in the form of yellow dust. The 
innermost set of organs, known as the carpels, are 
often leaf -like, as, for example, in the pea -pod, 
whose texture, color and veining are essentially 
those of a leaf. It corresponds to a leaf folded 
lengthwise on the midrib, .so as to bring the edges 
together. Along the united edges are borne the 
seeds. Such a carpel is called a simple pistil or 
ovary ; when several are united, as usually is the 

B2 



Fig. 40. Flower of fuchsia in 
longitudional section. The 
ovary is .it rt. 




case, the resulting structure is called a compound 
pistil or ovary. The term ovary is applied to the 
part that contains the seeds or ovules, while the 
term pistil includes also the style and 
stigma. The stigma is borne on the 
summit of the ovary, often on a stalk 
called the style, and consists of a 
sticky or hairy surface designed to 
catch and retain the pollen. 

Inside the ovary are found the rudi- 
mentary seeds, or ovules (Fig. 40). An 
ovule usually has two coats, inside of 
which is a mass of tissue called the 
nucellus, containing a cavity called the 
embryo-sac, or macrospore. Inside of 
this are found one or more eggs. 

In order that the egg may develop, 
pollen must be brought to the stigma 
and there germinate (Fig. 41), sending 
out a long germ tube that makes its 
way down the style to the embryo-sac. 
A nucleus (Fig. 42, pn) makes its way 
from the pollen-tube through an open- (gee'dSe) 
ing that is formed at its end, and en- 
ters the embryo-sac, where it unites with the 
nucleus of the egg (e). This con.stitutes the act of 
fertilization, and the characters of both parents 
are thereby united in the nucleus so formed. This 
nucleus is called the fertilized egg. Since each of 
the fusing nuclei has the same number of chromo- 
some.s, the fertilized egg has twice as many, and 
this double number is found in all the cells of the 
plant that develop from the fertilized egg, until, in 
the mother-cells, that give rise to the pollen-grains 
and embryo-sac, the number is 
suddenly reduced to one-half. 

The fertilized egg soon be- 
gins to develop and eventu- 
ally forms a tiny plant with 
rudimentary root, stem and 
leaf, as we find it in the seed. 
The coats of the seed develop 
from tho.se of the ovule ; some- 
tiipes the ovary wall or a part 
of it remains permanently at- 
tached to the seed. The endo- 
sperm of the seed comes from 
two endosperm nuclei (Fig. 42, 
end), which fuse with a nuc- 
leus from the pollen-tube 
(s pn). The endosperm may 
thus show the characters of 
both parents. In corn, in 
which the endosperm deter- 
mines the color of the grain, an 
ear of yellow corn that re- 
ceives pollen partly from yel- 
low and partly from blue com 
may show, on the same ear, 
both blue and yellow grains 
side by side. 

Since pollen is easily in- 
jured by rain or dew, various 
devices exist for keeping it 
dry. The closing or drooping 




Fig. 42. Embryo-sac Of 
a lily. Sliowiiie the 
union of tlie uucieus 
from the pollen- 
tube ipn), with the 
egg ie) : the seeond 
pollen-tube nucleus 
ispn), unites with 
two eiKlosperm pro- 
nuolei (end), whieli 
multiply and form 
the endosperm ; 
antipodal cells 
iatit), nurse ruielei 
which help nourish 
the ese, etc.. inr), 
pollen-tube ip). 



18 



THE PLANT: ITS STRUCTURE, LIFE - PROCESSES AND ENVIRONMENT 



of flowers in rainy weather and at night, and 
numerous contrivances for shedding water, all 
serve to keep the pollen dry. 

In a series of classical experiments, Darwin 
showed that self-pollination, or the placing of the 
pollen on the stigma of the plant that produced it, 
does not give as vigorous offspring as cross-polli- 
nation, or the transfer of pollen from another indi- 
vidual. In plants we find numerous devices to pro- 
mote cross-pollination and to prevent self-polli- 
nation. It is common to find the stamens and 
pistils in separate flowers on the same plant 
(monoecious plants, as squash and corn), or produced 
on separate plants (dioecious plants, as the hop). 
When the organs are not thus separated they may 
mature at different times, or otherwise promote 
cross-pollination. 

Pollen is carried from one flower to another 
through the agency of wind (as in corn), or water 
(as in many aquatics), or by insects. Whether the 
insects are attracted by the color or by the odor of 
flowers is to some extent still an open question. 

The Jrvil. — The fruit is the ripe or ripening 
ovary, with its contents and any surrounding parts 
that remain attached to it. The first work of the 
fruit is to convey nourishment to the young seeds 
and protect them during their development. The 
great importance of the food supply is evident from 
the fierce struggle that takes place, not only 
between flowers and fruits on the same plant but 
between the developing seeds in the same fruit. 
Usually many fruits fall because of lack of nourish- 
ment, and this is aided by the grower, who thins 
the fruit to secure a few large ones rather than 
many small fruits. In a number of fruits many 
seeds in the ovary fail to develop from lack 
of suflicient food. In the majority of cases the 
plant gives its whole store of food to the fruit and 
then dies. The stalks of grain, for example, are 
almost completely emptied of nutriment during the 
ripening period, leaving the stalks dry and taste- 
less. This occurs even if the grain be cut before 
the seed is fully ripe. On reaching the seed the 
food is often transformed, as from starch to oil. 
During the ripening process many changes in the 
food substances occur, as when the acrid taste in 
apples gradually gives place to sweetness and 
agreeable flavor ; and at the same time various 
gelatinous substances are produced that render the 
ripe fruit suitable for jelly-making. Such changes 
take place after the fruit is removed from the 
tree, as is illustrated by the familiar practice of 
allowing pears to ripen in drawers. 

In order to insure abundant fruit, there must 
be vigorous and healthy development of foliage 
early in the season, followed later by a decrease in 
water supply and increase of light and heat. The 
tendency to produce wood instead of fruit is 
checked by decreasing the water supply, as evi- 
denced in the practice of pruning or laying bare 
the roots, and breaking or notching the branches 
to increase productiveness. 

An important function of the fruit is to scatter 
the seeds so that the plant may be reproduced 
in abundance. Some fruits float long distances on 



water, as the coconut ; others, as the dandelion, 
develop wings, or parachutes, so that they may be 
carried far by the wind. Some stick to the rough 
coats of animals ; others, by their pleasant taste 
and bright color, attract birds, which scatter 
the seeds. 

Some seeds can germinate as soon as ripe, 
while others require long periods of rest before 
they germinate. A suflicient supply of water, 
warmth and air are necessary for germination. If 
these are not furnished the seed remains dormant, 
often retaining its vitality for many years. 

General properties of plants. 

Nutrition and respiration. — The formation of 
elaborated food has already been described. Such 
food is disposed of in three ways : 

(1) It is oxidized or burned just as in the animal 
body, producing heat, chemical energy, and so on. In 
this process, called respiration, carbon dioxid is pro- 
duced and given off to the air, to be again decom- 
posed and built up into food. This food is burned 
in turn, forming more carbon dioxid ; and so the 
process goes on in a never-ending cycle. It is evi- 
dent that the chief object of producing food is to 
have energy stored in convenient form, so that it 
can be utilized whenever needed. The constructive 
work of the plant separates carbon from oxygen, 
which is given off into the air, and stores energy ; 
the destructive work of the plant unites (burns) 
carbon with oxygen and sets energy free. The 
amount of energy set free may be estimated from 
the amount of carbon dioxid given off. When an 
organism has produced its own weight of carbon 
dioxid, it has set free suflicient energy to raise 
itself about 600 miles. Some bacteria give ofT 
twice their weight of carbon dioxid in 24 hours, 
while a man in the same time exhales about 1.2 
per cent of his weight. Green plants consume 
much more carbon dioxid than they produce. The 
consumption of carbon dioxid stops at night, while 
its production goes steadily on. The amount pro- 
duced is small, and a hundred plants in a room at 
night would not " vitiate " the air so much as a 
single candle. 

When the supply of oxygen gives out, carbon 
dioxid continues to be produced for a time, at the 
expense of oxygen, which is in loose combination 
with the tissues. This is accompanied by the for- 
mation of alcohol. This process is known as intra- 
molecular respiration. Respiration takes place in 
every living cell, since every such cell has need of 
energy to perform its work. In plants, each cell 
absorbs its oxygen for the most part from the air 
that enters the stomata, lenticels'and cracks in the 
bark, and penetrates everywhere into the spaces 
between the cells. 

(2) The food is used to build tissues, cell-walls 
and other parts. 

(3) It is stored in various special storage or- 
gans, principally as starch, fats, oils and proteids. 
In the germination of seeds we can see very clearly 
that the stored food, before it can be used, must be 
digested just as in the animal body. Starch is 
changed to sugar and proteids are converted into 



THE PLANT: ITS STRUCTURE, LIFE - PROCESSES AND ENVIRONMENT 



19 



soluble form. This is accomplished by chemical 
substances called ferments, the presence of small 
quantities of which makes possible a large amount 
of chemical action. They are of the greatest im- 
portance in both constructive and destructive 
processes. 

Plants without chlorophyll (saprophytes, living 
in decaying matter, and parasites, deriving nour- 
ishment from living organisms) are unable to make 
elaborated food. Some parasites that have chlo- 
rophyll, as mistletoe, have this power. Insectivo- 
rous plants secure an extra supply of nitrogenous 
food from the capture of insects. Plants of the pea 
family secure nitrogen from the air by means of 
bacteria living in their roots; this relation between 
two plants is known as symbiosis. 

Growth. — Growth may be best illustrated by con- 
sidering the growing tip of a stem. Here we may 
distinguish three stages : 

(1) The formative region, where cells are con- 
stantly dividing and new organs are being formed. 

(2) The elongating region, where the cells 
expand by absorbing large quantities of water. 
This comes next to the formative region. 

(3) The maturing region, where the cells no 
longer expand but assume their characteristic form 
and markings. 

In the first of these stages the cell is filled with 
protoplasm. As the absorption of water continues, 
drops are formed in the protoplasm ; these coalesce 
to form a single large drop (vacuole) that occupies 
almost the entire cell. This condition persists in 
the later stages. 

Growth depends very much on temperature, 
increasing rapidly up to about 30° C; above this 
it diminishes. It depends, also, on an adequate 
supply of water, food and air. Light, especially 
the blue rays, generally checks the growth. 

Movement. — Movement in plants may be pro- 
duced by the contraction, or other movement, of 
the protoplasm, as in animals. It is usually due, 
however, to unequal growth of opposite sides of an 
organ (e. g., the opening and closing of flowers). 
The movements of the leaves of the sensitive plant 
and of clover are due to changes in the turgidity 
of cells. 

Irritability. — Irritability is the power of re- 
sponding to stimuli. When a leaf folds up at a 
touch, we say that the touch acts as a stimulu.s. 
The amount of energy needed to execute the move- 
ment is much greater than was imparted to the 
leaf by the act of touching it. The stimulus sets 
free stored energy, just as a touch on an electric ' 
button may explode a powder magazine. Among the 
stimuli to which plants respond may be mentioned 
light, gravity, heat, chemical substances, electric- 
ity, strains and contact. In general, the plant 
responds by bending toward or away from the 
source of stimulus or by changing the rate of 
growth. 

Reproduction. — The process of fertilization in 
higher plants has already been described. This is 
called sexual reproduction, because it results from 
the union of two nuclei, a male and a female. 

In addition, we find asexual reproduction, in 



which no such fusion takes place. The propaga- 
tion of plants by cuttings, leaves, tubers, roots 
and bulbs furnishes familiar illustrations of this. 
Simple division, as in bacteria, or budding, as in 
yeast, are also methods of asexual reproduction. 
Asexual reproduction by means of specially modi- 
fied single cells, called spores, is found in ferns, 
mosses, molds, bacteria and other plants. 

In all plants, down to and including the mosses 
and liverworts, there is a regular alternation of 
sexual and asexual generations. A sexual genera- 
tion (prothallium) arises from the asexual spore 
(e. g., of a fern) and bears se.xual organs. After 
fertilization, the egg produces a plant that is 
called the asexual generation, because it produces 
no sexual organs, but only asexual spores, which, 
in turn, give rise to the sexual generation. In the 
fern, the sexual generation is of microscopic size, 
while the asexual (spore-bearing) generation is the 
familiar fern plant. 

The environment of the plant. 

The needs of the plant are like those of the ani- 
mal, namely, water, food, light, air and warmth. 
The plant resorts to endless contrivances to secure 
a sufficiency of these, as well as to protect itself 
against an excess of any of them. It constantly 
adjusts itself to external conditions in order to 
make the most of its circumstances. Were it not 
able to do so it would soon perish. We may briefly 
consider the chief factors of the environment. 

Water. — Nothing aff'ects the plant more than the 
water-supply. The effect of dry conditions is best 
seen on desert plants, which show the following 
modifications : (1) Reduced surface secured by 
partial or total suppression of leaves, as in cacti. 
The discarding of leaves in winter is an adapta- 
tion to the dry conditions then obtaining. Even 
when there is water in the ground the roots can- 
not absorb it, because of the low temperature ; (2) 
reduced evaporation secured by thicker epidermis, 
coverings of wax and of varnish ; (3) reduced 
evaporation secured by rolling the leaf, as in 
grasses, or placing it in a permanently vertical 
position, as in iris ; (4) storage of water in the 
thickened stem or leaf ; (5) reduction in the num- 
ber of stomata and sinking them in depressions ; 
(6) hairy coverings of the leaves ; (7) increased 
woody fiber; (8) smaller air-spaces; (9) longer 
palisade cells of the leaf. 

Aquatic plants show the opposite characteristics, 
having large surfaces, thin epidermis, no waxes, 
resins or hairs, very little woody fiber, very large 
air-spaces, and poorly developed palisade cells in the 
leaf. Stomata occur only on the surfaces exposed 
to air, but are there numerous. 

The size of every part of the plant is Increased 
by an abundance of water. The large-celled spring 
wood is an illustration of this. The small-celled fall 
wood is formed under much drier conditions. 

Growing plants in a saturated atmosphere pro- 
duce curious modifications ; a cactus may thus be 
made to produce leaf-like organs, and gorse pro- 
duces leaves instead of thorns. On the other hand, 
a potato grown with a minimum amount of water, 



20 



THE PLANT: ITS STRUCTURE, LIFE - PROCESSES AND ENVIRONMENT 



exposed to light, assumes a cactus-like habit, with 
no leaves and with very short internodes and thick- 
ened stems. 

The water-supply directly influences the produc- 
tion of flowers and fruit. Aquatic plants cannot as 
a rule produce ilowers under water. Land plants 
with abundant water-supply run to stem and leaf, 
and produce little fruit. Cutting oft' the water sup- 
ply at the proper time greatly increases the pro- 
duction of fruit, and also makes it sweeter and of 
higher flavor. By irrigating properly, we may con- 







The reach for light of a tres on the edge of a wood. 



trol both the quantity and quality of the crop. An 
excess of water soon kills the plant by suH'ocating 
the roots. 

Light. — The efl'ect of light on the plant is very 
similar to that of dryness, and in the case of desert 
plants the strong light increases the eft'ects due to 
lack of water. Plants that prefer the sun are 
known as sun-plants (grasses), while those that 
can grow only in shade are known as shade-plants 
(ferns). The latter have longer, thinner leaves, 
usually of paler color. A similar difference may 
often be observed between exposed and shaded 
leaves on the same individual plant. The exposed 
leaves have thicker epidermis, longer palisade cells, 
smaller air-spaces and fewer stomata. 

Both leaves and branches arrange themselves 
with reference to the direction of the light, and 
the same is true to a large extent of flowers. This 
is well illustrated by plants that grow near houses 
so that they are shaded on one side. A furtner 
illustration is the dift'erent arrangement of leaves 
on upright and on horizontal branches of the same 
plant. Excessive light produces "sunscald" and 
other bad eft'ects. Some leaves avoid this danger 
by assuming a vertical position. On the other 
hand, absence of light produces marked effects. 
Chief of these is the pale color (etiolation) which 
is so noticeable in celery that has been blanched 
by being covered from the light, or in potatoes 



that have sprouted in darkness. The stem is 
usually weak and spindling, while the leaves, in 
dicotyledons at least, remain small ; hairs and even 
prickles tend to disappear in darkness. With weak 
light the colors of flowers are much less brilliant, 
and the production of both flowers and fruit is 
seriously checked, even when there is suflicient 
food present for their formation. 

The reach for light is well marked wherever 
plants are crowded. About the edge of a forest, 
the trees branch on the outward side (Fig. 43). In 
the midst of the forest they shoot straight up. In 
the open field they branch on all sides and remain 
low. When two or three trees grow clo.se together, 
they branch mostly in opposite directions These 
adaptations are equally marked in bushes and herbs. 
Food. — The food requirements of plants are very 
different ; some grow best on poor soils, others on 
rich soils. In general, starving a plant causes it to 
flower and fruit more quickly 
but to produce a less abundant 
crop. Over-feeding creates a 
tendency to produce .stem and 
leaf at the expen.se of fruit. 
It also greatly increases the tendency to 
produce monstrosities. Both these eft'ects 
are especially produced by an over-supply 
of nitrogen. Abundance of water acts in 
much the same way as abundance of food. 
Over-supply of nitrogen may be corrected, 
to a certain extent, by the application of 
potassium, which tends to check the over- 
production of vegetative parts and bring 
about the development of fruit. Some ex- 
periments seem to indicate that phosphorus 
also directly favors fruit formation. 
Lime is valuable not only as a food, but it helps 
to make other mineral food available. It hastens 
the decomposition of humus, sweetens sour soil and 
improves the texture of clay soils by its floccu- 
lating action. It also acts as an antidote to the 
poisonous action of magnesium, when the latter is 
present in large quantities. Some plants are found 
only where lime abounds, while others cannot toler- 
ate it except in small amounts. 

If any nutritive substance in the soil be reduced 
to a minimum, the eft'ect on the plant is much the 
same as if all the nutritive substances were like- 
wise reduced ; this is known as the " law of the 
minimum." Consequently, the application of fer- 
tilizer containing an element deficient in the soil, 
may give results out of all proportion to its cost. 

It is po.ssihle in water cultures to determine 
very closely the effect of excluding various neces- 
sary elements. For example, it is thus found that 
when iron is lacking, practically no chlorophyll is 
formed. The facts so gained have not as yet been 
applied to the soil to any great extent. 

The root has a " selective action " in that it 
takes up from the soil certain elements, to the 
partial or total exclusion of others. Thus, from a 
solution of sodium nitrate, it takes nitric acid, 
leaving the sodium. A cereal crop takes from the 
soil (mly one-fourth as much pota.sh and only half 
as much nitrogen as root crops. This is one reason 



THE PLANT: ITS STRUCTURE, LIFE - PROCESSES AND ENVIRONMENT 



21 



why a suitable rotation of crops is necessary to 
preserve the productiveness of the soil. 

The physical condition of the soil is just as im- 
portant as the chemical. It is almost useless to 
apply fertilizers to poorly tilled land. The food 
supply of the soil can be unlocked and made avail- 
able to the plant only by judicious tillage. 

Heat. — As previously stated, the most favorable 
temperature for the growth of plants is about 30° 
Centigrade (86° Fahr.). If the temperature rises 
much above this point, growth stops, and if the rise 
continues, death ensues. On the other hand, if the 
temperature is lowered, growth ceases before the 
freezing point is I'eached. Some plants may be 
frozen with impunity provided they are allowed to 
thaw out slowly. Others are invariably killed by 
freezing. 

Too great cold and too great heat have much 
the same effect on the plant as lack of water. The 
former prevents absorption by the roots ; the 
latter causes water to evaporate from the leaves 
faster than it can be supplied. The habit of drop- 
ping their leaves on the approach of cold weather, 
which deciduous trees have, is therefore compara- 
ble to the action of desert plants in reducing their 
leaf surface. 

In general, the plant that contains least water 
is most resistant to heat and cold. Dry seeds have 
been kept for a long time at the temperature of 
liquid hydrogen ( — 238° C, or — 396° F.) ; when 
thawed they grew normally. Bacteria are much 
more quickly killed by moist than by dry heat. 
Frost does not injure buds in winter when they are 
comparatively dry ; but in spring, when they are 
full of sap, it quickly kills them. The injurious 
action of frost is supposed to be largely due to the 
extraction of water from the cells hy the forma- 
tion of ice in the intercellular spaces. The air that 
normally occupies these spaces is thereby driven 
out, so that a frozen leaf, on thawing, resembles 
one in which the air of the intercellular spaces has 
been driven out by boiling. It is supposed that 
when the leaf is thawed slowly enough, the water 
is taken up again by the cells ; but when it is 
thawed quickly, the water escapes by evaporation 
before it can be reabsorbed. 

The action of frost may result in long splits in 
the trunks of trees, or in the killing of the ends 
of the branches, which soon blacken in conse- 
quence. The injured parts should be removed by 
pruning. 

Air. — Every living cell must have a constant 
supply of oxygen in order to exist. The stem some- 
times suffers by applications of tar which shuts out 
air. The roots commonly suffer and often are 
killed by being deprived of air. This happens when 
the .soil is too wet or when a hard crust is allowed 
to form on the .surface. For the same reason, 
paving sidewalks or covering the roots deeply with 
soil may be injurious. When the surface of the soil 
is loose and sufficiently dry, a circulation of air 
is kept up within the soil by constant changes in 
barometric pressure. When this is prevented the 
soil becomes sour and unfit for plants, and the 
chemical processes that make food available to the 



plant are checked. Roots may grow in running 
water, which constantly renews the supply of dis- 
solved air. Some roots can live in mud, but they 
are supplied with air by way of the leaves and 
large air-passages in the stem ; they are specially 
adapted to such environment. It is therefore of the 
utmost importance to maintain a loose, open tex- 
ture of the soil by proper tillage, to ensure the 
health and vigor of most agricultural plants. 

Wind. — The curiously gnarled and bent appear- 
ance of trees that are daily exposed to strong 
winds is familiar to all. In many cases all the 
branches on the windward side are killed. This is 
due to the drying effect of the wind, which may 
increase evaporation as much as twenty-fold. The 
mere mechanical effect of strong prevailing winds 
is often very marked. It is common to see trees 
with the tips of the branches permanently turned 
leeward, or with the heavy growth all on one side. 
Trees on mountain tops and near sea-coasts are 
often weirdly picturesque, from wind action. 

The effect of wind in drying fruit blossoms is 
well known, as well as the mechanical damage to 
branches laden with ice and snow. For this reason 
the planting of windbreaks is often indispensable. 

Environment and inheritance. — The facts just 
mentioned show how readily the plant responds to 
the influence of environment by altering its struc- 
ture or functions. The way in which it responds 
is determined in each case by the qualities it has 
received from its ancestors. The form of the plant, 
therefore, depends on both these factors. 

Some plants are plastic and easily modified by 
external influences ; others are not so readily 
affected. The very remarkable alterations pro- 
duced by insects, including the various kinds of 
galls, the "witches' brooms" produced by attacks 
of fungi, completely altering the habit of the 
plant, and the " green flowers" due to small insects, 
make us realize the great possibilities of external 
influences. The analysis of all these phenomena 
should enable us eventually to control them. 

Literature. 

The reader is referred to the following publica- 
tions for further information : Lectures on the 
Physiology of Plants, J. Sachs ; the two books, 
Power of Movement in Plants, and The Various 
Contrivances by Which Orchids are Fertilized by 
Insects, Charles Darwin ; Text-book of Botany, E. 
Strasburger and others ; The Physiology of Plants, 
W. Pfeffer ; Lectures on the Physiology of Plants, 
S. H. Vines ; Plant Geography, A. F. W. Schimper ; 
Organography of Plants, K. Goebel ; Comparative 
Anatomy of the Vegetable Organs of the Phanero- 
gams and Ferns, A. de Bary ; Plant Physiology, 
Paul Sorauer ; Practical Text-book of Plant Phys- 
iology, D. T. MacDougal ; An Introduction to 
Vegetable Physiology, J. R. Green ; Text-book of 
Plant Physiology, G. J. Pierce ; the two books, • 
Disease in Plants, and The Oak, H. M. Ward ; 
Natural History of Plants, Anton Kerner ; The 
Great World's Farm, S. Gaye ; The Soil, F. H. King. 
There are many good school and college texts that 
will aid the general reader. 



22 



RESPONSE OF PLANTS TO ARTIFICIAL LIGHTS 



RESPONSE OF PLANTS TO ARTIFICIAL 
LIGHTS 

By G. E. Stone 

Light constitutes one of the most important 
external factors affecting vegetation, and plays a 
prominent role in modifying the configuration of 
plants. Photosynthesis, or the assimilation of car- 
bon, is one of the most fundamental processes in 
the vegetable kingdom, and is dependent on light. 
The activity of this process increases proportion- 
ally to light intensity. 

E.xcept in the polar regions, plants are exposed 
to the influence of light during only half their life 
period ; the other half is spent in darkness. So far 
as is known, plants do not assimilate carbon during 
bright moonlight nights, although sensitive appli- 
ances for determining light intensity are capable 
of registering the comparatively feeble illumina- 
tion of even bright nights, which would tend to 
show that the minimum amount of light necessary 
for photosynthesis is comparatively strong. Pho- 
tosynthesis takes place under the influence of elec- 
tric and artificial lights, as has long been known, 
but the activity of the process depends on the in- 
tensity and the spectrum of the particular kind of 
light. 

In glasshouse and other intensive cultures, it is 
important to know whether artificial lights of any 
kind can be used economically to supplement sun- 
light and thereby produce an earlier or better 
crop. It is also important to know what effect 
artificial lights have on plants in exhibition halls. 
This subject has been the theme of considerable 
experimenting, but little very practical agricul- 
tural result has yet been secured. In the winter, 
particularly in cloudy climates, artificial light may 
very likely come into prominence in the growing 
of some kinds of crops. The following account 
gives a brief survey of what has been accom- 
plished. 

Electric arc light. 

Many experiments have been made relating to 
the influence of electric light on vegetation, more 
particularly with the stronger lamps, such as the 
arc light. The spectrum of the ordinary electric 
arc light is that of carbon, with a slight addition, 
in some cases, of the spectra of certain gases. It 
is especially rich in the rays of high intensity, 
lying in the ultra-violet or actinic part of the 
spectrum, beyond the range of vision. It is well 
known that electric light possesses more of the 
ultra-violet rays, with probably less of the orange 
rays, than .sunlight; therefore it would not be e.x- 
pected that electric light would possess the same 
value to plants as sunlight, even if the intensity of 
each were the same, since the rays which are the 
most valuable for photosynthesis are these located 
in the yellow and orange bands of the spectrum. 
On the other hand, the highly refrangible or ultra- 
violet rays of the spectrum stimulate growth of a 
spindling nature, which would be undesirable to 
most crops. 

Herve-Mangon was one of the first to demon- 



strate that electric light was capable of producing 
chlorophyll in plants as well as inducing heliotrop- 
ism, and as far back as 1869 Prillieux showed that 
electric light is capable of promoting assimilation. 

The first recorded horticultural experiments with 
electric light were made by Dr. C. W. Siemens, 
an English physicist. He experimented with a 
variety of plants, such as strawberries, tomatoes, 
grapes and melons, and found that an arc light 
produced decided effects on the growth of these 
crops, sometimes producing beneficial, and, at other 
times, injurious effects. He ascertained very early 
in his experiments that a naked or unscreened light 
was injurious at short range, but that the inter- 
position of a glass globe or ordinary window-pane 
prevented such injury. He demonstrated that an 
arc light could be placed over a greenhou-se with 
good results, the glass in such cases screening off 
the injurious rays, and found that plants developed 
earlier under screened lights than otherwise. As a 
result of his experiments he became very sanguine 
that electric light could be used to advantage in 
horticulture, and he was the first to employ the term 
"electro-horticulture " to designate this new appli- 
cation of electrical energy. He showed that growth 
can be hastened by the addition of electric light to 
daylight, and that injury does not necessarily fol- 
low continuous light through the twenty-four hours ; 
that electric light often intensifies the green color 
of leaves, producing a deeper color in flowers and 
modifying the flavor of fruits. Siemans maintained 
that the addition of electric light enables plants to 
stand a higher temperature in a greenhouse. 

At the time Siemens, in England, was conducting 
his experiments, Deherain was making investiga- 
tions in Paris along the same line. He attempted 
to grow plants by continuous electric light, that is, 
with no daylight whatsoever. He found, as Sie- 
mens did, that an unscreened light injured plants, 
although it promoted assimilation more effectively 
than a screened light. He found that barley, flax, 
chrysanthemums, pelargoniums, roses and others 
were severely injured after seven days of continu- 
ous exposure to electric light, and that this injury 
was manifested by the dropping off or turning 
black of the foliage. In the case of lilacs, when 
the leaves were screened or protected by the upper 
leaves, no injury took place. Plants which received 
sunlight by day and electric light by night were 
injured in the same manner, but ta a less degree. 
He found that electric light was far inferior to 
bright sunlight in its effects on photosynthesis, and 
that electric light was particularly injurious to seed- 
lings, as most of them died before forming leaves. 
Deherain's conclusions are briefly as follows : Elec- 
tric light contains rays harmful to vegetation. 
These, however, can be modified or eliminated by the 
use of transparent glass. It contains enough rays 
to maintain full-grown plants 2i months, but is too 
weak to enable .seedlings to reach maturity. 

Among those in America who have experimented 
with electric light are L. H. Bailey, of Cornell 
University, and F. W. Rane, formerly of the West 
Virginia Experiment Station. Bailey made exten- 
sive experiments with the arc light, covering a 



RESPONSE OF PLANTS TO ARTIFICIAL LIGHTS 



23 



period of four or five j'ears. Rane, formerly 
Bailey's student, used the incandescent light. At 
first, Bailey employed a 2,000 candle-power un- 
screened arc lamp suspended inside his forcing-house, 
and this was kept running all night. He made his 
experiments in a forcing-hou.se 60 feet long and 
20 feet wide, this being divided by a partition. In 
one part of the 
house, plants were 
exposed to an elec- 
tric light at night, 
in addition to the 
daylight which they 
received, while the 
plants in the other 
part of the house 
were grown under 
normal conditions, 
receiving daylight 
only. According to 
his experiments the 
general effect of the 
electric light was to 
hasten maturity, 
and the nearer the 
plants were to the 
light the greater 
was the accelera- 
tion, which was par- 
ticularly marked in 
the case of crops 
like endive, spinach, 
cress and lettuce. 
He noticed a ten- 
dency for the plants 
to run to seed, and 
the leaves which de- 
veloped near the 
light became small 
and curled. The 
amount of starch in 
the leaves of both 
the electric and the 
non-electric plants 
was the same, al- 
though the starch 



more than in the normal plants. Nitrogen, however, 
was the same in both cases, but more amide nitro- 
gen had been changed into other forms than in the 
normal plants, and those grown under an electric 
light were richer in albumenoids. Dwarf peas 
blossomed and fruited earlier but yielded only four- 
sevenths as many seeds as those under normal con- 




Fig. 44. Lettuce of the same age and variety grown under normal conditions of sunlight (above) 
and with naked electric arc light running part of the night in addition (below), five weeks 
after planting in permanent quarters. (Bailey.) 



appeared to be more developed in those plants 
exposed to electric light. Lettuce plants within 
three feet of the lamp were killed outright soon 
after they came up, and the remaining plants were 
seriously' injured, developing small, curled leaves. 
The farther away the plants were from the light, 
the more vigorous they appeared, but they were 
not so vigorous as those grown in sunlight. 

Radish plants made strong bendings toward the 
electric light ; their foliage curled and the injury 
was in direct proportion to the proximity of the 
lamp. Those plants located within three to six 
feet of the lamp were nearly dead in six weeks, 
while those fourteen feet away showed little 
injury. The normal crops during the same length 
of time made twice the development of those 
subject to the electric light. Chemical analysis 
proved that there was more ash in them, twice as 
much potash, and the chlorophyll was somewhat 



ditions, while the plants were considerably shorter 
in growth. Bailey found that carrots showed the 
least injury from the efl'ects of the arc light. 

The experiments just described were all made 
with a naked arc light ; but he further experi- 
mented on the effects of screening the arc light 
with glass, in which case he made use of opal 
globes. This screening eliminated many of the ill 
effects brought about by the naked arc light ; while 
the loss in radishes from the use of the naked arc 
light was 45 to 65 per cent, with the screened light 
it averaged only 1 to 5 per cent. His results with 
lettuce were the most encouraging. This plant 
seemed able to adapt itself completely to screened 
light, while other plants, as before, showed a ten- 
dency to run quickly to seed. 

He then attempted to operate his electric light 
for only half the night, with the result that the 
foliage of radishes was noticeably larger. Peas, on 



24 



RESPONSE OF PLANTS TO ARTIFICIAL LIGHTS 



the other hand, showed small leaves and less fruit 
under these conditions. 

The most favorable results, however, were secured 
in the case of lettuce, when the house was lighted 
only half the night (Fig. 44). At the end of three 
weeks the lettuce plants under the influence of 
electric light were fully 50 per cent in advance of 
those in the normal house, and the color and other 
characteristics of the plants were equally good. 
The lighted plants had received about 70| hours 
of electric light during this period, and they were 
ready for the market one month later; but it was 
six weeks before the plants in the normal house 
were equally developed. This forcing required 
161| hours of electric light, at a cost amount- 
ing to about $7. This experiment was repeated 
several times, with practically the same results. 
Further experiments showed that the injurious 
effects of electric light can be overcome by the 
interposition of glass, and good results were ob- 
tained by suspending a lamp surrounded by a 
globe. Plants that were injured by the naked arc 
light hung inside the house, were benefited by the 
same light hung above the roof. Experiments were 
also made with colored screens. The practical con- 
clusions which Bailey drew from his researches are 
that lettuce can be profitably forced by the use of 
the electric light, and that probably many flowers 
can be similarly benefited. 

Bailey's experiments with other market-garden 
crops and flowers under glass gave varying results 
which, on the whole, were not encouraging, the 
light in some cases not producing much modifica- 
tion, while in others modifying them in an unde- 
sirable way. Some of the unfavorable results which 
he noticed were a spindling growth, a bleaching of 
some of the leaves, disintegration of the cells and 
a collapse of the chlorophyll bodies ; but these 
injuries are lessened or prevented by the inter- 
position of clear glass, which cuts off the ultra- 
violet rays. 

W. W. Rawson, a Boston market-gardener, has 
employed electric light for some years in connec- 
tion with his lettuce business, and has reported 
beneficial results from the use of an arc light sus- 
pended over his houses. 

Bonnier, of the University of Paris, has investi- 
gated extensively the eff'ects of electric light on 
plants and has arrived at many interesting con- 
clusions which are not at variance with those of 
other experimenters. He found that electric light 
contains more of the ultra-violet rays, which can 
be screened out or weakened by the use of thick 
glass, and that plants illuminated by screened 
electric light differed widely from those cultivated 
normally, as well as from those cultivated under 
an intermittent light, — twelve hours of darkness 
and twelve of light. According to his observations, 
plants grown entirely under electric light pos.sessed 
much greater quantities of chlorophyll, and even 
the deeper-lying tissues not normally possessing 
chlorophyll were green. The a.xes of plants were 
also shorter than those grown under normal con- 
ditions, the leaves smaller and thicker and the 
flowers normally developed but more highly col- 



ored. The internal structure of such plants 
strongly resembled etiolated plants ; that is, the me- 
chanical tissues were not well differentiated. On 
the other hand, he found that plants exposed to 
discontinuous electric light showed some abnormal 
symptoms, but, in general, they possessed similar 
characteristics to plants grown in sunlight. It is 
thought that an uninterrupted duration of illumi- 
nation is responsible for the deviation from the 
normal structure. 

Bonnier made comparisons with plants grown in 
northern latitudes and those grown on the moun- 
tains of central Europe, and he maintains that the 
plants of northern latitudes possess less differen- 
tiation of structure than those in the mountains of 
central Europe, and that the same species of plants 
grown in continuous light resemble those which 
are found in the polar regions. 

Electric iniandescent light. 

Kane experimented with incandescent light, the 
re.sults of his work appearing in Bulletin No. 37 of 
the West Virginia Experiment Station. His results 
appear to be very similar to those secured by Bailey 
and others with the arc light. 

The essential difference between the arc light 
and the incandescent light in this connection is 
that in the arc light the chemical or actinic rays 
are prominent, while in the incandescent light these 
are only slightly present. The spectrum of the in- 
candescent light is that of carbon at low intensity, 
the luminous part of the lamp being cellulose ; it 
is modified somewhat by the glass of the bulb. The 
incandescent light is much steadier than the arc, 
and it casts no sharp shadows ; it is less expensive 
and requires almost no care. Rane found 

(1) That the incandescent electric light has a 
marked ert'ect on greenhouse plants. 

(2) That the light appears to be beneficial for 
some plants grown for foliage, such as lettuce. 
The lettuce was earlier, weighed more and stood 
more erect. 

(3) That flowering plants blossomed earlier and 
continued in bloom longer under the light. 

(4) That the light influences some plants, such 
as spinach and endive, to run quickly to seed. 

(5) That proper watering appears to be more 
important with radishes, beans and cuttings than 
improper watering plus the electric light. 

(6) That the stronger the candle-power the 
more marked the results, other things being equal. 

(7) That most plants tended toward a taller 
growth under the light. 

Acetylene light. 

The use of acetylene light for forcing plants has 
not yet had .sufficient study to justify positive 
assertions regarding its value. Perhaps the mo=!t 
important inve.stigations were those made at the 
Cornell Experiment Station in 1905 and 190G, and 
reported by John Craig, in the " Acetylene Journal " 
for September, 1906. The following discussion is 
an abstract from this report. (The full report, in 
bulletin form, to be made by the Cornell Station, is 
not published as this article is written) : 



RESPONSE OF PLANTS TO ARTIFICIAL LIGHT 



The chief interest in the use of acetylene light 
for forcing plants, centers about the fact that in 
its composition it more nearly resembles sunlight 
than any other artilicial illuminant in use. It is 
composed of the same colors and in very similar 
degrees of intensity. Miinsterberg makes the fol- 
lowing comparison of color values of acetylene and 
sun rays, allowing 1 to equal the value of each 
color of sunlight : 



Sun 
Red 1 
Yellow 1 
Green 1 
Blue 1 
Violet 1 



Acetylene 
1.03 
1.02 
.71 
1.46 
1.07 



Indigo and orange are not given. The ultra-vio- 
let rays, the injurious factors in the case of electric 
light, are practically absent in acetylene, although 
blue and violet are equally strong. 

In the.se experiments, acetylene was added to 
sunlight, being turned on after twilight. For com- 
parison, the experiments were conducted in warm 
(60°-65°), medium (50°-.55°), and cool (45°-50°) 
rooms. Lettuce, parsley and spinach were hastened ; 
coleus increased in vigor ; asparagus showed little 
effect ; begonias gave increased growth, but delayed 
flowering period ; Cobcra seandcns produced 15 
to 20 per cent more vine ; ferns, leeks, onions 
and beets showed very little effect ; radishes in the 
cool house in the dark days of autumn produced 
more than twice the root product, the time period 
was increased 62 per cent, and the maturing period 
shortened about 20 per cent ; strawberries grew 
more vigorously and ripened fruit sixteen days 
earlier ; peas and bush beans were benefited ; pole 
beans produced a much heavier vegetative growth, 
but matured fruit later ; cucumbers were appar- 
ently injured. 

The results of the experiments may be briefly 
summarized. Comparing the results of the differ- 
ent vegetables, we find 

(1) That with the exception of the cucumbers, 
all the forms had a decided increase of the foliage 
parts. 

(2) That the time of fruit-maturing is variously 
affected, the strawberries and pea.s maturing ear- 
lier, the tomatoes and pole beans later, and the 
cucumbers and other forms practically unchanged. 

(3) That there is, as a rule, an increase in the 
amount of fruit, also in size of individual fruits, the 
cucumber being the chief exception. 

(4) That the chief beneficial effects of the light 
are to make up for deficiency of sunlight, to give, 
with few exceptions, stronger and more vigorous 
top growth, and to help overcome unfavorable con- 
ditions in certain other lines. 

(5) That there seems to be a limit in rapidity of 
growth, beyond which plants cannot be forced at 
all proportional to the attendant expense. Just 
what conditions govern this limit or where the 
limit is in forcing-house plants, is as yet unknown. 

Photosynthetic processes are completed to the 
point of starch-making ; root systems increased in 
the main proportionately with top development. 

Injlueme on blooming. — With three exceptions, 



all plants bloomed earlier under acetylene light 
than under sunlight. Some of the geranium plants 
bloomed twenty days earlier. The blooming of car- 
nations was hastened, but the stems were elongated 
to an injurious extent. The growth of Easter lilies 
was increased 
and the flower- 
ing period has- 
tened (Fig. 4.5). 

The influence 
on the quantity 
of the bloom was 
marked. In 
every case there 
was an increase, 
two or three 
times as many 
blossoms being 
produced in 
some plants. The 
effect on the 
duration of the 
bloom was some- 
what contradic- 
tory. Cucumber 
flowers remained 
on the vines a 
shorter time. 
Lily and narcis- 
susflowers lasted 
longer under the 
acetylene. Bulb 
plants came to 
maturity under 
acetylene light 
alone with no 
sunlight, and 
other plants 
made green foli- 
age (Fig. 46). 

General sum- 
mary. — These 
preliminarytests 
gave marked results, but much more experimental 
work must be done. Ninety to ninety-five per cent 
of the plants experimented with responded favor- 
ably to the stimulus given by the acetylene light. 
There was no uniformity of results within a group 
of related plants. No striking detrimental results 
were observed except when plants were grown 
under optimum conditions. 

Incandescent gaslight. 

L. C. Corbett experimented with the Welsbach 
incandescent gaslight, the results of his work ap- 
pearing as Bulletin No. 62, of the West Virginia 
Agricultural Experiment Station. These 'tests were 
of an economic rather than a scientific nature. In 
no case was the artificial light found to be a satis- 
factory substitute for daylight. But it is thought 
that, could the conditions of the plants in the dark 
chamber during the day be kept as nearly normal 
as are the conditions for plants exposed to the arti- 
ficial light at night only, the results would be very 
different. A possible explanation of the stimulus 




Fig. 45. Lily grown only in sunlight, 
at the right; a plant of equal 
strength and age grown with 
acetylene light in addition to sun- 
light, at the left. 



26 



RESPONSE OF PLANTS TO ARTIFICIAL LIGHT 



following the use of the incandescent gaslight and 
the incandescent electric light as well, as gathered 
from these experiments, is from their richness in 
red and orange rays. A summary of the results of 
Corbett's work showed : 

(1) The incandescent gaslight of the Welsbach 
burner was an active stimulus to plant growth 
when used at night to supplement daylight. 




Fig. 46. Plants grown wholly by acetylene light, with no sunlight 



(2) Lettuce plants subjected to the influence of 
the incandescent gaslight at night were taller and 
heavier than plants of the same variety and seed- 
sowing grown in normal conditions. 

(3) Lettuce and spinach subjected to the stimu- 
lating influence of the light grew faster and com- 
pleted their growth in less time than plants of the 
same sorts from the same seed-sowing grown in 
normal conditions. 

(4) No injurious eff'ects resulted from the use of 
the incandescent gaslight. 

(5) The stimulating influence of the light as indi- 
cated by the growth of plants used in various tests 
is shown by the order in which the sorts are named, 
the first being the most su.seeptible — spinach, cab- 
bage, radish, lettuce, tomato. 

(6) The range of the light was somewhat vari- 
able for the difl'erent crops. In general, the maxi- 
mum growth was attained at twelve to sixteen 
feet from the light, while a perceptible increase 
was noted at twenty-four feet. 

(7) Bloom record of tomatoes showed markedly 
earlier bloom in the light house, — eight days the 
least and eighteen days the greatest difl:erence. 

(8) In the case of radishes, top growth was stim- 
ulated, but evidently not markedly, at the expense 
of root. With sugar-beets, top growth was greatly 
stimulated, evidently at the expense of root 
growth. 

(9) While the roots of beets grown in the nor- 
mal house were larger than those in the light 
house, the sugar contents and the percentage of 
purity were markedly higher in the light-house 
grown plants. 

(10) Spinach, lettuce and radishes all tended to 
make seed-stalks earlier under the light. 



bed as possible, 
cal potential - 



(11) Lettuce and spinach under the influence of 
the incandescent gaslight not only grew faster 
during the growing period, but the period was 
actually longer than for plants in the normal 
house. 

The Cooper-Hewitt mercury vapor electric light. 

C. P. Close, of the Delaware Experiment Station, 
endeavored to determine the eff'ect 
of the Cooper-Hewitt mercury vapor 
electric light on plants. The re- 
sults of his work were presented 
before the Society for Horticul- 
tural Science, at its second annual 
meeting, and are recorded in the 
proceedings of the society. 

In conducting this test it was 
necessary to have an enclosed place 
practically light-tight, so as to ex- 
clude the daylight and allow the 
plants to have the artificial light 
only. This was provided by build- 
ing in the greenhouse a "double- 
deck " bed, using the upper bed for 
plants in sunlight and the lower 
bed for those in artificial light. The 
lamps used were the Cooper-Hewitt 
4-H pattern. These were suspended 
as nearly over the center of the 
Owing to variation in the electri- 
f rom 1()0 to 125 volts — a constant 
intensity of'light could not be maintained. 

The light from these lamps is perfectly white, 
devoid of red raj's. The candle-power of a 4-H 
lamp, or tube, is about 050, and the expense per 
candle-power is about one-eighth that of the candle- 
power of the incandescent electric light, and about 
three-fourths that of the arc light. The light is 
caused by the vapor of mercury in the tube becom- 
ing heated white hot as the electric current is 
passed through it. One end of the lamp-tube is 
positive, the other negative, and the vapor of mer- 
cury completes the circuit by connecting the two. 
Tests were made with lettuce and radishes. Over 
the lettuce at first only one lamp was used, placed 
about sixteen inches from the soil. The growth was 
unsatisfactory because of the unfavorable tem- 
perature and atmospheric conditions of the bed, due 
to the tight enclosure, allowing no ventilation. 
The excess of moisture that accumulated in the 
atmosphere was a great hindrance. The plants 
received light only during the night. They partook 
of the nature of twining plants. The stems were 
long and produced leaves at intervals of two or 
three inches ; and not being strong enough to sup- 
port their weight, assumed a recumbent position. 
It was impossible to keep plants alive for any 
length of time when they were more than two or 
three feet beyond the end of the lamp-tube. The 
time for germination was the same as for seed 
sown in daylight. The formation of chlorophyll 
seemed to be perfectly normal. After a few weeks 
the plants came practically to a standstill. With 
two lamps, the results were but little more en- 
couraging. 



RESPONSE OF PLANTS TO ARTIFICIAL LIGHT 



27 



The results with radishes were practically the 
same. There was no fleshy root development, and 
the plants were long and weak. There was very 
little leaf-growth, although there was production 
of chlorophyll. 

These experiments must be considered prelimi- 
nary. They demonstrated that chlorophyll could be 
formed by this light, devoid of red rays. With im- 
provement in the electrical apparatus better results 
are to be expected. 

Injlmnce of colored light on plants. 

Investigations pertaining to the effects of the dif- 
ferent rays of light on plants have been conducted 
for many years, although many of the earlier ex- 
periments are more or less faulty, since pure spec- 
trum colors were not always employed, nor were 
the plants always subjected to the same degree or 
intensity of light. 

Flammarion found in his experiments with sen- 
sitive plants that red light accelerated growth the 
most, this being followed by green, white and blue 
light, in the order named. His experiments were 
made in a small conservatory behind clear and 
colored glass, which, however, did not in all cases 
furnish strictly monochromatic light. Other obser- 
vers have shown that plants grow more vigorously 
in orange rays and that they resemble those which 
grow in darkness, while those subject to blue light 
resemble plants grown in daylight. While orange 
light produces effects similar to those in plants 
grown in darkness, — that is, they develop small 
leaves and elongated internodes, resembling etio- 
lated plants, — their leaves are green. On the other 
hand, blue light prevents the expansion of the 
cotyledons in some cases, and, since it does not 
induce photosynthesis, there is little need of their 
expanding. 

The effect of orange light on the growth of 
fungi is similar to that brought about by darkness. 
For example, the aerial hyphse of Pilobolus become 
greatly elongated when grown in darkness or in 
orange light. Blue light, however, induces irritable 
movements or heliotropic curvatures. Sachs found 
that the elimination of the ultra-violet rays has an 
effect on the production of flowers, causing a less 
luxuriant development of them. The accurate ex- 
periments of Englemann, Reinke and Timiriazeff 
have shown that photosynthesis in green plants 
reaches its maximum in the red and orange rays of 
the spectrum between the lines B and C. In the 
case of the red algK, however, the region of maxi- 
mum assimilation is somewhat different, since the 
greatest photosynthetio activity is shown between 
the yellow and green bands, while in the blue-green 
algse this occurs between the orange and yellow. 
There is some reason to believe that such pigments 
as phycoerythrin, found in the red algje, may pos- 
sess some ecological significance, since the plant 
frequently grows at considerable depths in the 
ocean. The most active assimilation is caused in 
the purple bacteria in the infra red rays or those 
rays having wave lengths of 800 to 900 m m. 

Some investigators have noted an injurious effect 
of the green rays on certain plants. This may be 



accounted for by unlike methods used in experi- 
menting, although it is well known that different 
plants respond in a different way to the same light 
stimulus. Plants respond to the ultra-red and ultra 
violet rays, which are well known to make no 
impression on the retina ; and the same may be 
held to be true in regard to other forms of radiant 
energy. It has been shown that electrical radia- 
tions characterized by wave lengths vastly longer 
than the last visible red rays are able to produce 
certain physiological effects on plants, but whether 
this will apply to the Rontgen and Becquerel rays 
has not been definitely proved. 

There is little likelihood of monochromatic light 
being employed to advantage in growing crops, 
since plants are best adapted to mixed rays, such 
as occur in sunlight. 

Literature. 

J Reinke, Untersuchungen iiber die Einwirkung 
des Lichtes auf die Sauerstoffausscheidung der 
Pflanzen, I. Mitt. Bot. Ztg., XVI, also, II, Mitt. Bot. 
Ztg. XLII ; T. W. Engelmann, Various papers in 
Arch. f. d. Ges. Physiol., Vols. XXV, XXVI, XXVII, 
XXIX, XXX ; Cf. Bot. Ztg., Bd. XLI, XLII, XLVI ; 
Timiriazeff, Ann. de Chim. et de physiq.. Vol. XII, 
Comp. Rend., Vol. CX, 1890 ; J. W. Draper, On the 
Decomposition of Carbonic-acid Gas by Plants in 
Prismatic Spectrum, American Journal of Science, 
XLVI ; J. W. Draper, Scientific Memoirs, 1878 ; 
C. Flammarion, Etude de Taction des diverses 
radiations du spectre solaire sur la vegetation, 
Comp. Rend., CXXI, 1895. 

Some of the more important literature on artifi- 
cial light in its relation to the growth of plants is 
as follows: 

L. H. Bailey, Some Preliminary Studies of the 
Influence of the Electric Arc Lamp upon Green- 
house Plants, Bulletin No. 30, Cornell Experiment 
Station, August, 1891 ; Second Report upon Elec- 
tro-Horticulture, Bulletin No. 42, September, 1892; 
Third Report upon Electro-Horticulture, Bulletin 
No. 55, July, 1893. (Subsequent studies have 
never been published.) G. Bonnier, Influence de la 
lumiere electrique continue sur la forme et la 
structure des Plantes, Revue general de botanique. 
Tome VII, 1895 ; F. W. Rane, Electro-Horticulture, 
Bulletin No. 37, West Virginia Experiment Sta- 
tion, July, 1894 ; C. W. Siemens, On the Influence 
of Electric light on Vegetation, and on Certain 
Physical Principles Involved, Proceedings Royal 
Society, XXX, 210-219 ; and Some Further Obser- 
vations on the Influence of Electric Light on 
Vegetation, Proceedings Royal Society, XXX, 293- 
295, by the same author ; C. W. Siemens, On Some 
Applications of Electric Energy to Horticultural 
and Agricultural Purposes, Report of British Asso- 
ciation of Advanced Science, LI, 474-480 ; P. P. 
Deherain, Untersuchungen iiber des Einfluss d. 
Elektrischen Lichtes auf das Wachsthum d. Pflan- 
zen, Annales Agronomiques, T. VII, 81, P. 551-575 ; 
Wollny, Forschungen auf d. Geb. der Agricultur- 
physik, Bd. V, p. 488; M. J. lorns, Acetylene Light 
for Forcing Plants, Cornell Countryman, May, 1906 
(from this article Figs. 45 and 46 are redrawn). 



28 



THE STIMULATION OF PLANT GROWTH BY MEANS OF WEAK POISONS 



THE STIMULATION OF PLANT GROWTH 
BY MEANS OF WEAK POISONS 

By Howard S. Reed 

That plant growth can be accelerated by the 
action of certain poisons has been known for some 
time. The method was at first practiced in labora- 
tory cultures, but has now been applied success- 
fully to plants growing in the -field. Experiments 
indicate that the tillers of small farms and market- 
gardens would profit greatly by the practice of 
crop-stimulation ; they will be able not only to 
raise larger and more succulent vegetables but to 
hasten the maturity of them. 

In the practice of medicine it is well known 
that when small doses of poison (e. g., strychnine, 
alcohol, arsenic) are administered, a stimulation of 
some part of the body results. In a general way, 
the same principle has been noticed in the growth 
of plants. The application of gypsum, or land- 
plaster, while it undoubtedly sets free potash in 
the soil, has long been recognized as stimulating. 
The application of fungicides, as Bordeaux mix- 
ture, has been found beneficial : first, the mixture 
kills parasitic fungi ; and, second, it stimulates the 
plants to more vigorous growth. Grapes and goose- 
berries sprayed with Bordeaux mixture were found 
to contain 1 to 2 per cent more sugar than the 
fruit from unsprayed but healthy plants. 

Experiments with poisons. 

Experiments in pure cultures have been con- 
ducted principally on the lowly plants, viz., the 
algfe and fungi. In 1897, Richards discovered the 
stimulating effects of zinc salts on the growth of 
the mold fungi. Ono, working in Japan, found that 
compounds of zinc, copper and iron, when present 
in very small quantities, exerted a stimulating 
effect on the growth of algs. In this case he found 
that the stimulation was more manifest in the 
reproductive activity of the plants than in the 
growth in size of the individuals. Le Renard found 
that the greatest stimulation with mold fungi oc- 
curred in the presence of the best and moat avail- 
able food supply. As supplementary to this fact, 
we may mention that the presence of very small 
amounts of copper in distilled water is fatal to the 
growth of the roots of seedlings; while in the pres- 
ence of food it would undoubtedly cause stimulation. 

The writer has observed that seeds which have 
been soaked in very weak potassium bichromate 
solution to kill adhering germs, germinate in 
shorter time than those soaked in pure water. Miani 
found, too, that pollen-grains germinated better in 
water containing copper coins than in pure water. 
The effect of chemicals on seed germination has 
been studied by many investigators, under a variety 
of conditions, and the literature is rather extensive. 
With the exception of certain reagents, however, 
no definite general statements can be made regard- 
ing their action. Further work is needed to estab- 
li.sh the principles on which action takes place. It 
is probable that the factors influencing germination 
differ fundamentally in certain respects from those 
affecting later growth. One need not expect, there- 



fore, that germination will be stimulated by the 
same compounds that stimulate the growth of the 
adole.scent plant. 

Richards and his students have recently estab- 
lished the fact that stimulated plants work more 
economically than unstimulated plants, i. e., they 
attain to a given size and weight with a much 
smaller consumption of food material. 

The results obtained from growing plants in pure 
culture are not all applicable to plants growing in 
the soil. Compounds of iron, manganese, fluorin, 
and iodin seem to promise most for practical agri- 
culture. The best results have often been obtained 
by applying a mixture of two or more compounds. 

Sulfate of iron (copperas) has often been the 
subject of experiment. Some experimenters re- 
ported favorable results, some unfavorable, and 
some inferred that it had no influence whatever. 
Its benefits varied according to the quantities used. 
Loew found that the application of 1 to 2 ounces of 
sulfate of iron per ton of soil resulted in a stimu- 
lating action, and Grifliths observed very good 
results when it was applied at the rate of 50 to 100 
pounds per acre. 

The advantage of applying two stimulating sub- 
stances to the soil instead of one may be seen 
from the results of an experiment which Loew 
performed, using tobacco plants. The plants were 
grown in soil in pots, some were watered with 
dilute solutions of nianganous sulfate and iron sul- 
fate (0..3g MnSOi + 0.2g FeSO^ in 100 cc. water), 
others with manganous sulfate or iron alone. The 
average height to which the i)lants attained in 
eleven weeks after the application of stimulants 
was as follows : When no stimulant was applied, 
4.5 inches ; when manganese and iron were both 
applied, 59 inches ; when manganese alone was 
applied, .58 inches ; when iron alone was applied, 
55 inches. The average number of flowers and 
buds on the same plant was also distinctly greater 
on the plants that received two stimulants. Those 
that received both manganese and iron produced 
63 flowers and buds ; when manganese alone was 
applied there were 50 ; when iron only was applied 
there were .55, and on the control plants, none. 
It is thus shown that the application of .stimulants 
not only produced larger plants, but hastened their 
period of blossoming. An additional point in favor 
of iron sulfate and manganous sulfate is their 
cheapness, since both salts can be applied directly 
in the raw, unpurified state. 

Compounds of iodin have given marked stimu- 
lation to plant growth. However, since they are 
extremely poisonous to plants, they must be used 
in very small quantities. A top-dressing of iodid 
of potassium, applied at the rate of 50 pounds to 
the acre, injured wheat and barley. Suzuki found 
that such small quantities as one-third of an ounce 
per acre were sufficient to cause stimulation, and 
that four ounces per acre was amply suflicient. 
These small quantities were dissolved in water and 
sprinkled on the soil. This substance increased the 
weight of radishes 31 per cent over the yield on 
control plots. 

The writer has tried the effect of some poisonous 



THE STIMULATION OF PLANT GROWTH BY MEANS OP WEAK POISONS 



29 



substances on the growth of potatoes. Although 
the results are far from complete, they indicate 
that magnesium carbonate, applied at the rate of 
200 pounds per acre, and iron and manganous sul- 
fate applied at the rate of 17 and 175 pounds per 
acre respectively, exert a stimulating action on 
the growth of potato tubers. The benetits of stimu- 
lation were shown not only in the increased yield 
of the tubers, but also in their improved quality. 
The action of the same poisonous compound is not 
always the same on different crops, just as the 
feeding of different crops must vary. The action 
will probably vary also on soils accord- 
ing to their content of acids or alkalies. 

The application of small quantities of 
organic substances having a toxic effect 
at high concentrations is often beneficial, 
especially when applied to certain un- 
productive soils. Bulletin No. 28 of the 
Bureau of Soils of the United States De- 
partment of Agriculture describes the 
beneficial effects of tannic acid and of 
pyrogallol when applied in small quanti- 
ties to an unproductive soil. The applica- 
tion of tannic acid at the rate of one part 
per million of soil increased the growth 
of wheat seedlings about 75 per cent. In 
another experiment, pyrogallol was added 
at the rate of 500 parts per million of 
soil. On soil so treated, the growth of 
wheat plants was twice that on the un- 
treated soil. While it is not probable that 
the application of either of these last- p^g 47 
named substances will be profitable for 
the commercial grower, it is shown that growth 
may be accelerated by a wide range of substances. 

Etherization. 

It may be in place to mention the action of anaes- 
thetics on plant growth, since the anssthetics 
behave as poisons if they are allowed to act for any 
length of time. The plants are inclosed in a tight 
compartment and exposed for a short time to the 
vapors of ether or chloroform. At the Government 
Botanical Garden in Dresden, lilacs treated with 
ether on October 19 produced blossoms November 8. 
Another season the etherized plants blossomed 
November 13. Etherization does not hasten the 
blooming period of lilacs if the period of rest is 
entirely completed before the anaesthetic is applied. 

The practice of etherization is meeting with 
favor among the florists of France. In America 
it has been applied with success to the forcing of 
rhubarb and asparagus. Sandsten showed that chlo- 
roform and ether had an accelerating influence on 
seedlings, but they were injurious to narcissus. 

Experiments made at the Cornell (N. Y.) Experi- 
ment Station gave interesting results. A Persian 
lilac, Syringa vulgaris, was placed in the forcing- 
house on November 24, after having been etherized 
for 24 hours. Within five days many leaf-buds 
were entirely open, and by December 11 the plant 
was in full leaf. The first flower-buds opened on 
December 6, and the plant was in full bloom on 
December 25, just 31 days after the beginning of 



the experiment. A check plant did not reach full 
bloom till six days later. When the plants were 
expo.sed to ether fumes for a longer period, more 
marked results were secured. A lilac etherized for 
48 hours made a gain in coming to full flower of 8 
days over the check plant ; one etherized for 72 
hours gained 10 days. Astilhe Japoaiea etherized 
for 24 hours, in one instance was in full bloom a 
month to five weeks before the check plant. Experi- 
ments with bulbs also showed favorable results 
from etherization (Fig. 47). Narcissus showed a 
gain varying from two days to three weeks in 




Narcissus atherized (at the right) and not etherized (at the left). 

coming to full bloom, results contradictory to those 
secured by Sandsten. Two lots of Lilium longi- 
florum showed a decidedly taller growth, but no 
gain in the time at which first blcssoms appeared. 
A third lot, which had been etherized for a longer 
time, showed a gain in both time and height. [A 
brief account of these Cornell Experiments, by J. 
Eaton Howitt, and Claude I. Lewis, appears in 
The Cornell Countryman, May, 1906 ; a bulletin of 
the work has not appeared as this article is written.] 

Literature. 

The following references include most of the liter- 
ature that has been published on plant stimulation : 
Raulin, Etudes chimique sur la vegetation, Ann. d. 
Sci. Nat. Bot. [v] XI. 91, 1869; Richards, Die 
Beeinflu.ssung des Wachstums einiger Pilze durch 
chemischer Reize, Jahrb. wiss. Bot. 30, 665, 1897 ; 
Sandsten, The Influence of Gases and Vapors on the 
Growth of Plants, Minn. Botanical Studies, Vol. 2, p. 
53, 1898; Richards, The Effect of Chemical Irrita- 
tion on the Economic Coefficient of Sugar, Bulletin, 
Torrey Bot. Club, Vol. 26,463, 1899; Ono, Ueber die 
Wachstumsbeschleunigung einiger Algen und Pilze 
durch chemischer Reize. Jour. College, Science, 
Imperial University, Tokyo, Vol. 13, 141-186, 1900; 
Loew, On the Treatment of Crops by Stimulating 
Compounds, Bui. College Agriculture Imperial Uni- 
versity, Tokyo Vol. VI. 161-175, 1904 ; Latham, 
Stimulation of Sterigmatocystis by Chloroform, 
Bui. Torrey Bot. Club, Vol. 32, 337, 1905. 



30 



EFFECT OF ELECTRICITY ON PLANTS 



EFFECT OF ELECTRICITY ON PLANTS 

By G. E. Stone 

The relation that exists between electrical 
stimulation and plant growth has been a subject of 
much study, covering a great range of methods and 
conditions, and producing varied and conflicting 
results ; but the question has not yet had the care- 
ful and systematic study necessary to the formu- 
lation of rules for practical application. Much 
has been written on the subject, and the reader 
will find a few citations at the end of this article. 
It is here possible to give only a very general 
outline of the experimental methods that have 
been tried and the results. 

Historical sketch of methods and results. 

Investigations pertaining to the effects of elec- 
tricity on plants have been made by various ex- 
perimenters for L50 years or more. It might be 
supposed that electricity, which so universally 
manifests itself in nature, would under certain con- 
ditions be capable of acting as a stimulus to plants. 
That the roots of plants are susceptible to the 
influence of galvanic currents (galvanotropism) 
has been shown by the experiments of Elfving, 
Brunchorst and others ; and Hegler has shown that 
the aerial hyphte of Phycomyces nitens are nega- 
tively electrotropic ; that is, they bend away from 
Hertz waves. It has also been known for some 
time, through the experiments of Kunkel and 
others, that electric currents exist in the plant 
itself. The cause of these currents has been attrib- 
uted to minute streams of water passing through 
the plant. The experiments of Haake have shown 
that differences in the electrical potential in the 
plant are chiefly caused by metabolism and res- 
piration. 

The influence of current electricity on plants has 
received the most attention. Attention was first 
called to the influence of electricity on growing 
plants about the middle of the eighteenth century. 
The experiments made by Dr. Mainbray, of Edin- 
burgh, in 1746, were among the first. He electrified 
two myrtles for a period of one month, and reported 
that not only was their growth accelerated but 
that they put forth blossoms, which was not true 
of myrtles not electrified. About the same time, 
NoUet, a distinguished French physicist, who had 
heard of Mainbray's experiments, took up the sub- 
ject. He had previously been occupied with the 
phenomena connected with the behavior of fluids in 
capillary tubes, and Mainbray's experiments sug- 
gested to him the possibility of the increased 
growth in plants being due to the increase in the 
flow of sap brought about by electrical stimulation. 
His first experiments were made on various fruits, 
which after being weighed were electrified and then 
weighed again, and the result showed that elec- 
tricity considerably accelerated evaporation. In 
1747, Nollet experimented with two wooden pots 
filled with earth, in which were planted mustard 
seeds. One was treated daily with an electrical 
machine, the other being kept as a check. He found 
as a result of electrifying that germination was 



considerably increased, and in the course of a week 
or more the electrified plants were nine inches 
high, while the non-electrified ones were only three 
inches high. Nollet repeated the experiment a 
number of times with various plants, alwa3's 
obtaining the same result. He found, however, 
that the electrified plants were, as a rule, weaker 
than the non-electrified. Jallabert, in 1746, re- 
peated Nollet's experiments on mustard and cress 
.seeds, and obtained similar results. He also elec- 
trified bulbs of hyacinths, jonquils and narcissus 
placed on cakes of resin in glasses filled with 
water, the resin being connected with wires leading 
to a frictional machine. He found, as had Nollet, 
that the electrified ones gave off more moisture 
than the non-electrified ones, and also that the 
electrified plants grew more rapidly. Their leaves 
were larger and their flowers opened sooner than 
the ones not electrified. 

Experiments were made about the same time 
also on bulbs planted in boxes, with similar results. 
In 1747, Boze electrified several different kinds of 
shrubs, the growth of which was accelerated. 
Similar results were obtained by Menon, in 1748. 
In 1771, Sigaud de la Fond experimented with 
bulbs, and found that when they were electrified 
they grew faster and formed more healthy plants. 

De Lacepede, in 1779, found growth and germina- 
tion invariably accelerated by the use of electricity. 
Marat, in 1782, experimented with lettuce and ob- 
tained positive results. Bertholon subsequently 
repeated the experiments of Nollet and obtained 
similar results, and he moreover made many obser- 
vations in regard to the effects of electricity on the 
ripening of fruit, color of flowers, and the like. He 
was the first to attempt to apply electricity in a 
practical way in the growth of crops, and he even 
went so far as to recommend it as a panacea for all 
diseases caused by insects and fungi. Achard, De 
Saussure and Gardini likewise reported beneficial 
results from the use of electricity. 

Gardini stretched iron wires over his garden at 
Turin for the purpose of experimenting with atmos- 
pheric electricity. After a short time the garden, 
which had been unusually prolific, began to fail, 
the plants became unfruitful and wilted. Ingen- 
housz and Schwankhard, in 178-5, made experiments 
with plants cultivated in Leyden jars filled with 
water, and obtained negative results. The experi- 
ments were criticized by Duvarnier, who maintained 
that the methods employed were not satisfactory. 
Ingenhousz's negative results were confirmed by 
Sylvestre, Paets, Van Troostwyck and Krayenhoff. 
Ingenhousz and von Breda repeated Gardini's 
expeiiments with overhead wires across a garden, 
but both failed in observing any efliect whatsoever 
on the plants. In 1768, Carmoy sowed grains of 
wheat in electrified tin vessels and found germi- 
nation and growth accelerated. Rouland secured 
negative results with cress seeds planted on plates 
of cork in electrified porcelain vessels filled with 
water. D'Ormoy electrified mustard and lettuce seed 
for several days in moi-st earth and found their 
germination always accelerated. Bertholon enclosed 
seeds of turnip, endive and spinach in tin-foil and 



EFFECT OF ELECTRICITY ON PLANTS 



31 



kept them constantly electrified for some days, after 
which they were sown. He found germination accel- 
erated. Vassalli, in 1788, obtained beneficial results 
from treatment, and so did de Rozieres, who experi- 
mented with wheat, beans, rye, peas, radish, and 
others. De Rozieres maintained that not only was 
germination accelerated, but in all cases the 
electrified plants were larger, with longer roots and 
greener leaves. Hum- 
boldt believed that 
electricity exerted 
considerable influence 
on plant growth. On 
the other hand, Sene- 
bier was doubtful, 
while de Candolle was 
led to think by his 
experiments that elec- 
tricity had very little 
effect on plants. 

The various experi- 
ments which were 
made with electricity 
up to this time were 
made with static elec- 
tricity. With the dis- 
covery of voltaric electricity, other methods of 
experimenting were employed. 

From the year 1800, the suject of electricity and 
plant growth received little attention until 1844, 
when there was considerable interest manifested in 
the subject from the results of Forster's experi- 
ments. He endeavored to utilize the atmospheric 
electricity by stretching wires over a crop of 
barley, and found that growth was increased in 
a most extraordinary manner. In 1844, Ross 
made some experiments with galvanic currents 
which were described in the proceedings of the 
New York Farmers' Club. He planted a field of 
potatoes, at one end of which he buried a copper 
plate five feet in length and fourteen inches deep, 
connected with a wire to a zinc plate of the same 
size 200 feet away, at the opposite end of the row. 
According to Ross, potatoes grown on the treated 
row were two and one-half inches in diameter, 
while those grown on the untreated row in July 
were only one-half inch in diameter. Similar gal- 
vanic culture experiments have been made by 
Sheppard, Helmert, Fitchner and Siihne, Tschinkel, 
Holdefleiss, Maercker, Wollny and others. Sheppard 
employed copper and zinc plates two feet long and 
nine inches wide. These were connected with wires 
and buried in the soil nine feet apart, and a num- 
ber of seeds of diff'erent kinds were sown in be- 
tween them. He found that many of the seeds 
germinated poorly, and some of the plants eventu- 
ally died, although the electrically stimulated 
turnip plants showed a greater development than 
the check plants. Helmert found in .some instances 
that growth was accelerated ; on the whole, how- 
ever, he obtained negative results. Fitchner and 
Sohne secured positive results with buckwheat, sum- 
mer wheat, peas, and certain other crops. The gain 
was 16 to 127 per cent. Tschinkel obtained a con- 
siderable acceleration in germination and growth. 



The electrified plants, he asserted, were much more 
robust. He attributed the beneficial effects of elec- 
tricity to the decomposition of certain salts in the 
soil. Holdefleiss found both growth and germination 
to be accelerated. Maercker experimented with 
sugar-beets, and his e.xperiments showed no differ- 
ences between the treated and the untreated plants 
either in the weight or percentage of sugar. Some 




Fig. 48. An early plan for applying electrified water to plants (Bertholon, 1783). The man was 
to stand on an insulated monnted platform drawn by the two attachments at the right. The 
electric current was to be carried by a wire attached to .the pot, and uncoiling at the opera* 
tor's feet. (After WoUny.) 

experiments were made by Wollny on a more exten- 
sive scale and in a very careful manner, with rye, 
beans, peas, potatoes, rape, beets and others, and in 
almost every instance he obtained negative results. 
Chemical analysis of the treated and untreated soil 
showed no ditt'erence in the amount of potash, 
ammonia, phosphoric acid and potassium nitrate, 
even when comparatively strong currents had been 
passed through it. Blondeau found that when seeds 
of peas, beans and wheat were treated one minute 
with a constant induction current, germination was 
hastened, and the electrified seed gave rise to 
stockier and greener plants. He also found that the 
fruit of the apple, pear and others ripened much 
earlier when subjected to electrical treatment. 

Chodat employed static electricity, and found that 
the germination of the pea was accelerated, and 
that the electrically treated seedlings were longer 
and thinner, and their leaves somewhat smaller 
than normally grown plants. Paulin, who likewise 
used static electricity, obtained positive results. 
He placed his seeds inside a Leyden jar in which 
was suspended a copper wire connected with the 
conductor of a frictional machine. In order to get 
the best results, he found that the jar containing 
the seeds must be charged hourly, the length of 
time which this must be kept up depending entirely 
on the kind of seed employed. He maintained that 
electricity not only accelerates germination but 
that it is capable of awakening the dormant life in 
seeds. 

Speschnew found germination greatly accele- 
rated by the use of galvanic electricity. According 
to Speschnew, treated seeds germinated four or 
five days earlier than untreated seeds and possessed 
longer and stockier stems. Weakes applied electri- 
fied water to seed, which resulted in an accele- 
rated germination and growth of seedlings. McLoud 
found, by the use of direct currents, that many seeds 



32 



EFFECT OF ELECTRICITY ON PLANTS 



germinated earlier. The growth of the treated 
seeds, moreover, exceeded that of the normal. 

Paulin erected poles in the middle of his experi- 
mental plots, which supported a collector composed 
of numerous copper wires. An insulated wire con- 
nected the collector with an iron wire buried in the 
soil. He asserted, as a result of his experiments, a 
gain of 885 per cent in the production of potatoes. 
Jodro experimented in a similar way. However, 
he connected his collector, which was on a pole 35 
feet high, to a wire attached to zinc plates in the 
soil. He obtained an average increase of 25 to 50 
per cent, and in some instances nearly 100 per cent. 

Maccagno's method was somewhat different from 
the preceding one. He attached wires directly to 
sixteen grape-vines and endeavored to pass the 
atmospheric electricity through the plant. Chem- 
ical analysis of the plants at the end of the season 
five months later showed only a slight difference 
in the normal and treated plants. 

Aloi found that atmospheric electricity works 
favorably in ;,he germination and growth of Lactuca 
sativa, Zea Mays, Triticimi sativuyn, Nieotiana 
Tabacum, and Faba vulgaris. Cell employed static 
electricity. He asserted positive results by charg- 
ing a wire provided with numerous small points, 
which were suspended over growing seedlings. 
Freda experimented in a similar way with Penicil- 
lium, but obtained negative results. 

Lemstrom obtained favorable results with static 
electricity in a large number of cases, in which he 
used a large Holtz machine. The wire meshes were 
suspended over the plants which connected with 
the positive pole, the negative pole being connected 
with the ground. His experiments extended over 
a period of years, during which time he employed 
a larger number of plants than any of his prede- 
cessors and, on the whole, his experiments are the 
most trustworthy. He used a large variety of 
plants, some of which were favorably and others 
unfavorably stimulated. He demonstrated that 
strong charges were unfavorable, and arrived at 
the conclusion that electricity acts in an indirect 
way, and that ozone is produced by electrical dis- 
charges which have an influence on plants. 

Atmospheric electricity. 

Duhamel, in 1758, maintained that electricity 
may be concerned with those remarkable atmos- 
pheric changes which affect plants in so marked a 
manner. Similar ideas were entertained by Mann 
and Beccaria, who believed that after thunder- 
storms plants of all kinds grew with remarkable 
vigor. However, he attributed more marked effect 
to the constant but feeble electric conditions of the 
earth. Bertholon, in 1773, called attention to the 
influence of meteors and lightning on the germina- 
tion of seeds and the growth of plants. He attrib- 
nted the failure of the hop crop in 1787 to the 
comparatively small amount of lightning during 
that year. In fact, it has been believed for many 
years in Europe that there is some connection 
between thunder-storms and the behavior of plants. 
A common saying among the German peasants is 
that if a thunder-storm occurs during blooming 



time buckwheat will not set its fruit. Some years 
ago Lindley made measurements of plants during a 
thunder-storm and found no particular difl'erences 
in their rate of growth, and Matthew thought to 
have disproved the notions about buckwheat. 

Among farmers and others the idea has long 
been held that milk sours very rapidly during thun- 
der-storms. There appears to be some foundation 
for this belief, although bacteriologists attempt to 
account for it by the occurrence of the warm and 
humid condition of the atmosphere which usually 
precedes thunder-storms. Our experiments on the 
influence of electricity on milk tend to show that 
the farmer's idea is well founded, at least in many 
instances, since a very slight charge of electricity 
given to milk increases the number of bacteria 
enormously in a very brief period of tme. 

Eeviciv of the early work. 

Taking into consideration the results of the 
various experiments which are embodied in the 
foregoing resume, there would appear, notwith- 
standing the negative results, which, however, are 
considerably less than the positive ones, to be some 
reason for believing that electricity exerts an 
influence on plant growth. Many of the experi- 
ments giving positive results were notably crude, 
especially the earlier ones, and even many of the 
later ones are not detailed enough to allow of any 
reliable conclusions being drawn. In the greater 
majority of cases too few plants were used, faulty 
methods were employed, the seeds were usually 
sown in earth where no accurate means of deter- 
mining the relative acceleration of germination 
was possible. In the utter absence of measurements 
of current strength and the growth of plants, the 
results based on mere superficial comparisons were 
of littJe more value than guesswork. In some 
of the more recent experiments, however, compari- 
sons have been made of the treated and untreated 
plants by weighing, and in some instances chemical 
analysis, a very uncertain method, was resorted 
to. On the other hand, it should be borne in mind 
that it is easy to repeat some individual experiment 
that gives a positive result, and by introducing 
some slight variation in the methods employed, or 
modifying the strength of current, results of a 
quite different nature may be secured. 

The most severe criticisms that can be brought 
against the various experiments pertain to the lack 
of sufficient data concerning the current strength 
employed ; nor are there any data concerning the 
resistance or electrical potential from which the 
current strength might be calculated. The insuffi- 
cient number of plants used and the lack of repe- 
tition of various e.xperiments under the same con- 
ditions constitute serious objections. It would 
appear that individual variation as a factor was 
ignored in the majority of these experiments. 

Since there is a limited range of current which 
accelerates growth, it is an easy matter to over- 
.step the range and obtain negative results. This 
would seem to be the case in the very carefully 
conducted experiments of Wollny. The same criti- 
cism can be brought against Freda's experiments 



1 



EFFECT OF ELECTRICITY ON PLANTS 



33 



with Penicillium, in which case he obtained nega- 
tive results. The writer is unable to find any indi- 
cation of the potential employed in his experiments, 
but from his results it would appear that he was 
entirely out of range. If he had employed a poten- 
tial of about fifty volts, different results would 
undoubtedly have been obtained, inasmuch as such 
has been the case with Monahan's experiments 
with Mucor and Phycomyces, which are equally 
delicate organisms. 

Recent efforts and results. 

The writer and some of his students have con- 
ducted for many years an extensive series of ex- 
periments dealing with the influence of current 
electricity on plants. Only a part of the results of 
these experiments has been published, and in giving 
a resume of the subject of electricity and plant- 
growth, the writer will draw deductions from his 
various experiments representing data secured from 
the use of over 50,000 plants. 

The experiments made by Kinney in 1896 showed 
considerable acceleration in the germination of 
seeds and growth of seedlings, and the idea that 
weak currents of electricity act as a s'^imulus was 
proved to be well founded. He experimented with 
static electricity and also with direct and alternat- 
ing currents, all of which gave decidedly positive 
results. His experiments have been repeated by the 
writer and assistants, with similar results. 

From experiments which the writer and his 
assistants have conducted for many years in large 
boxes charged with direct and alternating currents 
and atmospheric electricity, it has been shown that 
lettuce and radish crops are considerably accele- 
rated in growth in all instances. The average per- 
centage of gain in the electrically treated lettuce 
plants in all experiments, as compared with the nor- 
mal, or untreated plants, was 34.81. The average 
percentage of gain of the electrically treated radish 
plants over the normal, or untreated, ones was 
37.-34. The radi.sh roots showed a gain of 17.26 
per cent, while the tops or leaves showed 42.90 
per cent gain. The strength of current employed 
ranged from .05 to 1 milliampere. In these experi- 
ments a large variety of plants has been employed, 
with practically similar results. 

Bacteria are greatly affected by electricity ; they 
increase in numbers at a very marked ratio when 
stimulated. The process of fermentation by yeast 
is also greatly accelerated by the application of 
minute direct currents or by a single tiny spark 
from a frictional machine. 

The range of currents acting favorably on 
growth is limited and may be represented as rang- 
ing from .005 to .55 milliamperes. Direct currents 
are not so stimulating in all cases as alternating 
currents, but static electricity stimulates very 
appreciably. In the many thousand seeds which 
have been used there is no evidence that electricity 
awakens life in dormant seeds. It always acts as a 
decided accelerator to germination and growth, but 
the germinating capacity is in no way affected. 

Monahan has .shown that charging air with static 
electricity constitutes an important stimulus to 

B3 



QV 



seeds and plants. Germination and growth in such 
instances are greatly accelerated. He employed a 
potential ranging from 50 to 175 volts, with most 
e-xcellent results. A too high potential or a too 
strong current prevents growth, and if the current 
is increased sufliciently it is easy to kill plants. 
The maximum or death current is determined by 
the nature of the plant, as well as the conditions 
under which the plant is stimulated. On the other 
hand, too weak currents do not produce perceptible 
reactions. The optimum or best current the writer 
found to be about .22 milliamperes. 

The connecting of copper and zinc electrodes 
placed in soil constitutes a very effective method, as 
well as one of the cheapest ways, of 
stimulating crops by electricity. Strips 
of copper and zinc one foot wide and four 
to six feet long 

connected with — ^-~-^^— ^{^"T^^n")- 
wires furnish a bat- C V(/ ^^"^ 
tery when placed in ^-^ ^^ 
soil, which under 
certain conditions 
will generate an 
optimum current. 
The amount of cur- 
rent which these 
will produce de- 
pends, of course, on 
the size of the 
metal plates em- 
ployed, together 
with the nature of 
the soil and other 
factors. A soil lack- 
ing in organic mat- 
ter and plant-food 
will give less cur- 
rent than a richer 
soil. Plates six 
inches by three feet 
in some soils would 
give a current 
ranging from .02 
to 1 milliampere 
when placed four 
feet apart, whereas, if these same plates were put 
in some of the highly manured Boston market-gar- 
den soils, they would generate ten to twenty times 
as much current in a tolerably dry soil, when placed 
farther apart. The amount of resistance in well- 
manured market-garden soils is extremely small, 
and it has been estimated that if a large house 
were provided with copper and zinc plates located 
at either end and these were connected with wires, 
a current could be generated sufficient to run a 
small incandescent lamp. 

General observations. 

The extensive use of electricity in a commercial 
way has introduced factors which have a bearing 
on vegetation. The numerous high tension wires 
used for street lighting purposes frequently come 
into contact with beautiful shade trees and cause 
mu?h aiirv Such injury, however, is mainly of a 



N 



Fig. 49. To show the growth 
of seedlings treated with 
positive and negative 
currents of electricity. N, 
normal untreated plant; 
— , treated with negative 
current ; + , with positive current. 



34 



EFFECT OF ELECTRICITY ON PLANTS 




local nature, — that is, trees are injured or burned 
only at the point of contact of the wires with a 
tree, and it can be positively stated that there 
are no authentic cases of alternating current wires 
killing large trees. The circumstances, however, 
might be different in 
the case of direct cur- 
rent lighting wires, 
providing sufficient 
grounding occurred; 
nevertheless, so-called 
direct current trolley 
wires have been known 
to kill large trees 
where certain condi- 
tions prevail. (Fig. 50.) 
There is also some evi- 
dence in support of the 
prevailing opinion that 
a certain leakage or 
grounding from a trol- 
ley system through a 
tree may cause its death 
in time without any 
material burning tak- 
ing place. In such 
ca.ses the ti.s.sues are 
over -stimulated, as it 
were, resulting in the 
possible disintegration 
of the protoplasm of 
the cells. 

There is much evi- 
dence in support of 
the idea that electric- 
ity plays an important role in nature. The air 
and earth are constantly charged with it, and 
vegetation, being in contact with both, is un- 
doubtedly affected. Grandeau and others main- 
tain that when plants are surrounded with wire 
netting they develop less in a given space of time 
than plants grown under similar conditions as 
regards light and other factors in a free atmos- 
phere. The interpretation of this phenomenon is 
that wire screens modify the atmospheric potential 
to the detriment of the plant. Grandeau secured 
similar results by growing plants under chestnut 
trees, and he concluded that trees modify to a 
large extent the atmosphoric potential in their 
immediate neighborhood. Electrical experiments 
made for three years at the Massachusetts Agri- 
cultural College Experiment Station show that the 
electrical potential at corresponding heights in the 
free atmosphere and in an elm tree are identical 
during the season when no foliage is present. 
When, however, the foliage develops, the potential 
drops materially in the air surrounding the tree 
and I'emains in this condition until the leaves fall, 
at which time the potential becomes identical 
again. This is apparently a case of the foliage of 
a tree absorbing atmospheric electricity or screen- 
ing it in the some way as does a glass structure. It 
may be interesting to note in this connection that 
there is no atmospheric electricity in greenhouses, 
but the effect of its absence on plants is not easily 



Fig. 50. Elm tree killed by a 
direct current from an elec- 
tric railroad system. 



discernible, since there are too many other factors 
in greenhouses which modify the configuration of 
plants. The electrical potential records secured 
by the writer and his assistants under conifers, 
such as the Norway spruce, proved the potential to 
be similar most of the time to that of the earth 
and not of the air, as secured under deciduous trees, 
like the elm. Lemstrcim was of the opinion that the 
numerous small pointed leaves common to conifers 
serve as points of discharge or accumulators of 
electricity. This theory has some foundation, since 
the apices of leaves of trees have been known to 
discharge electricity, and the electric potential of 
the air and earth may be more or less equalized by 
vegetation. 

The phenomena underlying electrical stimulation 
are still imperfectly understood. There are many 
theories, however, in regard to its action. Nollet 
and Jallabert thought that the accelerated growth 
resulting from electrical stimulation was induced 
by the augmentation in the movements of the sap, 
and this view has been more recently held by 
Lemstrom. Fichtner, Siihne and Tschinkel main- 
tain that electricity renders soluble certain con- 
stituents of the soil, as a result of which germina- 
tion and growth are accelerated. On the other 
hand, Jodro attaches double significance to the 
action of soil currents, viz., a chemical and a 
mechanical action. Chemically it renders those 
constituents necessary for plant growth more 
soluble ; mechanically it sets the particles of soil 
into a state of vibration which results in an in- 
creased rate of 
growth. It may be 
noted that both 
the chemical and 
mechanical theo- 
ries fail to explain 
the results of stim- 
ulation of seeds not 
sown in soil. 

It is well known 
that feeble currents 
accelerate the 
movements of pro- 
toplasm, and the 
augmentative cir- 
culation theory has 
more to commend 
it than any of the 
others. Notwith- 
standing the con- 
siderable amount of 
accelerated growth 
manifesting itself 
as a result of elec- 
trical stimulation, 
the time is not yet 
opportune to apply 
this force very 
largely to the 
growth of crops, 
since the application of current electricity to crops 
has not been sufficiently tested on a large scale ; 
neither has it been demonstrated that electrical 




Fig. 51. To show the effect of earth 
discharge (lightning) through the 
tree, causing splitting of the trunk 
and limbs. 



INSECTS^ AND DISEASES 



35 



stimulation would always prove advantageous to 
plants. There appears to be a tendency for electri- 
cally stimulated plants to develop a more spind- 
ling growth than those grown 
under ordinary conditions. 



Conclusions concerning the effect 
of current electricity on 
plants. 

In conclusion, it may be 
stated that the application of 
electrical stimulation to crops 
is not as yet practicable, al- 
though undoubtedly in the future 
electricity will be more exten- 
sively employed in agriculture, 
and it is hoped that agricultur- 
ists will be able to make use of 
the enormous amount of electri- 
cal energy constantly stored in 
the atmosphere. From the work 
that has been done, the follow- 
ing very general conclusions 
may be drawn : 

(1) Electricity exerts an ap- 
preciable influence on plants. 

(2) Bilectrical stimulation 
gives rise to an accelerated ger- 
mination and growth of plants, 
the foliage in some instances 
(radishes) being stimulated more 
than the roots. 

(3) The strength of current 
inducing acceleration is confined 
to a narrow range. 

(4) There is a minimum, opti- 
mum and maximum stimulus. The minimum cur- 
rent is equal to about .005 milliamperes, the opti- 
mum to about .22, and the maximum is determined 
entirely by conditions. 




Fig. 52. To show 
the characteristic 
grooves on the 
trunk of an elm 
tree caused by a 
feeble stroke of 
lightning. (Com- 
pare withFig. 51.) 



Literature. 

Some of the literature pertaining to the influence 
of current electricity on plants is as follows : L. H. 
Bailey, Electricity and Plant Growth, Transactions, 
Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Part 1, pp. 54- 
79, 1894 ; Bertholon, De I'electricite des vegetaux, 
Paris, 1783 ; De Candolle, Physiologic vegetale, 
Tome 3, p. 1088 ; R. Chodat, Quelques eff'ets de 
I'electricite statique sur la vegetation, Laboratoire 
de botanique de I'universite de Geneve, Ser. I, 
Fasc V, p. 53-56 ; Hot. Cen. p. 92, Tome LV ; 
Gardini, De influxu electrititatis atmosphtericffi in 
vegetantia dissertatio, 1784 ; L. Grandeau, De 
I'influence de I'electricite atmospherique sur la 
nutrition des vegetaux, Ann. de Chim. et de Physiq., 
Ser. 5, XVI, 14.5-226, Feb., 1879; A. S. Kinney. 
Electro-germination, Bulletin No. 43, Hatch Experi- 
ment Station, Amherst, Mass., 1897 ; Selim Lem- 
striim. Electricity in Agriculture and Horticulture, 
Van Nostrand Company, New York City ; J. Mac- 
cagno, Ueber den Einfluss der atmosphiBrischen Elec- 
tricitat auf das Wachsthum des Weinstocks; Wollny, 
Forsch. Agricultur-physik, Vol. VI, p. 193, 1883 ; 
H. M. McLeod, The Eft'ect of Current Electricity on 
Plant Growth, Transactions and Proceedings New 
Zealand In.stitute, XXV, 479-482, Maj', 1893, 1894 ; 
the same. Ibid XXVI, 463, 464; N. F. Monahan, The 
Influence of Atmospherical Electrical Potential on 
Plants, Sixteenth Annual Report, 1904, Hatch Ex- 
periment Station ; G. E. Stone, Injuries to Shade 
Trees from Electricity, Bulletin No. 91, 1893, Hatch 
Exp. Sta.; G. E. Stone, The Influence of Current 
Electricity on Plant Growth, iSixteenth Annual 
Report, 1904, Hatch Exp. Sta.; Stone and Monahan, 
The Influence of Electrical Potential on the Growth 
of Plants, Seventeenth Annual Report, 1905, Hatch 
Exp. Sta.; E. Wollny, Forsch. Agricultur-phvsik, 
1882, 1888 ; Ueber die Anwendung der Elektricitat 
bei der Pfianzenkultur, Miinchen, 1883 ; Geo. S. 
Hull, Electro-Horticulture, N. Y., 1898. 



CHAPTER II 



INSECTS AND DISEASES 




' NSECTS AND PLANT DISEASES are the plagues of the husbandman. Their incursions have 
been deplored from the earliest times, although plant diseases have not long been recognized 
except under the indefinite terms of blights and rusts and cankers and mildews. These pests 
and ailments have entailed endless human labor and have sacrificed numberless animals 
and crops ; yet the net result has been the enforcing of a more vigorous and constructive 
agriculture. 

The ailments of plants are constantly becoming more numerous and the knowledge con- 
nected with them more complex, owing to dissemination of the parasites into new regions, 
the increa.se of food supply due to new and more extended cultures, to changes in habits of 
parasites and hosts consequent on the disturbance of the normal equilibrium in nature. At the 
same time, however, the means of contending with these difticulties are increasing with phe- 
nomenal rapidity. Numbers of persons are now employed at public expense in the study of insects 
and diseases and in devising means of combating them. This is the guarantee of the future. In fact, 
our present-day agriculture would be impossible were it not for the entomologists and plant-patholo- 



S6 



INSECTS AND DISEASES 



dm 



gists. These persons have become as much a part of our modern needs as, in a related realm, have the 
physicians and sanitarians. 

For the most part, the work of insects is at once recognizable ; but plant diseases are obscure as to 

cause, and it is only within the past fifty 
B years that very careful study has been 
made of them. The special study of para- 
sitic fungi, which cause many of the dis- 
eases of plants, is cemmonly dated from the 
work of M. J. Berkeley (1803-1§89) in Eng- 
land about the middle of the century just 
passed. It is also astonishing that the life- 
histories of most of the common insects were 
not understood a century ago ; and there 
are numerous insects all about us whose 
life-cycles have never been worked out. A 
good part of our current, economic ento- 
mological study is devoted to discovering 
the main phases of the insects rather than 
to the adding of new facts and incidents. 
The subject of the intimate relationship of 
insects to each other, to weather, to food 
supplies, and to other factors 
of their environment, where- 
by their relative prevalence 
is largely determined, is yet 
practically an unexplored 
field ; yet it is in this eco- 
logical domain, rather than 
in merely destroying in- 
sects by what may be called 
mechanical means, that the 
greatest permanent pro- A 
gress in contention with in- M, 
sects is to be looked for. /«> 

The gradual growth of \%@ '*!2 
the idea that one plant may 
be parasitic on another and 
cause what may be called a 
disease, would be a subject 
of great attractiveness to one who is interested in human history. The idea is so recent 
that it should not be difficult to trace. A recent development of it is the discovery 
that there are germ diseases of plants as well as of animals, a history that is recorded 
by its literature in E. F. Smith's "Bacteria in Relation to Plant Diseases" (Carnegie 
Institution, 1905). Other classes of diseases are yet known only by their external 
manifestations. Of these, peach-yellows and other peach diseases are examples. 
What causes the mal-nutrition and what carries the disease are undetermined. No 
doubt many ailments of plants are physiological and organic, — using these words in 
their human-medicine sense — rather than due to germs or filamentous fungi. Plants 
have scarcely begun to be studied in respect to their intimate pathological processes 
and their response to sanitary or unsanitary environment. Very likely we await a new 
era in plant cultivation. 

The plant diseases that are likely to be most clearly recognized by the general 
observer are those occasioned by the filamentous fungi. These low spore-bearing 
plants are related to the molds that appear on bread and decaying substances. It is 
impossible for one who has not studied these forms patiently under a microscope really 
to understand what they are. The ragged and spidery pictures of them that appear in 




Fig. 53. 



Example of a biting or chewing insect. Army-worms 
eiitiug up a stalk of corn. 



^> 



h 



Fig. 54. Example 
of a sucking in- 
sect. Sun Jos6 
sc*ales(eiilarge(i) 
attached to a 
twig and ex- 
tracting the 
juices from it. 
Plant-lice are 
sucking insects; 
also the stink- 
hues and their 
kiu. 



INSECTS AND DISEASES 



37 



the public prints convey little intelligence to the general reader. Perhaps Figs. 56, 57 and 58 will help 
to a vague understanding of what these parasitic fungi are, and how they work. These fungi are species 



of plants, without flowers or seeds or leaf-green or any of 
ally associate with plant forms. They have neither roots 
mineral food from the soil nor construct organic food 
live on organic compounds, — that is, on foods that 



the parts and organs that we usu- 

nor leaves, for they do not abstract 

in the presence of sunlight. They 

have already been formed or 

mals. They run their vegetative 




organized by other plants or, through them, by ani- 
root-like threads, or mycelium, into the food supply; 
and they propagate their 
kind by means of special- 
ized cells known as spores. 
The injury they do to their 
host is of two kinds, — they 
appropriate food, and they 
impair the tissues by punc- 
turing them or breaking 
them down and by plugging 
the vessels or natural open- 
ings. 

We are just now in the 
epoch of the control of insects and plant diseases by means 
of applications of substances. This epoch will never pass ; 
but in time we shall give greater emphasis to such an organi- 
zation of the business of plant-growing as to circumvent the 
difficulties. We seem to have passed the epoch of mere plant 
doctoring, — a suggestion, no doubt, from the prevalent medi- 
cine-habit in man — whereby we hope to kill the insect or cure the disease by putting some substance 
into the " circulation " of the plant ; but the day of quacks has not gone by. It would seem to be 
needless to say to any person that he would better get expert professional advice, when he is in diffi- 
culty with insects or plant diseases, were it not for the fact that it is necessary to say it. Howbeit, the 
person to whom this needs to be said will not read this book, so that we may at once pass on to profit- 
able matters. 

Formulas. 

The chemical materials used for destroying insects and plant diseases are very many, and they can- 
not be discussed in full here. The cultivator must keep himself posted by consulting the most recent pub- 
lications of experiment stations and the United States Department of Agriculture. The materials used 
for seed diseases are mentioned on page 49 ; those employed in fumigating for insects, on page 45 ; 
soil diseases are also treated in Chapter XIII, Volume I. The main insects and diseases of the various 
crops are mentioned with the discussion of those crops in Part III. (See also pages 44, 45.) 

Spraying materials are either insecticides (to kill insects), or fungicides (to kill fungi). The insecti- 
cides are, again, of two kinds, — poisons for chewing insects, and corroding astringent or oily compounds 
for sacking insects. Some of the leading materials are now mentioned: 



Fig. 55. The life-cycle of an insect. 
Tent -caterpillar: eggs, enlarged: 
mass of eggs on a winter twig: 
larva: cocoons, on a board; moth. 



Insecticides that kill by external contact. 

Lime -Sulfur Wash (for dormant trees and bushes). — 
Lime, L5 pounds ; sulfur, 15 to 20 pounds ; (salt, 15 
pounds, was formerly added, but does not appear to be 
necessaiy); water sufficient to bring the boiled product 
up to 50 gallons. 

The lime and sulfur must be boiled or steamed. The 
mixture may be made by boiling in iron kettles. Heat the 
water before adding the lime and sulfur All the sulfur 
should be thoroughly reduced. Pour into the sprayer 
through a strainer and apply to the trees while warm. 

Steaming is liked best by those who have tested 
both. The following method is recommended by Geo. E. 
Fisher, former San Jose Scale inspector for the Province 
ef Ontario, Canada : " Steam is employed to dissolve the 



lump sulfur and cook the mixture. Provide yourself with 
eight barrels. Put one-quarter the full amount of sulfur 
and fresh stone lime in four barrels, with a proportionate 
amount of water. Turn the steam under a pressure of 80 
to 100 pounds (15 to 20 pounds pressure works well) 
into these four barrels. When the water has boiled for a 
few minutes in these barrels, turn off the steam. It may 
then be turned on to four more barrels which have been 
prepared in the same manner as the first set. The full 
amount of lime and sulfur is then added to the first set 
of barrels slowly enough to prevent boiling over by the 
heat generated by the slaking lime. When the lime is all 
slaked, turn on the steam again for two or three hours or 
till the mixture is thoroughly cooked. It is quite possible 
to feed each barrel during the boiling process with a 
small stream of water, which will gradually fill the barrel 



38 



INSECTS AND DISEASES 



without preventing the boiling. The mixture becomes 
quite thin during the boiling process, and when finished is 
of a deep orange color." 

This is one of the popular and reliable remedies for 
San Jose scale. 




Fig. 56. Spore-bearing stalks of a wilt fungus {Acrostalagmns 
albus). In this fungus the spores are borne in heads: some 
of the heads are ruptured at the right. (After Vau Hook.) 

Kerosene Emulsion. — Hard, soft or whale-oil soap, J 
pound ; boiling soft water, 1 gallon ; kerosene, 2 gallons. 
Dissolve the soap in the water, add the kerosene and 
churn with a pump for 5 to 10 minutes. Dilute 4 to 10 
times before applying. Use strong emulsion for all scale 
insects. For such insects as plant-lice, mealy-bugs, red 
spider, thrips, weaker preparations will prove effective. 
Cabbage-worms, currant-worms, and all insects which 
have soft bodies, can also be successfully treated. It ' 
advisable to make the emulsion shortly before it is used. 
For San Jose scale, use 1 pound of whale-oil soap and 
dilute in proportion of one part to si.x of water. Especia" 
effective in summer to kill the young and tender lice. 

Miscible or "Soluble" Oils. — Recently various oil 
that emulsify readily when poured into water have 
been put on the market. Some persons have found 
them to be of great value and others report poor or 
indifferent results. Emulsified with twelve to fif- 
teen times their quantity of water, they are applied 
to dormant trees for scale. 

Distillate Spray. — In order to overcome some of 
the difficulties in the making and use- of kerosene 
emulsion, California citrous growers are now using 
a mechanical mixture of a special distillate of 
petroleum and water. The mixture is prepared by 
a sort of chum propelled by a gasoline engine, and 
the same engine applies the spray. For scale 
insects and mites on citrous fruits. 

Tobacco Water. — Prepared by placing tobacco 
leaves and stems in a water-tight vessel, and then 
covering them with hot water. Allow to stand sev- 
eral hours, dilute the liquor 3 to 5 times, and apply. 
For soft-bodied insects. 

Whale-oil Soap. — On dormant trees for San Jose 
scale, dilute 2 pounds to 1 gallon water ; for sum- 
mer use on scale or aphis, 1 pound to 5 to 7 gallons. 
Dissolve in hot water if wanted quickly. 



of quicklime should be added. Repeated applications will 
injure most foliage, unless the lime is used. Paris green 
and Bordeaux mixture can be applied together with perfect 
safety. The action of neither is weakened, and the Paris 
green loses its caustic properties. Use at the rate of 4 to 
12 ounces of the arsenite to 50 gallons of the mixture. 
It is sometimes used as strong as 1 pound to 50 gallons, 
but this is usually unsafe and generally unnecessary. This 
is the old and best known insecticide, used for potato- 
beetle, codling-moth, canker-worm, tent-caterpillar and 
very many other insects. 

Arsenate of Lead. — See page 44. 

White Arsenic. — White arsenic, being cheaper and of 
more constant strength than Paris green, is becoming 
increasingly popular as an insecticide. It may be safely 
used with Bordeaux mixture, or separately if directions 
as to its preparation are carefully followed ; if, how- 
ever, these are neglected, injury to foliage will result. 
It is unwise to use white arsenic without soda or lime. 
Methods numbers one and two are recommended as the 
least likely to cause injury. 

(1) Arsenite of Soda for Bordeaux Mixture. — To a 
solution of 4 pounds salsoda crystals in 1 gallon of water, 
add 1 pound of white arsenic and boil until dissolved. 
Add water to replace any boiled away, so that 1 gallon 
of stock solution of arsenite of soda is the result. Use 
1 pint of this stock solution to 50 gallons of Bordeaux. 

(2) Arsenite of Lime. — (a) If used alone (not in con- 
nection with Bordeaux) white arsenic should be prepared 
thus: — To a solution of 1 pound of salsoda crystals in a 
gallon of water, -add 1 pound of white arsenic and boil 
until dissolved. Then add 2 pounds of fresh slaked lime 
and boil 20 minutes. Add water to make 2 gallons of 
stock solution. Use 1 quart of this stock solution to 50 
gallons of water. 



°f Leaf 




Leaf Tissue 



Insecticides designed for the insect to eat. 

Paris Green. — Paris green, 1 pound ; water, 75 
to 2.50 gallons. 

If this mixture is to be used on fruit trees, 1 pound 



Fig. 57. How a fungus works in a leaf. Diagrammatic cross-sec- 
tion in a bean leaf affei'ted liy rust ( Vrnmyces appendicitlatns). 
The cells of the leaf-tissue contain the chlorophyll grains. The 
mycelium of the fungus is seen ramifying in the tissue. Tlie 
spores are formed on the ends of mycelial threads, and us they 
grow the epidermis of the leaf is pushed up aud broken. (After 
Whetzel.) 



INSECTS AND DISEASES 



39 



Anrriracnose Canker 
vPod 



(b) Boil 1 pound of white arsenic in 2 gallons of water 
for one-half hour and use the solution while hot to slake 
2 pounds of good, fresh quicklime. Add water to make 
2 gallons of stock solution, and use 1 or 2 quarts of this 
to 50 gallons of water or Bordeaux mixture. 

(c) Slake 2 pounds of good, fresh quicklime and add 
water to make 2 gallons of milk of lime. Add 1 pound of 
white arsenic 

and boil hard 
for forty min- 
ut es . Add 
water to bring 
the resulting 
compound up to 

2 gallons. Use 
1 or 2 quarts of 
this stock solu- 
tion to 50 gal- 
lons of water or 
Bordeaux. 

London Pur- 
ple. — This is 
used in the 
same propor- 
tion as Paris 
green, but as it 
is more caustic 
it should' be ap- 
plied with two 
or three times 
its weight of 
lime, or with 
the Bordeaux 
mixture. The 
composition of 
London purple 
is variable, and 
unless good 
reasons exist 
for supposing 
that it contains 
as much arse- 
nic as Paris 
green, use the 
latter poison. 

Do not use London purple on peach or plum trees unless 
considerable lime is added. Once much used. 

Hellebore. — Fresh white hellebore, 1 ounce ; water, 

3 gallons. 

Apply when thoroughly mixed. This poison is not so 
energetic as the arsenites, and may be used a short time 
before the sprayed parts mature. For insects which 
chew. Much used for currant-worms. 

Fungicides. 

The Bordeaux mixture, with variations in the propor- 
tion of water to suit the particular kind of plant and 
grade of development of the crop and of the disease, has 
become practically the universally used medium for 
spraying purposes. The standard formula is as follows : 
Copper sulfate, 3 to 6 pounds ; quicklime, 4 pounds ; 
water to make 50 gallons. 

This solution is often used successfully at half strength 
on delicate foliage. The solution of copper sulfate is some- 
times used without the lime on diseases of woody parts, 
such as apple canker and anthracnose of raspberry canes. 
In case of such use, the spraying must be done at a time 
before the foliation begins. 

The Bordeaux mixture may be combined with Paris 
green and other arsenites, as explained under those heads 
on the preceding page, and thus destroy both insects and 
fungous diseases at the same time that the caustic or 
injurious effect of the arsenic is lessened. 



There are many proportions in which the ingredients 
are combined to make Bordeaux mixture. The 6-4-50 for- 
mula is not now often used, as the amount of copper 
sulfate (or blue-stone) is greater than need be. The 3-4-50 
formula is now much used. 

Make stock solutions by dissolving 1 lb. sulfate to 1 gal. 
water in a barrel ; and by dry-slaking the lime and then 




Starcli 



Fig. 58. How a fungus works in a bean pod. To the left above is a tiiagr;iin of a section across a l)eaii pod 
tiirougli an antliracnose canker, Tlie large drawing below is a much enlarged view of a part of this same 
section. It is largely diagranintatic. It shows how the mycelial threads of the fnngns ni.-iy penetrate the 
seed-coat and enter the starchy tissue of the seed, there to remain dormant until the following season. 
On the left of the large drawing is shown a spore germinating and penetrating the epidermis. This germ- 
tube branches, spreads through tlie tissues of the pod and so gives rise to a new spot or canker. To the 
right above is shown a magnified view of some of the spores of the anthracnose fungus. One has germi- 
nated. (After Whetzel.) 

adding water till one gallon holds 1 lb. lime. Dilute these 
stock solutions before they are put together. 

There must be lime enough to kill the caustic action of 
the copper sulfate. This may be tested by dropping a 
solution of ferrocyanide of potassium on the surface of 
the Bordeaux mixture: if the drops turn brown or red, 
more lime should be added. 

Ammoniacal Carbonate of Copper. — Copper carbonate, 
5 ounces ; ammonia (26° Beaume), 3 pints ; water, 45 
gallons. 

Make a paste of the copper carbonate with a little 
water. Dilute the ammonia with 7 or 8 volumes of 
water. Add the paste to the diluted ammonia and 
stir until dissolved. Add enough water to make 45 gal- 
lons. Allow it to settle and use only the clear blue liquid 
This mixture loses strength on standing. For fungous 
diseases. 

Copper Sulfate Solution. — Copper sulfate, 1 pound ; 
water, 15 to 25 gallons. 

Dissolve the copper sulfate in the water. This should 
never be applied to foliage, but must be used before the 
buds break. For peaches and nectarines, use 25 gallons 
of water. For fungous diseases, but now largely supplanted 
by the Bordeaux mixture. A much weaker solution is 
recommended for trees in leaf. 

Potassium Sulfid Solution. — Potassium sulfid (liver of 
sulfur), J to 1 ounce ; water, 1 gallon. 

This preparation loses its strength on standing, and 



40 



MEANS OF CONTROLLING INSECTS 



should therefore be made immediately before using. 
Particularly valuable for surface mildews. 

Maxwell Dust-Spray. — Fresh lime, 1 barrel ; copper 
sulfate, 25 pounds ; concentrated lye, 5 pounds ; powdered 
sulfur, 25 pounds ; Paris green, 6 pounds. 

Spread lime in a large, shallow box, breaking into as 
small lumps as possible. Dissolve the copper sulfate in 
six gallons boiling water ; also dissolve the lye in five 
gallons hot water. Keep separate. Sprinkle copper sulfate 
solution over the lime. Follow with lye water. If the 
lime does not all crumble to a dust, use clear water to 
finish. Screen the lime through a fine sieve, rub the sulfur 
through the sieve into the lime, add the Paris green and 
thoroughly mix both with lime. Lime should crumble to 
powder, not granules. 

Copper sulfate water must be used hot, or the copper 
will recrystallize. Mixing should be done out-of-doors or 
in a separate building, as lime in slaking becomes very 
hot. 

Missouri Experiment Station dust-spray. (To make 70 
pounds of stock powder): — Copper sulfate, 4 pounds; 
quicklime, 4 pounds ; water in which to dissolve copper 
sulfate, 2J gallons ; water in which to slake quicklime, 
2i gallons ; air-slaked lime thoroughly sifted, 60 pounds. 

Dissolve the copper sulfate and slake quicklime 
separately, each in 2J gallons water. Pour at same time 
milk of lime and copper solution into a third vessel and 
stir thoroughly. Surplus water is then strained out and 
remaining wet material is thoroughly mixed with the 60 
pounds of air-slaked lime. All lumps must be sifted out 
and the mixture must be perfectly dry. One pound each 
of sulfur and Paris green may be added. 

The dust-sprays are useful where water is scarce or 
land is too rough or steep for the regular spraying 
machines. 



MEANS OF CONTROLLING INSECTS 

By M. V. Slingerland 

Careful estimates indicate that the value of 
farm products now destroyed each year by insects 
in the United States aggregates the vast sum of 
$700,000,000, or more than the entire expenditures 
of the national government. Thus, one of the most 
serious problems that confront the American agri- 
culturist is that of controlling the insect enemies 
of his crops. He is now menaced by nearly twice 
as many different kinds of insect pests as in 18.50, 
and three or four times as many as a century ago. 
And the outlook is far from encouraging, for all 
the old pests will doubtless continue their ravages 
indefinitely, with "up" and "down" periods at un- 
certain intervals. Furthermore, the American 
agriculturist will have the best plants and animals 
the world produces, no matter whether he does 
thereby introduce other such destructive pests as 
the San .Jose scale from China. There are still 
many insect pests in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa 
and Me.xico that are liable to be introduced at any 
time, and they may be much more destructive 
here than in their native home, where their enemies 
and surrounding conditions largely hold them in 
check. Thus, the unbroken ranks of the insect pests 
of a century ago will be constantly augmented by 
new kinds that are either disturbed by man in their 
wild haunts here (as the Colorado potato-beetle), 
or that come in naturally from adjoining countries 
(as the cotton boll-weevil from Mexico), or that are 



brought in by commerce from foreign lands (as the 
cattle horn-fly and over half of the other standard 
insect pests). 

But the outlook is not really so gloomy, for 
the American agriculturists are well equipped 
with insecticidal batteries, and they are waging a 
most scientific and successful fight against in- 
sect enemies. Many millions of dollars are being 
spent annually in America by national and state 
governments and by individuals in fighting insects 
and in devising and testing new remedial meas- 
ures ; it is estimated that over $8,000,000 is 
expended each year in spraying apple trees for the 
codling-moth alone. 

Natural checks. 

In this warfare that man must wage against his 
insect foes, he should not forget that nature has 
provided active and often very effective insect- 
destroyers without which man could not grow 
crops, or even exist himself. Were it not for the 
many little enemies of plant-lice, these insignificant 
creatures with their wonderful powers of multipli- 
cation would soon overrun the earth, and destroy 
all vegetation, thus robbing man of his primary 
food supply. Among the forces of nature which 
thus aid man in his insect warfare may be men- 
tioned strong winds, sudden changes of tempera- 
ture in winter, rain.s, and forest and prairie fires. 
Then among the plants and animals there are some 
very efficient insect-destroyers. Bacteria and fungi 
often kill a large proportion of army-worms or 
chinch-bugs that are devastating crops. Many of 
the birds feed largely on insects and should be 
encouraged to stay on every farm, for they are 
among the most effective of nature's insect-des- 
troyers. 

But it is among their own kind, the insects, that 
ini5ect pests find their most destructive foes. Vast 
numbers of insects, some so tiny that several of them 
can live inside an insect egg (codling-moth egg) 
not larger than a pin's head, are constantly prey- 
ing on the insect enemies of man's crops. And 
these parasitic and predaceous insects are often 
very effective in aiding man in his strenuous war- 
fare to protect his crops from insect pests. A little 
lady-bird beetle saved the citrous industry of Cali- 
fornia from destruction by a scale insect, and it 
would be impossible to grow wheat successfully in 
many sections of the United States were it not for 
the tiny insect parasites of the hessian fly. 

Man is coming to realize more and more the 
value of these natural aids in his warfare against 
insect pests. In Hawaii and California, thousands 
of dollars are expended annually in searching for 
and importing from foreign lands beneficial insects 
to prey on in.sect pests, and some striking successes 
have been attained. Europe is now being searched 
for the natural enemies of the gypsy and brown- 
tail moths to aid in checking and finally controlling 
these .serious pests. 

Administrative control. 

While these insecticides of nature are often very 
effective and finally accomplish their purpose, man 



MEANS OF CONTROLLING INSECTS 



41 



can not wait but must usually resort to artificial 
insecticides to save his crops. For centuries man 
has been fighting insect enemies. The Greeks 
mixed hellebore with milk to kill flies, and the 







.W'' 






Fig. 59. A hopper-dozer at work in kaflr corn. (Kansas Experiment 
Station Bulletin.) 

Romans required the inhabitants of infested regions 
to kill certain amounts of grasshoppers. In the 
middle ages the methods used for the destruction 
of insects were largely of a spiritual nature ; 
priests marched around infested fields praying ; 
anathemas were pronounced over grasshoppers ; 
or the accused insects were summoned to appear 
in court and judgment was rendered in the form of 
an excommunication. Scarcely thirty years ago, 
two governors of states in America issued procla- 
mations appointing days of fasting and prayer to 
stop the ravages of Rocky mountain locusts. It is 
only within the past quarter of a century that 
most of the modern scientific methods of control- 
ling insect pests have been devised. Previously, 
American farmers resorted to hand-work or to 
simple mechanical devices, such as bands for 
canker-worms and codling-moth. The word "in- 
secticide" was unknown half a century ago, and, 
according to the dictionaries when man kills an 
insect he is an insecticide, he may use an insecti- 
cide, and he also commits an insecticide. Usually, 
however, the word is restricted to some material 
or spray used by man to kill insects. 

We may classify the methods used against insect 
pests as : international, national, state, local or 
neighborhood and individual. The first three of 
these mostly comprise laws or commercial regula- 
lations, by the enforcement of which attempts are 
made to prevent the spread of insect pests from 
one country or state to another, and also to provide 
for the introduction of beneficial insects. Neigh- 
borhood and individual efi'orts usually aim at the 
immediate death of the in.sects either through the 
enforcement of municipal regulations, by the off^er- 
ing of prizes, by practicing better farm methods, 
or by the use of insecticidal batteries. 

Laws or regulations are often necessary in 
insect warfare, but they must be supported by 
public opinion to be efl'ective. Far-reaching and 
valuable results have been attained by interna- 



tional efforts in controlling in.sect pests by quar- 
antine regulations and by the introduction of bene- 
ficial insects. Nations can scarcely overdo this 
kind of control work against injurious insects. 
Compulsory state legislation to 
control insect pests will often lack 
the necessary support of public 
opinion and hence be diflicult to 
administer; attempts to annihilate 
the San Jose scale in Canada by 
the axe and fire were soon stopped 
by adverise public opinion. The 
state inspection laws to prevent 
the spread of insects by nursery- 
men have accomplished much good. 
Local authorities can do much to 
check the ravages of insects over 
limited areas by offering prizes or 
insisting that owners of infested 
premises shall use certain destruc- 
tive measures or pay for having 
the authorities do it. A few neigh- 
bors can do much to mitigate the 
ravages of the hessian fly by com- 
bined action in using early trap strips of wheat 
and sowing as late as practicable. 

And yet, after all has been said and done by 
international, national, state or local authorities 
to stay temporarily the inevitable spread of the 
world's injurious insect fauna, each individual who 
raises crops will often find himself face to face 
with the problem of fighting successfully some 
insect pest or the loss of his crop. Legislation 
and inspection or fumigation certificates are then 
of no avail. Usually his parasitic and predaceous 
insect friends are also too slow. A nation may profit- 
ably spend much money to introduce new insect 
friends; doubtless an extensive national quarantine 
would keep out some injurious insects for a time, 




Fig. 60. A practicable and effective sticky shield for captur- 
ing adult grape leaf-hoppers in the spring. 

and the state and local authorities can do much to 
check the spread of a pest ; but in the end the 
brunt of the fight will fall on the individual whose 
crops are attacked. 



42 



MEANS OF CONTROLLING INSECTS 



The means which the individual may use in 
endeavorinf^ to control his insect enemies are 
many and varied. They may be classed as me- 
chanical methods, farm practices and the applica- 
tion of mate- 
rials commonly 
called insecti- 
cides. 







Me cha nical 
methods. 

is often 
acticable to 
hand-pick or 
out insect 
;sts. This is 
largely prac- 
ticed in coun- 
tries where 
cheap labor is 
available. No 
cheaper and ef- 
fective method 
has yet been 
found for com- 
bating borers 
and many pests 
(a s cutworms 
and white grubs) working in gardens and on other 
small areas. Children have done very effective work 
in collecting eggs of tent-caterpillars and tussock- 
moths on shade trees. A box-like covering of wire- 
screen or mosquito -netting is often placed over 
hills of squashes, melons and cucumbers to protect 
them from the ravages of the striped beetle and 
stink-bug. Seed-beds of cabbages, radish beds and 
various choice or rare plants can be thus protected 
from insects at slight expense. Bushels of young 
grasshoppers and swarms of small leaf-hoppers are 
often collected on the western prairies by drawing 
Icfrge iron pans smeared with tar or containing ker- 
osene, and called " hopper-dozers." (Fig. 59.) Thous- 
ands of grape leaf-hoppers can be collected on 
sticky shields held near while the vines are jarred. 



Fig. 61. Canker-worm moths stopped by 
sticky band in their progress up a tree. 







In'" t „ jyrf 










Fig 62 Ridge formed by Marcy miplement for protection against 
chinch-bugs. Post-holes are dug beside tlie ridge about fifty feet 
apart. This barrier is smooth and compact, and very little affected 
by the rain. The line of coal-tar along the top has 1>een successful 
in all weather conditions. (Kansas Experiment Station Report, 
1896-97.) 



(Fig. 60.) Sticky bands have long been used effec- 
tively to prevent the wingle.ss female moths of 
canker-worms ascending trees to lay their eggs. 
(Fig. 61.) For a quarter of a century before 
the advent of spraying, the principal means em- 
ployed to reduce the numbers of the codling-moth 
were various kinds of cloth or hay -rope bands 
around the trunks of the trees to form more attrac- 
tive places for the caterpillars to transform. Large 
numbers of the caterpillars gather under these 
bands, where they are easily killed. This effective 
banding method can now be used with profit to 
supplement the poison spray when a .second brood 
of the insect occurs. Farmers often use the barrier 
method to prevent chinch-bugs, cutworms or army- 
worms from 
marching into If 
other fields. 
Two furrows 
plowed to- 
gether and a 
narrow strip 
of coal-tar 
poured along 
the ridge thus 
formed, effec- 
tively stop 
chinch - bugs. 
(Fig. 62.) To 
s top a rmy- 
worms a deep 
furrow is 
plowed with 
the perpendic- 
ular side to- 
ward the field 
to be protected, and post-holes are then dug in the 
furrow at intervals of a rod or less. The caterpil- 
lars can not readily scale the furrow and so wan- 
der along it, finally dropping into the holes, where 
they can be killed with kerosene or crushed ; 
bushels of the worms are often killed by this bar- 
rier method. Some insects may be jarred on 
sheets or into catchers. (Figs. 63, 64.) 

Farm practices. 

The American farmer who grows field 
crops mostly, must depend largely on im- 
proved or different methods in growing his 
crops, or on what may be called farm prac- 
tices, to prevent and control the ravages of 
insect pests. Often the horticulturist or 
gardener can also use these methods to good 
advantage. 

Thorough and frequent cultivation, especi- 
ally in early autumn, discourages and finally 
effectively controls wireworms and white 
grubs more than anything yet devised. One 
rarely sees a well-cultivated orchard seriously 
infested with canker-worms, as many of the 
pupffi in the soil are thus destroyed. A fre- 
quent rotation of the crops is one of the 
most effective methods of controlling insects 
which attack field crops, as corn, clover, 
wheat, potatoes and similar crops. The in- 




Fig. 63. An early type of beetle-catcher 
lor vineyards, but now little used. 



MEANS OF CONTROLLING INSECTS 



43 



sects are starved out by finding their favorite 
food-plant replaced by some crop they do not like. 
Many field crops may suffer for a season or two 




Fig. 64. Jarring peach tree for curculio. 

from wireworms or white grubs if planted in fields, 
as pastures or old meadows, that have been in 
sod for several years and are the favorite breed- 
ing grounds of these pests. But thorough cultiva- 
tion of such crops will soon discourage the insects. 
Clean culture, or the destroying of weeds and 
clearing away of rubbish, will often help in the 
warfare against insect pests. Many insects find 
favorable hibernating quarters in rubbish, old stone 
walls, near-by clumps of bushes or forest lands. 
One fruit-grower has largely eliminated the plum 
curculio from his peach orchard by planting it 
away from such favorable hibernating quarters. 
The removal or burial of old cabbage stumps, old 
squash or cucumber vines, and other garden refuse, 
so as to leave the ground clean in the fall, will 
help much in controlling garden insects, like the 
cabbage, radish- and onion-maggots, cutworms, and 
other serious pests. Sometimes an attractive plant 
is used early in the .season as a decoy, to be de- 
stroyed when it has served its purpose and become 
well infested with the pest. Then the main crop to 
be protected is planted later and often escapes 
serious infestation. A strip of mustard or early 
cabbages may be sown early in spring to attract 
the hibernated harlequin-bugs, which can then be 
killed with kerosene before the main crop of cab- 
bage is put out. A strip of wheat sown in August 
will often attract a large proportion of the autumn 
brood of the hessian fly. This infested strip can 
then be plowed under in September, or just before 
the whole field is prepared 
for the main crop, which 
should be delayed in 
planting as long as local 
conditions will permit. 
This "farm practice" 
method of an early decoy 
strip and late planting 
will usually circumvent 
this serious wheat, barley 
and rye pest. Gardeners 
Fig. 65. A beetle, one of the ^jio grow cucurbitaceous 
chewing insects. Oucum- vines sometimes plant a 

™;;,;;!;)"^.'^;',r^tetl'e ^t^iP of early squashes 
much euhirKeii. along One side of the field 




and delay putting out the main crop, so as to at- 
tract many of the striped beetles, .stink-bugs and 
borers to the decoy strip. 

Extensive investigations have demonstrated that 
the cotton boll-weevil can be controlled only by 
cultural methods. Profitable crops of cotton can 
be grown in spite of the weevil by planting early- 
maturing varieties farther apart and earlier, by 
thorough cultivation, by plowing up and destroying 
all the old stalks in early autumn, and by a more 
liberal use of fertilizers — all these are " farm prac- 
tices." Byburning fruit-tree prunings before spring, 
the hibernating stage of several fruit pests, as 
plant-lice eggs and bud-moth larvte, may be de- 
stroyed. The application of a little quick-acting 
commercial fertilizer will sometimes stimulate a 
plant to overcome or outgrow the onslaught of its 
insect enemies ; but when used in practicable or 
fertilizing quantities, these fertilizers will not kill 
the insects. 

It is an alluring thought that we may be able 
to develop insect-resisting varieties of many kinds 
of agricultural plants. The resistance of certain 
American native grape roots to the phyllo.xera 
plant-louse is proving to be the salvation of the 
grape industry in Europe. Promising eff'orts are 
now being made to develop a boll-weevil-resisting 
variety of cotton. Sometimes certain varieties of 
wheat seem to be resistant to the hessian fly. 

Much can be done around farmhouses to reduce 
the numbers of house-flies and mosquitos. Put the 
horse manure in tight sheds so that flies can not 
breed, or spread it on the fields every two or three 
days in summer. Drain ott' or fill in low places 
where water stands continually or 
after showers, as such places breed 
"wigglers" or mosquito larvte. 




Fig. 66. Two examples of sucking insects, belonging to the 
group Irnown to entomologists as the true bugs. 

If the rain-barrel is also screened with wire netting, 
it will not become the breeding-place of thousands 
of mosquitos. House-flies may bring to human food 
the germs of typhoid fever on their feet or mouth- 
parts, and the only way one can get malaria is 
through the agency of certain kinds of mosquitos 
(Anopheles) that may have sucked the disea.sed blood 
from .some malarial patient, which they then inject 
into the body of another when they " bite." (Vol. 
I, p. 297.) 

Spraying and other insedieidal methods. 

For a half century before 1875, the materials 
used by American farmers to kill insects consisted 
largely of whale-oil soap, hellebore, lime, tobacco, 
sulfur and salt. These materials were dusted or 
sprinkled or syringed on the plants. With the ap- 
pearance and rapid march of the Colorado potato- 
beetle across the country from 1860 to 1870, there 



44 



MEANS OF CONTROLLING INSECTS 



came into use Paris green poison, which was des- 
tined to revolutionize insecticidal methods. In 
1872, it was suggested that a Paris green spray be 
applied on cotton plants for the cotton worm and 
on apple trees to kill canker-worms. Six years 
later it was found that the poison spray effectively 
checked the codling-moth, and this gave a new 
impetus to the warfare against insects, which has 
finally resulted in the modern formidable array of 
insecticide materials and elaborate machinery for 
their application. 

The materials used as insecticides may be divided 
into thi'ee groups, based largely on the two differ- 
ent ways in which insects eat. Some insects, as 
caterpillars, potato-beetles, and many others, have 
their mouth-parts provided with strong jaws which 
enable them to bite oft' and swallow solid particles 
of their food-plants. (Figs. 53, 6.5.) Many other 
insects, of which the plant-lice, stink-bugs, scale- 
insects and mosquitos are familiar examples, have 
their mouth-parts drawn out into fine threads which 
are forced into the plant-tissues along a stiff, sup- 
porting beak ; such sucking insects are unable to 
eat solid particles and hence cannot be fed a poison 
sprayed on the surface, for they can suck only liquid 
food from the inner tissues of the plant-host. (Figs. 
54, 66.) To kill biting or chewing insects, it is 
necessary only to apply a poison on the surface of 
the plant where they are going to feed. But each 
individual sucking insect and not a certain part of 
the plant must be hit with some material that will 
soak into its body and kill, or that may smother by 
covering the breathing holes along the sides of the 
body. The third method is fumigation. 

Biting insects. — The insecticides used for killing 
biting insects consist mostly of poisons which 
have for their basis white arsenic. This substance 
can not be used alone, as it dissolves slowly, and 
this causes it to burn foliage severely. But it can 
be combined with salsoda and lime to form a cheap 
and effective poison spray. Boil 1 pound of arsenic 
and 2 pounds of salsoda in 4 quarts of water until 
dissolved ; then slake 2 pounds of stone lime with 
this solution, and add 2 gallons of water. Use about 
IJ quarts of this stock mixture in 40 gallons of 




'' ^7*^~ V.^ ->— ■'^*^ 
F 6 Two ho se spray mach ne for g apes 

water or Bordeaux mixture, for general orchard 
spraying ; for potato-beetles, double the dose of 
poison. 

More than 2,000 tons of Paris green are now 
used annually in America against insect pests. 



It is the standard poison spray, and is used at the 
rate of 1 pound in 100 gallons on orchards, except 
plum and peach, where only about half this 
amount is safe ; on potatoes it is used at least 
twice as strong. 

The arsenite of copper or green arsenite is simi- 
lar to Paris green. 



WWn 







Fig 68 Spraying outfit that will give good service in 
an apple orchard of forty to sixty acres. 

The arsenate of lead, which was first used against 
the gypsy-moth in 1892, is coming into general use. 
It adheres better to the foliage and can be used 
very strong with safety, thus making it especially 
useful against certain insects like the elm leaf-beetle, 
codling-moth, plum curculio, rose-chafer, and grape 
root-worm. It is sold in a paste form, one pound 
of which contains only about half as much arsenic 
as Paris green, thus necessitating using twice as 
much of the arsenate of lead, or 2 to 4 pounds per 
100 gallons for apple orchards and 4 pounds per 
50 gallons in vineyards for grape root-worms. 

Hellebore is still much used for currant-worms, 
but has been largely replaced by the Paris green 
spray. 

Sucking insects. — The insecticides used for kill- 
ing sucking insects are largely powders, oils or 
soaps, which kill by contact or when they hit the 
body of the insect. 

Pyrethrum powder is often used for house-flies, 
but it is too expensive for general use in spraying. 

Tobacco in various forms is largely used for 
fighting plant-lice in greenhouses, and sometimes 
as a spray outdoors or in "washes" or "dips" for 
domestic animals. Tobacco stems may be burned 
slowly, creating a killing smoke, or tobacco dust 
may be freely scattered over the plant, or decoctions 
and extracts may be sprayed on the plants. 

Whale-oil and fish-oil soaps and various common 
soaps are effective insecticides for plant-lice, scale 
insects and many other sucking insects. Two pounds 
of soap dissolved in one gallon of water is the neces- 
sary strength for killing scale insects on dormant 
plants in winter, and one pound in four to six gal- 
lons will kill plant-lice and recently hatched scale 
insects. 

Kerosene and crude petroleum are among the 
most effective materials for killing sucking insects. 
Sometimes they can lie applied in a fine spray on 
dormant trees with little or no injury, but usually 
it is necessary to combine them with goap in an 



MEANS OP CONTROLLING INSECTS 



45 



emulsion, which can then be diluted with water. 
The emulsion is made by dissolving | pound of soap 
in 1 gallon of hot water, then adding 2 gallons of 
the oil and thoroughly agitating the mixture into 
a stable emulsion. This should be diluted with 3 or 




Fig. 69 Niagara carbonic acid gas sprayer. 

4 parts of water for scale insects and with about 
twice as much water for plant-lice and other suck- 
ing insects. Pumps have been designed for combin- 
ing the oils and water into a good mechanical emul- 
sion, but usually the percentage of oil can not be 
satisfactorily controlled. 

So-called soluble or miscible oils which quickly 
emulsify with water are now made and are very 
effective against scale insects. 

A lime, salt and sulfur mi.xture (often without 
the salt) is a very effective and safe spray to use 
on dormant plants for the San Jose scale and the 
peach leaf-curl fungus. This " wash " is made by 
boiling for about an hour 15 pounds of flowers of 
sulfur and 20 pounds of stone lime in 50 gallons of 
water ; by using about 6 pounds of caustic soda 
this " wash " can be made without boiling and is 
nearly as effective, but costs more. 

Fumigation. 

Both sucking and biting insects succumb to the 
fumes of carbon bisulphid or to hydrocyanic acid 
gas. 

Carbon bisulphid is largely used in killing insects 
infesting stored grains or seeds. It is poured into 
shallow dishes set on top of the grain in tight bins, 
or it may be .sprinkled over the grain. The fumes 
are heavier than air and sink all through the 
grain ; as the fumes are explosive, no lights should 
be near. A little of the liquid poured on clothing 
stored during the .summer will kill the destructive 
clothes moths. Cucurbitaceous vines have been 
covered with cloth and successfully treated for 
plant-lice with carbon bisulphid. 

Hydrocyanic acid gas is generated by dissolving 
cyanide of potassium in sulfuric acid and water. 
It is used largely under tents by the citrous orchard- 
ists in California for scale insects, and by many 
nurserjTnen for fumigating their stock to kill San 
Jose scale and other injurious insects. Greenhouses, 



dwellings, cars and flouring mills have been fumi- 
gated successfully with this gas for the white-fly, 
household insects, and the flour-moth. The usual 
formula for fumigating everything but green- 
houses is 1 ounce of cyanide of potassium, 2 
ounces of commercial sulfuric acid, and 4 
ounces of water for each 100 cubic feet of 
space ; the fumigation should be continued 
for half an hour for nur.sery stock and several 
hours or all night in buildings or cars. For green- 
house fumigation, J to 1 ounce of the cyanide is 
used at night for each 1,000 cubic feet. This gas 
is exceedingly poisonous to persons when breathed, 
causing death instantly. 

Spraying methods and machinery. 

Many growers of fruits, potatoes and garden 
crops now include spraying as one of the regular 
and necessary "farm practices" to protect their 
crops from insect and fungous enemies. To spray 
the most successfully requires skill, practice and 
some knowledge of the enemies to be fought. 
Much energy and money is wa.sted every year in 
trying to kill sucking insects with poison sprays 
which they can not eat, or by uninterested 
laborers who hurry through the more or less dis- 
agreeable job. It is often necessary to success that 
we follow closely the detailed directions for mak- 
ing the sprays ; for example, it is very essential 
that dilute and not concentrated mixtures of 
copper sulfate and lime be poured together in 
making Bordeaux mixture. Successful spraying is 
scientific and thus requires the services of faithful, 
trained men. Only the most thorough work with 
the best materials and machinery will accomplish 
the most paying results. To control successfully 
the San Jose scale, for example, each tiny scale 
not larger than a pin's head must be hit thoroughly 
with a powerful inisecticide, thrown with force 
through fine nozzles so as to penetrate every 
crevice in the bark. 

Machinery for the application of insecticides 
has developed from a bundle of twigs or a broom, 
through syringes and ill-adapted pumps, to a formi- 
dable array of powder-guns and pumps specially 
adapted to various conditions and crops. Insecti- 
cides and fungicides are now combined into a fine 




Fig. 70. Spray rig with steam power pump. 

dust that is blown into trees with powder-guns. 
This miscalled "dust-spray" is not so effective as 
the liquid sprays in orchards, as judged by present 
experiments, and is used mostly where water is 
scarce and the land is rough. For applying liquid 



46 



THE MEANS OP CONTROLLING PLANT DISEASES 



sprays there are little atomizers holding a quart or 
two with which house plants, small gardens, or a 
few cattle may be spraj'ed. Next come the bucket 
pumps and knapsack sprayers, which will be found 
useful on most farms for spraying small areas or 
isolated trees in gardens. For several years barrel 




Fig. 71. A modern spray rig. with mounted gasoline engine. 



pumps were much used in all spraying operations, 
but now large tanks equipped with more powerful 
pumps in which the power is developed by horses, 
by steam or ga.soline engines, by compressed air, 
or carbonic acid gas, are mostly used in spraying 
large areas of orchards^ vineyards, potatoes and 
other crops. The horse-power pumps, in which 
the power is developed from the wheels by chain 
or eccentric attachments as the machine moves, 
give sufficient power to do satisfactory work 
only on potatoes and similar low field crops. A 
small compressed-air tank attached to these horse- 
power pumps greatly increases their efficiency for 
the spraying of small orchard trees and vineyards. 
The pumps using compressed air for power do very 
effective spraying of all kinds, but the necessary 
outfit of several spray tanks, an engine and an air- 
compressor are rather expensive. Steam spraying 
rigs are heavy but are easily managed, and fur- 
nish cheap and abundant power. Gasoline engines 
are lighter and are being much used instead of 
steam power. The tanks of compre.ssed carbonic 
acid furnish ample, easily manipulated but slightly 
more expensive power than the engines. Some of 
the forms of spray rigs are shown in Figs. 67-71. 
Good nozzles are an essential part of spray 
pumps. Several types of spray nozzles are used. 



Some, like the cyclone and Vermorel nozzles, pro- 
duce a very fine, funnel-shaped spray. In another 
type, like the McGowan, the spray is fan-shaped 
and can be thrown farther. The various modifica- 
tions of the Vermorel type of nozzle are now 
most extensively used, often several nozzles being 
grouped at the end of a light rod attached to the 
spray hose. 

The manufacturers of spraying apparatus are 
constantly improving and modifying their machines 
so as better to adapt them to the practical needs 
of the agriculturist. American farmers are un- 
doubtedly the best equipped with insecticida! bat- 
teries, and they are putting up the most scientific 
and successful fight against their insect enemies. 

Literature. 

The literature on the means of controlling insects 
IS very extensive and scattered, much of it having 
to do with controlling specific pests. The reader 
will find a great deal of interesting material in 
special articles in the yearbooks, in bulletins and 
circulars of the Bureau of Entomology and 
Farmers' Bulletins, of the United States De- 
partment of Agriculture, and in bulletins 
issued by the federal and state experiment 
stations of the various states. The 
following publications should also be 
con.sulted : Annual Reports and Bul- 
letins Lssued by the State Entomolo- 
gists of New York (Dr. E. P. Felt, Al- 
bany), Illinois (Prof. S. A. Forbes, Ur- 
bana) and Minnesota (Prof. F. L. Wash- 
burn, St. Anthony Park, St. Paul), and 
by the Government Entomologist (Dr. 
J. Fletcher) at Ottawa, Canada ; Lode- 
man, Spraying of Plants, 1896 ; John- 
son, Fumigation Methods, 1902; 
Smith, Economic Entomology, 1896; Weed, Insects 
and Insecticides, 1895 ; Sanderson, Insects Injuri- 
ous to Staple Crops, 1902. 



THE MEANS OF CONTROLLING PLANT 
DISEASES 

By Henry L. Bolley 

Almost every farm, garden and orchard crop is 
open to the attack or influence of one or more 
kinds of infectious disease. As farming, garden- 
ing, or fruit-producing districts age under cultiva- 
tion, the soil ages, and the conditions and materials 
that are favorable to the development of disease 
accumulate. Each crop, or type of cultivated plant, 
unless properly handled, becomes more and more 
susceptible to disease, and is more liable to be 
attacked by disease-producers that are natural to 
the habits and growth conditions of that particular 
kind of crop. 

Practically every known cultivated plant and 
crop, including hothouse-grown plants, vegetables, 
fruit and shade trees, grasses and cereals, is thus 
attacked and the yield and quality are often greatly 
reduced. It is to be expected that the warfare will 
continue. 



THE MEANS OF CONTROLLING PLANT DISEASES 



47 



Parts of the plant attacked. 

Many plant diseases may be said to be systematic 
or constitutional in the same sense as observed in 
animal troubles. Though certain parts may be pri- 
marily the chief source of attack, as, for example, 
leaves in the case of rust, yet the effect on the 
physiology of the plant finally becomes general. All 
such diseases reduce the vitality of the plant body 
as a whole. The points of fixst injury are various, 
according to the kind of plant attacked and the 
nature of the organism which brings about the dis- 
ease. There are " root diseases," " leaf diseases," 
" diseases of the stem " and "diseases of the fruiting 
parts," but, as indicated, these terms are so applied 
largely because the disease first appears on certain 
parts or is finally most destructive to these parts. 

The destruction or damage depends largely on 
the part that is thus attacked, but also varies 
greatly according to the kind of organism that 
produces the disease, the period in the life of the 
crop when the disease appears, and almost directly 
according to the environment of weather and soil 
conditions. 

The cause of disease and the effects produced. 

The effects produced by disease on the individual 
plant and on a crop depend on the character of the 
plants attacked, the nature of the organism that 
causes the trouble and, as just indicated, on the 
life conditions, such as heat, light, moisture, fertil- 
ity of soil, drainage, soil texture, and the like. 
Some diseases are of parasitic character and are 
directly infectious, as, for example, fire-blight of 
apple, wheat-smut, or wheat-rust. Others are im- 
perfect parasites, or merely decay-producers, which 
become materially destructive only under special 
conditions of the soil or atmosphere. Some of these 
last-named types at times become exceedingly de- 
structive, as in the case of numerous decay bacteria 
and molds on vegetation under conditions of e,x- 
cessive moisture. The work of the various damp- 
ing-off fungi is a good example. 

Some plant diseases are more or less local in 
action and temporary in results, depending on the 
character of the plant and the part attacked or on 
sudden changes in the weather. There are many 
others, such as plum-pocket, black-knot and potato- 
scab, that are perennial or persistent, year after 
year, dependent on special peculiarities of the life 
history of the organism that causes the trouble, 
peculiarities of the life of the plant attacked, on 
some method of cultivation and handling of the crop 
or soil, or on soil characters that allow of persist- 
ence from year to year in the soil ; or, again, the 
disease may be transmitted on the parts of the 
plants that are necessary to continued yearly 
propagation. 

These numerous peculiarities as to conditions, 
types of di.sease, modes of attack, differences in 
types of plant affected, and so on, allow us to 
contrive as to methods of combating or controlling 
crop diseases. Such features, closely studied, often 
make means of complete prevention possible. In 
some of the most destructive disea.ses of farm 
crops, such as potato -blight, stinking smut of 



wheat, and grape-rot, methods of prevention have 
been found quite practicable and have come into 
general use. One cannot estimate accurately the 
value of the results obtained, but the writer be- 
lieves that from the smuts of cereal grains alone 
the people of the United States, through practices 
of seed disinfection, save annually in crop yields in 
values approximating $20,000,000 to $30,000,000. 
There are yet other plant diseases, such as wheat- 
rust and apple-blight, in which the natural condi- 
tions influencing their development are so compli- 
cated that means of prevention or control, as yet 
recommended, have given slight results. 

In order to arrive at proper control or reason- 
ably complete prevention of plant diseases, farmers 
and gardeners must study all characteristic fea- 
tures of the soil, climate, and conditions of plant 
growth, that affect the development of the indi- 
vidual plants or crops attacked, as well as those 
conditions that aft'ect, further, or prevent the de- 
velopment of the disease. In this connection, it 
must be remembered that the development of 
disease in the crop is associated directly with the 
conditions that favor the propagation and dis- 
tribution of the disease-engendering organisms. 
Therefore, close attention should be given to all 
features affecting the relationship of soil, air, seed 
and individual plants to crop development. All 
conditions should be sanitary. 

Soil considerations. 

In this connection the soil is a factor of great 
importance, and one should consider such features 
as texture, drainage, chemical nature, fertility 
and position, that is, the kind or type of soil 
and location of the field for the particular crop 
which it is intended to produce. It must be such 
as to furnish the properly balanced food supply 
for the crop or plant growth, so that there may 
be a regular proper growth and evenness of ma- 
turing. Soil drainage must be right, for it greatly 
affects many features and conditions that gov- 
ern plant growth. It directly influences such fea- 
tures as soil texture, soil and atmospheric mois- 
ture, and temperature ; and it has a particular 
bearing on the dissemination or distribution and 
life of plant diseases in the soil. Surface waters 
not only cause a souring of the soil and a general 
sickening of plant growth, but they also serve as 
a means of rapid distribution of the spores of 
disease from plant to plant and from soil area to 
soil area, until, in such soil diseases as cotton root- 
rot, potato-scab or flax-wilt, all flooded areas are 
quickly overrun or permeated by the disease-pro- 
ducing organism. Poorly drained farm lands not 
only directly distribute certain diseases but also, 
through evaporation, directly affect the air con- 
ditions, causing heavy fogs and dews. In the case 
of such diseases as the rusts of cereal grains, these 
conditions result in the greatest possible crop 
destruction. If soil drainage is not proper, it must 
be made so before one may hope for best results in 
the control of some of the plant diseases. 

Treatment of the soil is a phase of work not 
evenly developed. There are numerous types of dis- 



48 



THE MEANS OF CONTROLLING PLANT DISEASES 



ease, especially those which find permanence in the 
soil, that may be controlled to a large degree 
through proper culture, rotation of crops, soil 
resting, and soil weathering. In certain types of 
troubles, chemical applications have been found to 




Fig. 72. Showing difference in growth of wheat from rusted 
and unrusted mother plants of the same crop (alternating). 
Seeds phiuted same day and plants same age. 

be efficacious. All such methods and treatments de- 
pend for their basis on the nature of the particular 
disease-producing organism. Proper crop rotation 
rests the land, keeps up an equable plant-food ration, 
and lessens the possibility of disease accumulation, 
because each plant disease is special in its wants 
and cannot increase in the absence of its host. 

Soil disinfection by means of chemical substances 
directly applied does not yet give great promise. 
The disease - producers are usually possessed of 
greater powers of resistance than the delicate roots 
of cultivated plants. Careful study of the soil 
constituents and physical condition often allows of 
soil treatment that is beneficial in reducing the 
efi'ects of disease. Some diseases, such as potato- 
scab and flax-wilt, caused by soil fungi, are found 
to develop with much greater damage on markedly 
alkaline soils than on soils of neutrality. This is 
comparatively easy of correction through the use 
of barnyard manures, the growth of grasses, and 
the like. Soils of poor texture often result in such 
weak growths that ordinary infectious diseases 
become more destructive than under proper tillage. 
Such features must be remedied by proper methods 
of handling the soil preparatory to cropping. To 
this end, plowing and cultivating at the proper time 
aerate the soil, allow it to weather and become a 
large factor in destroying germs of disease that 
hold over in the soil from year to year. This, we are 
rapidly learning, is one of the real truths back of 
proper crop rotation. [Another discussion of this 
subject will be found in Vol. I, pages 450-453.] 

Climatic conditions. ■ 

When considering possibilities of controlling 
plant diseases, the matter of prevailing climatic 
conditions, to which the crop must be subjected, 
is of much importance. It decides, primarily, 
whether or not one should attempt to produce the 
crop under question, and indicates what variety of 



the particular crop or type of plant should be 
selected. While prevailing climatic features can- 
not be directly controlled, one may often avoid the 
difficulties which they bring about. This matter of 
climate governs the time of planting, mode of har- 
vest, the types of cultivation, and all such features. 
To escape the worst effects of disease on farm 
crops, one must take such features into consider- 
ation, avoiding, if possible, those types of work 
and methods which allow natural climatic condi- 
tions to favor disease development. For example, 
in the case of spraying to prevent diseases such 
as apple-scab and potato-blight, one must consider 
carefully the time when the work will prove most 
effective. This will depend almost wholly on the 
prevailing atmospheric and weather conditions, 
which account for the spread of the various types 
of disease-producing parasites and for their vary- 
ing stages and destructiveness of development. 

Seeds and seed treatment. 

Of all the features of cropping which allow of 
direct effort toward controlling or avoiding disease, 
the seed is open to the easiest and most effective 
study. It is an old saying that the seed-time de- 
cides the harvest. It might as truly be said that 
the type of seed, how it is cared for and handled 
and prepared for the soil, decides what the harvest 
shall be. This is particularly true with types of 
plants that are subjected to certain crop diseases. 

In handling the seed preparatory to the greatest 
possible control of plant disease, one should always 
have in mind a number of very important factors. 
The introduction of new varieties into standard 
cropping regions is often attended with troubles 
arising from disease introduction. Some varieties 
may not only prove worthless because of lack of 




Fig. 73. Wheat from treated and untreated seed. Two bun- 
dles of wheat heads cut at the same distauce from grotmd 
from two plots of wheat (the actual area two sqtiare feet). 
1. From very smutty untreated seed; 76 percent of smutty 
heads in tliis sample. 2. Grown from same seed but 
treated by the formaldehyde method to prevent smut. 

disease-resisting powers, but also may often prove to 
be great disseminators of disease to the standard 
crop of the locality. This feature may be noticed 
in all types of plants, but is markedly noticeable 
among cereals with reference to rust, as in differ- 
ent varieties of oats and of wheat. For example, 
it is very probable that the introduction of winter 
varieties of wheat into noted spring-wheat areas is 
alone sufficient to account for the rapid disappear- 



THE MEANS OF CONTROLLING PLANT DISEASES 



49 



ance of the spring crop, this result being brought 
about by rust which early developed on the winter 
crop and fell on the immature spring crop. For 
similar reasons, mixtures of varieties should be 
avoided when possible. This is especially true of 
cereals, but applies equally to fruit and vegetable 
culture. When attempting to control crop diseases, 
it is a matter of the greatest concern that in the 
crop there should be an evenness of development 
and maturing. One can often protect plants or 
crops of the same grade of growth or maturity, 
but it is difficult to avoid damage when there is no 
uniformity in these features. 

Savin(! seed. — After purity of variety, there are 
no features of caring for the seed of greater impor- 
tance than those which insure proper harvest, curing 
and storing. Aside from conditions that may cause 
weakened vitality of the seeds, there are many 
features of these processes that may introduce or 
multiply the chances of introducing infectious dis- 
eases. Each crop and its special diseases must be 
studied with these points in mind. 

Vitality or initiative growth power in the seed 
or cion is of great importance. It is of much 
moment that the growth period from seed-time to 
maturity shall be as short as possible. This applies 
especially to annual crops. This initiative seed 
power can be gained and maintained only by per- 
sistent seed selection, cleaning and grading. With 
this point in mind, one selects to secure varieties 
and individual types which are the least susceptible 
to disease, cleans them thoroughly to free them 
from possible disease-bearing parts, and grades 
them to get rid of diseased seeds, those that are 
predisposed to disease and those that are not up to 
the standard of excellence. Note Figs. 72-74. 

Treatment of seed. — Proper seed treatment pre- 
supposes a proper selection of seed, proper cleaning 
and grading. Seed thus prepared is then ready for 
treatment or disinfection. The theory of seed dis- 
infection rests on the principle that some plant 
diseases, indeed many, are transmitted by way of 
the seed either to the soil or to the new plant 
directly by way of the embryo. 




Fig. 74. Treating seed grain by spraying and shoveling, as 
practiced on large farms in the Northwest. 

Taking up this feature of the question, it is 
necessary to consider just what diseases are to be 
prevented. Some are known to be directly trans- 
missible by way of the seed, the embryo or germ_ 

B4 



layers being internally infected as in the case of 
fla.x-wilt or anthracnose of beans and loose smut 
of wheat. By far the greater number of diseases, 
such as the stinking smut of wheat and onions and 
numerous diseases of garden vegetables, including 
potato-scab and potato-rot, however, are easily 
transmitted to the ground and the new plant 
because of the presence of external spores, struc- 
tures that are simply dusted on the seeds, and only 
await an opportunity to prey on the roots. (Fig. 
75.) For all such diseases, seed disinfection is an 




Fig. 75. Potato-scab growing on sugar-beets. Tliis illustra. 
tiou is from tlie oritrinal experiinont which proved that 
potato-scab fungus lives from year to year in the ground, 
and may attack other vegetables besides potatoes. 

easy and direct remedy, and numerous formulas 
and washes or solutions suited for special diseases 
have been developed from time to time, among 
which may be named the following examples : Cop- 
per sulfate solution, corrosive sublimate solution, 
hot water treatment, and the formaldehyde treat- 
ments. 

Usually the treafment demands that individual 
seeds shall be subjected thoroughly to the action of 
the disinfecting medium for a definite period of 
time. It is well to remember that, as in the case 
of serving medicine to persons, or administering 
washes to wounds, only certain strengths are suit- 
able to particular cases. Therefore, the directions 
for using must be followed closely if prevention 
can be reasonably expected, the aim being to pre- 
vent the disease, and, at the same time, in no way 
to injure the growth from the seed. It is an inter- 
esting feature of seed disinfection that, whenever 
a proper treatment for prevention has been made, 
the yield may very greatly exceed that from the 
untreated seed of the same type, even though no 
particular disease is known to infest the seed. This 
may be readily accounted for by the fact that dis- 
infection does away with many unknown or unob- 
served organisms on the seed that cause trouble to 
the young plant sufficient to be of great detriment 
to its growth, and yet not sufficient to give results 
that would ordinarily be characterized as dis- 
ease. Thus, with seed properly treated by the for- 
maldehyde method of disinfection, bacteria, yeasts, 
molds, all types of organisms which readily set up 
fermentations in the moistened seed, are disposed 
of, leaving the young plantlet to draw unmolested 
the full amount of food materials stored in the 
mother seed. 

The following farm crops are grown with much 
greater advantage if the seed is first disinfected : 
Wheat, barley, oats, millet, grass seeds, flax seed 
and corn. The method of disinfection is now almost 



50 



THE MEANS OF CONTROLLING PLANT DISEASES 



uniformly some modification of the formaldehyde 
treatment. 

Formulas for seed treatment. — Only a few of the 
standard formulas for seed treatment may be noted 
here. The steps in different cases are very similar. 
Persons interested in some special method of seed 
treatment should consult their nearest experiment 
station officer interested in such work, or look up 
the matter in the general literature of the stations 
and the Department of Agriculture. 

Hot water : Temperature and time of immersion 
vary according to kind of seeds and type oi dis- 
ease ; especially recommended for stinking smut 
and the smuts of oats and barley ; for stinking 
smut in wheat dip at 135° Fahr., for three to five 
minutes ; for oat- or barley-smut, immerse at 133° 
Fahr., for fifteen minutes. (Consult bulletins of 
Indiana, Kansas, North Dakota, and other experi- 
ment stations.) 

Corrosive sublimate solution : One ounce to six 
gallons of water ; used successfully to treat potato 
tubers for destruction of spores of scab, rot and 
blight ; immerse whole tubers for one and one-half 
hours. Plant on disease-free soil. This solution is 
also very effective against stinking smut of wheat. 
(See bulletins of North Dakota Experiment Sta- 
tion and others.) 

Formaldehyde solution : The most economical 
and successful seed disinfectant ; now in general 
use for all types of seed and all types of plant dis- 
eases. Especially recommended for prevention of 
smuts in cereal grains, wheat, oats, barley and 
millet, flax-wilt, onion-smut and potato-scab. Very 
effective in improving the first-growth powers of 
weak or moldy seeds, especially grass seed, corn, 
garden seeds, and the like. It prevents the early 
action of molds, damping-off fungi and other 
diseases. The strengths used on cereals and seeds 
is generally sixteen ounces of 40 per cent formalde- 
hyde to forty gallons of water ; for potato-scab, 
sixteen ounces to thirty gallons. It is u.sed either 
as a spray or dip. (For special methods, consult 
experiment station literature.) 

Sulfur and lime have often received high com- 
mendation for use in seed disinfection. The writer, 
after many trials, has been unable to find them 
of use against any fungus which attacks by way 
of seed or soil. 

The growing crop or plant. 

It is essential to take into consideration the 
growing plant or crop, noting the many features 
that have particular bearing on disease develop- 
ment or, at least, those that allow one to guard the 
crop against excessive destruction. Any feature of 
soil or environment which may chance to give an 
unfavorable growth period during the regular 
growing season may lay the crop open to serious 
damage. Thus, the drainage and character of the 
soil, as already said, and its cultivation may par- 
ticularly affect the character of the crop with 
reference to its ability to develop in the presence 
of disease. The influence of drainage is always 
distinctly noticeable in its effects on the develop- 
ment of blights, wilts and rusts. For example, 



poorly drained areas in the great spring - wheat 
belt of the Northwest bring about heavy dew for- 
mations, and this results in extreme rust infection 
and consequent damage. 

The matter of fertilization of the flowers by 
insects often plays a direct role in introducing 
new infection, as, for example, when bees and flies 
visit infected trees and carry infection from flower 
to flower and from tree to tree. This has been 
clearly demon.strated in pear- and apple-blight. 

The application of fertilizers and barnyard 
manures may exert a direct influence on the devel- 
opment of plant disease. One often sees the ill- 
ett'ects of the injudicious use of such agents. It 
need only be emphasized that an unbalanced food 
supply readily produces an irregular growth which 
may be open to the attack of many types of 
disease-producing agents, as, for example, rust of 
wheat in case of excessive use of nitrogenous fer- 
tilizers or barnyard manures. Weeds in many ways 
may be unfavorable in their efl'ects on the grow- 
ing plant, and directly favorable to destructive 
action of plant parasites on the crop. They draw 
away nourishment in time of drought and by keep- 
ing the crop befogged in times of dampness, as in 
the case of the rust parasites, they bring about 
profuse spore germination and infection. Certain 
weeds are also direct breeders of the parasites 
which prey on special cultivated crops. Clean cul- 
ture, therefore, always has its direct merits. 

The matter of considering the growth periods of 
the crop becomes one of actual necessity when 
preparing for the work of spraying for prevention. 
It determines the time of spraying and the strength 
of solution that may be used with success. 

Spraying for prevention. 

Spraying for the prevention of plant diseases 
has now become a fixed practice in the better agri- 
cultural regions throughout the world. It owes its 
existence to the simple fact that many of the special 
diseases which attack farm, garden and orchard 
crops are infectious by nature, and spread from 
plant to plant by means of small seed-like struc- 
tures, called spores, which may be readily borne by 
the winds, water, insects or other agencies. When 
they fall on the growing plant, they begin to grow 
either by attacking the plant surface or by send- 
ing filaments into the internal structures. It has 
been found that certain solutions, applied at the 
proper time, cut short the lives of these spores and 
their developing growths, preventing injury to the 
plant on which they fall, or on which they are 
spreading. The aim of spraying is to cover all 
surfaces that are likely to be attacked, or on which 
spores are likely to fall, with a film of some chem- 
ical, either dry or in solution, that will prevent the 
germination of the spores and the development of 
the disease-producing organisms, and, at the same 
time, not injure the foliage and living tissues of 
the plant on which the spray falls. It is thus 
merely a matter of disinfection. 

The time for spraying can be properly deter- 
mined only by a close observation of the period 
at which "the disease is spreading and by con- 




Crab-apple in fruit. Indiana 




Plate n. Orange tree in fruit. California 



THE MEANS OF CONTROLLING PLANT DISEASES 



51 



sidering the stage of leaf, flower or fruit develop- 
ment. Usually the earlier spraying is done on 
orchards and permanent plants, in order to destroy 
the first series of spores that may come from dis- 
tant regions. Two or three, and in some cases four 
or five treatments are applied during the growing 
season for a like reason. 

If spraying is done properly, one need not expect 
to see much indication of the diseases which are 
thus preventable in the sprayed crop. It is wholly 
a matter of prevention. Therefore, forethought 
must be exercised ; for when the disease is once 
started, spraying, in most cases, will not prevent 
the particular plant sustaining injury, as in the 
case of a potato plant which has become attacked 
by blight. Proper spraying, however, will prevent 
the disease spreading from this plant to other 
plants, — indeed, will keep it confined to the parts of 
the plant already attacked. Even the individual 
plants that are once attacked are benefited because 
their future growths may continue uninterrupted. 
Spraying has become so universal that one need 
only cite a few diseases that are thus preventable. 
It must be remembered that, as each plant disease 
has a particular life-history and attacks its host- 
plant in a particular way, there are special reasons 
for modifying spraying processes to fit each crop 
and each peculiar disease; therefore, one who 
wishes to take up the work should consult proper 
authorities, or bulletins dealing directly with this 
phase of the question. 

The following list of diseases that may be pre- 
vented by proper spraying is only an indication of 
the actual number : Apple ripe-rot, anthracnose, 
canker or bitter-rot, leaf-spot and scab ; aspara- 
gus-rust; bean anthracnose; beet leaf-spot; celery- 
blight; cucumber damping-off, mildew and blight; 
gooseberry mildew ; grape-rot and anthracnose ; 
lemon-scab; lettuce leaf-rot, leaf-mold and mildew; 
melon mildew and anthracnose; olive-scab; orange- 
scab and mold ; peach leaf -spot and scab ; pear- 
scab and leaf-spot ; plum-rot and shot-hole fungus ; 
potato early blight, late blight, rot and mildew ; 
raspberry anthrancnose ; squash fruit-blight, rot 
and mildew; tomato anthracnose, leaf-blight and 
damping-otf ; violet mildew, mold and blight. 

Sanitary prevention. 

Since all of the plant diseases that affect field 
crops and plants generally, excepting those that 
are due to improper agricultural technique or par- 
ticular chemical nature of the soil, may be looked 
on as essentially infectious, either directly from 
plant to plant or from soil to soil, one may put the 
whole matter on sanitary bases similar to those 
which apply to the prevention of diseases among 
animals and man. An ounce of prevention is worth 
a pound of cure. In the case of farm crops and 
garden plants, it is clearly true that a slight 
amount of energy placed to the credit of proper 
methods of prevention adds greatly to the crop 
returns. The chief methods of prevention that are 
usually practiced have been cited when we mention 
seed treatment and spraying. These strictly belong 
to this heading of sanitary prevention, but, as they 



have become matters of common practice, the 
writer wishes to call attention to the fact that 
there are other sanitary methods of avoiding 
diseases in farm and garden crops aside from these 
two. Much may be done to put the environments 
of the crop in sanitary condition, as the cleaning- 
up of the field after the previous crop, the elimina- 
tion of diseased parts of permanent plants, trees 
and shrubs, the disinfection of bins, machinery, 
sacks, storehouses, elevators and all containers and 
contrivances that are to be handled in connection 
with the cultivation of the new crop. And, finally, 
the farmer should look to the breed, striving to 
procure breeds or strains that are resistant to the 
diseases that affect their race and variety. 

In the case of crops that are annually attacked 
by diseases, an intelligent, concerted action on the 
part of the farmers throughout the country must, 
of necessity, have great bearing on the reduction of 
disease-producing influences. Every farmer knows 
that to grow potatoes year after year on the same 
patch of ground results in gradual reduction in 
yield and quality because of scab, rot, blight and 
wilt, and numerous apparent but unknown troubles. 
This ia but an example of the accumulation of the 
infecting spores of such diseases in a particular 
area of soil or in the immediate neighborhood. 
There are probably none of the fungi producing 
known diseases, that are not able to survive the 
winter on the refuse of the preceding crop. We have 
numerous such examples: mildew of peas and beans, 
bacterial disease of cabbage, cotton root-rot, wilt 
of flax, stinking smut of wheat, the black smut of 
corn, potato-blight and potato-rot, apple-scab, apple 
canker, pear-blight, grape-rot, and so on. While 
some of these diseases are maintained from year to 
year on wild plants, the great majority of them 
gain their excess of development on the more ten- 
der abnormally developed agricultural plants. It 
has thus become one of the tenets of agriculture 
that the waste products of these, such as potato 
tops, waste fruit or vegetables, whatever they 
may be, should be eliminated as quickly as possible. 
This may be accomplished by gathering them care- 
fully in heaps to be burned on the ground, or per- 
haps better by thorough composting. It has been 
said that thorough composting results in the de- 
struction of most types of spores ; yet, on the out- 
side of all such manure piles and compost heaps it 
has been found that many of the diseases, such as 
the smuts and imperfect fungi, may even develop 
their spores in great quantities. The writer has 
known whole areas of virgin soil in North Dakota 
to be ruined for flax production through the use of 
poorly composted flax straw in barnyard manures. 

Old-time gardeners have always believed in the 
elimination of weak and sickly plants. Greenhouse 
men of greatest success have always "rogued" all 
their beds. It will be clearly seen that, if such 
weakly and sickly plants are destroyed by fire, the 
chance of spreading disease is greatly lessened. In 
the case of perennial plants, trees and shrubs, there 
are many diseases for which proper pruning may 
largely lessen the possibilities of disease distribu- 
tion. In the case of apple-blight, pear-blight, and 



52 



THE MEANS OF CONTROLLING PLANT DISEASES 



many of the common fruit diseases, a persistent cut- 
ting bacli of tlie diseased parts and burning is suf- 
ficient largely to reduce the damage done by these 
very destructive diseases. Indeed, at present it 
seems the only efl'ective means of controlling such 
diseases. In these cases which directly infect th : 
internal tissues of the plants, the pruning to elim- 
inate diseased parts must be done at a consider- 
able distance below the actual place of disease in 
order that the disease may not continue below that 
point. One also keeps a disinfecting solution for 
the purpose of disinfecting his hands and tools, so 
that the disease may not be transferred from limb 
to limb. In the case of pear-blight, which may 
be taken as a good example of such troubles, the 
organism that occasions the blight may be trans- 
ferred in the sticky juice that exudes from dying 
parts to other parts by any agency which comes 
in contact with the disease-bearing liquids and 
afterwards wounds or perforates delicate parts 
of other trees. A concerted action of the fruit- 
growers throughout the United States might 
readily reduce to a minimum the injury occasioned 
by this disease. In order to make such efforts 
effective, farmers interested in particular crops, 
whether of fruit, vegetables or cereals, will need 
to bring as much influence as possible to bear 
on their neighbors, and indeed on all persons con- 
cerned. It is only in concerted action that sanitary 
prevention can become of general benefit. When 
eiucation along such lines is general, losses from 
disease will be reduced to a minimum. 

A point in disease control which is often over- 
looked by many who are otherwise quite successful, 
is that of caring for the seeds after harvest. This 
e^pecially applies to vegetables and cereal grains. 
All bins, machinery, granaries, storehouses and 
elevators should be kept thoroughly clean and, as 
nearly as possible, free from dust. The farmer who 
practically breeds and selects his own seed grain 
and plants for propagation, after once having 
procured a pure strain, need seldom take other 
precautions than those previously mentioned of 
eliminating the weak and inefficient plants and the 
like, providing he holds himself to cleanliness in 
regard to machinery and seed storage. It is easy 
to introduce such a disease as stinking smut of 
wheat, by allowing the machine which has pre- 
viously threshed a smutty crop to come on the farm 
before it is properly cleaned. It is clearly evident 
that diseases of cereals and vegetables, including 
potatoes and smaller crops, can be transmitted 
readily in sacks and other containers. In most 
cases it is a simple matter to disinfect these con- 
tainers at the time that the process of seed disin- 
fection is being carried out. 

Breeding and selection. 

All of the above processes that have been men- 
tioned for avoiding or controlling diseases have for 
their basis the assumption of the fact that we 
have a particular kind or strain of plant or crop 
that we wish to protect against disease. Control- 
ling diseases of farm crops by means of breeding 
and selection has in view the supposition that 



those valuable strains of farm plants which we 
now possess, by proper breeding and selection may 
be increased in their efficiency of resisting disease 
without materially interfering with their economic 
value. Proper processes of breeding and selection, 
therefore, would presuppose the ability on the part 
of the breeder or selector to maintain, in his crop, 
its ability to produce quantity and quality and yet 
have the crop possess the added power of disease 
resistance. To accomplish this does not demand 
the effort of a scientific plant-breeder alone. It 
demands that the farmers gain that simple knowl- 
edge that enables them to recognize the plant or 
crop that does resist the prevailing diseases, and 
then that they should save the seed and propagate 
this crop to the exclusion of those types of plants 
or crops which are inefiicient in this respect. New 
kinds are often secured by the proce.ss of crossing 
and breeding. This is usually the work of the 
expert or, at least, of men who have means and 
time to tend to the work. But new strains, so far 
as the actual crop is concerned, may be secured by 
straight selection of individual plants. 

This line of work lately has been found to give 
results of enormous crop value. One has only 
to save the seed from the types that best serve 
the purposes, and persist in doing so to gain 
greatly in this respect. This is the newest field of 
work along the line of controlling plant diseases, 
but it is sufficiently past the experimental stage 
to allow one to assert with confidence that any 
farmer who will may thus greatly benefit himself 
and aid all mankind toward the elimination of 
plant diseases. For example, if we gain a type of 
wheat that does not produce on its leaves one-third 
as much rust as has been produced previously in 
that region on the common types of wheat, it is a 
self-evident fact that there will not be so much 
rust to be distributed to other fields. If, by care- 
ful and consistent selection of varieties and indi- 
vidual strains from the varieties, the farmer 
finally attains a crop of potatoes that is no longer 
open to the attack of potato-rot and potato-blight, 
it is a self-evident fact that his fields will not be 
distributers of the disease to other fields. It is too 
much to expect, perhaps, that this process will 
eliminate entirely some of the most destructive 
diseases, such as rust of wheat, rot of potatoes, 
blight of pear, root-rot of cotton, and wilt of flax, 
yet the results gained in this direction in the past 
ten years are such as to convince the most skep- 
tical that herein lies a most efl'ective means of 
reducing the destructive action of plant diseases. 
The process is so simple that any one may engage 
in it with success. Diseases weaken, mar, shrivel 
and lessen the produce from plants that are non- 
resistant. Mother plants that are resistant produce 
the more perfect products. It is from such that 
one should propagate the succeeding crops. It is 
but to put the "survival of the fittest" principle 
into direct action in crop production. 

Literature. 

The literature on plant diseases is voluminous. 
It is impossible here to cite monographs. Refer- 



THE BREEDING OF PLANTS 



53 



ences to these may be found in writings specially 
devoted to this subject. Many of the diseases that 
have to do with special crops are discussed or 
referred to under these crops. Most of the experi- 
ment stations and the United States Department 
of Agriculture have issued general and specific 
bulletins on plant diseases. The card catalogue of 
experiment station literature, issued by the United 
States Department of Agriculture, is especially 
helpful in this connection. A few important publi- 
cations follow : Centralblatt fur Bacteriologie und 
Parasitenkunde ; Cobb, Plant Diseases and Their 
Remedies, Department of Agriculture, New South 
Wales ; Cooke, Rusts, Smut, Mildew and Mold ; 
Cooke, Introduction to Study of Fungi ; De Bary, 
Morphology and Biology of Fungi, translated by 
Garnsey and Balfour; Engler and Prantl, Die 



Naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien ; Hartig, Pflanzen- 
krankheiten ; Hartig, Di.seases of Trees, translated 
by Sommerville and Ward ; Journal of Mycology : 
Kuster, Pathologiche Pfianzenanatomie ; Masse. 
British Fungus Flora ; Revue Mycologique ; Scrib 
ner. Fungus Diseases, Selby, Handbook, Diseases 
of Cultivated Plants, Ohio Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station Bulletin, No. 121 ; Smith, Diseases 
of Field and Garden Crops ; Smith, Spread of Plant 
Diseases, see Massachu.setts Horticultural Society 
Report, 1898 ; Sorauer, PHanzenkrankheiten ; Stone, 
Disea.ses of Crops, not Generally Supposed to be 
Caused by Fungi or Insects, Massachusetts Agri- 
cultural Experiment Station Report, 1905 ; Under- 
wood, Moulds and Mushrooms ; Von Tubeuf and 
Smith, Diseases of Plants ; Ward, Diseases of 
Plants ; Freeman, Minnesota Plant Diseases. 



CHAPTER III 



THE BREEDING OF PLANTS 




pNTEREST IN PLANT-BREEDING is now one of the dominant notes in American agri- 
culture. We have tended to proceed along one line of progress at a time. The 
enriching of the soil has long been the most dominant note in agriculture. Of late 
years, the importance of tillage has been again very strongly emphasized, with some 
misapprehension, no doubt, of some of the real issues involved. In some periods, 
underdrainage has been especially advised. At present, the desire to breed adaptable 
. . kinds of plants has come strongly to the fore, following long years of insistence on 

II,' the part of prophets here and there. This plant -breeding phase of our development is not 
likely to isolate itself, for we now have a body of investigators and teachers and of so many 
minds that all phases of agriculture are likely to receive somewhat coordinate attention. 
The larger part of plant-breeding work is now centralizing about the experiment stations and the 
Department of Agriculture. This is characteristic of our time, for the institutions hold the leadership. 
In time, when agricultural affairs have readjusted themselves, leadership will again lie in good part in 
men engaged in commercial farming. There is every reason for supposing that plant-breeding should be 
a per.sonal enterprise as well as an institutional enterprise. 

These remarks do not lose sight of the fact that there are a few personal and isolated plant- 
breeders, standing out strongly and doing their work by methods of their own. In this class, Luther 
Burbank is preeminent. Burbank's work has been misjudged and sensationalized by reporters (a danger 
which just now threatens all work of this kind), until the public is in great error in its estimate of it. 
Mr. Burbank is experimenting with an unusual variety of plants in great numbers and under propitious 
natural conditions, with strongly personal methods and points of view. His place abounds in surprising 
and interesting results in the variation of plants. Some of the results will no doubt be of marked 
economic value. But his work is not occult, nor is it revolutionary. It will rank among the great efforts 
in the amelioration and adaptation of plants. It is calling attention to the fact that the intellectual 
interest in variation may be quite as much worth while as interest in the sesthetic or other companion- 
ship with plants. 

The reader will now want a statement of what plant-breeding is : it is the producing of plants that 
ire adapted to specific conditions or requirements. The mere production of something new, or unlike 
anything then existing, may have little merit or purpose, and it is not plant-breeding in the best sense. 
It will be seen, therefore, that the first step in plant-breeding is a definite purpose or ideal ; one does 
not develop this ideal until he has a clear conception of his business. 

The professional plant-breeders may be the persons to produce the larger and bolder races or groups ; 
but it must lie with the individual farmer to adapt these things to his own place, or to be able to 



54 THE BREEDING OF PLANTS 

choose those that are already adapted, as it is also his part to determine what kinds of fertilizers he 
shall use or what kinds of crops he shall grow. Good farmers have always been plant-breeders : they 
have "selected the best" for seed ; they have changed seed from place to place ; they have exercised 
a shrewd discrimination in varieties and strains. The present phase of plant-breeding differs in attach- 
ing more importance to plant adaptations and in a better understanding of the principles underlying the 
practices. The good stockman does not use common stock for breeders ; the good plantsman does not use 
common stock for breeders. 

Every good farmer, then, is of necessity a plant-breeder. He knows the points and merits of his 
wheat or cotton, as the dog-fancier knows the points of his dogs. Knowing this, he will also know what 
improvements are needed to adapt the plants to his soil or climate or system of farming or markets. 
He will then set about it to secure these improvements by (1) looking for plants that most nearly 
approach the ideal or causing them to vary toward that ideal, (2) selecting seed from these plants, 
(3) repeating the process as long as he lives. The remainder of the work is detail. 

This process may not produce any very striking or permanent new vegetable forms ; but the 
efficiency of a personal business lies mostly in these smaller grades of differences. If a man is a seller of 
new plants, he may want plants with new names. For certain regions and certain purposes, also, wholly 
new kinds of things may be needed ; but with the producing of these the individual farmer will not 
often concern himself. It is significant that some of the most important seed business of the present day 
rests on the sale of improved, selected or pedigreed seed of standard varieties. Every ambitious, careful 
and clear-headed farmer should now be able to produce superior seed-stock of his staple crop to sell for 
planting at good living prices. The public is now ready to believe that there are grades of quality in 
seed-stock of the common crops as there is in butter or cheese or liquors (some time we will also know 
that there are grades of quality in plain drinking-water). 

The above advice rests on the principle that improvement is made by means of selection. This is the 
Darwinian principle. Selection, however, rests on variation. Why variations (or differences) arise, 
nobody really knows, although nearly everybody has an opinion. It is known, however, that variations 
accompany changes in soil, climate, methods of growing, and other changed conditions. Variation may 
also be induced or started off by crossing one plant with another, and such differences are likely to be 
marked. Some variations appear without any apparent reason, and they may be more or less stable from 
the first ; they are " sports, " or, as we now say, mutations (following the terminology of DeVries). 
These marked so-called "sudden" variations may reproduce remarkably true from seed. The recent 
evolution discussions have tended to divide variations into these two classes, — the small individual 
variations that do not reproduce or " come true " (and are therefore presumed to be of no permanent 
effect in the evolution of the type), and the variations, usually wider, that do "come true." We do not 
know, however, what are the ultimate origins or what the physiological differences. Divested of technical 
questions and controversial phases, the practical difference between mutations and other variations is one 
of definition, — the mutations come true, the others do not. The mutation theory controverts the older 
doctrine that variations may be augmented by selection until the differences become morphologically 
great, and until they also become " fixed " or able to reproduce themselves, — that is, that species originate 
by means of selection ; but the mutation theory does not controvert the importance — but rather empha- 
sizes it — of selection as an agent in the improvement of agricultural plants. Even if a mutation (or 
hereditable variation) appears, it may still be greatly improved in its minor features by careful selection. 

The mathematical law of chance or probabilities applies to hybrids as well as to other numerical com- 
binations. If a plant with three given characters, for example, were to be crossed with a plant of three 
contrasting characters, the law of probability would predict about how many of the offspring would 
have one combination of characters and how many would have another combination. The law might nut 
be exemplified in any one plant, but it would very likely be apparent in the average of a number of 
plants ; and the greater the number, the more regular the results, due to the subordination of exceptiors. 
Mendel found that this law applies to characters that are united in crossing ; if the law applies, it 
means that the characters or marks have an identity or individuality of their own, that they are carried 
over entire rather than as blends. In order to explain the application of the mathematical law of 
chance to hybridization, therefore, we suppose that characters are units and that they are represented 
directly in the germ-cell ; and hereby arises the theory of the "purity of the germ-cell." That is to say, 
the mathematical law requires a biological hypothesis to explain why or how it works with animals and 
plants. Very many experiments have shown that the characters of parents reappear in offspring approxi- 
mately in the given mathematical proportions ; on the other hand, other experiments show a different or 



THE BREEDING OF PLANTS 55 

contradictory result. Some hybrids also are blends. A very complex body of speculation has been built 
up around the so-called Mendellian law, as there has been about other pronouncements in times present 
and past ; how much of it is truth time only can tell. The Mendellian discussion has challenged our 
notions of hybridization and heredity and has modified the methods of experiment ; but there is no indi- 
cation that the Mendel law will enable us to produce new plants with certainty, as some of its early 
adherents predicted. 

riant-brcediiig societies. 

This Editorial is written from the viewpoint of the farmer : the professional plant-breeder will take 
care of himself. The farmer needs help in this particular effort, as he needs it in other ways. The organ- 
ization of breeding societies is one of the best means of spreading and unifying the work. A number of 
these societies are now in existence, indicating the interest in the subject and the grip that it has on 
practical men. Associations for plant-breeding are as necessary as societies for animal-breeding. As an 
illustration of the kind of effort that these organizations stand for, citations may be made from the 
literature of the Ohio Plant Breeders' Association : " The purposes of this association shall be to encour- 
age the improvement of plants and to provide an official record for breeders who are giving special 
attention to this work." The rules for the registry of seed corn are as follows : 

"Section I.— Eligibility. 

" In order that a strain of corn may be eligible to registry with the Ohio Plant Breeders' Association, 
it is necessary that it trace directly and exclusively to remnants of ears that have ranked not lower 
than fourth in point of yield of gi?in, protein, starch or fat in a duplicate ear-row test of not less than 
twenty-five ears ; and that each year's breeding or testing work shall have been conducted and recorded 
in accordance with the requirements of the Association. 

"Section II. — Ohio Pedigreed Corn. 

"Any corn which is the product of a cross between two ear remnants, one as sire and the other as 
dam, each of which has been selected as per Section I, shall be entitled to the name Ohio Pedigreed. 
The records shall show whether the cross was made by artificial or natural pollination. 

"Section III. — Ohio Standard Corn. 

"Eight or more registered ears, as per Section II, or ear remnants, as per Section I, may be merged 
by shelling and mixing together the grain from all, before planting. If this merged corn, or corn 
descended exclusively from it, shall, on the average, excel in yield of grain, protein, starch or fat per 
acre, each of three other varieties (including the one from which it has descended and a standard variety 
which shall be supplied by the council upon request), when' tested upon not less than tenth-acre plots for 
three consecutive years, the owner of it shall be entitled to a certificate under the seal of the Association, 
setting forth the record numbers under which the work upon this corn has been recorded, together 
with a statement that it has filled the requirements of the association and is entitled to the name 
Ohio Standard. A fee of $10 shall be required for this certificate and copies of same shall be issued at 
25 cents each to accompany any corn that traces directly and exclusively to this merging. 

"Section IV. — Transfers. 

"Transfers of grain, together with all breeding privileges, may be made at any time, but in order that 
the progeny of such grain may be eligible to registry with the Association, each transfer must be entered 
for registry with the Recording Secretary of the Association within three months of the time of transfer. 
A certificate of transfer shall then be is.sued under the seal of the Association showing the record 
numbers under which the work of the breeders upon this corn has been recorded. A fee of $1 shall be 
charged for each record of transfer." 

How to cross plants. 

One of the means of inducing variation, as already explained, is to cross one plant with another. By 
crossing, also, it may be possible to combine some of the attributes of two or more plants into one. The 
reader will want to know how crossing is accomplished. 



56 



THE BREEDING OF PLANTS 



For most farm purposes it is sufficient to grow the intended parents side by side, if they are wind- 
er insect-pollinated, and let the chance of crossing rest with natural agencies. The seeds are then taken 
from the most likely parents and sown separately. In the progeny, one may expect to find some plants 
to his liking or at least such as are suggestive for further experiment. Plants that are 
freely visited by bees, as the fruit trees, or those in which the sexes are in separate flow- 
ers, as maize and hemp and chestnuts and melons, are almost certain to be crossed by this 
method. If the stigma happens to receive pollen from its own flower or plant and also from 
another plant, the foreign pollen will usually accomplish the fecundation. No doubt 
a great many of our agricultural varieties have arisen from such natural and appar- 
ently promiscuous crossing. 

If one wishes to make an exact experiment, however, he must transfer the 
lollen himself under conditions of control, both to ensure that crossing takes place 
and that the pollen is from a given parent. The manual operation of crossing is of 
four parts : (1) protecting the pistil from undesired pollen ; (2) protecting the pol- 
len ; (3) applying the desired pollen ; (4) protecting the ovary and fruit. The operator 
must first be familiar with the parts of the flower. If he has no teacher, he may 
secure this information from any of the school botanies : and Figs. 14 to 
=,. 17 and 76 will aid him. In the succeeding pages he will find the flowers 
of the different crops displayed. 

(1) Protecting the stigma. — If the flower contains stamens, the anthers must 
be removed before pollen is discharged. The discharge is likely to take place 
about as soon as the flower opens. The pistil must also be protected from foreign 
pollen. This means that the pistil must never be exposed to wind or insects. The 
protecting of the the pistil, then, is of two kinds, — removing the anthers (emascu- 
lation), covering the flower. Usually the bud is opened just 
before it is ready to burst, the anthers clipped ofi' or broken off, 
and the flower covered securely with a thin paper or muslin bag. 

(2) Protecting the pollen. — In the meantime the pollen- 
bearer has been looked after. It is safest to cover with a bag 
the flower or cluster of flowers from which pollen is 
to be taken, for insects may leave foreign pollen on the 
anthers. This precaution is not often taken, however, 
for the operator is careful to take his pollen only from 
unopened anthers. In some cases the pollen ripens in 
advance of the pistil, or it must be secured from a dis- 
tance. It will usually retain vitality a few days if 
carefully dried (not heated) and kept dry in an envel- 
ope. Some species have short-lived pollen, and some 
have relatively long-lived pollen : it should be the aim 
to have it as fresh as possible, when applied to the 
stigma. 

(3) Applying the pollen. — Usually the stigma is not 
ripe or "receptive" when the flower is emasculated. 
The flower is to remain covered, therefore, until the] 
stigma is receptive. This epoch is determined by the 
looks of the stigma, a point to be accurately deter- 
mined only by experience. The ripe stigma usually 
exudes a sticky or glistening covering, or it becomes 

rough and papillary. A hand lens will aid greatly in determining the proper 
time. A fresh ripe anther is crushed (if the pollen is taken fresh from the 

flower) on a knife-blade or thumb-nail, and some of the liberated pollen applied to the stigma by means 
of a needle-point or other small implement. The stigma is completely covered if possible. Then the bag 
is replaced. 

(4) Protecting the forming fruit. — The bag is allowed to remain a few days, until all danger of 
further fecundation is removed. It is usually replaced by a mosquito-netting or tarlatan bag, in order to 
protect the fruit from insects or mechanical injury. This bag also aids in locating the fruit amongst 




Fig. 76. 
Flowers (of funkia or day 
lily) in various stages 
of development. Tlie 
open riowers show tlie 
stamens, «, and pis- 
tils, p. The large buds 
above these are in the 
proper stage to be 
opened and emascu- 
lated. It is well to 
emascnlateall thebuds 
that are mature 
enough: the remaining 
buds and any open 
flowers are removed, 
and the emasculated 
ones covered with a 
bag. 




Fig. 77. Crossed flowers pro- 
tected by a paper bag. 



SOME OF THE PRINCIPLES OF PLANT- BREEDING 



57 



the foliage and it catcties the fruit when it falls. When the cross is made, a label or tag is secured to 
the flower or branch to identify it. 

It is seldom that all crosses "take." The proportion of successes depends somewhat on the skill of 
the operator and very largely on the kind of plant. Some plants cross very readily and some with 
great difficulty. 

The seeds are now to be sown. The hybridizer always anticipates satisfaction with the results. 



SOME OF THE PRINCIPLES OF PLANT- 
BREEDING 

By Herbert J. Webber 

We are inclined to think that plant -breeding is 
based on old and well-established laws. The fact is, 
however, that the fundamental principles of plant- 
breeding were not made known until the latter 
part of the eighteenth century. The se.xuality of 
plants was established experimentally by Camera- 
rius in 1691, and the first hybrid of which we have 
any record was made by Thomas Fairchild, an 
English gardener, in 1719, being a cross of the 
carnation with the sweet william. Hybrids were 
carefully studied by Koelreuter, but not from a 
practical breeding standpoint. Plant-breeding had 
its real beginning with the work of Thomas Andrew 
Knight, an eminent English plant physiologist, 
working in the early days of the nineteenth cen- 
tury. About the same time Van Mons, a Belgian 
horticulturist, also carried out experiments in a 
similar direction. A large part of our knowledge 
of plant-breeding has come down to us from 
these two investigators. Knight worked mainly in 
hybridization, and in 1806 said : " New varieties 
of every species of fruit will generally be better 
obtained by introducing the farina of one variety 
of pollen into the blossoms of another than by 
propagating from a single kind." Knight also 
enunciated what we may call the law of food sup- 
ply, which is now generally recognized. This pred- 
icates that one of the principal factors which 
causes or induces variation in plants is an increase 
of food supply or a modification thereof. Van 
Mons worked mainly in selection, and it is inter- 
esting to note that his experiments were carried 
out primarily with pears. He preached the doctrine 
of continuous selection, and produced very many 
valuable varieties. Van Mons and Knight, there- 
fore, were the exponents of the important factors 
of selection and hybridization in plant- improve- 
ment. It is probable that a large part of the suc- 
cess of Van Mons' work was due to the fact that 
pears are normally sterile to their own pollen, 
requiring cross-fertilization, and, therefore, many 
of his new varieties were probably hybrids. He 
was not aware of this fact, however, and it made 
no great difference in the establishment of the prin- 
ciple which has since proved to be so important. 

In this country very valuable work was done in 
the improvement of plants and in discovering the 
principles of plant-breeding, by Carman, Pringle, 
Hovey, Ricketts, Rogers, and others, and in more 
recent years by Burbank, Hopkins, Hays, Bailey, 
and very many others. 

The rediscovery of Mendel's now famous law by 
DeVries and Correns, in 1900, and the publication 



of DeVries' Mutation Theory in the same year, 
marked the beginning of a new era in plant-breed- 
ing. No matter what the final conclusions may be 
regarding Mendel's principles and the mutation 
theory, the general attention and investigation 
directed to plant-breeding as the result of these 
two theories will serve greatly to modify and 
extend our understanding of the general laws of 
breeding. 

Classification of varieties. 

To understand clearly the character of organisms 
with which we are dealing, we need careful defini- 
tions of the different groups of cultivated plants 
which are ordinarily known as varieties. We speak 
of varieties of wheat, corn, apples and pears, yet 
we know that these varieties differ from each other 
as natural groups. In order to distinguish clearly 
these differences, the writer has proposed the fol- 
lowing classification of varieties into races, strains 
and clons : 

Races are groups of cultivated plants which have 
well-marked differentiating characters, and propa- 
gate true to seed except for simple individual vari- 
ations. The different groups of beans, peas, wheat, 
oats, corn, cotton, and the like, referred to com- 
monly as varieties, are thus in a more restricted 
sense races. Boone County White. Leaming, Reid's 
Yellow Dent, and the like, would be recognized as 
races of field corn, and Turkey Red, Fulcaster, 
Fultz, and the like, as races of wheat. 

Strains, the writer would recognize as groups of 
cultivated plants, derived from a race, which do 
not differ from the original of the race in visible 
taxonomic characters. When the breeder, by a 
careful selection of Blue Stem wheat, produces a 
sort of Blue Stem that differs from the original 
race only in the quality of yielding heavily, it would 
be called a strain of Blue Stem. 

Clons are groups of cultivated plants, the different 
individuals of which are simply transplanted parts 
of the same individual, the reproduction being by 
the use of vegetative parts such as bulbs, tubers, 
buds, grafts, cuttings, runners, and the like. The 
various sorts of apples, potatoes, strawberries, 
chrysanthemums, and so on, commonly denominated 
varieties, in a more restricted sense would be clons. 
Clons of apples, pears, strawberries, potatoes, and 
the like, do not propagate true to .seed, while this is 
one of the most important characters of races and 
strains of wheat, corn, and the like. The term 
variety would thus be used in a general sense, and 
would include races, strains and clons. 

Factors of breeding. 

Heredity. — The laws of heredity are of primary 
importance to the breeder. It is a general principle 



58 



SOME OF THE PRINCIPLES OF PLANT- BREEDING 



that ordinarily like begets like, but it is also true 
that like frequently gives rise to unlike. There are 
thus apparently two conflicting principles in plant- 
breeding. On the one hand, the breeder seeks to 




Fig. 78. Inaividiiality in cotton bolls. Smooth seeds above 
iiud fuzzy ones below, from four bolls of one hybrid plant. 

produce variations in order to get new types as the 
foundations for improvement. On the other hand, 
when such a variation from or improvement on the 
normal type is secured, he then reverses the pro- 
ce.ss and tries to establish heredity and reduce the 
amount of variation, so that the aphorism, "like 
begets like," will hold true. 

In pedigree or grade breeding, and in breeding to 
produce new varieties, the importance of hereditary 
strength, prepotency or transmitting power, cannot 
be overestimated, as it is only by rendering this 
power very great that any new form can be brought 
to what is called a fi,\ed type. 

Unity of individual. — The unity of the individual 
is also an important factor in plant-breeding. If, 
for instance, the breeder is attempting to produce 
a seedless fruit, it is important that he di.scover 
the tendency to seedlessness in the entire individual. 
It would not be the correct policy for a breeder to 
select simply a single fruit which might acciden- 
tally be nearly seedless. He should examine a large 
number of fruits of different individual plants, and 
find a plant on which he can discover a general 
tendency toward seedlessness showing in all of the 
fruits produced. By selecting seed from such indi- 
viduals, he may be able to find in time one such 
individual that would transmit to its progeny this 
tendency to produce few seeds. 

While this is certainly generally true, there are 
some instances in which divisions of the individual 
are important. As an illustration may be mentioned 
the case of hybrids between a smooth- and a fuzzy- 
seeded cotton : when one is breeding to produce a 
smooth, black seed, it may be desirable to select a 
part of an individual. In this ca.se the writer has 
found that very frequently a cotton hybrid of the 
above parentage will produce bolls that vary greatly 
in the amount of fuzziness on the seed, and that this 
variation does not seem to be limited to any part of 
the plant in particular, but seems to be a variation 
in certain branches or bolls (Fig. 78), and is thus a 



sort of bud variation. The writer's experiments 
have shown that by taking seed from certain bolls 
in which the seeds are 'nearly smooth and black, a 
much larger number of plants is produced the 
next year with smooth black seeds than are pro- 
duced when bolls are selected in which the seeds 
have considerable fuzz, although the seed in both 
cases were borne on the same plant. This illustra- 
tion shows that in some in.stances it is desirable to 
select a certain fraction or part of an individual 
which .shows more clearly the character desired. 

Variations. — It is well known that all plants 
vary. Plants differ from each other just as do men. 
Each plant has a facial expression, as it were, which 
marks it as distinct from any other plant of the 
same variety (Fig. 79). These slight fortuitous 
or individual variations are of the greatest value 
to the plant-breeder in connection with what may 
be termed pedigree breeding. By these variations 
alone, however, we would not expect to produce 
strikingly new varieties. 

A second type of variation which is of value to 
the breeder is tho.se known as " sports," or muta- 
tions (Pig. 80). These differ from individual vari- 
ations only in degree. They are what may be termed 
large-type variations, and ordinarily reproduce true 
to seed. A very large number of our new races and 
varieties of cultivated plants are the results of such 
mutations or seedling sports. All vegetable-growers 
know that far the larger number of their new varie- 
ties are apparently produced suddenly. For instance, 
Livingston, who has bred a great many new varie- 
ties of the tomato, followed the practice of examin- 
ing carefully his different plants for variations. 
Occasionally some striking new type differing from 
other varieties would be found. This was selected 
and used as the foundation stock for a new variety. 
Our good apples, pears, and peaches, have been found 
in many cases in fence-corners, and new varie- 
ties of wheat, cotton and other crops have resulted 
very largely from the selection of strikingly good 
plants which, because of their superior quality, 




Fig. 79. Variation. Differences between tobacco plants, in 
size, shape of leaves, and also in time of maturing. 

have attracted the attention of growers, and have 
been propagated. While many of these accidental 
discoveries are doubtless of hybrid origin, still it is 
probable that the majority are simply mutations or 
sports. 



SOIIE OF THE PRINCIPLES OF PLANT- BREEDING 



59 



The third type of variation which is of impor- 
tance to the plant - breeder is that produced by 
hybridization or crossing, and here we probably 
have the most prolific source of variations, and, 
therefore, the class of variation of the greatest 
importance and most consequence to the breedej 
It has come to be an established policy to combine 
the good qualities of two races into a single race 
by hybridization and selection. 

Iiijiuence of environment. — 
It is a well-known fact that 
environment has a decided in- 
fluence on the form and char- 
acter of the 




Fig. 80. Dwarf leafy sport or mutation 
of com on left, which, when self-pol- 
linated, reproduced original type. 
Mother parental types on right. 



plant. It is by 
no means cer- 
tain, however, 
that these 
changes are of 
any value to 
the plant - 
breeder. It 
seems certain 
that those 
changes which 
are the conse- 
quence of en- 
vironmcnt 
purely are not 
hereditary. It 
is a well-known fact that if climbing or twining 
beans or viny cowpeas are transferred from a south- 
ern to a northern climate or from a lower to a higher 
altitude, they tend to produce a dwarfed type which 
will not show the twining or viny habit in such 
marked degree ; and in order to secure bush types 
by selection, breeders have sometimes advocated 
the transferring of types to more northern latitudes 
or to higher altitudes, where the e.xperiments may 
be made under conditions that naturally lead to the 
production of a lower bush type. It is doubtful, 
however, whether such a transfer would be of 
material aid. While it is recognized that such 
variations are produced as an influence of the 
environment, it is also known that, on the whole, 
those variations which are produced as an immedi- 
ate influence of the environment are not hereditary. 
Individual variations and mutations are of greatest 
use to the plant-breeder. Without question, if the 
cowpea or bean were cultivated under southern 
conditions it would show individual variations in 
the degree in which it shows the climbing or twin- 
ing habit. Even under southern conditions, certain 
individuals would doubtless show more of the bush 
type than others. It is believed by the writer that 
a bush type can be secured just as quickly under 
southern conditions by selecting from these lower 
and more bushy plants as it can by the same 
selection made in more northern localities or at 
higher altitudes. 

Location of breeding plots. 

It is important to consider the conditions under 
which the breeding patch or plat should be grown. 
Some growers are inclined to locate their breeding 



patches in the garden and give the plants the very 
best possible care, thinking that this is the best 
means of determining which plants are superior. 
Animal-breeders also isolate their breeding stocks 
and give them every possible care and advantage. 
On the contrary, some plant-breeders assert that 
it is best to have the breeding patch located on 
soils which are most like those on which the gen- 
eral crop is to be grown. The writer has given 
this matter considerable thought, and he is strongly 
of the opinion that the most satisfactory method is 
to cultivate the breeding patch under the same 
conditions under which the ordinary crop is to be 
grown. Plants are fixed in one place, and are 
entirely dependent on the local soil conditions. If, 
therefore, the plant has been bred and adapted to 
one soil condition, it cannot be expected to give as 
good results under difl^erent soil conditions. If a 
variety is being bred for sterile soils, the selection 
should be conducted on similarly sterile soil in 
order to breed a race of individuals that are " gross 
feeders," as planters term it, and capable of deriv- 
ing their nutriment from sterile soils and making 
a sturdy growth even under adverse conditions. 
If, for example, plants were being bred to adapt 
them to alkaline conditions, the breeding patch 
should not be placed in a sheltered, favored spot, 
where the soil does not contain alkali. The plants 
must be grown under alkaline conditions in order 
to discover, as a result of natural selection, those 
plants which do the best where the alkali is 
present, and thus guide us in the selection. The 
same would be true in breeding plants for arid 
regions. The plants should be cultivated in the 
arid region rather than in a moi.st region of heavy 
rainfall, or in a thoroughly irrigated patch. 

In urging that the breeding patch be placed on 
the ordinary soils and cultivated under the condi- 
tions to which the crop is to be subjected, it is not 
intended to convey the idea that the breeding 
patch should not be given careful cultivation. 
Slip.shod methods of cultivation should never re- 
ceive encouragement. The breeding patch should 
be given thoroughly good cultivation ; and such 
thoroughly good cultivation should also be used in 
the field when the crop is grown on a more exten- 
sive scale. 

Akeessity of a clearly defined ideal. 

Careful breeders have found it very desirable 
and necessary to have a clearly defined ideal type 
which they are striving to produce. In the selec- 
tions within the race it is necessary that the 
breeder have clearly in mind all of the characters 
of the race which he is breeding, and the writer 
thinks that all breeders should be recommended 
to draw up carefully a description of the type 
which they are breeding and the objects which they 
are attempting to obtain, otherwise it is difficult 
properly to limit the selections. All breeders know 
that in growing a large number of plants for 
selection, different types that appear very promis- 
ing are likely to crop out here and there. We 
may be selecting for a certain type, and find in the 
row of plants which we are examining an individual 



60 



SOME OF THE PRINCIPLES OF PLANT- BREEDING 





that differs somewhat in its character but which 
soems to be of exceptional value. The temptation 
under such circumstances is to take this new plant 
and discard the old ideal. Many breeders have 
found that by taking such selections they have 
made serious mistakes, and lost the improvement 
already secured. Whenever a plant of different 
character springs up it is entirely an unknown 
quantity, and it may not transmit the desired 
characters ; and, even if it should, they are differ- 
ent from the qualities of the ideal strain for which 
the selection was first started. 

Control of parentage. 

In plant-breeding, as in animal-breeding, the 
isolation of the parents is a very important con- 
sideration. It is neces.sary that we should know 
the character of both parents whenever this is 
possible. In breeding plants more attention is 
given ordinarily to the mother parent, and in very 

, 81. Loss Of fertility in corn by inbreeding. Pile on Itft tiom cross* 
fertilized seed; ou right from inbred or self- fertilized seed. 

many instances the characters of the father parent 
are entirely neglected. Animal-breeders, on the 
contrary, give more attention to the characters of 
the male parent, and much improvement in ordi- 
nary herds has been accomplished by the introduc- 
tion of improved blood through the male. In plant- 
breeding, it is desirable that the seed of the select 
individuals be planted in a field by themselves. 
This in.sures that only progeny of carefully selected 
plants will be planted near together, and thus no 
ordinary stock will enter as a contamination. One 
can be certain that each plant of the progeny is 
fertilized with pollen from another similarly good 
plant, or at least from a plant derived from good 
parentage. One difficulty, however, has been ex- 
perienced by plant-breeders in planting continu- 
ously their selected stock in such isolated plots. If 
this method is continued year after year, it results 
in fairly close inbreeding, which in the case of 
plants frequently results in loss of vitality and 
vigor. In animal-breeding it is apparently the 
case that ordinarily there is no noticeable effect 
from close inbreeding, and many of the most famous 
animals have been produced as a result of the 
closest in-and-inbreeding. In plants, however, it is 
possible to secure much closer inbreeding than in 
the case of animals, as in many cases a plant can 
be fertilized with its own pollen. 

Within recent years much activity has been 
shown in the careful breeding and improvement of 
corn. The corn plant has been shown, as a result 
of experiments made by various investigators, as, 
for example, by the Illinois Experiment Station and 
the United States Department of Agriculture, to 
lose vitality very rapidly when self -fertilized. 
(Fig. 8L) Within three or four generations, by 



the most careful inbreeding, it is possible to reduce 
corn to almcst total sterility. The general practice 
of corn-breeders who have been giving attention 
to the production of pedigree strains, is to plant 
the rows of corn from different select ears side by 
side, giving a row to each select ear, and each 
year selecting, from the progeny of those rows 
which give the largest yield, plants to continue 
further the selection. Planting these select ears 
together every year, therefore, means that they are 
more or less inbred, as the closest relatives are 
planted together in the same row. While in follow- 
ing this policy at fir.?t no effect was visible, corn- 
breeders are now finding in some cases an appar- 
ent decrease in yield, which seems to be traceable 
to the effect of inbreeding. It seems necessary for 
us, therefore, in corn and in other plants that are 
affected by inbreeding, to use methods that will 
avoid close inbreeding. The detrimental effect of 
inbreeding is largely limited to tho.se plants which 
are normally cross-fertilized, this fact 
being strikingly brought out in Dar- 
win's "Investigations on Cross- and 
Self - fertilization in the Vegetable 
Kingdom." Tobacco, wheat, and some 
other plants that are normally self- 
fertilized do not show this decrease 
in vigor as a re.sult of inbreeding. In- 
deed, in such plants cross-fertilization 
ordinarily results in decreased vigor and should be 
avoided. 

Principles of selection. 

Selection is the principal factor of breeding, 
both in the improvement of races and in the pro- 
duction of new races or varieties. The keynote of 
selection is the choice of the best, and a factor of 
the highest importance is the examination of very 
large numbers in order to secure the maximum. 
Galton, writing on this subject, says : " One gene- 
ration of 99-degree selection is seen to be more 
effective than two generations of the 90-degree 
selection, and to have about equal effect with the 
the 80-degree selection, carried on to perpetuity. 
Two generations of the 99-degree selection are 
more effective than four of the 95-degree, and than 
the perpetuity of the 90-degree." The use of de- 
grees in representing the perfection in which a 
character is shown may not be po.ssible, but it is 
possible for any breeder to examine large numbers 
and to find one or two plants which produce in the 
greatest degree the character desired. It is these 
plants that should be preserved as mother plants 
in starting the selection. 

In the production of new races, it is of interest 
to us to know whether by pure selection we can 
lead plants to vary so greatly that they may be 
considered to have passed beyond the bounds of 
the race, and thereby the breeder to have estab- 
lished a new and distinct race. It is certain, of 
course, that, by careful observation and selection 
from any particular race, ultimately a new race 
may be produced. The question is whether the 
individual or individuals selected in producing the 
new race have not varied by mutatian or seed- 



SOME OF THE PRINCIPLES OF PLANT- BREEDING 



61 



sporting rather than being simply representative 
of the cumulative result of the selection of slight 
individual variations. The sugar-beet furnishes an 
interesting illustration in this direction. It will be 
remembered that Louis Vilmorin started the selec- 
tion of sugar-beets for richness in sugar, between 
1830 and 1840, selecting first by means of specific 
gravity, the method being to throw the beets into 
solutions of brine strong enough so that the great 
majority of them would float, the few which sank 
being of greater specific gravity and presumably 
of greater sugar content. Considerable improve- 
ment was produced by this method. About 1851 
the method of chemical analysis was introduced to 
determine the exact sugar content. At this time 
the sugar content was found to vary from 7 to 14 
per cent, and in the second generation of selection 
individuals with 21 per cent of sugar were found. 
The selection based on sugar content, using the 
beets highest in sugar content as mothers, has been 
continued regularly since that time, and the indus- 
try has come to rely entirely on careful selection 
for high sugar content. It would be expected that 
under these conditions the sugar content would 
have increased sufficiently so that the selected 
plants could be considered a different race or 
strain. Yet, after fifty years of selection, the 
highest sugar content found is only about 26 per 
cent, and this in a very few instances, seldom over 
21 per cent being found. At the present time many 
thousand analyses are made every year, so that 
abundant opportunity is afforded to find individuals 
producing a high sugar content. On the contrary, 
when Vilmorin's work was started the determina- 
tion of sugar content was by very laborious meth- 
ods, and was limited to comparatively few indi- 
viduals. It is not improbable that if Vilmorin had 
been able to make analyses of the sugar content in 
many thousands of roots he would have found cer- 
tain individuals producing as high as 26 per cent. 
The inference from this illustration would be that 
the limitations of the variation within the race 
have not been surpassed as a re.sult of selection. It 
may be argued, however, that in this case we are 
dealing with a physical impossiblity, as it is clearly 
evident that it would be impossible for a plant to 
produce a root containing a proportion of sugar 
beyond a certain percentage, and it is thus possi- 
ble that 26 per cent, or thereabouts, represents the 
maximum. 

It must be admitted that in many cases we have 
an apparently cumulative effect of selection, and it 
seems almost impossible to draw the line between 
improvements created by continuous selection of 
slight individual variations within the race or the 
selection of those plants which are mutations. In 
the case of the gooseberry, tomato and many other 
plants, the fruits have been increased in size grad- 
ually, until they are now four to eight times that 
of the original wild fruits. Much of this increase 
in size has of course been accompanied by hybridi- 
zation between different wild species and different 
races of the .same species which have been mixed 
together, yet it is a cumulative gain in size, as 
none of the wild types ever produce fruits nearly 



so large as those of the cultivated races that have 
been developed. Practically the entire development 
of the tomato has taken place within the memory 
of men now living, and in this ca.se the develop- 
ment has not been accompanied by hybridization 
of different species but by the selection of different 
races within the species and the hybridization of 
these races. One of the experiments conducted by 
DeVries with corn is of interest in this connection. 
This experiment was undertaken for the purpose of 
increasing the number of rows of kernels on the 
ear. The corn used in the selection averaged 
twelve rows at the time the selection began. After 
seven generations of selections from ears which 
bore the largest number of rows, the mean was 
raised to twenty rows. In the first year of the selec- 
tion the variation in number of rows ranged from 
8 to 20. In the seventh generation of selection 
the variation in number of rows ranged from 12 to 
28. This shows clearly the increase in the number 
of rows and the development of an apparently new 
race by simple selection. However, when the selec- 
tion was discontinued the improvement or new 
character was soon lost. 

The majority of new races produced as a result 
of selection are due, without much doubt, .to the 
choice of mother plants showing marked variations 
which we would term mutations, and which are 
referred to by gardeners ordinarily as sports. 
In reviewing the history of cultivated varieties, 
one is surprised at the large number of varieties, 
which have had their origin in this way. Many of 
our apple, pear and peach varieties are simply 
accidental seedlings which have sprung up in fence- 
corners or door-yards, and a number of our wheat, 
tobacco and cotton varieties have been developed 
by selection from certain individual plants that 
have attracted attention because of the exhibition 
of superior qualities. It is probable that a large 
number of these accidental and selected varieties, 
particularly in the case of apples and pears, are 
really the results of accidental hybridization, and 
the same may be true of many wheat, corn and 
cotton varieties. Yet there are many cases in 
which the mutations or extreme variations cannot 
be traced back to hybridization. In the production 
of the Cupid sweet-peas, for example, the first 
small dwarf plant of this ty])e was found growing 
in a row of the Emily Henderson, which is one of 
the normal climbing forms of the sweet-pea. At 
that time no other dwarf type of the sweet-pea was 
known, and this variation, therefore, cannot be 
accounted for as due to hybridization with some 
other dwarf form. It is impo.ssible to account for 
these striking variations which sometimes occur, 
but it is important that all plant-breeders be on 
the lookout for the occurence of new types and 
variations of this sort. 

The writer has been asked frequently whether 
it is possible to select a plant so highly that 
it will not revert to the original mother type. 
Experience would indicate that when the mother 
plant from which the selection is made is a true 
mutation, like the sweet -pea mentioned above, 
the type will maintain itself even after the 



62 



SOME OF THE PRINCIPLES OF PLANT- BREEDING 



4. w—OrilllQi [)[>.■ 



*,*tr*' '>"»*" 



selection has been discontinued, and indeed this 
is practically the only real criterion as to whether 
a new race has been produced. For example, in the 
case of the corn mentioned above as selected by De 
Vries, that in seven years had 
been increased from 12 to 20 in 
the number of rows to the ear, 
DeVries found that it required 
only about three years of cul- 
tivation without selection to 
fall again to the original aver- 
age of 12 to 16 rows. In a 
case like this it would seem, 
therefore, that no distinctly 
new character had been added 
as a result of selection, but 
that the average of the race 
had been increased by the 
continuous selection under 
isolation, and that when the 
different individuals were al- 
lowed to breed together 
freely, without selection, the 
mean of the race, as a whole, was again quickly 
reestablished. 

Systematic methods of selection, or pedigree breeding. 

Two distinct methods of selection are in use, 
which are termed (1) the nursery method, and (2) 
the field method. The nursery method, which was 
used first by Hallet about 1868, so far as the 
writer is informed, consists in cultivating each 
plant under the most favorable conditions possible 
for its best development. By this method, with 
wheat, for example, Hallet pursued the policy of 
planting the individuals in squares a foot apart, 
which would give the plant abundant opportunity 




fijiiiiiiF. 



J.f<'0 






Fig. 82. Centgeners of flax. Plats on right 
bred for seed production, thus short and 
very fruitful. Plats on left bred for fiber 
production, thus tall and less fruitful. 
(Notice difference in height is shown by 
difference in height of man's hand.) 



for stooling, and also enable the investigator to 
distinguish clearly each individual plant. In more 
recent years this method has been strikingly em- 
phasized by the work of Professor Hays, at the 
Minnesota Experiment Sta- 
tion, who, at the same time, 
has modified the principle 
somewhat into his centgener 
method (Fig. 82). In Profes- 
sor Hays' method, the progeny 
of each plant, presumably 
about one hundred individu- 
als, are grown together in a 
small plat or centgener, the 
individuals being ])lanted four 
to six inches apart in the 
case of wheat and small 
grains. 

The field method, which was 
emphasized by Rimpau about 
1867, and has been used by 
many investigators, consii-ts 
in selecting from plants 
grown under normal conditions. The argument for 
this method is that the plant will show what it will 
do and its true worth only when it is grown under 
the method of ordinary field culture. Both of these 
methods depend on progressive or cumulative selec- 
tion, the building up and adding together of small 
improvements. 

Breeders who are conducting careful experi- 
ments will find it necessary and desirable to use 
what may be termed statistical methods of judging 
their plants. While we are breeding possibly for 
one primary improvement, as, for example, in- 
creased yield, it is necessary, at the same time, 
that we should keep the product up to the standard 



P. B. Form 
41. 



^'o.../cLf.3._-'J.~/Jt>. . 

Locality, ..C0u4.,^iy^^QftCU____^J.Cl/._ 



COTTOJf-IJfDiriD UAL IfOTES. 
Experimenter,. 



Year, 



V. Early, 

ryfy. 

Medium. 
Xate. 
V. Lato. 



Bolls. 



V. Large, 

Mc'liiim, 

Smali, 

V. Small 



Opening. 



V.bood, 

Mwlium, 
Poor. 



Sn^tb, 

Tufted, 

or 

Iiit'.Tme- 
diate. 



Size by 
Weigbt. 



Covering, 



O.f 



lelt, 

Gootl, 
Fair, 
Poor. 



Length. 



1%^ 



m. 



Very 
Fine. 
Fikf, 

M'-Jium, 



Uni- 
formity, 



l(*t. 
Good, 

Fiiir, 
Poor. 



String, 
Strong, 
Werliura, 
Weak. 



Drag. 



stiivg, 

StnuiK', 
Medium. 
Weak. 



Yield 
OF Sf.kd 

Cotton. 



M? 



Per 

Cent of 
Lint. 



32J 



Total 

SCUBE. 



y /A 



/s, 



JO 



/^ 



ys- 



?3 

'B 



o 



Bolls: No. J.&S^.....; shape. ..C^^i?3*s..J^W*^t^. 

No. locks — flC_ ; No.-BPeds to Iock_fc."?/fl.; weight 10 bolls eced 

cotton ; No. of bolls opoa __y4?- o° —0-£i.jS 

Resistance to — 

I>isna.sci Very resistant, resistant, medium, Blight, nouo. 
Storm : Very resistant, resistant, medium, slight, none. 
Inafect: Very resistant, resistant, medium. 8li;;ht, none. . 

Basal Branches: No.,„^ ; length *^^,Af^.. ; 

color ; aniooth, rough, harfy; horizontal, 

a3cc|fling, nearly erect. 

Floweus: Large, mci^Kirn, small"; orange yellow, cr^fm, whitish ; Pol- 
Jen— orange, deep ynli.iw, yellow, ci^dm, whitish ; Petal spot—large, 
email. tLrfc ; deep re-I, red, pink, faint. 

Leaves: Largo, ineWini, email ; light or dark green; ._. ^ .i 

parted, smooth, glaucous, piib'|«ft'nt; Lobes— deep, medium, shallow; 
'i';;)C— Sea Island, n:'^.fud, intermediate. 

Fig. 83. A score-card for 



Fbuitfulness : Excellent, good, medium, light medium, poor. 

Typo...2^C^^X!rU>L. .,. 

Selected for.._^<^»i.4_.^T<*^:vC^_ 

Form of Plant ^..sLlfyY^Oi^S^.. 

Shape: Very^^d, good, medium, pour. 

Height .S'J^JU'fT^ 

cotton . 



SOME OF THE PRINCIPLES OF PLANT- BREEDING 



63 




in other characteristics, namely, quality, disease- 
resistance, drought-resistance and the lilie, and 
that we see that all of the good qualities of the 
variety are retained. To do this properly necessi- 
tates the use of a score-card, on which each char- 
acter of the plant which is im- 
portant is given its relative 
weight or grade. By the use of 
such a score-card the breeder can 
judge each character separately, 
and by the adding up of the scor- 
ing get the rank of different 
plants in a comparative way 
(Fig. 83). 

Test of transmitting power. 

A factor of primary impor- 
tance in all breeding work is the 
testing of what is termed the 
transmitting or centgener power. 
It is neces.sary for us to know 
that a certain plant, which, for 
e.xample, gives a heavy yield, 
has the faculty of transmitting 
this tendency of producing heavy 
yield to its progeny (Fig. 84). 
It is frequently found that two 
select plants that are equally 
good so far as their yield is con- 
cerned will give progeny which, 
as a whole, differ greatly in this 
respect. In the progeny of one 
almost every plant may have in- 
herited the desired quality, while 
in the progeny of the other only 
a few of the plants may show in 
any noticeable degree the inheri- 
tance of the quality. To determine the prepotency 
or transmitting power, it is necessary to grade 
carefully the progeny of each individual ; and this 
is the primary reason for planting the progeny of 
different individuals in separate rows or separate 
plats, so that they may be examined easily. (Fig. 
85.) It would seem to be an easy matter, when we 
plant the progeny of different plants in rows or 
small plats by themselves, to get the comparative 
yield, for example, of 100 plants, and from this to 
figure up the average percentage of the transmitting 
or centgener power. This matter, hovvfever, is very 
difficult in many cases. In corn, for example, cer- 
tain individuals may stool and form suckers that 
have fairly good-sized ears. If the corn is planted 
thin enough on the ground these suckers will tend 
to increase the yield, and render the proper judg- 
ment of the transmitting power very difficult. It 
would seem at first thought that such suckering, if 
it increased the yield, would be desirable, and 
should be considered a favorable character in con- 
nection with the individual. However, if the soil is 
heavy enough to have allowed this suckering to 
give increased yield, it would have been possible 
on the same soil to have placed the plants closer, 
and, as seed is of little comparative value, it w-ould 
be best to have a non-suckering type, and plant 
the corn as closely as the soil would properly per- 



Fig.84. 
A, Result of breed- 
ing from sni.illest 
grjiiiis; JiVer.'ige 
he lid (after 4 
years). B. result 
of tireeding from 
the plumpest and 
heaviest grains; 
average head 
(after 4 years). 



mit. Again, it is almost impossible to get perfect 
stands, and a change in the stand may affect the 
yield. Very many difficulties and problems enter 
into the figuring out of this transmitting power, 
and it is obviously impossible to give directions 
for all cases. The breeder must study conditions 
and determine carefully what policy to pursue in 
each case. 

The use of hybridization in. plant-breeding. 

Ever since the time of Knight, hybridization has 
been used extensively by plant -breeders, and it 
seems that this is the only sure means of forcing 
variations. Whenever it is po.ssible to secure dis- 
tinct species and races that can be hybridized, it is 
possible greatly to increase the variation in differ- 
ent directions, and thereby afford opportunity for 
greater selection than would otherwise be possible. 
Plant-breeders have come to understand that when 
desirable characters are exhibited by different 
species or races it is possible frequently, if not 
usually, to unite these characters in a hybrid if 
the work is done intelligently and on a large scale. 
(The writer uses the term hybrid here in a general 
sense, referring to any product of a cross when the 
parents were noticeably distinct from each other, 
whether the parents belong to different races, clon.s, 
varieties or species. It may be stated that this 
general or broad use of the term hybrid has become 
almost universal in recent years.) When plants of 
different races are crossed, as, for example, different 
races of wheat, corn or cotton, the hybrid usually 
comes nearly intermediate between the two parents 
in the first generation. And this is the case also 
when different fixed species are crossed. If, how- 
ever, individuals belonging to unfixed races are 
crossed, there is usually a considerable variation 
in the first generation. This is w^ell illustrated by 
the crossing of different clons of apples, pears, 
oranges, and the like, when the different so-called 
varieties are simply tran.splanted parts of the same 




Fig. 85. Planting individual Etains of flax and other cereals 
so that the individual growths of the plant may be watched 
and selection made from the very best. This niitcliine 
allows a man to know exartly ;it what depth e.-icli is 
planted, so that each grain has an equal chance with the 
others. 

individual seedling which have not been bred to a 
fixity of type. It is well known that if .seeds of an 
apple variety be planted, the resulting plants exhibit 
many different variations in the first generation. 
The parents themselves, therefore, not being of fixed 



64 



SOME OF THE PRINCIPLES OF PLANT- BREEDING 



type, when they are hybridized they produce progeny 
which in the first generation is variable. An illus- 
tration is afforded in the crosses made by the writer 
of the trifoliate orange with the ordinary sweet 
orange, in which the hybrids of the first generation 
vary in fruit, foliage and branching qualities, so 
that almost every individual differs markedly from 
every other individual of the same combination. In 
the crossing of races which have been bred true to 
type, whether of the same or of different species, 
the first-generation hybrids, however, are nearly 
uniform in the characters presented, and in such 
instances it is necessary to .secure a second gen- 
eration of the hybrids in order to accomplish the 
breaking up of the characters and the production 
of a large number of variations. Ordinarily, there- 
fore, desirable variations are looked for in the 
second generation. This, as has been explained 
above, is true only in the ca.se of hybrids of species 
and races that are fixed in type. 

(1) Mendel's law of hybrids. 

The preceding discussion represents fairly well 
the general understanding of hybrids until about 
1900, when DeVries and Correns rediscovered 
what is now termed " Mendel's law of hybrids." 
While Mendel's laws or principles may not be of 
great value from an economic standpoint, they 
have proved of the greatest scientific interest, and 
the general fundamental principles of the law or 
laws should be thoroughly understood by every 
practical breeder of plants. It has been known for 
many years that a splitting up and redistribution 
of parental characters occurs in hybrids, and it is 
on this fact largely that the practical application 
of hybridization in plant-breeding depended. Ordi- 
narily, careful plant-breeders would plan to hybri- 
dize varieties or races having a definite combi- 
nation of characters in view, as, for example, the 
combining of the fruit quality of one parent with 
the hardiness or drought-resistance of the other. 
Until Mendel's law was di.scovered, however, we 
had no understanding of why or how such a com- 
bination could be made, and it was necessary to 
experiment extensively in order to determine 
what could be accomplished. 

Mendel's law includes several important features 
which must be thoroughly understood before its 
important bearings can be comprehended. One re- 
quisite for the application of the law is that the 
two parents shall posse.ss certain characters that 
are opposed to each other. These two opposing 
qualities or characters are termed a "character- 
pair." As illustrations of such character-pairs, 
may be cited bearded and bald heads in wheat, 
sweet and starchy kernels in corn, fuzzy and 
smooth seeds in cotton, and stringy and stringless 
pods in beans. When parents possessing these 
opposed or contrasted characters are crossed, the 
hybrid contains a combination of the potentialities 
representing both characters, and the first-gene- 
ration hybrid will thus show an intermediate form 
of the particular character under consideration in 
case the two characters are of equal strength or 
potency. If, however, as sometimes occurs, one of 



the characters is very strong or dominant, only 
this character will show in the first-generation 
hybrids, the other character remaining recessive 
or masked, although present. For example, in 
crossing a race of wheat having bald heads 
with a race having bearded heads, all of the 
first -generation hybrid.-j, or at least the major- 
ity of them, will have bald heads, this character 
being strong or dominant over the bearded char- 
acter. In some instances where the potentialities 
of these two characters appear to be of nearly 
equal strength or potency, the beards seem to be 
produced in the first -generation hybrids but are 
reduced in length, being intermediate between the 
bald and the bearded state. A number of inter- 
mediate cases of this kind were shown to the 
writer by Dr. C. E. Saunders, of the Canadian 
Experimental Farms. Frequently, in crossing flow- 
ers of different colors, the re.sulting hybrids will 
show a blend of the two colors, being light pink, 
for example, when the parents crossed are a white 
and a red. In other cases, however, one color or 
the other becomes the dominant character, and the 
first - generation hybrids show the color of one 
parent only. 

The second important principle of Mendel's law 
is what is termed the purity of the germ-cell. It 
seems certain from the researches that have been 
conducted that, when the germ-cells of the first- 
generation hybrids are formed, the potentialities 
which represent the two different characters under 
consideration, and which were united by the hybri- 
dization, ordinarily segregate again in the cell 
divisions, which lead to the formation of the germ- 
cells, so that certain germ-cells include the poten- 
tiality of one only of the two characters. We have 
thus two kinds of germ-cells formed with re.spect 
to this one character-pair. Taking as an illustra- 
tion a hybrid of wheat having bald heads with one 
having bearded heads, when the germ-cells were 
formed a segregation of the two potentialities 
representing the two opposed characters would 
take place, and we would have germ-cells of one 
kind containing the bald-head potentiality and of a 
.second kind containing the bearded-head potential- 
ity. This segregation, it must be understood, takes 
place in the formation of both the egg-cells and 
the sperm-cells or pollen-grains. 

We thus see that the first generation of the 
hybrid when two such characters are combined 
contains two kinds of egg-cells and two kinds of 
sperm-cells, so far as this one character -pair is 
concerned. 

The third important principle of Mendel's law is 
what is termed the law of probability, and ex- 
plains what may be expected in plants of the 
second generation of such a hybrid. Remembering 
that we have formed in the first-generation hybrid, 
as explained above, two kinds of egg-cells and two 
kinds of sperm-cells with reference to the opposed 
characters, what would happen if the hybrid were 
bred with its own pollen ; or, in the case of an 
animal, if it were bred with another hybrid of the 
same parentage? For the purpose of illustration, 
suppose that a hybrid of a bald wheat with a 



SOME OF THE PRINCIPLES OF PLANT- BREEDING 



65 



bearded wheat be fertilized with its own pollen and 
that 100 egg-cells be fertilized with 100 pollen- 
grains of the same hybrid. There are two kinds of 
egg-cells produced, some with potentialities of the 
bald wheat and some with potentialities of the 
bearded wheat, and the same is true of the pollen- 
grains. Taking the egg-cells and pollen-grains 
without selection, therefore, we would e.xpect to 
have of the egg-cells 50 with bald potentialities 
and 50 with bearded potentialities. In the pollen- 
grains also we would expect to have 50 with bald 
potentialities and 50 with bearded potentialities. 
If these are brought together, allowing the law of 
chance to govern the union, the probability is that 
we would have 25 bald uniting with 25 bald; 25 
bald uniting with 25 bearded ; 25 bearded uniting 
with 25 bald, and 25 bearded uniting with 25 
bearded. Representing the bald potentialities by B 
and the bearded potentialities by b, we have the 
following formulae, which explain the probable 
unions graphically (and this is what is known as 
Mendel's law) : — 



One Hundred Egg-cells by One Hundred 
Sperm-cells. 
(These do not contain potentiali- 
ties of b , and will reproduce true.) 

(These are hybrids so far as this 
character -pair is concerned, — 
exactly the same as in the first 
generation, and contain poten- 
tialities of both B and b. These 
will not reproduce true to type, 
and will break up like second- 
generation hybrids.) 

(These do not contain the poten- 
tialities of B, and will reproduce 
true.) 



25B X 25B = 25BB 



25B X 25b = 25Bb 



25b X 25B = 25bB 



25b X 25b = 25bb 



"This formula for the hybrids," writes Bailey, 
"is Mendel's law. In words, it may be expressed 
as follows : Differentiating characters in plants 
reappear in their purity and in mathematical reg- 
ularity in the second and succeeding hybrid off- 
spring of these plants ; the mathematical law is 
that each character separates in each of these 
generations in one-fourth of the progeny and 
thereafter remains true." 

The above illustration will explain the law of 
segregation, and probable ratio of recombination 
when hybrids are inbred with their own pollen, 
and when only one pair of characters is considered. 
When an egg-cell with bald potentialities unites 
with a sperm-cell with bald potentialities, this 
gives rise to a pure germ-cell containing only bald 
potentialities, and the progeny in subsequent gen- 
erations will breed true so far as this character is 
concerned. Also when the egg-cell with bearded 
potentialities unites with a sperm-cell with bearded 
potentialities, the result is a pure germ-cell con- 
taining only bearded potentialities, and the progeny 
would reproduce true, so far as this character is 
concerned, in subsequent generations. In the other 
two cases where, in fecundation, germs with bald 
potentialities unite with germs with bearded poten- 
tialities, giving the combinations Bb and bB, which 

B5 



amount to the same thing, we have in reality 
hybrids exactly the same as in the first generation, 
and the progeny from these in the next generation 
behave exactly the same as did the first-generation 
hybrids in the second generation. In such a case 
as this, where one of the characters, as the bald 
head, is strong and dominant, all combinations that 
contain the potentialities of this character, whether 
pure or mixed, show this character only. Thus, in 
the above table the 25bb would come with bearded 
heads, while the 75 of other combinations would 
have bald heads. To determine which of these 75 
heads are the combination Bb, that is bald with 
bearded, and which BB, that is bald with bald, 
would require the growing of progeny, to deter- 
mine which were reproduced true to type. The 
ratio of the combinations, it will be noticed, is IBB 
to 2Bb to Ibb. While in certain hybrids of parents 
possessing two opposed parental characters this 
ratio of probabilities is not produced, if large num- 
bers are used the ratio will be found in many cases 
with little deviation. A sufficiently large number 
of cases have now been carried out with various 
plants and animals to place the conclusion beyond 
question. We do not know, however, how many 
characters follow Mendel's law, and are not yet 
entirely certain whether those character-pairs that 
sometimes follow the law of segregation always 
follow it. 

The individuals of the second generation which 
contain the potentialities of both characters of the 
pair, if self -fertilized or bred with similar indi- 
viduals containing the potentialities of both char- 
acters, exhibit in the third generation exactly the 
same nature that first-generation hybrids exhibit 
in the second generation. The two potentialities 
are commingled in their cells, and to all intents 
and purposes they are exactly the same as first- 
generation hybrids. When such .self-fertilized hy- 
brids are grown they give again, in the third gene- 
ration, the regular Mendelian proportion of IBB to 
2Bb to Ibb. Here the individuals containing only 
potentialities of one character, that is, BB and bb, 
would come true to these characters in succeeding 
generations, while those individuals containing the 
potentialities of both characters, Bb, would be ex- 
pected to appear again in the fourth generation in 
similar proportions. 

When we deal with more than one character- 
pair the matter becomes complicated, but will 
become clearer on careful study. If we comliinu 
with the above characters the character of hairy 
(H) and smooth (s) chaff in the head, and remember 
that the potentialities of these two characters in 
the hybrids segregate exactly as in the case of 
bald and bearded heads, we can foretell what will 
occur. In this ca.se, the hairy chaff is the strong 
dominant character, as in the first -generation 
hybrids of hairy with .smooth sorts the chaff is 
always or very generally hairy. We would thus 
represent these characters by H, for the hairy or 
dominant character, and s for the smooth or reces- 
sive character. In this character-pair we would 
expect a splitting and segregation to have occurred 
in the formation of the germ-cells of the first-gen- 



66 



SOME OF THE PRINCIPLES OF PLANT- BREEDING 



eration hybrids, so that the hybrid plants of the 
second generation would exhibit these characters 
in Mendelian proportions, as in the characters 
described above. The progeny in the second gen- 
eration would thus exhibit these characters in the 
following combinations and proportions : IHH to 
2Hs to Iss. This probable proportion should hold 
rather constantly, either in small or large numbers 
of hybrids, though in large numbers it would prob- 
ably be more accurately realized. The potentiali- 
ties of the four characters, or two character-pairs, 
are commingled in the cells of the first-generation 
hybrid. When the egg-cells or pollen-grains are 
formed, however, a segregation of the potentiali- 
ties of the two character-pairs occurs, but inde- 
pendent of each other. Each egg-cell or pollen- 
grain will receive only the potentiality of one 
character of a certain character-pair, but will, at 
the same time, receive potentialities of other char- 
acters belonging to other character-pairs. Consid- 
ering the two character-pairs described, an egg- 
cell receiving the potentiality of the bald head (B) 
might contain the potentiality of either H or s, 
representing the characters of hairy or smooth 
chaff. These two character-pairs would thus give 
us egg-cells of four combinations, namely, BH, Bs, 
bH and bs. 

In the formation of the pollen-grains the same 
combination occurs, so that with reference to the 
two character-pairs described, the pollen-grains 
that would be formed have the same combination 
of potentialities as the egg-cells, namely, BH, Bs, 
bH and bs. We thus have four kinds of egg-cells 
and four kinds of pollen-grains, so far as these two 
character-pairs are concerned. If these are brought 
together, sixteen combinations are possible as 
follows : 

BHBH BsBH bHBH bsBH 

BHBs BsBs bHBs bsBs 

BHbH BsbH bHbH bsbH 

BHbs Bsbs bHbs bsba 

Examining these combinations carefully, and cut- 
ting out the letters that occur twice, as the occur- 
rence of the same potentiality in both egg-cell and 
and pollen-grain serves only to reproduce the same 
character, we have the following nine combi- 
nations, all of which are different: IBH, IBs, IbH, 
lbs, 2BHs, 2BbH, 2Bbs, 2bHs-and 4BbHs. In the 
illustration taken of the character-pair of bald and 
bearded heads, and the probable ratio of unions in 
second-generation hybrids, it was shown that out 
of 100 unions we should expect, by the law of 
chance, the ratio 25B to 50Bb to 25b. Now, con- 
sidering the second character-pair, that is, the 
hairy and the smooth chaff, in connection with 
these same 100 unions, we would have the follow- 
ing as the probable combinations, according to the 
same law of chance : 



25 B 



25 B 



6iBH 

12i BHs 

6i Bs 



50 Bb 



( 12JBbH 

50 Bb ^' 25 BbHs 

( 12iBbs 



25 b 



25 b 



( 6ibH 
\ 12i bHs 
( 6ib3 



These nine combinations are the same as the 
nine given above, only multiplied by 6 J in each 
case. In each of the nine combinations when only 
one of the potentialities of the character is present, 
the progeny from such an individual from self- 
fertilized seed will come true to this character in 
all succeeding generations, as the potentiality of 
the opposed character has been eliminated. Thus, 
in the first combination, BH, representing the 
potentialities of the bald head and hairy chaff, if 
such a hybrid is fertilized with its own pollen, it 
will produce only progeny with bald head and 
hairy chaff. In the second combination, BHs, we 
have present the potentialities of the bald head of 
one character-pair and both the hairy and smooth 
chaff of the other character-pair. Self-fertilized 
progeny of this hybrid should all come bald, but 
some should have hairy chaff and some smooth 
chaff. In the third combination, Bs, we have 
simply the potentialities of the bald head and 
smooth chaff', and such a combination should give 
plants that will come true to type in later genera- 
tions when self-fertilized. Similar conditions of 
purity or hybridity of the germ-cells can be figured 
out for each of the other six combinations. 

If a third character were considered, the propor- 
tions of the combinations can be determined in 
exactly the same way. Each one of the above nine 
possible combinations would be again divided into 
three different unions in the same way as the 
three combinations of the one character-pair gave 
nine different combinations in the second character- 
pair. In the consideration of the three character- 
pairs there would thus be 27 different combinations 
of parental characters. And again in each ovary 
fecundated, when only one potentiality of each 
character-pair occurred, the opposing character 
potentiality being in each case eliminated, such a 
cell should give a plant that would reproduce its 
characters true to type. It is well known that 
almost any two different races or species that may 
be chosen for hybridization will ordinarily differ 
from each other in numerous characters. When 
there are a number of these opposing characters 
which form Mendelian character-pairs, the deter- 
mination of the possible combinations by Mendel's 
formulae becomes very complex and diflicult to 
understand. It is only by taking a few well- 
marked character -pairs and carefully studying 
them that the segregation and new combinations 
according to Mendelian proportions can be followed 
and understood. Any character -pairs, following 
Mendel's law, would segregate as indicated above 
in the case of bald or bearded heads and smooth 
and hairy chaff of wheat. These characters with 
wheat have been investigated by Spillraan, Hurst 
and others, and are known to follow very closely 
Mendelian proportions in their segregation. The 
same segregation takes place in the case of the 
bald and bearded barleys, smooth and fuzzy cottons, 
sweet and starchy kernels in corn, and many other 
opposed characters in plants. 

It is by no means probable that all characters 
follow Mendel's law of segregation and recombina- 
tion, and secondary characters in practical work 



SOME OF THE PRINCIPLES OF PLANT- BREEDING 



67 



need be given no attention. The knowledge of 
Mendel's principles may not change greatly the 
practical methods of breeding which have been 
followed for a number of years, but they give us a 
more thorough comprehension of what we are do- 
ing, and also greater surety that certain combina- 
tions of parental characters can be secured. 

(2) The use and fixation of intermediate or blended 
types. 

The principle of the purity of the germ-cell, if 
strictly applied, would not recognize as possible 
the fixation into a race reproducing true to type 
of an intermediate hybrid, that is, one in which 
two characters of a certain pair are blended. Yet 
practical work shows that such a fixation certainly 
can be secured. In very many hybrids of plants 
cultivated for their flowers, intermediate colors 
have been bred to stability, showing that the 
inheritance is blended. The writer has been at- 
tempting to fix a hybrid of Black Mexican sweet 
corn having blue-black kernels, with Stowell's 
Evergreen, which has a nearly white kernel, into 
a race of light blue-violet color, and strictly inter- 
mediate in this respect between the two parental 
varieties. Ordinarily, the color of these hybrids 
breaks up in Mendelian proportions, but neither 
color can be considered to be dominant in the true 
sense of the word. In practically all cases when 
the potentialities of the two characters are mixed 
in the same egg-cell, the coloration is intermediate 
rather than like one or the other of the parent vari- 
eties. The writer has uniformly .selected the seed 
of such intermediate light blue-violet kernels for 
planting, and has kept the patch completely iso- 
lated. After four years of such selection, a type 
that produces nearly uniformly light blue colored 
kernels has been produced. There are still many 
reversions to the coloration of either parent, but 
these are growing fewer and the type is becoming 
fixed into a stable race, reproducing itself true 
to seed. Halsted, of the New Jersey Experiment 
Station, has produced such an intermediate colored 
race by the hybridization of Black Mexican with 
the Egyptian, and has already secured a new race 
which is practically fixed in its intermediate color. 
The writer thinks that in this and in a great many 
other cases it is possible by careful selection of 
plants showing the intermediate type to breed new 
races that exhibit a blend of characters, and such 
blends are frequently of great value. 

The work that has been carried out by the 
writer in the Department of Agriculture in the 
breeding of citrous fruits very clearly indicates 
that valuable intermediates may sometimes be 
secured. The writer, in conjunction with Mr. 
Walter T. Swingle, hybridized the hardy, cold- 
resistant trifoliate orange (Citrus trifoliata) with 
several varieties of the tender sweet orange, and 
as a result at least five different varieties of 
hardy oranges or citranges have been produced 
(Fig. 86). These hybrids are nearly intermediate 
between the two parents, having the characters in 
the first generation nearly blended. The leaves are 
trifolioliate, but are much larger than the leaves of 



the ordinary trifoliate orange tree, and show a 
tendency to drop off, the lateral leaflets producing 
an unifolioliate leaf. The trifoliate orange is decid- 
uous, while the sweet orange is evergreen. The hy- 
brids are semi-deciduous, holding a large share of 
their leaves through the winter. In hardiness they 
also seem to be intermediate, being much more 
cold-resistant than the ordinary orange, but not 
so hardy as the trifoliate orange. They are suffi- 
ciently hardy so that they doubtless may be grown 
with safety as far north as South Carolina, or 300 
to 400 miles north of the present orange region. 
Some of the fruits produced are as large as the 
ordinary orange, but the majority are very nearly 
intermediate in size. They are very variable, how- 
ever, in the first generation. At least five of 
the fruits that have been produced are juicy and 
valuable. It is not probable that they would be 
reproduced true to seed, but orange varieties are 
clons, and the different types will, of course, be 
normally repro- 
duced by buds or 
grafts, so that 
from a practical 
standpoint it does 
not matter 
whether or not 
they would repro- 
duce true through 
the seed. In the 
second generation 
it is probable that 
these different 
characters would 
split up, possibly 
according to Men- 
del's law, and it 
is likely that still 
more valuable va- 
rieties will be 
secured when a 
second generation 
has been grown. 
Similar groups of valuable intermediate types of 
fruits have been produced by Dr. Saunders, the 
Director of the Canadian Experimental Farms, by 
crossing varieties of the ordinary apple, such as 
the Pewaukee and Wealthy, with a very hardy 
cold-resistant crab (Pyrus baccata). Dr. Saunders 
has produced already numerous hardy intermedi- 
ate types which bid fair to be of very great 
economic value. 

(3) The combination of different parental characters 
not blended. 

The greatest value of hybridization in the pro- 
duction of new varieties lies probably in the possi- 
bility of combining in the new race certain valu- 
able characters of different races or species. This 
principle breeders have long recognized, but it 
cannot be too clearly borne in mind. The work 
which the writer has carried out in the Department 
of Agriculture, in the production of long-staple 
varieties of upland cotton, forms an interesting 
illustration in point. Ordinary upland cotton, 




Fig. 86. Valuable intermediate orange 
hybrids, and the parents, a, com- 
mon orange: b. trifoli.ite or.inge: 
c, Willits citrange (trifoliate X 
orange): d, Morton eitrange {tri- 
foliate X orange) : e. Rusk citrange 
(orange X trifoliate). 



SOME OF THE PRINCIPI^S OF PLANT- BREEDING 



which is grown all over the interior cotton regions 
of the South, produces a short fiber averaging 
about one inch in length. In the eastern part of 
South Carolina, southern Georgia and northern 
Florida, sea island cotton is grown. This cotton 




Fig. 87. Selection. Results of rogueing in a verbena seed-field 

has a fiber 1| to 2^ inches in length. Ordinary up- 
land cotton has an average value of eight or nine 
cents per pound, while this longer staple sea island 
cotton is ordinarily worth twenty to thirty cents 
per pound. Other things being equal, a longer- 
fibered cotton is always more valuable than a short 
staple, and were it possible to secure the same 
yield it would be far better to grow long-staple 
cotton altogether. The sea island or long-staple 
cotton, however, has a small three-locked boll 
which opens very poorly, and is difficult to pick, 
and yields much less than does upland cotton. Up- 
land cotton, on the contrary, produces large rounded 
bolls, which open wide and are easy to pick, and 
yields much more heavily than the other. Sea 
island cotton has a smooth black seed, so that rol- 
ler gins can be used in separating the seed and 
fiber, and this is an important consideration with 
long-staple cotton, as the saw-gin tears and breaks 
the fiber. With the short-staple or upland cottons 
the seed is covered with a short close fuzz, and 
they are uniformly ginned on saw-gins. The tear- 
ing of the fiber which necessarily results to a con- 
siderable extent, does not matter greatly with a 
fiber of this short length. If longer stapled varie- 
ties are desired they should have smooth, black seed, 
so that a roller gin can be used. The writer under- 
took experiments in the hybridization of these two 
kinds of cotton, in the hope of producing a new 
race, which would inherit, on the one hand, the 
large bolls, tendency to yield heavily, and adapta- 
bility to upland regions, of the short -staple or 
upland cotton, and, on the other hand, the long, fine 
and strong lint and black seed of the sea island cot- 
ton. The first-generation hybrids were found to be 
nearly uniform and showed little breaking up of 
characters of the two parents. In the second gene- 
ration, however, all manners of types were formed, 
exhibiting the characters of the two parents in 
very different degrees. Out of several thousand 
second-generation hybrids several individuals were 
selected which showed almost exactly the combi- 
nation of characters which it was desired to pro- 
duce. These hybrids were self-fertilized the next 



year, and each one was planted in an isolated patch 
in order that it would be fertilized only with 
pollen of related progeny. In each generation since, 
only those plants have been selected for seed which 
come the nearest to the original type, and now, 
after five generations of selection, two or 
three of the types have been bred to a 
practical state of fixity, showing the pos- 
sibility of combining in a hybrid valuable 
characters from distinct parents. 

(4) Fixation of hybrids. 

When different types have been crossed 
and hybrids secured which possess the char- 
acters desired, it is necessary that careful 
methods of selection and breeding be fol- 
lowed in order to secure finally a type that 
will transmit its qualities. The great ma- 
jority of such hybrids when first produced 
will not reproduce true to type. The policy 
followed by the writer in the cotton ex- 
periment above referred to, will usually serve as 
a good guide in the fixation of any hybrid. If self- 
fertile, the hybrids should be fertilized with their 
own pollen in order not to introduce any new hered- 
itary tendencies unless it is found that such fer- 
tilization too greatly reduces the vigor. In cotton, 
self-fertilization has been found not to decrease the 
vigor of the plants, and the same is true of wheat, 
tobacco, oats, and plants that are normally self- 
fertilized to some extent. In the case of corn, as it 
has been found that the inbreeding of a plant with 
its own pollen results in a great deterioration in 
vigor, it is the best policy to cross the desired 
hybrid w:*-h another hybrid having the same char- 
acters. The seed of such select hybrid plants should 
then be planted in isolated places, so that the plants 
will not be crossed with the pollen of either parent 
or other varieties. When the progeny of these select 
hybrids reach a point where their characters be- 
come visible it may be desirable to weed out the 
undesirable plants that are off" type, in order that 
the plants which most nearly resemble the type 
desired will be fertilized with pollen from similar 
plants. In the writer's cotton experiments, the 
seed of each individual selected plant of the second 
generation was planted in a small isolated plot of 
about one acre. As soon as the plants began to 
show their characters and it could be recognized 
that certain ones had inherited the desired qualities, 
the fields were carefully searched and all plants 
not true to type were pulled up, leaving only a few 
good plants of the right type. (Fig. 88.) This in- 
sured that all of the later bolls formed would be 
fertilized with pollen from similar plants of good 
type. Each subsequent generation, the select plants 
should be grown in isolated plots and seed selected 
only from those plants which have reproduced the 
ideal type for which the breeder is working. 

The time required to secure fixed types is 
variable, but in wheat and cotton, when careful 
experiments have been carried out and recorded, 
the indications are that four to six generations are 
ordinarily required to reach a fixed stage. This 
does not mean, of course, that all variation is 



SOME OF THE PRINCIPLES OF PLANT- BREEDING 



69 



prevented, but that the hybrids have been bred to 
the same type as nearly as is the case in any ordi- 
nary race or variety. 

Selection of vegetative parts. 

No consideration of the methods of plant-breed- 
ing would be complete without a mention of the 
improvements which can be produced by what may 
be termed the selection of vegetative parts. While, 
in general, all buds of a plant are practically the 
same, as is shown by the fact that buds taken from 
the Baldwin apple almost uniformly produce Bald- 
win apples, yet there is considerable variation 
frequently in the product from different buds, and 










*J^V^' ^--^ ''. 







Fig. 88. The rogueing, or removing of undesirable plants. 
These ;ire eotton-fields. The upper picture sliows men at 
work pulling out the plants that are not wanted ; the lower 
picture .shows a field after rogueing has been completed. 

it is well known that we have a class of variations 
which we have come to call bud-sports or bud-vari- 
ations. In violets, for example, the propagation is 
normally by slips that are developed from different 
buds. These slips when grown into plants frequently 
show considerable difference, and Dr. B. T. Galloway 
and Mr. P. H. Dorsett, of the Department of Agricul- 
ture, have demonstrated that.by the .selection of slips 
from plants which are very productive, the yield in 
the number of flowers to the plant can be increased 
considerably. In the case of the orange, seedling 
trees are almost always very thorny, yet certain 
branches may .show a tendency to be more nearly 
thornless, and by the selection of buds from such 
branches the thorny character of almost all the 
standard varieties has been reduced. By the sys- 
tematic selection of vegetative parts, such as buds, 



slips, suckers, and the like, in many cases very 
important improvements could doubtle.ss be secured, 
and the plant -breeder should have a thorough 
understanding of this method of improvement. In 
hybrids of mixed parentage frequently a bud on 
one side of a plant will sport, showing different 
tendencies, and many of our new varieties of roses, 
chrysanthemums and carnations have been pro- 
duced by the selection of such bud-sports. Many 
standard varieties of carnations have produced bud- 
variations that have proved valuable; the Lawson 
has given rise to the Red Lawson and White 
Lawson. The Enchantress has produced the Pink 
Enchantress and White Enchantress. The practice 
of exercising care in choice of chrysanthemum or 
carnation cuttings and of cions for fruit trees is 
therefore seen to rest on rational reasons. 

The variations in the character of the seed from 
different bolls in the case of hybrid cottons, re- 
ferred to on page 58, are bud-variations of this 
sort which, as pointed out there, may be of value 
to the breeder even in cotton which is propagated 
by seed. In the study of cotton, the writer has 
found similar bud-variations showing in the lint 
characters of hybrids. In quite a number of in- 
stances, certain bolls have been found which pro- 
duced much longer lint than other bolls on the 
same plant, and similar variations in strength and 
uniformity of length have been observed. Experi- 
ments indicate that such variations, which are 
doubtless to be classed as bud-variations, are trans- 
mitted in considerable degree. This being the case 
even in seed-propagated plants, it becomes desirable 
to observe and search for bud-variations. 

Literature. 

The principal general works are : Bailey, Plant- 
Breeding, 4th edition, 1906, The Macmillan Co., 
New York ; Fruwirth, Die Zuchtung der Land- 
wirtschafllichen Kulturpflanzen, Berlin, 1904-06. 
The following are a few of the most important gen- 
eral papers : Production et fixation des varietes 
dans les vegetaux, E. A. Carriere, Paris, 1865 ; 
Die Pflanzenmischlinge, W. 0. Focke, Berlin, 1881; 
A Selection from the Physiological and Horticul- 
tural Papers of Thomas Andrew Knight, published 
in the Transactions of the Royal and Horticultural 
Societies, London, 1841 ; Hybrids and Their Utili- 
zation in Plant-Breeding, W. T. Swingle and H. J. 
Webber, Yearbook, United States Department of 
Agriculture, 1897 ; Sur la production et la fixa- 
tion des varietes dans les plantes d'ornement, Jean 
Baptiste Verlot, Paris, 1865 ; The Improvement of 
Plants by Selection, H. J. Webber, Yearbook, 
United States Department of Agriculture, 1898 ; 
Hybrid Conference Report, Journal Royal Horti- 
cultural Society, Vol. XXIV, April, 1900 ; Survival 
of the Unlike, Bailey ; Proceedings, International 
Conference on Plant-Breeding and Hybrid izatiim, 
New York Horticultural Soc. Memoirs, Vol. I, 1902; 
Proceedings of American Breeders' Association, 
Vols. I and II, Washington, D. C, 1905 and 1906; 
Breeding Animals and Plants, W. M. Hays, St. 
Anthony Park, Minnesota. Bailey's Plant-Breeding 
contains a very extended list of papers and books. 



CHAPTER IV 




PLANT INTRODUCTION 

By DAVID FAIRCHILD 

kHERE IS NEED OF A MORE EXTENDED CROP FLORA. We are prone to look on 
the agriculture of this country as in a finished state, when, in fact, even the pioneer 
work has barely been done. The farmers have spread marvelously over the land. They 
have tried corn and wheat in nearly every great area where water is to be found ; they 
have planted potatoes from one corner of the country to the other, and have set out apple 
and pear trees wherever they have gone ; they have found out the value of such a forage 
plant as alfalfa, which was a great crop in South America before the farmers of this coun- 
try heard of its existence. They have done the best that could be done with the materials at 
their disposal ; but, when the land was too moist to grow potatoes, they left it alone ; regions 
in which corn and wheat failed because of the drought, they have given a wide berth ; and 
they have allowed good farming land in New England to grow up in weeds because it was in too small 
areas to grow wheat or corn in competition with the great fields of the West. Rich alluvial fields in the 
Carolinas, which have easy water connection with New York, they have abandoned for a similar rea- 
son. One thing that farmers need is new crops, — grains that will grow on dry land where wheat fails, 
higher-priced crops for the abandoned New England farms, new and valuable plants for rice lands. 

Early efforts at plant introduction. 

Farmers are searching for these new plants and are willing to spend millions of dollars in testing 
them, but until recently there has been no organization to aid them in getting the nece.ssary plants with 
which to experiment. 

Their needs have long attracted the attention of the government, and when, in 1838, Congress made 
its first appropriation in aid of agriculture, this appropriation was in the form of a grant of one town- 
ship of land in southern Florida to Doctor Henry Perrine, former American Consul in Campeche, for the 
purpose of encouraging the introduction and the cultivation of tropical plants in the United States. In 
1838, Mr. Ellsworth, Commissioner of Patents, made the following appeal to Congress : 

" Our citizens who are led by business or pleasure into foreign countries, and especially the officers 
of our navy and others in public employment abroad, would feel a pride in making collections of valu- 
able plants and seeds if they could be sure of seeing the fruits of their labors accrue to the benefit of 
the nation at large. But, hitherto, they have had no means of distributing, to any extent, the valuable 
productions of other climates which patriotism or curiosity has led them to introduce into our country. 
To a great extent, they have perished on their hands for want of some means of imparting to the public 
the benefit they had designed to confer. Those who have not considered the subject in its wide details 
are very imperfectly qualified to judge of its importance." 

In 1839, Mr. Ellsworth believed still more strongly in the work of plant introduction, for he remarks: 

"The diplomatic corps of the United States residing abroad have been solicited to aid in procuring 
valuable seeds, and the officers of the navy, with the appropriation of the honorable Secretary of that 
department, have been requested to convey to the Patent Office, for distribution, such seeds as may be 
offered. In many cases no charges will be made for seeds. If small expenses do arise they can be reim- 
bursed by appropriations from the patent fund, daily accumulating, and consecrated especially to the 
promotion of the arts and sciences. 

"The cheerfulness with which the diplomatic corps and the officers of the navy have received the 
request of this office justify sanguine anticipations from this new undertaking." 

In 1840, the work of plant introduction, coupled with that of gathering statistics on agriculture, 
called for the first stated expenditure by the Commissioner of Patents for agriculture. The amount was 
only $451.58, but it was the beginning of an expenditure by the government that has increased in sixty- 
five years to over $6,000,000. 

(70) 



IMPORTANCE OF PLANT INTRODUCTION 



71 



The first government work in agricul- 
ture was to introduce new plants, but of 
this early work, no doubt much of it im- 
portant to the country, only traces or 
legends remain. Few records of the various 
introductions are to be found, and hardly 
a trace of where they were planted. Mr. 
Ellsworth's idea was good, but the experi- 
ence of the past seven years has shown 
where the weakness lay. The seeds and 
plants collected by those in the diplomatic 
service were not gathered by trained men 
who knew the agricultural needs of the 
country, but were, in the great majority of 
cases, gathered by men who saw in a new 
plant some useful quality, without having 
the training necessary to find out whether 
it was capable of being adapted to our quite 
different conditions of labor, or to know in 
what part of the country it should be tried. 
An immense amount of valuable introduction 
work was done later by Mr. Saunders, who, 
for many years, had charge of the gardens 
and grounds of the Department of Agricul- 
ture, but no connected record of it exists. 
In 1870, the government made a notable 
introduction of cions of Russian apples. 

The work of persons not connected with 
government departments should not be for- 
gotten. Nurserymen and seedsmen have 
long been in the habit of introducing inter- 
esting plants from many countries. Many 
times they have introduced plants in ad- 
vance of the popular necessity for them, and 
the introductions have disappeared, to be 
introduced again later. Many citizens, from 
Washington down, have been influential in 
introducing plants. In later years the work of 
Gibb, of Quebec, in introducing Russian fruits 
modern movement. 




Fig. 89. Four types of Tunisian dates, showing the variation 
in this fruit. 

the late Professor Budd, of Iowa, and the late Charles 
should not be overlooked, for they were pioneers in the 



The organization of plant-introduction work and 
some of its problems. 

It was not until 1897 that this great work of 
finding, getting, importing, and sending out new 
plants was put on a scientific basis and the Section 
of Seed and Plant Introduction made an integral 
part of the Department of Agriculture. The organ- 
ization of the Office as it now stands owes its 
smoothly working machinery to the painstaking 
efforts of Mr. Adrian J. Pieters, who has put into 
the work years of study and thought, and who, 
together with the writer, has general charge today. 
This Office has almost constantly had agricultural 
explorers and collectors in the field, and has worked 
out a system that takes care of every plant sent in 
and of every seed distributed, and it is on a basis 
of accurate cooperation with the experiment sta- 



tions and farmers all over the country. Every 
one of the more than 19,000 specimens that have 
been sent in by agricultural explorers, by friends 
of the work or by correspondents, or that have 
been purchased abroad, has been put on permanent 
record and then sent out to some one who was 
especially interested in it ; and, as far as possible, 
each introduction has been followed up and the 
result recorded. Over 120,000 cards record the 
distributions, and thousands of reports now on 
file form a most valuable historical record of 
the systematic plant introductions of the past 
eight years. The aim of the work has been pre- 
eminently a practical one, and the introductions 
have been made to meet some demand either of an 
experiment station or of a plant-breeder, or to 
carry out the idea of some one of the explorers 
who saw in a foreign plant industry the possibility 



72 



IMPORTANCE OF PLANT INTRODUCTION 



of its utilization in this country. The work of 
early years failed in doing the great good that it 
was capable of because it was not systematic, 
because no adequate records were kept, and be- 
cause the public were not alive to its great possi- 
bilities. Today the interest in new plants is so 
much greater than it was twenty years ago that 
large numbers of the really suggestive applications 
from private experimenters cannot be met by the 
Office for lack of funds. 

A very brief sketch of some of the interesting 
problems that are on the program of the Office will 
illustrate the opening vista of plant introduction as 
a government enterprise. The largest collection of 
date varieties ever made is now growing in gardens 
in Arizona and California (Figs. 89, 90). The 
largest collection of tropical mangoes in the world 
is in greenhouses or already in the hands of experi- 
menters in Florida, Porto Rico and Hawaii. Thous- 
ands of the Japanese matting rush plants, from 
which the valuable Japanese matting is made, of 
which this country imports several million dollars' 
worth every year, are being grown in South Caro- 
lina. A new and valuable salad plant from 
Japan, the udo (Fig. 13), is being grown 
from Maine to Flor- 
ida. The superior 
varieties of French 
bur artichoke have 
been introduced for 
trial in the trucking re- 
gion of the South. The 
berseem, the greatest of 
annual winter forage crops 
from the Nile valley, is 
now being grown experi- 
mentally in the new irri- 
gated regions of the South- 
west (Fig. 91). Kafir corns from 
the uplands of Abyssinia, the 
east coast of Africa and India 
are being tested in Kansas and 
other places in the West. New 
varieties of alfalfa, the one from 
Turkestan, the other from Ara- 
bia, are both attracting the attention 
of alfalfa-growers in those sections 
where alfalfa is the great forage crop. 
In Alaska a newly found variety of 
oat, from northern Finland, is proving 
superior to all others. Before these 
lines are printed the sisal industry of 
Yucatan will have been given a start 
in Porto Rico through the assistance 
of the organization that the Office of 
Plant Introduction has built up. At 
the request of the State Experiment 
Station of North Cai-olina, peanuts 
have been gathered from all over the 
world for the use of breeding experi- 
menters in the South. Pentzia, an in- 
teresting fodder plant of the "kar- 
roo," has been sent to one of the bar- 
ren islands of the Hawaiian group for 
trial. The Hanna, a pedigreed barley 







Fig. 91 
Berseem 
(Trifolhan 
Alexan- 
drimnn) 




A 



Fig. 90. Egyptian date palm in fruit at Indio, California. 
Imported by Department of Agriculture in 1889. 

variety from Moravia, is now being given a practi- 
cal test by the brewers in St. Louis and California, 
and its uniform character and good yields on the 
Pacific coast have aleady led to its cultivation on 
a large scale. A new root crop from Porto Rico, the 
yautia (Figs. 114, 115, page 105, Vol. I), promi- 
nently brought forward by Mr. Barrett, now of this 
Office, is to be practically tried in northern Florida 
and the Carol inas, in both of which places it has 
proved its ability to grow. The plant from which 
Japan makes her papers of unexcelled quality is 
growing in the plant-introduction garden in Cali- 
fornia (Fig. 92). The wood-oil tree of the Yang-tse 
valley has been imported from Han Kow, and there 
are on hand in California hundreds of plants with 
which to make the first trials of this interesting oil- 
producing plant, the product of which is imported 
into America in increasing quantities every year 
to be used for varnish and imitation rubber manu- 
facturing purposes. The hardy bamboos of the 
Orient have been imported, and, as far as the funds 
of the Office have allowed, these have been placed 
at several places in the South where the old "cane- 
brakes," which are growths of a commercially 
worthless species of bamboo, indicate that the 
valuable kind from Japan may be expected to grow 
successfully. Answering an appeal from the rice- 
planters of the Carolinas, whose plantations have 
been devastated by a very serious disease, rices of 
the type of the famous Carolina Golden have been 
imported from the Orient, Africa, the West Indies 
and Italy, with the hope of unding one that will 
resist the disease. This hope has not yet been ful- 
filled, although there is one variety at least that 
has some promise of being useful in the rice-fields 
of the region. An early introduction of one of the 
agricultural explorers was the fenugreek, a plant 
the seeds of which, when ground, form the body of 
most of the condition powders so much used by 
raisers of fat-stock show animals; and although 
the manufacturers of these condition powders still 
import their seed from abroad, the Californians 



IMPORTANCE OF PLANT INTRODUCTION 



73 




,si U 



1 \ 







Fig. 92. The Mitsiunata paper plant of Japan. A plantation 
in the hills. {Edgeworthia Gardneri.) 

have learned that fenugreek is one of their best 
cover-crops, as it stands up especially well and can 
be plowed under easily. 

One of the most far-reaching in its possibilities 
of all the introductions of the Office is the drought- 
resistant durum wheats, which yield crops where 
all ordinary wheats fail for lack of water. Largely 
through Mr. M. A. Carleton's effort, this grain, un- 
known on American grain markets seven years ago, 
is now grown in such quantities that in 1905 the 
United States exported 6,000,000 bushels of it. 
Another introduction was the Japanese Kiushu rice, 
which was in part responsible for the great develop- 
ment of the Texas and Louisiana rice-fields and 
which is now planted on one-half the rice area of 
chese states. 

These problems, chosen from among the many 
engaging the attention of the Department special- 
ists, should give an idea of the way in which this 
branch of the government is affecting the agricul- 
ture of the country. 

Other interesting or important food plants that 
the Office is introducing 
or disseminating are 
shown in Figs. 9.3 to 99. 
These are products of 
well-known species and 
need not be further de- 
scribed here. 

A feature of the in- 
troductions that de- 
serves especially to be 
mentioned, since it is 
growing rapidly in im- 
portance, is the getting 
of material for those en- 
gaged in breeding new 
races of plants. In order 
to break up a species it 
is often necessary to 
cross it with some nearly 
related species, and such 
near relatives are often 
wild plants or forms that 
are not to be found in 
this country. It is one of 
^'^\f^.ri?t^^^ S: the pleasant parts of the 
Root Krown at Edge- work to secure a plant 
water Park. N J. from from the ends of the 

introduced root-cuttings ii iT_ j_ i i 

from Maiin, Bohemia. earth that Some breeder 





may incorporate it into a new hybrid of value. The 
citrange of Messrs. Swingle and Webber would not 
have been made had not an ornamental, the Citrus 
trifoliata, been introduced from Japan ; the inter- 
esting tobacco crosses that Mr. Shamel has made 
owe their origin in part to the fact that he had 
Sumatra seed to work with ; the interesting series 
of hybrid cottons that Dr. Webber has been work- 
ing with are the results of cross-pollinations be- 
tween the American and Egyptian cottons. To help 
Mr. Swingle in his work on the pistachio-nut, which 
may prove a new nut industry for California, the 
Office is searching for a Chinese species that will 
resist cold, a species native in Afghanistan that 
will resist alkali, the mastick and terebinth of 
southern Europe, and a native Texan species that 
Mr. Swingle thinks will be valuable for use as- 
stocks. The problem of the introduction of the 
tropical mangosteen of the Dutch East Indies is 
being worked out by Mr. Oliver, the expert propa- 
gator of the Department, chiefly through the use 
of as many of the nearly related species of the 
genus Garcinia as can be brought together. There 
are over sixty species in this tropical genus, and, 
as fifteen of these bear edible fruits, it would be 




Fig. 94. English Broad bean 
iVicia Faba) as grown in ,«, 
America. Pods ready for '«'' 
the table. 



strange if at least one should not be available as a 
stock or of worth for breeding purposes. The suc- 
cessful introduction of this, the most valuable of 
East Indian fruits, probably hangs on the utilizing 
of some of these other and more vigorous species 
of Garcinia. 

Most fortunately for the Office, the possibilities 
of plant-introduction work appealed at the outset 
most strongly to the practical mind of a past 
master in the art of travel, who for over forty 
years has wandered almost constantly over the 
world, — Mr. Barbour Lathrop, of Chicago. Seeing 
such widely different crops in the many lands that 
he visited, his unusual foresight saw in the work 



74 



IMPORTANCE OF PLANT INTRODUCTION 



of plant introduction a great wealth -creating 
power, and, convinced of the good he could do for 
his country by aiding its progress, he spent the 
greater part of his time and en- 
ergy during the years of 1896, 
1898-99, 1901-02, and 1903 in 
making, at his own expense, a 
tour of reconnaissance of the 
world in the interest of the Office 
of Plant Introduction. He took 
the writer with him as his agri- 
cultural explorer, and estab- 
lished correspondents in most of 
the principal points of plant in- 
terest in the world. This list of 
correspondents is one of the great 
assets of the Office, enabling it 
to secure quickly from any re- 
gion the seeds or plants desired 
for hosts of experiments which 
the Office is pressed by private 
experimenters to take up. In the 
course of these six years of 
travel a mass of material was 
imported from all parts of the 
world, aggregating at least 1,200 
different selected things that 
seemed worthy of trial in Amer- 
ica. Many of these are now form- 
ing subjects of study and exper- 
iment in different parts of the 
country and have been alluded 
to under the successes achieved 
or the problems now being 
worked out by the Department specialists. 

The profession of agricultural exploration has 
been originated and developed by the Office of 
Plant Introduction. The first explorer, Mr. N. E. 




Fig. 95. The Hun- 
garian paprika as 
grown by Dr. R. 
H. Tme in South 
Carolina. Until 
this was taken 
up by the Bureau 
of Plant Indus- 
try all the pap- 
rika used in 
America was im- 
ported from Aus- 
tro-Hungary and 
other European 
countries. 




Fig. 96. The prickly pear or Tuna (Opuntia Ficus-Indica), 
as sold on the streets and in the fancy fruit stores of this 
country. 

Hansen, made an extended trip through Russia and 
the steppes of Siberia in search of hardy fruits and 
drought-resistant forage plants, the result being the 
introduction of the Turkestan alfalfa plants. Mr. 



W. T. Swingle, on two separate trips, explored the 
oases of the Sahara for the best sorts of date 
palms, and unearthed a host of new and interesting 
forage and fruit plants in Algeria, with many of 
which various experimenters are now at work ; he 
studied and perfected the best method of sending 
over the caprifying insect that has since made 
Smyra fig culture a success in California, and 
started investigations of the pistachio industry in 
Sicily and Asia Minor, besides calling the attention 
of olive-growers to the dry-land olive culture of 
Tunis. Mr. C. S. Scofield spent a summer in Algeria 
collecting the seeds of a lot of promising legumi- 
nous plants that are now attracting interest as new 
fodder plants in California. At the same time he 
secured the best of the Kabili fig varieties that 
are now growing in the same state. The two 
Ru.ssian expeditions of 
Mr. M. A. Carleton were 
made in search of cereals 
that would resist the rust 
and the extreme droughts 
of the great western 
plains, and the tons of 
seed wheat that were dis- 
tributed as the result of 
his trips have led to the 
establishment of the 
durum wheat industry in 
the Dakotas, Nebraska 
and Kansas, and that is 
now attracting the atten- 
tion of the Californians 
as a possible solution of 
their serious wheat prob- 
lem. Mr. E. A. Bessey 
made a journey through 
the Caucasus after hardy 
grapes and cherries, and 
went into Turkestan for 
sand - binding plants and 
alfalfas. Dr. S. A. Knapp 
was sent twice to the 
Orient to study the rice 
varieties of those great 
rice -growing countries, 
and introduced among other things the Kiushu 
rice that has been referred to. Mr. T. H. Kearney 
has made two explorations of the north coast 
of Africa, the first to select strains of the best 
Egyptian cotton (Figs. 100, 101), the second to 
make a collection of the many important dates 
that grow in the oases of southern Tunis. He has 
given the first account by a trained agriculturist 
of the date-palm industry written on the ground at 
the time of ripening of the fruit. Mr. 0. W. Bar- 
rett, during the time he was stationed at Porto 
Rico, was sent to other of the West Indian islands, 
and he has introduced a number of valuable plants 
into the tropical territory there, notably varieties of 
the cacao and the yautia, the root crop already men- 
tioned, the arracacha of Venezuela and others. The 
discovery by Mr. P. H. Rolfs that the vanilla can 
be fruited in Florida led to his recent trip to Mexico 
to study the vanilla industry of eastern Mexico, 




Fig. 97. The passion fruit 
iPassiflora eduUs), one 
of the commonest pro- 
duets in the Natal mar- 
ket and which in Aus- 
tralia and New Zealand 
is a popular table fruit. 



IMPORTANCE OF PLANT INTRODUCTION 



75 



and resulted in the importation of a number of 
varieties of this valuable plant to serve as experi- 
mental material for his researches. Mr. Rolfs also 




Fig. 98. The true Corsican citron . An American-grown fruit 
from the only piiyine plantation of this fniit yet estab- 
lished in America, that of Dr. Westlake. of Los Angeles. 
The cions were secured for the Division of Pomology by 
David Fairchild, his first piece of plant-introduction work. 

made a trip to Jamaica to study the cassava in- 
dustry, and there made a collection of cassava 
varieties which is now established in Florida. 

A short investigation of the Alpine trial gardens 
of Austria was made last summer by Mr. Edgar 
Brown, who also secured for trial the Ladino clover 
of the irrigated valley of the Po. At the present 
time Mr. Frank N. Meyer, agricultural explorer of 
the Office, is in northern China, and from this 
region he is sending, week by week, cions and seeds 
of hardy fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains and orna- 
mental plants that may be expected to have an 
important bearing on the agricultural industries of 
the Atlantic and middle western states. 

The government responsibility in plant introduction. 

It will be evident from what has been said that 
the aims of this Office are not at all identical with 
those of such a wonderful botanic garden as that 
of Kew, Berlin, or New York. It does not main- 
tain a collection of living plants, whether of 
practical value or not, but its funds are spent in 
importing for the use of experimenters throughout 
the country material with which they can work. 
Scarcely a day passes without some request being 
received for seed which is not carried by any seeds- 
man in the country. A potato-breeder in Vermont 
wants the new Solanum Commersonii from the wet 
lands in Uruguay to hybridize with the ordinary 
potato ; a settler in southern Texas wants to try 
bamboos on the Rio Grande ; the representative of 
a land-development company on the Sacramento 



wants to plant the Egyptian horse-bean for a green- 
manure crop; the Experiment Station of Hawaii 
wants wine-grape varieties introduced into the 
islands; and the director of the Alaska Experiment 
Station asks for North Swedish grains and vege- 
tables for the Klondyke. 

The government enterprise of plant introduction 
should not interfere with the private seed trade, 
but, on the contrary, benefit it, for its object is to 
create a demand which the seedsmen will supply. 
Seedsmen have kept on their catalogues for ^-ears 
certain .species for which the demand is so small 
that it does not pay to handle them, and yet some 
of them are worthy of wide cultivation in this 
country. Government plant introduction brings 
these to public attention. Had the work of intro- 
ducing new fa^m and garden plants been a profi- 
table one, there would certainly be in this and other 
countries commercial firms with their collectors in 
all parts of the globe, as there are rug- and tea- 
importers ; yet it is safe to say that there is no 
private concern in America that would undertake 
to get at moderate expense the Manchurian millet 
through fields of which the Japanese soldiers 
marched in the recent Russo-Japanese war, nor 
would it have thought it profitable to supply the 
Canadian wheat experimenter with the early-ripen- 
ing wheat from the Ladoga sea from which one 
of the best wheats for the Northwest has been 
originated. 

Experimental work is expensive, and it is only 
when the first stages in the experiment have been 




Fig. 99. The Carob bean, or St. John's Bread, of the Mediterra- 
nean. Pod of a fodder-producing tree. {Ceratonia SiliQua.) 

passed — when a demand has grown up for the seeds 
— that there is money in keeping in stock a supply 
for this demand. Understanding this point fully, 



76 



IMPORTANCE OF PLANT INTRODUCTION 



the work of the OfRce of Plant Introduction is 
planned to cease as soon as experiments have shown 
the money-making value of a crop — as soon, in 
other words, as the seed firms decide that it is to 
their advantage to take it up. 

There is another great reason why the plant in- 
troduction of a country should be in the hands of 
the government. This lies in the danger of the 
f?^ introduction of noxi- 

ous weeds, insect 
pests and fungous 
parasites. This idea 
is quite distinct from 
that of a quarantine 
affecting all private 
introductions. The 
damage wrought by 
fungous and insect 
pests in Europe has 
been so great that 
practically prohibi- 
tive quarantines have 
been placed against 
the introduction of 
foreign plants in 
Italy and Greece ; and 
in this respect these 
countries have been 
followed by the Ar- 
gentine. The result 
has been that the 
potato-growers of 
Greece have seen 
their potato varieties 
deteriorate without 
being able to get a 
change of seed, and 
in Argentine the pres- 
sure to get new 
things was so great 
that seeds were im- 
clandestinely 
ies, 
had 
to be repealed. The 
doors had been shut 
to private introduc- 
tion and yet no pro- 
vision was made for 
the government to 
of the people for 




Fig. 100. The Ashmuni Egyptian 
cotton used by Dr. Webber in 
his hybridizing experiments. 
It has a long staple. 




*i<^ X ^^* il -^"J^^lMf ported clandestin 



Fig. 101. The common upland cot- 
ton of America. 



meet the legitimate demand 
foreign plants. 

In bringing a new plant into a country, with all 
we now know of plant diseases, it would be a calam- 
ity to introduce its particular disease with it, yet, 
unless done with the greatest care and under the 
supervision of experts who know how to inspect, 
disinfect and fumigate, this is almost sure to occur. 
Two important plant industries which the Depart- 
ment is now at work on, the mango and the 
pistachio, could be seriously injured by injudicious 
private introductions that would almost surely 
bring in the destructive mango weevil of Java and 
a dangerous pistachio bud-borer from Sicily, pests 
that are now unknown here. 



The possibilities of plant introduction. 

Tiie possibilities of organized plant introduction 
are almost unlimited. Enough has already been 
done in this country to attract the attention of 
other nations which had not hitherto realized its 
importance ; and the time is not far off when 
the interchange of plants between countries will 
assume proportions that are now riot dreamed of 
even by the most enthusiastic believer in the work, 
and the building up of new plant industries in a 
country will one day rank with the greatest of 
national duties. 

The rate at which new plants arrive today is 
such that the inventory of accessions in the Office 
in the last two years comprises over 7,000 entries, 
while in the three years preceding, only 4,000 new 
things were brought in by the Office ; altogether, 
since 1898, over 19,000 selected seeds or plants 
have entered. 

It is not intended to give here even a partial list 
of the introductions of the Office of Seed and Plant 
Introduction and Distribution, but only to mention 
some of the species whose names do not appear 
in former cyclopedias of horticulture or agri- 
culture. 

Agropyron cristatum, J. Gaert. Graminefe. From 
Walujka Experiment Station (in the dry steppes about 50 
miles east of Rovnaya. south of Saratof on Volga river), 
Russia. Received through Prof. N. E. Hansen, May 25, 
1898. Native dry steppe grass. Seed from plants culti- 
vated one year. Director Bogdan, of the Walujka Station, 
regards this species promising for cultivation. 

Andropogon rufus, Kunth. Jaragua. Gramines. From 
Matto Grosso Province, Brazil. Presented by the Brazilian 
minister, Hon. J. F. de A.ssis-Brasil, December 1, 1900. 
A native fodder grass called by the Portuguese provi- 
sorio. Described by Mr. Assis-Brasil in his book on Bra- 
zilian agriculture. 

Angelica sylvestris, Linn. Umbelliferse. From Naples, 
Italy. Received through Mr. W. T. Swingle, May, 1899. 
Said to have a much more fleshy leaf and stalk than the 
ordinary Angelica (Archangelica officinalis). Of this lat- 
ter plant Vilmorin says: "The stems and leaf-stalks are 
eaten preserved with sugar. The leaves are also used as a 
vegetable in some parts of Europe. The root, which is 
splendidly shaped, is employed in medicine. It is some- 
times called 'The Root of the Holy Ghost.' The seeds 
enter into the composition of various liquors." By some, 
the candied angelica is preferred to citron. 

Arracachia esculenta, D. C. (A. xanthorrhiza Bancr.). 
Arracacha. Umbelliferae. From Jamaica. Received through 
Messrs. Lathrop and Fairchild from the Hope Botanical 
Gardens, Kingston. A carrot-like vegetable much used in 
tropical and subtropical South America, especially in 
Venezuela, where it is called apio. The roots are propa- 
gated by subdivision, and the culture is much like that 
given to celery, though no blanching is necessary. Suc- 
cessfully introduced into Porto Rico. In South America 
generally eaten in soups, but said to be best when fried. 

Astragalus falcatus. Lam. Leguminosae. From France. 
Received through Mr. W. T. Swingle, December, 1898. A 
species native to the Caucasus. It should be tried as a 
forage plant in the Rocky mountain region. 

Astrebla pectinata, P. Muell. Mitchell grass. Gram- 
ineae. From Coolabah, New South Wales. Presented by 
Mr. R. W. Peacock, August 3, 1900. This is one of the 
famous Mitchell grasses and is regarded by some as the 
best of all native grasses, both for its drought-enduring 
qualities and for its fattening properties. 



IMPORTANCE OP PLANT INTRODUCTION 



77 



Mennodia lasiocarpa, F. Muell. Hairy-podded Cress. 
Cruciferae. Annual, 1 to IJ feet high, covered with pubes- 
cence. Pod hairy. Peculiar to the Darling river, sandy 
plains near the Murray river, and generally over the arid 
plains of Australia. Makes its growth during the hottest 
part of the year. Valuable for forage. Reference : For- 
age Plants of Australia, p. 4. Introduced by J. H. Maiden, 
■ Sydney Botanic Garden, March 1, 1904. 

Cmsalpinia brevifolia, Baill. Algarobillo. Leguminosaa. 
From Santiago, Chile. Received through Messrs. Lathrop 
and Fairchild, July, 1899. A desert shrub from the region 
about Huasco, growing where often no rains fall for an 
entire year. The shrub produces an abundance of small 
pods that are remarkably rich in tannin. The industry of 
their export has been very profitable in Huasco, and it 
has been proposed to cultivate the shrub in other sections 
of Chile. At present only wild plants furnish the pods of 
commerce. This is a shrub eminently suited to Califomian 
desert conditions, and should be tested in Arizona as well. 
It may be expected to bear fruit in four years. The seeds 
should be taken from the pods, carefully sown in the open 
ground, and covered with about three-fourths of an inch 
of soil. Care should be exercised to give them only a little 
water. The plants could be potted and transplanted, but 
the better way would be to try a few in the open ground. 
This is worthy of serious attention. The amount of tannin 
borne by the pods is very great, and it is said that they 
contain a valuable coloring matter as well. 

Ccesalpinia coriaria, Willd. Divi-divi. Leguminoss. 
From France. Received through Mr. W. T. Swingle, 
March, 1899. A small leguminous tree 20 to 30 feet high, 
from the West Indies to Brazil. The pods contain a high 
percentage of tannin and are largely exported to Europe. 
The tree thrives only on the seashore or in salt marshes. 
For trial along the Florida coast and in the tropical pos- 
sessions. 

Capparis inermis, Forsk. Spineless Caper. Capparidese. 
From France. Received through Mr. W. T. Swingle, March, 
1899. Caprier sans cpine, an improved variety of the 
caper. The buds are much easier to gather than those of 
the ordinary spiny sort. This variety is said to come true 
from seed. 

Carica heterophylla, Poep. and Endl. Jarrilla. Passi- 
floraceas. From Celaya, Mexico. Presented by Prof. Felix 
Foex. Received December 10, 1900. A curious fruit, 
being drunk as one would swallow a raw egg, and not 
eaten. The name is Jarrilla, or " little pitcher," because it 
is shaped like a pitcher and is always full of water. The 
water contained in it is fresh and slightly acid, resembling 
lemon juice. When the fruit is taken from the plant it 
acquires in a few days a bitter taste, something like lemon 
peel, but without its aroma. The plant is a perennial, half 
climber, and grows wild on the hills around Celaya. 

Centaurea Jacea, Linn. "Jacee des pres." "Chevalon." 
Meadow Knapweed. Compositae. From France. Received 
through Mr. W. T. Swingle, December, 1898. Perennial ; a 
plant for aftermath in elevated meadows, suitable to enter 
into natural and artificial mixtures. Its presence among 
the herbage is considered an indication of good quality. 
The stem and leaves contain a yellow coloring matter. 
Under this name several species and varieties closely 
related to it and having nearly the same qualities are fre- 
quently confounded in commerce and cultivation. 

Chloris virgata, Sw. Rhodes Grass. Graminese. From 
Cape Town, South Africa. Received through Messrs. La- 
throp and Fairchild, May 6, 1903. A species of pasture 
grass that, although scattered widely through the tropics 
of both hemispheres (according to the books), has probably 
not before been brought into culture. Mr. Cecil Rhodes 
had the seed of this plant collected several years ago and 
sown in large patches on his place near Cape Town, called 
" Groote Schur." The grass has done well there, forming 
heavy sods of a good herbage. This does not seem to be a 



drought-resistant form ; at least, it is not able to with- 
stand very severe dry weather. However, a grass which 
has attracted the attention of so keen a cultivator as Mr. 
Rhodes and is meeting with favorable comment from 
many practical men at the Cape deserves a thorough trial 
in America. 

Diplachne fusca, Beauv. Swamp Grass. Graminese. 
From Coolabah, New South Wales. Presented by Mr. R. 
W. Peacock, August 3, 1900. This annual grass grows 
plentifully in damp and swampy places and is worth culti- 
vating on low-lying waste lands. It makes desirable hay 
and ensilage. The plant produces an abundance of seeds 
which ripen late in the winter. 

Eucommia ulmoides, Oliver. Trochodendraceas. From 
London, England. Purchased from Messrs. James Veitch 
& Sons, Ltd., November 25, 1904. At one time much 
spoken of as a possible new source of rubber. Its leaves 
contain a substance similar to India rubber, but as yet no 
large quantity has been experimented with. For experi- 
mental plantings in the South. China. 

Eutrema hedercefolia, Franch & Sav. Dry-land wasabi. 
Cruciferae. From Yokohama, Japan. Presented by Mr. 
H. Suzuki, of the Yokohama Nursery Company, through 
Mr. David Fairchild. Received April 18, 1904. This dry- 
land wasabi, or Japanese horse-radish, is said to grow well " 
in shade, but, being native of the central part of Japan, 
might not resist our climate. It seems much easier of 
cultivation than the ordinary wasabi (Eutrevia Wasabi), 
though it will take some years before it grows to the size 
of ordinary wasabi roots ; but, as the leaves have a very 
good flavor, it is said to be eaten by the natives as one 
of the best kinds of 
spice. Wild ; not in culti- 
vation yet. 

Eutrema Wasabi, 
Maxim. Japanese horse- 
radish. Cruciferse. (Fig. 
102.) From Yokohama, 
Japan. Presented by 
Messrs. Lathrop and Fair- 
child. Received December 
7, 1903. The wasabi takes 
the same place in Japan 
that the horseradish does 
in America, furnishing, 
when served at the table, 
a delicate, light green 
condiment, with a sharp, 
agreeable, pungent flavor, 
in some respects superior 
to horse-radish. The plant 
is cultivated in mountain 
valleys, in springy land 
where there is an abun- 
dant supply of moisture. 
Half shade is given. The 
method of cultivation is 
described in Bulletin No. 
42, Bureau of Plant In- 
dustry, Department of 
Agriculture. 

Festuca pabularis, Sodiro. Graminete. From Quito, 
Ecuador. Presented by Mr. Luis Sodiro, S. J., a botanist 
and student of Ecuador agriculture, through Mr. David 
Fairchild. Received May 25, 1904. Mr. Sodiro remarks 
that this is one of the most remarkable forage grasses of 
the mountain region of Ecuador. It is likely to prove of 
value in certain parts of this country. 

Garcinia Celebica, Linn. Guttiferae. From Buitenzorg, 
Java, Dutch East Indies. Received from Dr. Treub, Sep- 
tember 28, 1904. Designed for use as a stock on which 
to graft the mangosteen, or for breeding purposes. 

Garcinia Cochinchinensis, Choisy. Guttifera. From 




Fig. 102. Japanese horse-radish or 
wasabi {Exitniita Wasahi). 
Served with every fish dinner 
in Japan. 



78 



IMPORTANCE OP PLANT INTRODUCTION 



Durban.Natal. Received through Messrs. Lathrop and Fair- 
child, November 9, 1904. This tree is a more vigorous one, 
and easier to adapt to cultivation than G. Mangostana, the 
true mangosteen. It is also a heavier bearer, and it is 
valuable in connection with experiments on the cultivation 
of the mangosteen in Porto Rico and Hawaii. The fruit 
is of a golden yellow color, one-seeded, with characteristic 
agreeable acid-flavored pulp. 

Hex Paraguensis, A. St. Hil. Paraguay tea. Mate. 
Ilicinefe. From France. Received through Mr. W. T. 
Swingle, March, 1899. The leaves of this shrub or small 
tree are extensively used in South American countries as 
a substitute for tea. This is a small tree reaching the 
height of 15 or 20 feet, which grows all through southern 
South America. The leaves are prepared by drying and 
roasting ; but instead of being handled separately, as in 
preparing Chinese tea, large branches are dried by a wood 
fire and then placed on the hard floor and beaten with 
sticks until the dry leaves fall off. These leaves are then 
used in much the same way as ordinary tea. It is used as 
a beverage by millions of people in South America and is 
used as medicine to a small extent. The tree is not culti- 
vated in South America, but there are said to be numerous 
and extensive forests where it is the predominating 
species. 

Lotus uUginosns, Schkuhr. Bird's-foot trefoil. Legu- 
minosae. From France. Received through Mr. W. T. 
Swingle, December, 1898. Perennial ; a very good plant 
for meadows and damp woods, demanding more humidity 
than L. corniculatus ; taller and gives more fodder ; suc- 
ceeds well in the shade, in peat bogs, heaths and acid 
marshes, not calcareous ; has been suggested for the for- 
mation of artificial prairies and is very suitable for mix- 
tures for meadows and natural pastures. This lotus is a 
little more prolific in its seeds than L. corniculatus. It 
may be sown from March to May and even in autumn. 

Medicago falcata, Linn. Medic. Leguminosae. From 
Walujka, Russia. Received through Prof. N. E. Hansen, 
May, 1898. Regarded by Director Bogdan, of the Walujka 
Experiment Station, as a promising fodder plant for dry 
steppes, where it is found native at Walujka. 

Medicago sativa, Linn. Turkestan alfalfa. Leguminosse. 
A Turkestan variety or strain of the ordinary lucerne 
or alfalfa, introduced by Prof. N. E. Hansen, in 1898, 
and has proved a distinct success, more particularly in 
those regions subjected to severe drought, and on soils 
impregnated with alkali. Its resistance to severe cold has 
not been so satisfactorily proved as its hardiness under 
conditions of drought and alkali. Professor Hansen secured 
seed of this variety from Bokhara, Samarkand, Tashkend, 
Sairam, 150 miles north of Merke, in the Kirghiz Tartar 
steppes, and from Kuldja, China, Djarkent and Kopal. 
This variety, as well as other drought-resistant forms 
introduced from Algiers and Arabia, is likely to play an 
important role in alfalfa cultivation in this country. 

Melilotus macrostachys, Pomel. Melilot. Leguminosje. 
This species of melilot, native to Algeria, differs from 
most of the sweet clovers in having no pronounced odor. 
In consequence of this it is readily eaten by cattle. It has 
succeeded very well at the Experiment Station at Rouiba, 
where it attains a height of 3 to 6 feet. 

Melinis minutiflora, Beauv. Molasses grass. Gramines. 
From Brazil. Presented by Senhor I. Nery da Fonseca, of 
Pernambuco. This is said to be the finest pasture grass in 
Brazil. Should be tried in Florida. 

Miscanthus condensatus. (?). Gramineje. From Yoko- 
hama, Japan. Presented by Mr. H. Suzuki, of the Yoko- 
hama Nursery Company. Received March 9, 1904. In the 
native region where this plant is grown, its leaves remain 
green all through the year, and the cattle are fed on it. 
It should be cut while young, before it reaches its full 
growth, as the stem gets hard if left too long. Young 
Steins can be cut from time to time throughout nearly the 



entire year, but a few stems on each clump should always 
be left, as it sometimes dies if cut too severely. It is diffi- 
cult to get seed of this plant, as the stems are constantly 
cut by the villagers. It seldom seeds. The roots, however, 
can be secured in any quantity. 

Myoporum deserti, A. Cunn. Sweet-fruited myoporum. 
Myoporaceae. Erect shrub, 3 to 4 feet high, with linear 
leaves 1 to 2 inches long. Said by some to be pois- 
onous when in fruit. Others state that it is a good forage 
plant. Found principally in the interior of all the colonies 
of Australia. (See Forage Plants of Australia, p. 40.) 
Introduced by J. H. Maiden, Sydney Botanic Garden, 
March 1, 1904. 

Nephelium lappacenm, L. Rambutan. Sapindacese. Pre- 
sented by Dr. Treub, Buitenzorg, Java, through Mr. David 
Fairchild. Received March 31, 1905. This species and 
Nephelium mutabile, Blume, known as the " capoelasan," 
produce fruits far superior to the litchi in lusciousness. 
The fruits differ from that of the litchi in having distinct 
long protuberances from the fruit-skin which make them 
resemble superficially well - developed "cedar apples," 
though much darker in color. They are two of the show- 
iest and most delicious fruits cultivated in Java, and 
should have been introduced long ago into the West 
Indies. 

Ononis avellana, Pomel. Ononis. Leguminosse. This is 
said by Doctor Trabut to be a good green-manure for 
heavy soils. It is found only in Algeria, where it occurs 
in few localities on clay hills. 

Oxalis crenata., ia,cq. Oca. Geraniaceae Yellow variety. 
From France. Received through Mr. W. T. Swingle, Feb- 
ruary 13, 1899. The oca of western South America, where 
it is much appreciated as a vegetable. It is a perennial 
plant, but cultivated as an annual. Its tubers, which 
resemble potatoes, are acid when fresh, but after exposure 
to the sun become floury and sweet. When dried for 
several weeks, they become wrinkled and taste something 
like dried figs. In this condition known as calli. For 
directions for planting, see Vilmorin's Vegetable Garden. 

Panicum molle, Sw. Para grass. Gramineje. From 
Jamaica. Received through Messrs. Lathrop and Fair- 
child, March, 1899. A tropical hay and pasture grass, 
introduced before 1899 by private individuals, adapted to 
cultivation on rich muck or swampy soils. Propagated 
mostly by root division. Has proved profitable in southern 
Texas, and is being experimented with throughout the 
South. An exceedingly vigorous grower, and a very succu- 
lent-stemmed species. 

Paspalum digitaria, C. Muell. Gramineae. From Cape 
Town, South Africa. Presented by Prof. P. MacOwan, 
Government Botanist, through Messrs. Lathrop and Fair- 
child. Received May 6, 1903. Seed of a grass which, 
according to Professor MacOwan, is promising for moist 
bottom land. It will not endure cold weather, but is suited 
to subtropical conditions. 

Pentzia virgata. Less. Karoobosch. Compositae. From 
Ward No. 3, Jansenville, South Africa. Received through 
Messrs. Lathrop and Fairchild, May 2, 1904. A low-grow- 
ing, spreading bushy composite, which layers naturally when 
the tips of its branches arch over and touch the ground. In 
the eastern provinces of Cape Colony, where rains occur in 
summer, but where long, severe droughts are frequent, 
this Pentzia is one of the most valuable of all the Karro 
plants for fodder purposes. It is especially good for sheep 
and goats, which eat it down almost to the ground. Though 
tested unsuccessfully in Australia, the plant is of such 
great value that it deserves a thorough trial in America and 
should be used in experiments on the dry lands in Hawaii 
and in southern California. It has grown and fruited for 
several years at Berkeley, California, where it was intro- 
duced previous to 1904. 

Phaseolus viridissimus, Tenore. Gram. Leguminosas. 
From Athens, Greece. Received through Mr. D. G. Fair- 



IMPORTANCE OF PLANT INTRODUCTION 



79 



child May 9, 1901. One of the smallest and most 
delicate beans in the world. The beans are not much 
larger than grains of rice and are of a deep green color. 
They are said to be most delicious when cooked alone or 
with rice in the national Greek dish called pilaff. Their 
culture in Greece is restricted and the beans are con- 
sidered a great delicacy. Prof. Th. de Heldreich, of 
Athens University, called attention to this species, of 
which he has made a special study. Probably a variety of 
the gram of India (Phaseolus Uungo). Has proved of value 
for cultivation on barren soils in the South. 

Phleum Boehmeri, Wibel. Boehmer's timothy. Gra- 
mineje. From the experiment grounds of the agricultural 
academy, Moscow, Russia. Received through Mr. M. A. 
Carleton, March, 1899. A promising grass for dry regions. 

Pistacia vera, Linn. Pistachio or Pistache. Anacar- 
diacese. The introduction of the pistache into California 
promises to be a success, inasmuch as trees of this species 
have already fruited well at Niles, California. The work 
of introduction has been largely in the hands of Mr. 
Swingle, and the best varieties have been secured from 
Sicily; the hardiest stocks have been collected by Mr. Swingle 
from Asia Minor and Italy, and still hardier species than 
these are being sought for by the Office in Northern and 
Central China and Persia. The advantages of this pis- 
tache industry, from which the delicious table nut used 
extensively in the Levant is secured, is that the plants 
will be likely to grow and bear well in localities where the 
almond has proved a failure, owing to the late spring 
frosts. The nut furnishes the flavoring extract known by 
the same name, and is also a most delicate table nut when 
roasted and salted. 

Poa mulalensis, H. B. & K. Gramineae. Prom Quito, 
Ecuador. Presented by Mr. Luis Sodiro, S. J., through 
Mr. David Fairchild. Received May 25, 1904. Mr. Sodiro 
remarks that this is one of the most remarkable forage 
grasses of the mountain regions of his country. 

Polygala butyracea. Polygala. Polygalaceae. From 
Paris, Prance. Received May 8, 1900. Presented by A. 
Godefroy-Lebeuf. This plant produces a vegetable butter. 
It will grow in summer in the hot sections of California 
and Florida, and as the plants can be grown as annuals it 
will probably prove successful. 

Polygonum Weyriehii, F. Schmidt. Polygonaceae. A 
species apparently having all the good qualities of Polyg- 
onum Sachalinense, but with leaves more tender and 
branches not so woody as in the latter species, which 
forms the latter's chief objection. This species was dis- 
covered by the Russian physician Dr. Weyrich. It came 
originally from Sachalin island, and was introduced by 
Mr. M. A. Carleton. It has been grown at the Imperial 
Botanic Gardens of St. Petersburg. 

Portulacaria afra, Jacq. Portulacese. From Durban, 
Natal. Received through Messrs. Lathrop and Fairchild, 
November 9, 1904. A native South African shrub, or 
small tree, with succulent shoots which are said to be 
keenly relished by live-stock. The plant is reported to 
grow on dry, waste places without requiring attention. 
The cuttings take root easily, and the plant may even be 
propagated from the leaves. This species will probably 
thrive only in a frostless region. It grows on hot, rocky 
slopes, preferably of a doleritic nature, and is now being 
grown for trial on the dry islands of the Hawaiian group. 
Trials in Arizona showed it susceptible to the low temper- 
atures there. 

Quercus cornea, Lour. Oak. Cupuliferae. (Fig. 118, 
Vol. I.) From Hongkong, China. Presented by Mr. S. T. 
Dunn, Superintendent of the Botanical and Afforestation 
Department, through Mr. David Fairchild. Received April 
27, 1904. An evergreen oak, said to be very showy and 
ornamental as grown on the island of Hongkong. It bears 
acorns with as hard shells as those of the hickory-nut, 
and kernels almost as sweet as the sweetest Spanish 



c'-estnut. These acorns are sold in the markets of Canton 
and Hongkong by the ton, and are keenly relished not 
only by the Japanese, but by Europeans. Although difficult 
to predict how hardy this species will be in America, it is 
worthy of trial in all regions where citrous fruits can be 
grown. 

Solanum Commersonii, Dunal. Aquatic potato. Solan- 
acea. (Fig. 103.) Introduced from Marseilles, France. 
Secured through Dr. E. Heckel by Mr. David Fairchild. 
Received January 2, 1904. The so-called "aquatic potato" 
of Uruguay. This species is being experimented with by Dr. 
Heckel, of Marseilles, who is breeding it with the ordinary 
potato, and finds that it gives successive crops on the 
same soil without the necessity of replanting. It also 




Fig. 103. Aquatic potato {Solanum Commersonii). Specimen 
grown at Santa Rosa. Cal.. l)y Luther Burbaiik. (Reduced.) 

gives abundant foliage, which he thinks may be used 
for green forage. He further points out that, in his 
opinion, the bitter flavor of the skin will protect the 
potatoes against the depredations of subterranean ene- 
mies. The special point to be emphasized in connection 
with this new species, however, is its possible immunity 
from the potato diseases. One difficulty in its culture con- 
sists in the necessity of carefully working over the soil to 
a depth of 15 cm., because the tubers are deeply buried 
in it. It flowers abundantly, beginning in June and ending 
in September, the flowers having a perfume similar to that 
of jasmine. Their odor on a hot day is perceptible for 
several meters. Planting takes place in southern France 
by means of whole or cut tubers in April, and the harvest 
is in October. Hybrids of this species with Solanum 
tuberosum have been made by Burbank, who introduced it 
previous to 1904. Dr. Heckel's experiments are reported 
on in the Revue Horticole, No. 581, December, 1902, p. 
200 ; Contribution a L'Etude Botanique de Solanum tuber- 
iferes, par M. Edouard Heckel, a separate publication. Doubt 
has been expressed regarding the authenticity of the adver- 
tized hybrids of this species. Promising for experiment. 

Sporobolus Lindleyi (S. pallidus), Lindl. Graminese. A 
slender-growing perennial grass. Grows on rich soil, and 
is much relished by all kinds of stock. All colonies except 
Tasmania. Introduced by J. H. Maiden, Sydney Botanic 
Garden, March 1, 1904. 

Trifolium Alexandrinum, Linn. Egyptian Clover, or 
Berseem. Leguminosse. (Pig. 91.) Berseem is the prin- 
cipal winter fodder crop of Egypt. It is an annual, very 
rapidly growing clover, adapted to irrigated conditions in 
countries having a mild winter climate. It seems to be 
injured by intense summer heat, which causes it to run 
to seed prematurely, and it is killed by temperatures 
below 25° P., in winter. It requires a large quantity of 
water, and makes an exceedingly vigorous growth when 
these conditions are met. As many as five cuttings of 
excellent fodder are taken from a single seeding in Egypt. 
The trials in America have not been successful, but expe- 
rience seems to indicate that these trials have been made 
without a due regard for the requirements of the plant. 
Successful plots have been grown and seeded in the widely 
separated regions of Galveston, Texas ; Phoenix, Arizona, 
and Mecca, California ; and it is thought that this plant 
will find a permanent place in the Southwest as an annual 
winter fodder plant for irrigated regions. It is a wonder- 
ful soil-enricher, and may find a place in the orchards of 



so 



IMPORTANCE OP PLANT INTRODUCTION 



California. The introductions of this plant are due to the 
efforts of Mr. Barbour Lathrop and Mr. David Fairchild. 
Trifolium Johnstoni. Uganda clover. Leguminoss. 
Introduced from Uganda, East Africa. Received through 
Mr. David Fairchild, from Mr. R. N. Lyne, Director of 
Agriculture, Zanzibar, East Africa, January 30, 1904. 
According to Mr. Lyne, this is the Uganda clover, a dis- 
tinct species which may be of value for breeding experi- 
ments of this country. It forms a part of the luxuriant 
pasturage of the high plateau of Uganda, which, although 
in the tropics, has a comparatively mild climate. 

Trigonella corniculata, Linn. Small fenugreek. 
Leguminosae. This species, which has the same strong 
odor as fenugreek, from which it differs, however, in 
having very much smaller pods and seeds, grows very vig- 
orously at the Experiment Station at Rouiba, where it 
attains a height of 3 to 5 feet. It could not be used for 
feeding milch cows, as the strong odor would make the 
milk unsalable. It is used, however, for fattening stock 
and as a green-manure. It is said to resist drought very 
well. 

Trigonella gladiata, Stev. Trigonella. Leguminosae. 
This plant also resembles fenugreek in odor. It has been 
cultivated with some success at the Experiment Station at 
Rouiba. 

Trickinium nobile, Lindl. Yellow hairy spikes. Ama- 
rantacese. Stout perennial herb, not easily affected by 
drought. Affords a rich succulent herbage even in very dry 
weather, of which stock are very fond. Interior of New 
South Wales and South Australia and Victoria. Reference: 
" Forage Plants of Australia," p. 85. Introduced by J. H. 
Maiden, Sydney Botanical Garden, March 1, 1904. 

Trickinium obovatum, Gaudich. Silver bush. Ama- 
rantaceffi. An erect undershrub IJ to 4 feet. Flower- 
spikes globular. Has remarkable drought-enduring quali- 
ties. Will grow in the driest of soils when once fairly 
established. Valuable as a forage plant. Arid interior of 
all Australian colonies. Introduced by J. H. Maiden, 
Sydney Botanical Garden, March 1, 1904. 

Ulex nanus, Forsk. Dwarf Furze. Leguminoss. From 
France. Received through Mr. W. T. Swingle, December, 
1898. A much smaller species than Ulex Europceua. It is 
of spreading habit and thrives in moist situations, even in 
swampy places, where the other species would not grow. 
It might prove of use as a winter soiling crop in regions 
inclined to be barren, but its utility is likely to be local. 

Ullucus tuberosus, Caldas. Ulluco. Chenopodiacese. 
The ulluco of the Peruvians is grown on the Sierras, 
3,000 feet above sea-level. The tubers are considered very 
nutritious by the common people and are eaten by them 
mixed with salt meat. Although the tubers are much 
smaller than the potato, they are worthy of consideration 
for breeding purposes. Various distinct varieties exist in 
Peru. Introduced by Mr. Fairchild in 1899. 

Vicia angustifolia, Clos. Vetch. " Vesce & feuille 
gtroite" (narrow-leaved vetch). Leguminosse. From France. 
Received through Mr. W. T. Swingle, December, 1898. 

Vicia biennis, hinn. Biennial vetch. " Vesce bisannu- 
elle." Leguminosae. From France. Received through Mr. 
W. T. Swingle, December, 1898. Biennial and perennial, 
hardy, very large species, yields much fodder, demands 
the support of some other plant with firm, erect stalk ; very 
scanty in seeds. 

Vicia calcarata, Desf. Vetch. Leguminosje. This 
vetch is native to the Mediterranean region. The seed of 
this particular sort was secured at Boghar, in Algeria, 
where the climate is very dry. This is one of the species 
introduced into culture by Dr. Trabut. 

Vicia Ervilia, Willd. Leguminosje. From Canne, Crete. 
Received through Mr. D. G. Fairchild, May 17, 1901. Oro- 
bus. A forage plant very largely cultivated in the island 
of Crete. It is sown like any ordinary vetch, and the seeds 
are fed to the oxen and cattle. 



Vicia fulgens, Battaud. Scarlet vetch. Leguminosae. 
An Algerian vetch with handsome red flowers. It is an 
annual and grows with extraordinary vigor, reaching a 
height of 6 to 8 feet and yielding an abundance of excel- 
lent forage. Doctor Trabut reports that it yields forty tons 
of green fodder to the acre. 

Vicia hirta, Balb. Vetch. Leguminosae. This plant, 
which is usually considered to be a hairy form of Vicia 
lutea, occurs very commonly in Algeria and has been in- 
troduced into cultivation by Doctor Trabut. It reaches a 
height of 16 to 18 inches at the experiment station at 
Rouiba. 

Vicia Narbonensis, Linn. Narbonne vetch. " Vesce 
de Narbonne." Leguminosae. From France. Received 
through Mr. W. T. Swingle, December, 1898. Annual ; 
very vigorous and very early, remarkable in its stalks, its 
foliage and its general appearance, which recalls that of 
a small bean, but earlier. To be sown early in spring in 
the North. In more temperate climates than ours (latitude 
of Paris) it may and even should be sown in autumn. This 
species has been confounded for some time with V. ma- 
crocarpa, and sold under that name. It is generally sown 
alone, but it may be found advantageous to have it enter 
mixtures for green cutting, which are to be sown early in 
spring, or to mix it with oats or rye or some other cereal 
grass. 

Vicia sepium, Linn. Hedge vetch. Leguminosae. From 
France. Received through Mr. W. T. Swingle, December, 
1898. Perennial. A common plant (in France) along bor- 
ders and paths in the woods ; it prefers shade and mois- 
ture, but succeeds equally well in good wholesome and 
even dry soils. Seeds scarce. 

Xanihosoma atrovirens, C. Koch & Bouche. Yautias 
or Taniers. AraceEe. Varieties of this common tropical 
American food plant and its two very closely related spe- 
cies, X. sagittafolium, Schott, and an undescribed species, 
have been introduced into the southern states from Porto 
Rico. The yield is about 8 to 15 tons of edible tubers 
per acre ; and in quality these are equal or superior 
in many respects to potatoes. This is thought by some 
to be the oldest crop in the world and the only one which 
never jiroduces seeds. About fifty varieties were culti- 
vated in the western hemisphere at the time of the dis- 
covery of America by Columbus. It deserves to become a 
staple vegetable for export from the tropics and tem- 
perate regions. (See Bulletin No. 6, Porto Rico Experi- 
ment Station. Barrett.) 

Literature. 

There is a large amount of information on plant 
introduction scattered through the periodicals to 
which reference cannot be made here ; the follow- 
ing are the most important books : 

Charles Pickering, Chronological History of 
Plants ; Man's Record of His Own Existence Illus- 
trated Through Their Names, Uses and Companion- 
ship, Boston, 1879 ; Paillieux et Bois, Le Potager 
d'un Curieux, Paris ; Baron Ferd von Mueller, 
Select Extra-Tropical Plants Readily Eligible for 
Industrial Culture or Naturalization, 9th Edition, 
Robert S. Brain, Government Printer, Melbourne, 
1895, pp. 654 ; Inventories Nos. 1 to 10, inclusive, 
of foreign seeds and plants imported by the Section 
of Seed and Plant Introduction, and later by the 
Office of Seed and Plant Introduction and Distribu- 
tion, comprising 841 pages in all ; appearing as 
bulletins of the United States Department of Agri- 
culture. Von Mueller's is the only comprehensive 
work on the subject, and it is a pity that the work 
is difficult to secure. 



CHAPTER V 





CROP MANAGEMENT 

OW TO ORGANIZE A FARM BUSINESS so that it shall be profitable and ;otherwise satis- 
factory is the fundamental problem in agriculture. It is to be feared that in the past 
generation we have placed relatively too much emphasis on information; and, in fact, 
this danger has not yet passed. This is a consequence of the remarkable discoveries of 
recent years and the rapid diffusion of facts. The best farmer is not the one who knows 
the most " science," but the one who is best able to organize the facts and the business 
into a harmonious system or 
, plan. The principles that un- 
derlie such organization are 
now beginning to be apprehended, and we 
think we see the possibilities of a sound 
^ farm philosophy, with wise generalizations 
from the mass of rapidly accumulating facts and 
practices. Farm management will be a fertile subject 
for writers in the years to come. 

The basis of farm organization is the cropping 
plan or the crop management. On this project or 
scheme rests the maintenance of fertility and conse- 
quently of productiveness, the subsistence of live- 
stock, the economy of labor, the type of business. 
The crop management must be considered in reference 
to the entire layout and design of the farm enterprise. 
In the article following this Editorial it is so dis- 
cussed in the approximate proportion that the author 
thinks it should hold. The article covers some of the ground that is specialized in Vol. I, but what 
repetition there is will distinguish the points that probably need special emphasis. 

The rotation of crops. 

Crop management is a scheme, not a lot of practices. 
An important part of it is the rotating or alternating of 
crops on given areas. This phase of the subject may now 
be given a general treatment, inasmuch as it is not fuily 
treated as to underlying reasons in other articles. 

All crop management, and crop rotation in particular, 
has been greatly changed by the introduction of machin- 
ery. Larger areas of cereal crops can now be grown 
because of the use of the self-binder as compared with the 
cradle and sickle. Larger areas can also be handled in 
intertilled crops, and those that require much heavy labor 
in the harvesting. Pictures of some of the old American 
tools will contrast this fact (Figs. 104 to 119) by suggest- 
ing some of the kinds of devices that were formerly in use 
and the former state of invention in farm machinery. 

On the other hand, the present scarcity of acceptable 
farm labor is tending to reduce the area of crops that 
require much care. Wherever grass is a foundation crop, 
the tendency is to grow less of the tilled crops. 



Fig. 104. Crop labor, as often performed in Europe. 
Drawn from life, iu Bavaria. 




Fig. 105. Grain siclde, once used 
in New England. The sickle 
from wliieli tliis illustration 
is m.'iiie was purehased in 
183.T Ijy a man. who is still on 
the farm, when he was 15 
years old. Witii it he reaped 
many acres of rye. When he 
was 17. he was reaping rye on 
a moimtain side and laid the 
sickle down by ,a tire; tile 
handle was Ijurned off. The 
length of tlie blade from top 
of shank to tip. following the 
curve, is 26H inches, great- 
est width %-inch. A cross- 
section is shown at c. The 
owner of this sickle has lived 
in three eras of harvesting 
devices: The hand sickle: the 
grain cradle; the reaper and 
binder. In this period, crop 
management has undergone 
a complete change. 



B6 



(81) 



82 



OUTLINE OP CROP MANAGEMENT 




Fig. 106. 



Rake and cradle still used in 
parts of Germany. 



The term " rotation of crops " Is used to designate a system of recurring succession of plants cover- 
ing a regular period of years, and maintained on alternating fields of the farm. Its purpose is primarily 

to increase the productiveness of the various crops by conserving 
the fertility of the soil and eliminating weeds, pests and crop dis- 
eases. All farmers practice rotation to some extent, but usually it 
is imperfect and unplanned. In most parts of the northern states 
it is common practice to have oats follow corn, and wheat follow 
oats. Such indefinite practices are perhaps to be called modes or 
systems of cropping rather than crop rotations. The real rotation 
of crops is a more purposeful and orderly procedure ; in grass- 
growing and cereal-growing countries it assumes alternations of 
grain crops, grass crops, intertilled crops. It would be better if 
all writers used the term rotation of crops to designate only well- 
laid systems or courses. 

Definite rotation is usually a practice of old and well-settled 
countries, where the virgin fertility of the soil has been somewhat 
depleted and crop enemies are numerous. In most new countries, 
the husbandry is at first haphazard and unscientific. The land is 
exploited. Fertility is seemingly exhaustless and little attention 
is given to conserving it. The land is robbed, and the robber 
moves on. But when the 
land must be used over 
and over again, century by century, the farmer looks to the 
future and lays out a plan that will cause his land to increase 
in value. The rotation and diversification of crops are subjects 
of increasing importance in North America. 

These remarks are well illustrated in the depletion of 
lands once devoted to tobacco and cotton. Wheat production 
■constantly moves westward. George Washington wrote to 
Arthur Young, in England, as follows, in 1787: "Before I 
undertake to give the information you request, respecting the 
arrangements of farms in this neighbourhood, &c., I must 
observe that there is, perhaps, scarcely any part of America, 
where farming has been less attended to than in this State [Virginia]. The cultivation of tobacco 
has been almost the sole object with men of landed property, and consequently a regular course of crops 
have never been in view. The general custom has been, first to raise a crop of Indian corn (maize) which, 
according to the mode of cultivation, is a good preparation for wheat ; then a crop of wheat ; after 
which the ground is respited (except from weeds, and every trash that can contribute to its foulness) for 
about eighteen months ; and so on, alternately, without any dressing, till the land is exhausted ; when it 
is turned out, without being sown with grass-seeds, or reeds, or any method taken to restore it ; and 
another piece is ruined in the same manner. No more cattle is raised than can be supported by lowland 

meadows, swamps, &c. and the tops and 
blades of Indian corn; as very few persons 
have attended to sowing grasses, and con- 
necting cattle with their crops. The Indian 
corn is the chief support of the labourers 
and horses. Our lands, as I mentioned in my 
first letter to you, were originally very good ; 
but use, and abuse, have made them quite 
otherwise. 

"The above is the mode of cultivation 
which has been generally pursued here, but the 
Fig. 108. ■ -The improved horse-rake, ■ ' 1821. ^^^^^^ ^^ husbandry which has been found so 

beneficial in England, and which must be greatly promoted by your valuable Annals, is now gaining 
ground. There are several (among which I may class myself), who are endeavouring to get into your 
regular and systematic course of cropping, as fast as the nature of the business will admit ; so that 




Fig. 107. 



The present-day grain cradle, used for 
small areas and rough lands. 




OUTLINE OF CROP MANAGEMENT 



83 



I hope in the course of a few years, we shall 
make a more respectable figure as fanners than 
we have hitherto done." 

Fallowing. 

A significant part of Washington's letter is 
the statement that land was "respited" for 
eighteen months. He meant that the land was 
allowed to lie idle or fallow. It is an old notion 
that land "rests" when allowed to go wholly 
uncropped ; and, in fact, it is true that the 
succeeding crops may be better for the fallow, 
but in most instances equally good results can 
be secured by other means and without the loss 
of a year's crop. The fallow was a regular part 

of early rotation practices. Fallowing was employed by the Jews, Greeks and Romans, 
many large parts of Russia and other countries to-day. 




Fig. 109. "The mowing machine," 1823. Invented and patente</ 
by .lereraiiih Bjiiley, Cliester county, Pa. "It has been exten- 
sively used and approved of during the last season. ... It is 
understood that it will mow ten acres per day." The cutting 
is done by a horizontal revolving circular scythe, working 
against a whetstone. 

It is common in 




In special cases and in regions of insufficient rainfall, fallowing is still an 
allowable practice ; but in general it belongs to a rude and unresourceful type of 
agriculture. In most of the humid regions of this country the practice, if emploj'ed 
at all, is diminished to "summer fallowing," whereby 
the period of idleness is reduced to a minimum. The 
summer fallow was formerly often employed in order 
to fit the land for wheat. The land was kept in more 
or less clean and free tillage from spring till fall, 
without crop, for the purpose of destroying weeds and 
of putting it in good condition of preparation. With 
improved tillage implements and well-planned rota- 
tions, these special results usually can be secured 
without resort to fallow. 



Fig. 110. Revolving hay-rake as pictured in 1846. "This 
implement, with a horse, man and a boy, will rake 
from fifteen to twenty-tive acres per day. It can be 
used to good advantage even on quite rough ground." 
Price, $7.50 to $9.00. 



Why rotations are useful. 

There is no dispute as to the value of rotation of 
crops. The only differences of opinion are in respect 
to its feasibility in particular cases and the merits and demerits of the different courses. Many experi- 
ments have reenforced common experience as to the importance of rotation, particularly in recuperating 
old lands. Experiments made at Rothamsted are perhaps the most conclusive, because of the long period. 
Wheat has been grown without rotation for sixty-six years and other crops for varying periods. No 
method of fertilizing potatoes or clover kept up the yield without rotation. Rotation alone did not fully 
maintain the yield of any crop, but the combination of manure or fertilizers with rotation increased it. 
At the Louisiana Experi- 
ment Station (to cite only 
one more illustration), it 
was found, as a result of 
eleven years' work with a 
three-course rotation 
(first year corn, second 
year oats followed by 
cowpeas, third year cot- 
ton), that the yield in- 
creased from 12 to 2.5 
per cent even without 
the application of ma- 
nure. In another part of 

the same experiment, ma- \i.u^\v\^\J^EJ®^^aj^^Vi^\^\- n* *.« \MM\<\ *H\ vUi« 
nure was applied and the Fig. lll. Hussey s reaping machine from a print of 1852 




84 



OUTLINE OF CROP MANAGEMENT 





The double-shovel plow in 1820, used until 
very recently. 



Fig. 112. A threshing device as pictured in 1845 (Warren's horse-power and thresher). "The machines may be placed as follows, 
viz.: The horse-power. Fig. 1, and the pulley-box. Fig. 3. outside the barn, and the threshing machine. Fig. 2, inside any 
convenient distance, say c'lbout 4 feet." 

general increase in yield was 400 to 500 per cent. This shows that a plain rotation is itself capable 
of increasing yield, but that a greater increase is to be expected by a combination of rotation and 
manuring. 

The first rotation-farming to gain wide attention in North America seems to have been the so-called 
Norfolk system. This was chiefly a four-crop rotation employed on the light lands of Norfolk, England, 
and which had grown up during a long course of years. A century and more ago this system was 
explained by writers and thereby became widely known, the more so because at that time the American 
agricultural literature was drawn chiefly from English sources. An account of " the Improvements made 

ill the County of Norfolk" comprised the larger part 
of Jared Eliot's "Fourth Essay upon Field Husbandry," 
published at Killingworth, Connecticut, in 1753. The 
exact rotation itself — comprising roots, barley, clover, 
wheat, in various combinaticns — was of less impor- 
tance to the American colonies than the fact that 
attention was called to the value of rotation-farming 
in general. At the same epoch another system of 
farming practice was also coming in from English sources. This was the clean- 
tillage system introduced by the epoch-making experiments of Jethro Tull. 
Between the discussions of the Tull "new husbandry" and the Norfolk rotations, 
agricultural practices were challenged and overhauled in the new 
country. 

One of the early explanations of the good results of rotation of 
crops was the doctrine that some plants exhaust the soil of certain 
materials which are not needed by other plants ; therefore the value 
of rotation depended on securing such a combination of crops as would 
in time utilize all the elements of the soil. There is, of course, some 
truth in this teaching, but we now know that the question is by no 

means one of so-called exhaustion alone. 
Another explanation was found in the 
theory that roots excrete certain sub- 
stances that are noxious to the plants excreting them and innocuous or 
even beneficial to other plants. The excretory theory was taught early in 
the past century by the renowned Swiss botanist, Fyramus de Candolle. It 
was no doubt a suggestion from the animal kingdom. This theory was 
practically given up before the middle of the past century. Yet it is most 
interesting to find recent experiments in England on the growing of grass 
in orchards leading to the suggestion that one plant may exert some influ- 
ence on the soil deleterious to another plant. It is suggested that this 
influence, however, is biological rather than chemical — in some way, per- 
haps, concerned with the little-understood germ life of the soil. Recent 
publications by the United States Department of Agriculture (Bureau of 
Soils) state that root excretions are probably very intimately associated 
Fie- 115 The Geddes harrow ^^'''^ ^"'^ productivity, that much of the value of manurial substances lies 
1845. Price $12. in the cleansing of the soil of these toxic excreta, and that the value of 





Fig. 114. Picture of a cultivator attend- 
ing an advertisement in ' 'American 
Farmer," 1821. Jhe aiherlisement 
•ilso sa.vs that "persons transmit- 
ting the cash for aiTy of the follow- 
ing jirtieles, will be carefully put 
up and shipped to any part of the 
United States : Clover. Timothy 
anrl other grasses and garden seeds 
warranted of good Quality," 



OUTLINE OF CROP MANAGEMENT 



85 



rotation of plants is determined largely by the presence or absence of 
such excreta. 

Some of the reasons why rotation-farming is considered to be advan- 
tageous (under present teaching) may now be mentioned. 

(1) One crop tends to correct the faults of another crop. The contin- 
uous growing of one crop usually results in the injuring of the soil in 
some respect ; a rotation tends to overcome and eliminate such effects. It 
evens up and works out the inequalities. The general average of many 
or several kinds of treatment is better than the effects of one treat- 
ment. 

(2) Plants differ considerably in the proportions of the kinds of foods 
that they take from the soil. In rotations, the different plants make the 
maximum of their draft on the soil at different times in the year, 
thereby allowing the progress of the seasons to even up the inequalities. 

(3) By a judicious choice of crops, different plant-food materials 
may be incorporated in the soil in available condition, through the decay 
of the parts plowed under or left in the ground. The most marked 
benefit of this kind probably comes from incorporation of nitrogen com- 




Fig. 116. "Tbeirrigator," pictured 
in 1823. 'Tills nmchine is eal- 
cul.-ited to water meadow- 
grouiitls. cotton and provision 
land, and with a boy and horse, 
ought to water one or two acres 
per day. accoiding to the dis- 
tance of tlie river from the 
field." "No. 1. The Cask; 2, 
The Asle: 3, Felloes; 4, Bung: 
.^. Plug holes at both ends: 6, 
Seat for the boy." 




pounds through the use of leguminous 

plants. These plants have the power, 

by means of their root nodules, of 

fixing the free atmospheric nitrogen 

of the soil ; and the ftew compounds 

are turned back 

to the soil in 

condition to be 

utilized by plants 

that do not have 

Fig. 117. Woodside's machine for harrowing, sowing and rolling. 1833. Tlie seed.T or sieve is at H; liar- the pOWer to 

row at B; roller at I. " From the above it wilt ite perceived that I can of a truth affirm, that I can qT^nronriatp thp 

sit in tlie front of my cart, under a canvas covering, sow the grain, harrow and roll it in. without 1 f lopi idle me 

exposure to the sun. leaving the ground without any impression of the horses' feet, my own feet, or nitrotTen of the 

the cart wheels." ^ 

air. Since nitro- 
gen is the most expensive and usually the most easily lost of the plant-food elements that the farmer 
has to buy, this role of the leguminous plants is most important. It is significant that most of the 
early rotations, developing before rational expla- 
nations of them could be given, comprised some 
legume. 

(4) Some plants have the power, more than 
others, to utilize the content of the subsoil. Such 
plants may not only make le.ss proportionate draft 
on the upper soil, but by their decay may add to 
the richness of such soil. It has been determined, 
for example, that lupines are able to take more 
food from the subsoil than oats. Most of the 




Fig. 118. Bachelder's corn-planter, as iUustrated in 1846. 
" The seed is put into the hopper above the beam, and as 
the planter moves along, the share below ftpens the fur- 
row: the corn is then dropped by arms moved by a crank." 




Fig. 119. Pennock's seed and erain 
planter, from a picture of 1846. 
"This machine will plant wheat, 
rye. Indian corn, oats, peas, beans, 
rutabagas and turtiips: and can be 
regulated to drop any required 
Quantity on an acre." 



legumes have similar power, largely because of their deep-rooting 
habit ; and this affords additional explanation of the good results 
accruing from the use of such plants in the rotation. 

(5) A rotation of crops can be so planned as to maintain the 
supply of humus in the soil. This humus, coming from the decay of 
organic matter, adds to the plant-food content of the soil and, what 
is usually more important, exerts a great influence in securing a 
proper physical texture of the land. The Bureau of Soils recently 
asserts that the chief value of humus is to cleanse the soil of toxic 
excreta. The humus is chiefly supplied by the grass crops and clover 
crops in the rotation. The practice of "green-manuring" rests chiefly 
on the need of supplying humus. Green-manure crops are those that 



86 



OUTLINE OF CROP MANAGEMENT 



are grown for the special purpose of being turned under, root and top, and are not usually a definite 
part of the rotation ; but, so far as it goes, the root-and-stubble part of similar crops employed in 

the rotation answers the same purpose. 

(6) Well-considered rotation schemes reduce the 
necessity of excessive use of concentrated or chemi- 
cal fertilizers. On the other hand, they may utilize 
such fertilizers to greater advantage than do the con- 
tinuous-cropping schemes, as has been shown by the 
Ohio Experiment Station. 

(7) A good rotation provides for the making of 
farm manures, because it grows crops for the feed- 
ing of live-stock. As a general practice, it is better 
to market the hay and straw crops in the form of ani- 

Fig. 120. Four-row beet cultivator of today. ^^]^ ^j. j^^j^^j products than to put them on the mar- 

ket directly ; for the farmer not only has the opportunity to make an extra profit by an extra process, 
but he gains the manure with which to maintain the fertility of his lands. He raises the crop to feed 




his stock to secure manure to raise a better crop. In 
stock farmer has the great advantage of the horticul- 
latter must resort to special practices or special pur 
cing power of his land. 

(8) Rotation is a cleaning process. Cer- 
tain weeds follow certain crops. Chess and 
cockle are common weeds in old wheat-lands. 
The life-cycle of these plants is so similar to 
that of wheat that they thrive with the 
wheat ; and the seeds may not be removed 
from wheat-seed in the ordinary cleaning 
process. These weeds are soon eliminated 
by the grass-course in the rotation, or by 
some clean-tillage course. Most weeds are 
eradicated in the course of a good rotation ; 
in fact, a rotation cannot be considered to be 
good unless it holds the weeds in check. With 
crops which are not grown as a part of a 
rotation, as rice, it is sometimes necessary to 



the maintaining of fertility, the live- 

turist or other special farmer, for the 

chases in order to maintain the produ- 




Fig. 121. stubble digger, to fit land for a succeeding crop, 1906. 



interject another 

Insects and 

follow all crops. 

Nearly all continu 



crop for a year or two in order to clean the land. 

plant diseases follow certain crops. There are no insects or diseases that 
Therefore a rotation cleans the fields of many of these troubles and pests, 
ous-cropping schemes run into these difticulties sooner or later. A short and 
sharp rotation, for example, is the best means of contending with wire- 
worms. It is not uncommon sometimes to find onions failing year after 

year in the best onion regions. The 
trouble is likely to be due to pests or 
diseases. Two or three years of celery 
or other crop may clean up the difficulty. 
The horticulturist is particularly liable 
to suffer from insects and plant diseases, 
especially if he is an orchardist, because 
he cannot well practice a definite rota- 
tion. The larger part of the spraying 
devices and materials are devised to meet 
the necessities of the horticulturist. 

(9) A rotation allows the farmer to 
meet the needs of the staple markets by 
providing a continuous and predictable 
Fig. 122. Modem riding cotton- and corn-planter, output. 




OUTLINE OF CROP MANAGEMENT 



87 




Fig. 123. A modem 11-foot seeder. 



(10) Rotation-farming develops a continuous and consecutive plan of business. It maintains the 
continuity of farm labor, and reduces the economic and social difficulties that arise from the employing 
of many men at one time and few 
men at another time. 

Rotation practices. 

Just what rotation scheme 
shall be adopted in any case must 
depend on many local and special 
considerations. What some of these 
considerations are may be briefly 
discussed. 

(a) The rotation must adapt itself to the farmer's business — to the support of live-stock if he is a 
dairyman or stock-farmer, to the demands of the grain trade if he is a grain-farmer, to the cotton 
market if he is in a cotton region. 

(6) It must adapt itself to the soil and the fertility problem. Often the chief purpose of a rotation is 
to recuperate worn and depleted lands. In such case, the frequent recurrence of leguminous humous 
crops is preeminently desirable. 

(c) The fertilizer question often modifies 
the rotation — whether manure can be pur- 
chased cheaply and in abundance or whether 
it must be made on the place. 

(d) The kind of soil and the climate may 
dictate the rotation. 

(c) The labor supply has 
bearing on the character of 
course. The farmer must be 
careful to plan to keep the 
number of plowings and the 
amount of cultivating within 
the limits of his capabilities. 

(/) The size of the farm, 
and whether land can 
rented for pasturage, are 
also determinants. It is not 
profitable to grow the cereals and some other crops on small areas ; in fact, rotation-farming is 
chiefly successful with large-area crops. 

(g) In the future more than in the past, the rotation must be planned with reference to the species 
of plants that will best serve one another, or produce the best interrelationship results. 

(h) The rotation must consider in what condition one crop will leave the soil for the succeeding 
crop, and how one crop can be seeded with another crop. One reason why wheat is still so generally 
grown in the East is because it is a good "seeding crop"; grass and clover are seeded with it, and it 
therefore often makes a rotation practicable. 
In some parts of the East, rye takes the place 
of winter-wheat in the rotation course. Every 
careful farmer soon comes to know that a cer- 
tain tilth or condition of soil may be expected 
to result from certain crops. Thus buckwheat 
has a marked eff'ect on hard-pan soils, leaving 
them mellow and ash-like. The explanation of 
this action of buckwheat is unknown. Potato- 
growers who have hard land like to grow 
buckwheat as a preparation for potatoes, 
although buckwheat is rarely a regular part o;' 
a rotation. Winter-wheat commonly follows 
oats, for the reason that the oats are harvested fik 125 a present-day centei-cut mowing machine 




«a*t'u. 



124. A present-day side-cut 
mowing machine. 




OUTLINE OF CROP MANAGEMENT 




Fig. 126. The common form of spring-tooth hay-rake. 



early enough to allow the sowing of wheat in the fall. However, barley is considered to be a better 
preparation crop for wheat, as it comes off the land earlier and does not deplete the moisture content 
of the soil so much ; it therefore usually allows the making of a better seed-bed for the wheat. 

It must be remembered that 
the rotation is not confined to a 
single field. If a perfect system 
is practiced, there must be as 
many equal fields concerned in the 
rotation as there are years in the 
course, so that every crop is 
grown on some part of the farm 
every year. The farm is therefore 
laid off into shifts or blocks. It 
is unusual, however, that a farm 
is sufficiently uniform in surface 
and soil to allow of such a perfect 
arrangement, and consequently the output of the various crops varies from year to year. Of course, 
it is not expected that the entire farm is to be laid under a rotation system. Parts of it will be needed 
for gardens, orchards, woods, permanent pasture, and for special crops. 

Not all the crops of the farm are adapted to rotation. The cereal and hay crops are most adaptable. 
Cotton ordinarily is not a part of a rotation scheme ; and this is one reason why cotton-lands so soon 
become "exhausted." The adopting of a short and good rotation, in which cotton would be the pivot 
crop, would no doubt add immeas- 
urably to the wealth of the south- 
ern states. Some crops occupy 
the land for a series of years and 
therefore do not often become 
parts in a rotation. Of such is 
alfalfa, now largely grown in the 
West and rapidly working its way 
into the East. But even this crop 
will probably tend more and more 
to occupy a place in rotation 
courses ; and in the South (and 
even in other regions) this may be 
enforced in order to overcome dis- 
ease affecting the plant. 

Usually a rotation contains at 
least one "money-crop," that finds ^'«- '"• Side-aeUvery rake of recent make. 

u direct and ready market ; one clean-tilled crop ; one hay or straw crop ; one leguminous crop. Form- 
erly the manure was applied mostly to one crop in the rotation, but the tendency now seems to be to 
distribute the application of some kind of fertilizer throughout the various years of the course. Some 
crops, however, may receive the coarse manure, others the fine or rotted manure, and others the chemi- 
cal fertilizer. It is now thought that there is advantage in rotation of fertilizers. In the Norfolk 
system, manure is usually applied heavily with the root-course. Grass crops follow clean-tilled or 

"exhaustion crops." Pas- 
turing eliminates the 
weeds of tillage, compacts 
the land following tillage- 
practice, and provides ma- 
nure in the droppings of 
the animals. 

The leguminous rota- 





A truss-frame sweep hay-rake. 



tion crops most used in North America are red clover and cowpeas. The clover is adapted to the humid 
North, cowpeas to the South. The use of the cowpea supplies the missing link in the rotation for the 
South and makes humus; it adds nitrogen, obviating the necessity of depending on chemical fertilizer? 



OUTLINE OF CROP MANAGEMENT 



89 



alone, which has been such an undesirable practice in the South. Velvet bean and beggar-weed are 
special leguminous crops sometimes employed in the extreme South. 

Nearly all special crops can be grown without rotation, because the market value of their products 
is so high that the grower can afford to resort to e.xtra manuring and other e.xpensive practices in order 
to keep the land in good heart. This is the chief reason for the excessive use of stable-manure in mar- 
ket-gardening, a use which usually far exceeds the needs of the crops in mere plant-food. When the 
land is not too high-priced, it is a practice with gardeners to "rest" part of the land now and then in 
clover. Orchards do not lend themselves readily to rotation, although peaches generally do not follow 
peaches directly nor apples follow apples. In order to supply the humus to these lands and at the same 
time to secure the benefits of tillage, the practice of cover-cropping has lately come into practice. This is 




Fig. 129. The modem reaper and binder. 

the use of some quick-growing crop that can be sown in midsummer or later, after tillage is completed ; 
usually this is plowed under early the following spring. Acceptable cover-crops are crimson clover, 
vetches, peas, rye and sometimes buckwheat, rape or cereals. 



U tn 

rt - -: 


Suppose the six columns six fieltis, twenty Acres in each, shews six Sorts of Crops, 
to follow each other in Rotation, four of which are charged to this Account, but the two 
Clover crops go to maintain the Cattle and are charged to them. 


Natural 
grass to ac- 
commodate 
this Farm 


Meadow 
to accom- 
modate 
this Farm 




A 
20 acres 


B 

20 acres 


C 

20 acres 


D 

20 acres 


E 
20 acres 


F 
20 acres 



20 acres 


H 
10 acres 


1785 
1786 
1787 
1788 
1789 
1790 


Wheat 
Oats 
Turnips 
Barley 
Clover grass 
Clover hay 


Oats 
Turnips 
Barley 
Clover grass 
Clover hay 
Wheat 


Turnips 
Barley 
Clover grass 
Clover hay 
Wheat 
Oats 


Barley 
Clover grass 
Clover hay 
Wheat 
Oats 
Turnips 


Clover grass 

Clover hay 

Wheat 

Oats 

Turnips 

Barley 


Clover hay 

Wheat 

Oats 

Turnips 

Barley 

Clover grass 


Grass 
Grass 
Grass 
Grass 
Grass 
Grass 


Meadow 
Meadow 
Meadow 
Meadow 
Meadow 
Meadow 




£ 

568 
Total Produce 
of this Field 
in six years. 


£ 
568 
Total Produce 
of this Field 
in six years. 


£ 

568 
Total Produce 
of this Field 
in six years. 


£ 

568 
Total Produce 
of this Field 
in six years. 


£ 

568 
Total Produce 
of this Field 
in six years. 


£ 

568 
Total Produce 
of this Field 
in six years. 


TO (» OJ 


.2 J^ o 

rT^ -^ -^ fV 



A contrast of rotations (to be compared with those on succeeding pages). Tabular view of " a regular 
Succession of Crops in Rotation," as proposed by Varlo in "A New System of Husbandry," Philadelphia, 
178.5. This is part of a farm scheme for a property of 150 acres, to be stocked with horses, cattle, hogs 
and sheep. Counting all labor and other outlay, Varlo estimates an annual expense for the six years of 
£265 16s., and an annual profit of £402 4s. 



90 



DISCUSSION OF FARM MANAGEMENT 



FARM MANAGEMENT 

By A. M. Teneyck 

Farm management is the application to personal 
farming of all the facts, principles and sciences 
related to agriculture. It includes the conducting 
or organizing of the farm, not only as regards 
present success and profits, but also with refer- 
ence to the future fertility of the land. It is the 
crowning study in agricultural practice. A knowl- 
edge of the natural sciences and good judgment as 
to their applications, and skill in producing large 
crops and fine herds are important factors, but 
proper executive management of the farm and the 
farming business is the essential feature which 
largely determines success. 

The discussion of many subjects may properly 
be included in a treatise on farm management. The 
proper consideration of this subject is a study of the 
farming business in all its wide variations of class, 
character and place, and it is possible in a short 
article to discuss briefly only some of the important 
phases of the subject. 

The subject of crop management and rotations 
is likely to have strong local color, depending on 
the region in which the writer lives ; but the 
nature of the problem is similar everywhere and 
many of the principles can be elucidated by any 
system. It is probably needless to say that this 
article is written from the prairie-states point of 
view. 

Laying out the fields. 

The first essential in introducing a definite sys- 
tem of soil management and crop rotation is that 
the farm be laid out uniformly in fields of nearly 
equal area. So far as possible the division lines of 
the several fields should follow the natural division 
lines of the land, which separate quarter-sections, 
sections, eighties, forties and so on. The size of 
the fields will be determined largely by the size 
of the farm and the kinds and number of crops. 
Often the average farm is cut up into many small 
fields, irregular in size and shape, while with large 
farms sometimes the fields are very irregular in 
size, some being very large and others small, mak- 
ing a regular system of crop rotation impossible. 
Figs. 130 to 133 illustrate practical plans for lay- 
ing out the fields, and also show how the fields of 
a badly managed farm may be rearranged and made 
more uniform in size and shape, thus making it pos- 
sible to rotate crops in a systematic way and to pre- 
scribe some definite system of maintaining the soil 
fertility. When possible, the fields should be laid 
out in rectangular form, with the longer distance 
extending east and west in order to give the crop 
as much protection as possible from the sun and 
wind. Small grain drilled east and we.st breaks the 
force of prevailing southern and northern winds 
more than the grain drilled north and south ; also, 
the shading of one row by another seems to be of 
some benefit to the crop. The writer has observed 
that wheat drilled north and south rusted and 
blighted worse than that drilled east and west, 
and it is often remarked by farmers that larger 



yields of wheat may be secured by planting in drills 
east and west, than by drilling north and south. 
Also with corn, in dry, hot climates, there is an 
advantage in rowing east and west when the corn 
is planted in drill rows, as is the practice through 
a great part of the West and South, because the 
greater .shading of the ground, when the corn 
is planted in this way, prevents to some extent the 
excessive heating and drying of the soil. 

In some instances, as on sloping land, it may be 
advisable to lay out the fields with the longer dis- 
tance extending north and south, in order that the 
tillage and cultivation of the crop may be across 
the slope, rather than up and down the slope, and 
other factors may make it desirable to lay out 
irregularly formed fields ; but as a rule the prac- 
tice should be to follow natural division lines of 
the land in dividing the farm into fields. 

The sketches and diagrams and the discussion 
refer particularly to the laying out of new farms, 
or the rearrangement of farms that have not been 
improved to any extent, but many of the suggested 
features may be adapted successfully to the remod- 
eling of old farms. 

Roads, lanes, fences, shade trees, drains and irriga- 
tion ditches. 

The plans for rotating crops proposed in this 
article call for the gradual fencing of a new farm, 
by which the expense may be distributed over sev- 
eral years at no serious inconvenience to the farm- 
ing operations. The purpose is each year to fence 
the pasture, that being made a part of the crop 
rotation system. In this way an eight-year rotation 
on eight fields, in which a field is seeded to grasses 
each year and another grass field is broken up, will 
require eight years to fence the farm. It is not 
desirable to have too many permanent division 
fences between the several fields. Rather, the field 
division fences may be made temporary and easily 
movable. A permanent fence is a nuisance in the 
tilling of the land and the cultivation of the crop ; 
it makes a harbor for weeds and throws good fer- 
tile soil out of use for cropping. However, it is 
not the purpose of this article to discuss the fence 
question. [See Vol. I, Chap. VII.] 

From the plans already mentioned it is clear that, 
so far as possible, all roads and lanes that are neces- 
sary in getting to and from the several fields should 
follow the natural division lines of the land. In 
laying out new fields and in building permanent 
fences, this rule should be observed also. This is an 
element of handiness in mea.suring the area of fields, 
in keeping records, and in having an easy and 
accurate means of describing and locating each 
field in a farm. Permanent lanes with permanent 
fences should beestabli-shed, leading from the barns 
and building site to the center of the farm, and 
from thence to the pasture and to every field that 
is included in the regular crop rotation system. 
By such an arrangement the live-stock may be sent 
to pasture without a driver, and if properly treated 
the cows will be at the bars in the evening when 
the farmer is ready to milk them. In certain sec- 
tions of the country it is very important, and often 



DISCUSSION OF FARM MANAGEMENT 



91 



necessary, to plant hedges and shade trees for the 
purpose of protection against wind and storms. 
Usually it is not desirable to have many hedges 
around the fields ; and, although shade trees are 
necessary in the pasture, it is not best to distribute 
them over the field, but to have a group of trees in 
one corner or in some spot which takes little of the 
tillable land and does not interfere with the farm- 
ing operations. 

As regards drainage and irrigation ditches, the 
natural lay of the land will determine largely 
where they must be placed. In every well-regulated 



1901 Grain 


1901 Grain. 


igoiGraiit 


1901 Cortt 


02&ro5S 


■OZCor-n. 


'O^G^aia 


•ot Wheot 


03Gr<liia 


'03 Wheat 


'03 Corn 


'03 Grass 


04 Grant 


'04G-rO5S 


'04 IVhPat 


'04Gross 


'OSCorn 


OSC-ross 


05 Gross 


'OSGroin. 


•06 Wheat 


'06 Gram 


'06C-r05S 


'OGGrain. 


'07G-rass 


07Graia 


'07Grom 


■07CorR 


'08 Grass 


'08 Cora 


'OSGraiii 


'oaWheat 


'09 Groin 


'osWheoT 


'09Cora 


'09GrflSS 


'10 Gram 
I £&J 


H loG-rasSgo 


(j'lOWheot^^ 


'lOGrasS 
F 20 


1901 Wheat 


1901 Grass 


l9oiRi5iure 


l?»lR;"^&rr 
OJGrom 


'02 Grass 


'OlGraii-L 


'ozetsti^i's,. 


03 Gross 


'C3Graia 


■oj&rain 


'03R>sture 


01 Grain 


'04 Corn 






'05 Grai 11 

'OSCorn. 


'OSWheat 
'OG&ross 


E 10 


D 10 




ooi'El'^'S^t.c 


'07 Wheat 


'07Grass 


l90lGniia 


1 B ""'i 


*08&rass 


'oaGraia 


'OEfJsture 


'09 Grass 


'OBGraia 


'03f?Mti»f'''; 


Sg, ^ s 




'lOCorrt. 




S * ,;; 


c zai 


3 20 


A 10 


SoaooooO) 




Fig. 130. Plan of fann before (below) and after (abovei lay- 
ing out into regular fields; also plan for rotation of crops. 
(Figs. 130-133 by Professor Wilson of Mi:inesot,-i.) 

farm a careful survey should be made and a thorough 
system of drainage established, so that the surface 
water may be readily removed from the yards and 
fields and carried to the natural drainage channels, 
and not left where it may damage the land and 
growing crops and form cesspools for the breed- 
ing of diseases. It is desirable in some sections of 
the country to build artificial ponds and lakes for 
catching the drainage water. Such places should 
not be made the wallows for cattle and swine, but 
should be surrounded with dry, grassy banks and 
kept clean and wholesome, otherwise they may be- 



come the breeding places for injurious germs and 
thus the source of disease. 

A map of the farm. 

An outline map of the farm is valuable and 
handy. It may often save steps in the directing of 
workmen and others to different parts of the farm. 
On a very large farm a map is almost a necessity. 
By means of a set of outline maps, very condensed 
records of the cropping of the different fields on 
the farm may be kept each year. The map should 
be large enough to note not only the crops growing 
on each field, but the dates of planting and harvest- 
ing, yield per acre, date of plowing, and other 
records of importance. A better plan still is to have 
a map small enough to be bound in book form, 
introducing with each map several blank pages on 
which the notes relating to each field may be writ- 
ten. Sueh maps may be readily printed at small 
expense from a zinc etching prepared from an orig- 
inal inked line drawing. 

The several figures and diagrams here shown 
illustrate what is meant by the map of the farm. 
It is simply an outline drawing showing the divi- 
sion of the farm into fields, the location and plan of 
the building site, the location of lanes and roads, 
and the natural features which need notice, such 
as the groves, streams, draws, and the like. A 
careful survey of the farm will have to be made 
in order to locate properly the points and objects 
which need to be noted on tifie map. The map 
should be drawn accurately on a small scale, an 
inch to 50 or 100 feet. Almost any bright boy or 
girl, having exact measurements and distances and 
the area of the fields, with a little help can draw 
a map of this kind. 

Soil management. 

In the management of the farm, the handling 
of the soil is of the greatest importance. It is 
impossible to grow good crops on the same field 
year after year, except by thorough tillage and 
cultivation, the addition of fertilizers and the 
proper rotation of crops in order to maintain the 
fertility of the land. It has been truly said that 
"tillage is manure" to the crop. The plant-food 
of the soil is largely in an unavailable condition, 
and is made available for the use of plants only by 
the action of physical and chemical agencies. The 
presence of air and moisture is necessary that 
decomposition and chemical change may take place, 
by which the insoluble and unavailable plant-food 
elements are made soluble and available to the 
plants. Thus, tillage and cultivation, by aerating 
and pulverizing the soil, and by the conservation 
of soil moisture, make favorable conditions for the 
development of bacteria, hastening the processes 
of decomposition and chemical change which make 
the plant-food available. 

Simple tillage, however, will not maintain the 
fertility of the soil. It becomes necessary finally 
to replace the plant-food, exhausted by the contin- 
uous growing of crops, with the application of 
manure or chemical fertilizers or by the rotation 
of crops, in which the legume crops, such as alfalfa 



92 



DISCUSSION OF FARM MANAGEMENT 



and clover, are introduced in order to restore again 
the humus and nitrogen. When land has been 
farmed a long time in wheat or corn, it finally ceases 
to produce profitable crops. The soil is not neces- 
sarily exhau.sted in fertility, but by a long period 
of continuous cropping with one crop the diseases 



leoe Wheat 
1903 Corn 
190+ Whegr 

1905 Cora 

1906 Oorku 

1907 Gross 

1908 Gross , 

1909 rodder 

1910 OoTs. 



iSOS Wheat 
1903 Oats .' 
I90t- Corn. - 
1905 l3oi-leu 
I30G G-ra^s 

1907 Gross 

1908 Fodder 

1909 Oots 

1910 Corn 



Fallow If FIqa 

Wheat 

Oots 

Oots 

Cora 
Barley 
G-ras3 
G-ross 
Fodder 



Gross 
Follo«v'W-no 

Whe-t 

Fodder 



c< 

G 
G-roSs 



beCorn 
05«h..t 
OfCioifl 
ttSfoSdtr 



ey 



^rthald 



Oats 
Wheat- 

Wheat- 

&raa3 
Fo d d e r 
Oats 
Corrx 
Barley 



dotation does aot begia untM lS)(i5~ 



^^i% 



(^solder 



WCocn 
05WtKar 



Grass 

Follow 

Corn 

Grass 

IflfheoT 

Gross 



I'dllon 
Corn 

Gross 

Grass 
Wheat 



Gross y 
~^ Cor,.. 


/ 


ross 




/ Wheat 


a 


Wheat 








Wheat- 


J 



3 

L 
Grass 


riillet 















Fig. 131. Plan of farm before (below) and after (above) laying 
into regular fields; also plan for systematic rotation of crops. 

and insects which prey on the crop have accumu- 
lated in the soil, and the organic matter and humus 
and nitrogen have become more or less exhausted. 
The land is really "wheat sick" or "corn sick," as 
the case may be ; what it needs more than any- 
thing else is a rotation of crops, which shall include 
legumes and grasses, by which the organic matter, 
exhausted by continuous cultivation and cropping 
with one crop, may be restored. 

Grass is a soil-protector, a soil-renewer and a 
soil - builder. Covering the land with grass is 
nature's way of restoring to old, worn-out land the 
fertility and good tilth characteristic of virgin 
soil. The true grasses do not add nitrogen to the 
soil, as do clover, alfalfa and other legume crops, 
yet the grasses are, in a sense, nitrogen-gatherers, 
in that the nitrogen of the soil is collected and 
stored up in their roots. Thus, grasses prevent the 
waste of nitrogen and other plant-food elements 
and serve to protect the soil and to maintain its 
fertility, fiy their extensive and deep-penetrating 
root svstems, many grasses also tend to break up 
and deepen the soil, gathering and storing plant- 
food in the roots and thus actually increasing the 
available plant-food content. 

The legume crops, such as clover and alfalfa, 
not only accomplish all that grasses may accom- 
plish, as described above, but also actually in- 
crease the total and available supply of nitrogen 
in the soil. By means of the bacteria which grow 
on the roots of legume plants, free nitrogen taken 



from the air in the soil is made available for the 
use of the plant, and not only may large yields of 
forage rich in nitrogen and protein be taken from 
land planted with legume crops, but by the great 
root -growth and the accumulation of humus by 
these crops the nitrogen of the soil is actually 
increased. Moreover, perennial legumes, such 
as clover and alfalfa, are very deep feeders ;. 
thus a part of the mineral elements of plant- 
nit food required by these crops is taken from 
depths in the soil below the feeding-ground of 
ordinary crops, and by the large root-growth 
in the surface soil there may be accumulated 
a supply of the mineral elements of plant-food 
which gradually becomes available, as the roots 
decay, to crops which follow the legume crops. 
When the wild prairie is first broken, the 
soil is mellow, moist and rich, producing 
abundant crops. After a few years of continu- 
ous grain-cropping and cultivation, the physi- 
cal condition of the soil changes — the soil- 
grains become finer, the soil becomes more 
compact and heavier to handle ; it dries out 
quicker than it u.sed to, and often turns over 
in hard clods and lumps when plowed. The 
perfect tilth and freedom from clods, so char- 
acteristic of virgin soils, is alAays more or 
less completely restored when land has been 
laid down to grass for a sufficient length of 
time. 

Rotation of crops. 

°" In order to maintain soil fertility, and at 

the same time to make the greatest profit in 
farming, a practicable and scientific rotation of 
crops should include the following : 

(1) Grasses and perennial legumes. 

(2) Pasture, with an addition of manure one or 
two years previous to breaking the sod. 

(3) Intertilled crops. 

(4) Small grain crops, with green-manuring crops 
planted in the stubble after harvest. 

For a self-.sustaining farm, .small grain crops must 
be grown. Often they are the greatest money-making 
crops ; hence they must be given a prominent place 
in the general crop rotation system. Intertilled 
crops are often the money-making items of the 
farm, also, and they are useful in a rotation plan 
in order that the land may be cleared of weeds. 
Especially is this true in a locality where small 
grain is the main crop. Cultivation also con- 
serves the soil moisture and develops the fertility 
of the soil. 

Pasture must be had on every farm carrying 
live-stock, and it is essential that it be made part of 
the regular crop rotation. Many soils become too 
light and mellow by continuous cropping and need 
the trampling of stock to firm them. Much more 
grass can be produced on tillable lands when the 
pastures are kept fresh and new, and the increase 
of fertility and improvement of soil texture result in 
larger crops of corn and grain when the meadow or 
pasture is broken and planted again to these crops. 
In some sections of the United States permanent 
pastures develop the best sod, and on many farms 



DISCUSSION OF FARM MANAGEMENT 



93 



certain fields may be kept more profitably in grass 
than in any other crop ; but such fields will not 
enter into the regular crop rotation system. 

A convenient and desirable time to manure land 
is while it is being used as meadow or pasture. If 
the manure is applied a year or so before breaking, 
it will stimulate the growth of grass and cause a 
greater production of hay or pasture. Meanwhile, 
the soil is enriched by an increased root-growth 
and the formation of more humus. Besides these 
beneficial results, some plant-food will be supplied 
by the manuring for the use of the first crop that 
is grown on the breaking, at a time when available 
plant-food is much needed, because the larger part 
of the fertility in new breaking is in an unavailable 
condition and cannot be used readily by the new 
crop. 

Soils in which the organic matter and humus are 
deficient may be improved in fertility and texture 
by green-manuring. A cheap and practical method 
of green-manuring is to plant a crop adapted to 
this purpose (the annual legume crops, such as 
cowpeas, soybeans, field-peas and vetches being 
preferred) in the grain stubble immediately after 
harvest. The method at the Kansas Experiment 
Station is to follow the binder directly with the 
drill ; thus, when the harvest is finished the field 
has been replanted. Cowpeas, rape or sorghum 
seeded in this way usually make a good stand and 



an excellent growth, and furnish forage or pasture, 
or the crop may be plowed down for green-manure 
or left as a winter cover. 

It is necessary, in carrying out permanent plans 
for crop rotation, to have fields of nearly equal area, 
in order to grow about the same acreage of the 
several crops each year, thus making it possible to 
keep a certain number of live-stock, and from year 
to year to have regularity and uniformity in the 
farming business. 

In order to demonstrate the working of practical 
systems of crop rotation, as outlined, assume for 
illustration a farm of 160 acres, divided into eight 
equal fields, as shown in the diagrams : 

Rotation Plan No. 1. 
The farm plan, showing crops on all fields for one year. 



Corn 



■>\ 



Wheat 



..|-iiTimbei-oci 
: cic>-„ stumps 



cq; 



' O O O ■ 



i'Vf.".?,' Clover 

• 00,00 , 
L,a O,, 




Legumes and forage 


1 
Wheat 


Wheat 


Wheat 


Wheat plus legumes 


Pasture (manured) 


Spring grains (seed to grass) 


Grass and clover 



y 



1901 Grain 
'fll Corn. 
,05 mhear 
,01 G-rain 
,05 0-rosa 
,05 Grass 
. 07 Wliea-I- 



1901 Wheat 
'01 Grain. 
'03 Corn 
,'0+ Wl-lear 
,05 G-rain. 
,06 Gross 

J 07 Grass 



(.1 O OiOOIPlisturp 

^'"?4: -OS .. 

,?v.V?'''04reorn 

"o O" »'' ,- 
Ti 111 bpr-^fffooTs 

ooa '\ W Grass 
o'^' "'■'"''■?"""= 

,Vo ii o : M • 

<>ff>,o . WForiiqe 
o o r, 2 : ■„, Woots 
oofi^ : '^raroH 
fC'^,, V'*&Com 
lc> n <1 AoiFoilll|e 






SS8 



O^fodde. Cori,. 
osForaae 

OiFotidcr Co, --^ 



I90l&roia 
;02 Wheat 
05 Graia 
'O'tCol-n 
'05 Wheat 
'06 Grain, 
or Gross 



Bi 



1901 Grain 
'02 Gross 
;o3 Wheat 
Ot Groin 
i05 Corn. 
06 vyheot 
Or&rtiin. 



-- 1901 Corn 
'02 Wheat 
i03 Grnia 
,0i Gross 
,05 Grass 
,06 Wlii;at- 
07 Groin- 



1901 Graia 
'OZ Gross 
!03 Gross 
04- Wlteot 
'05 Grain. 
'06 Cont 
or Wlleot 



1901 Wheat 
'01 Groin. 
'03 Gross 
'04 Gross 
'05 Whsot 
06 Grailx 

^ '07 Cora 




W-f- 



->£ 



fence 

Divi5ioii"l 
Lines J 



Fiss. 130 to 133 are fur- 
nished by Professor A. D. 
Wilson. They are diaerrams 
of actual farms in .Minne- 
sota that have been rear- 
raneed and adapted to 
practical methods of rota- 
tion of crops. 



Fig. 132. Plan of farm bsfjre (left) and after (right) laying out into regular fields; also plan for systematic rotation of crops. 



94 



DISCUSSION OF FARM MANAGEMENT 



Rotation plan, or order of crops on each field. 



First year . 
Second year 
Third year 
Fourth year 
Fifth year . 
Sixth year . 
Seventh year 
Eighth year 



. Grass and clover. 

. Pasture (manured). 

. Wheat. 

. Wheat. 

. Legumes and forage. 

. Wheat. 

. Wheat plus legumes. 

. Spring grains (seed to 



It will be observed that the crops growing on 
the eight field.s each year are the same as the 
" order of crops on each field " in eight years. By 
carrying out successfully the above plan of rotation 
on a 160-acre farm, the farmer will raise each year 
80 acres of wheat, 40 acres of grass and clover (20 
of which may be used for pasture), 20 acres of small 
grains other than wheat, and 20 acres of forage 
crops, part at least consisting of annual legume 
crops. Each year 20 acres of grass land is given a 
dressing of manure, and a 20-acre field in wheat is 
renewed in fertility by a crop of cowpeas or other 
green-manuring crop planted after the wheat is 
harvested. Meanwhile, once in eight years the 
whole farm will have been seeded to grass and 
clover, each field remaining in grass two years. 

This rotation is adapted to a wheat-growing 
country, and the money crop, wheat, is grown on 
one-half of the farm each year, while the other 
half of the farm is kept in crops that have a more 
or less renovating effect on the land, and which 
may be turned into money indirectly by feeding 
them to live-stock on the farm. In a corn country, 
corn may be substituted for wheat in the above 
rotation. 

If this system of rotation does not leave the land 
in grass long enough, the farm may be divided and 
the following systems of rotation practiced on each 
division of four fields for eight years, when the 
systems may be interchanged, the first taking the 
place of the second, and the second of the first : 

No. 1 A. 

Rotation plan, or order of crops on each field. 

First year Grass. 

Second year Grass. 

Third year Pasture plus manure. 

Fourth year Pasture plus manure. 

Fifth year Wheat. 

Sixth year Wheat. 

Seventh year Wheat. 

Eighth year Wheat. 

No. 1 B. 

Rotation plan, or order of crops on each field. 

First year . . . Legumes and forage. 

Second year . . Legumes and forage. 

Third year . . . Wheat. 

Fourth year . . Wheat. 

Fifth year . . . Wheat. 

Sixth year . . . Wheat plus legumes. 

Seventh year . . Spring grains. 

Eighth year . . Spring grains (seed to grass). 

It will be observed that this is really a double 

eight-year rotation, or, in fact, a sixteen-year rota- 
tion ; that is, keeping each of the fields in grass 



four years at a time requires that one field be 
seeded to grass every two years and that one grass 
field be plowed every two years and planted again 
to wheat, requiring sixteen years before the whole 
farm shall have received a rotation with grass. 

Rotation Plan No. 2. 
The farm plan, showing crops on all fields for one year. 



Com 


Com 


Corn 


Small grains (seed to 
alfalfa in fall). 


Alfalfa (manured) 


Alfalfa 


Alfalfa (manured) 


Alfalfa 



Rotation plan, or order of crops on each field. 

"• .Alfalfa. 

. Alfalfa. 

. Alfalfa plus manure. 
. Alfalfa plus manure. 
. Corn. 
Corn. 



First year . 
Second year 
Third year . 
Fourth year 
Fifth year . 
Sixth year . 
Seventh year 
Eighth year 



. Corn. 

. Small grains (seed to alfalfa in fall). 

If the above plan keeps too much land in alfalfa, 
the farm may be divided and the following systems 
of rotation practiced on each division of four fields 
for eight years, when the systems may be inter- 
changed, the first taking the place of the second, 
and the second of the first : 

No. 2 A. 

Rotation plan, or order of crops on each field. 

First year Alfalfa. 

Second year Alfalfa. 

Third year Alfalfa plus manure. 

Fourth year Alfalfa plus manure. 

Fifth year Corn. 

Sixth year Com. 

Seventh year Corn. 

Eighth year Corn. 

No. 2 B. 

Rotation plan, or order of crops on each field. 

First year . . . Legumes and forage. 

Second year . . Legumes and forage. 

Third year . . . Corn. 

Fourth year . . Corn. 

Fifth year . . . Corn plus manure. 

Sixth year . . . Corn plus manure. 

Seventh year . . Spring grains. 

Eighth year . . Spring grains (seed to alfalfa). 

It may be desirable to grow grass as well as 
alfalfa on the same farm in order to supply pasture 
for cattle and hay for horses and other stock. If 
this is so, then the alfalfa rotation plan may be 
slightly changed and a third system introduced, 
making a double eight-year or a sixteen-year rota- 
tion, as follows : 



DISCUSSION OF FARM MANAGEMENT 



95 



Rotation plan 
First year . . 
Second year . 
Third year . . 
Fourth year . 
Fifth year . . 
Sixth year . . 
Seventh year . 
Eighth year . 



No. 2 C. 
or order of crops on each field. 
. Alfalfa. 
. Alfalfa. 

. Alfalfa plus manure. 
. Alfalfa plus manure. 
. Com. 
. Com. 

. Small grains. 
. Small grains (seed to | 



No. 2 D. 
or order of crops on each field. 
. Grass. 
. Grass. 

. Pasture plus manure. 

. Pasture plus manure. 

- Corn. 

Corn. 



Rotation plan 
First year . . 
Second year . 
Third year . . 
Fourth year . 
Fifth year . . 

Sixth year . . . 

Seventh year . . Small grains. 

Eighth year . . Small grains (seed to alfalfa), 



The rotation will not ordinarily be perfected until 
the end of the third year, as most of the farms are 
growing corn and small grain almost exclusively. 

This rotation of crops is well adapted only to 
a grain -farm that carries much live-stock. It 
will be observed that four fields, or one-half of the 
farm, is always in alfalfa or grass, but occasionally 
there may be only one field in alfalfa and three in 
grass, or vice versa ; this is the result of the 
arrangement by which the seeding and breaking 
of grass and alfalfa sod is made to come in alter- 
nate years in order to distribute the work evenly 
from year to year. There will always be two fields 
of corn and two fields of small grain, although, if 
it were preferable, corn or some other crop might 
be grown instead of small grain, on one of these 
fields each year previous to the year in which the 
land is seeded down, and not interfere at all with 
the regular system of rotation. 



A Rotation on Eight Fields with Alfalfa, Grass, Corn and Small Grain, being an Exhibit of 




Rotation Plans Nos. 2 C and 2 D. 


Ykab 


Field 1 


Field 2 


Field 3 


Field 4 


Field 5 


Field 6 


Field 7 


Field 8. 


1906 . . . 


Small grain 
(SA) 


Cora 


Corn 


Corn 


Small grain 
(SG) 


Corn 


Corn 


Com 


1907 . . . 


Alfalfa 


Small grain 


Com 


Corn (M) 


Grass 
meadow 


Small grain 
(SG) 


Corn 


Corn 


1908 . . . 


Alfalfa 


Small grain 
(SA) 


Cora 


Com 


Grass 
meadow (M) 


Grass 
meadow 


Small grain 


Corn 


1909 . . . 


Alfalfa (M) 


Alfalfa 


Small grain 


Cora 


Meadow or 
pasture (B) 


Grass 
meadow 


Small grain 
(SG) 


Cora 


1910 . . . 


Alfalfa (B) 


Alfalfa 


Small grain 
(SA) 


Com 


Corn 


Meadow or 
pasture (M) 


Grass 
meadow 


Small grain 


1911 . . . 


Com 


Alfalfa (M) 


Alfalfa 


Small grain 


Corn 


Meadow or 
pasture (B) 


Grass 
meadow 


Small grain 
(SG) 


1912 . . . 


Com 


Alfalfa (B) 


Alfalfa 


Small grain 
(SA) 


Small grain 


Corn 


Meadow or 
pasture (M) 


Grass 
meadow 


1913 . . . 


Small grain 


Corn 


Alfalfa (M) 


Alfalfa 


Small grain 
(S A) 


Cora 


Meadow or 
pasture (B) 


Grass 
meadow 


1914 . . . 


Small grain 
(SG) 


Corn 


Alfalfa (B) 


Alfalfa 


Alfalfa 


Small grain 


Corn 


Meadow or 
pasture (M) 


1915 . . . 


Grass 
meadow 


Small grain 


Corn 


Alfalfa (M) 


Alfalfa 


Small grain 
(SA) 


Com 


Meadow or 
pasture (B) 


1916 . . . 


Grass 
meadow 


Small grain 
(SG) 


Cora 


Alfalfa (B) 


Alfalfa (M) 


Alfalfa 


Small grain 


Corn 


1917 . . . 


Meadow or 
pasture (M) 


Grass 
meadow 


Small grain 


Corn 


Alfalfa (B) 


Alfalfa 


Small grain 
(SA) 


Cora 


1918 . . . 


Meadow or 
pasture (B) 


Grass 
meadow 


Small grain 
(SG) 


Corn 


Corn 


Alfalfa (M) 


Alfalfa 


Small grain 


1919 . . . 


Com 


Meadow or 
pasture (M) 


Grass 
meadow 


Small grain 


Corn 


Alfalfa (B) 


Alfalfa 


Small grain 
(S A) 


1920 . . . 


Corn 


Meadow or 
pasture (B) 


Grass 
meadow 


Small grain 
(SG) 


Small grain 


Corn 


Alfalfa (M) 


Alfalfa 


1921 . . . 


Small grain 


Corn 


Meadow or 
pasture (M) 


Grass 
meadow 


Small grain 
(SG) 


Cora 


Alfalfa (B) 


Alfalfa 


1922 . . . 


Small grain 
(SA) 


Com 


Meadow or 
pasture (B) 


Grass 
meadow 


Grass 
meadow 


Small grain 


Com 


Alfalfa (M) 


1923 . . . 


Alfalfa 


Small grain 


Com 


Meadow or 
pasture (M) 


Grass 
meadow 


Small grain 
(SG) 


Corn 


Alfalfa (B) 


1924 . . . 


Alfalfa 


Small grain 
(SA) 


Com 


Meadow or 
pasture (B) 


Meadow or 
pasture (M) 


Grass 
meadow 


Small grain 


Com 



{M)=Manured. (B)=Break sod either in fall or spring. (S A}=Seed to alfalfa; this may be done in the fall and a catch 
of alfalfa secured without losing a crop. (S G)='Seed to grass, which may be done in the fall in the West and South, and in 
the spring with the grain in the central and eastern states. 



96 



DISCUSSION OP FARM MANAGEMENT 



With this plan of rotation practiced successfuMy, 
each of the eight fields in the farm will have been 
in alfalfa four years and in grass four years at the 
end of sixteen years of cropping, and in this period 
the entire farm will have been manured twice. 
Meanwhile four fields should have produced, each 
year, large crops of corn and grain. There is 
little question that a farm thus managed may be 
even more fertile at the end of the sixteen years 
than it was at the beginning. 

Rotation Plan No. 3. 
The farm plan, showing crops on all fields for one year. 



Grass 


Com 


Pasture 
(manured) 


Small grain 


Com plus legumes 


Wheat (seed to grass) 



Rotation plan, or order of crops on each field. 

First year Grass. 

Second year Pasture (manured). 

Third year Corn plus legumes. 

Fourth year Cora. 

Fifth year Small grain. 

Sixth year Wheat (seed to grass). 

The above is a six-year rotation and cannot be 
well adapted to eight fields; it is given to show 
how crops may be arranged for a smaller number 
of fields. 



This plan of rotation is more readily understood in 
this way: It is really a three-year rotation on three 
fields, one of the four fields being kept continually 
in alfalfa, as shown in the plan. The order of the 
rotation on each field is corn, followed by corn, 
followed by small grain. Thus, two fields of corn, 
one of small grain and one of alfalfa are grown on 
the farm each year. At the end of four years the 
field in alfalfa, which has not been included in the 
three-year rotation, is plowed and planted to corn 
the succeeding season, while one of the three fields 
which has been in the regular rotation is seeded to 
alfalfa and comes out of the regular three-year 
rotation plan, remaining in alfalfa for four years, 
when this field is plowed and planted to corn and 
becomes one of the fields in the three-year rotation 
series; then another field that has been seeded to 
alfalfa is thrown out of the regular rotation sys- 
tem, and so on. It will be observed that such a 
plan may be followed with five fields, six fields, or, 
in fact, any number of fields. With four fields, by 
the method described, one-fourth of the farm is 
kept continually in alfalfa. With five field.s, one- 
fifth of the farm would be in alfalfa each year, and 
it would take twenty years for the alfalfa rotation 
to be carried out on all the fields. With three fields, 
one-third of the farm would be in alfalfa all the 
time and the rotation system would be completed in 
twelve years. 

Mamire and fertilizers. 

There is no waste on 
and inexcusable as the 
and barnyard manure. 



Rotation Plan No. 4. 



A Sixteen -year Rotation with Alfalfa, Small Grain 
and Corn on Four Fields. 



Year 


Field A 


Field B 


Field C 


Field D 


1906 * . . 


Small grain (S) 


Com 


Com (M) 


Corn 


1907 . . 


Alfalfa (M) 


Small grain (CC) 


Com 


Corn 


1908 . . 


Alfalfa 


Corn (M) 


Small grain (CC) 


Corn 


1909 . . 


Alfalfa 


Corn 


Corn (M) 


Small grain (CC) 


1910 . . 


Alfalfa (B) 


Small grain (S) 


Corn 


Corn (M) 


1911 . . 


Corn 


Alfalfa (M) 


Small grain (CC) 


Corn 


1912 . . 


Com 


Alfalfa 


Cora (M) 


Small grain (CC) 


1913 . . 


Small grain (CC) 


Alfalfa 


Corn 


Corn (M) 


1914 . . 


Corn (M) 


Alfalfa (B) 


Small grain (S) 


Cora 


1915 . . 


Corn 


Corn 


Alfalfa (M) 


Small grain (CC) 


1916 . . 


Small grain (CC). 


Corn 


Alfalfa 


Corn (M) 


1917 . . 


Corn (M) 


Small grain (CC) 


Alfalfa 


Corn 


1918 . . 


Corn 


Com (M) 


Alfalfa (B) 


Small grain (S) 


1919 . . 


Small grain (CC) 


Com 


Corn 


Alfalfa (M) 


1920 . . 


Corn (M) 


Small grain (CC) 


Corn 


Alfalfa 


1921 . . 


Corn 


Corn (M) 


Small grain (CC) 


Alfalfa 


1922 . . 


Small grain (S) 


Cora 


Corn (M) 


Alfalfa (B) 


1923 1. - 


Alfalfa (M) 


Small grain (CC) 


Corn 


Com 



* It is assumed th.-it this f:irm has been cropped largely with corn and small grains and 
has received little rotation of crops. No alfalfa is growing on the farm in 11)0(1, when field 
"A" is seeded. The rotation really begins in 1907. 

t Observe that this is a repetition of 1907 crops: viz., this rotation is repeated every six- 
teen years, e.ich of the four fields having received a rotation of four years in alfalfa. 

(S)=Seed to alfalfa in fall. (B) = Bi-eak alfalfa sod. (This should be done in the spring 
when the new catch of alfalfa by fall seeding is assured.) (CO)=Catch-crop, or green-manur- 
ing crop, planted in the stnl)ble after the sm.all gr.ain is harvested. (M)=A dressing of liarn- 
yard manure applied in the fall and winter on alfalfa as a surface dressing, or on com-stnbble 
land and plowed under previous to planting the following crop of corn. 



the farm which is so wanton 
too common waste of stable 
It is true that it is neces- 
sary to have well-drained 
yards, yet a side-hill barn- 
yard may result in a great 
loss of the soluble ele- 
ments of the manure un- 
less provision is made for 
spreading the drainage 
from such yards over 
meadows or pastures. 
Also, in an open barnyard 
a liberal use of straw or 
other absorbents will 
■ often save in manure 
much more than the value 
of the bedding. 

Probably the most eco- 
nomical method of hand- 
ling manure is to haul it 
directly to the fields as 
fast as it is made and 
spread it at once. This is 
practicable in the hand- 
ling of stable manure, 
but not with manure in 
open yards and sheds. 
However, if barnyard ma- 
nure is exposed in open 
yards,' the sooner it can 
be removed to the fields 
after the winter's feeding 
the better. The manure 



DISCUSSION OF FARM MANAGEMENT 



97 



from the stable should not be thrown out under 
the eaves of the barn to leach ; neither should it 
be thrown in large piles and allowed to fire, as is 'io 
often done. It is a good plan to feed cattle and 
other stock under sheds simply for the purpose of 
better preserving the manure. 

The manure-spreader is a useful implement, and 
when the manure is handled 
regularly as made and spread 
in the fields, the spreader 
may be used very profitably 
on the farm that carries 
much live-stock. On the 
small farm, or on the farm in 
which the practice is to haul 
the manure out at intervals 
and turn all hands to the 
work for a time, the spreader 
cannot be used so advan- 
tageously. There is little 
question, however, but that 
in the spreading of large 
quantities of manure each 
year a good spreader will 
soon pay for itself, not only 
in the saving of labor but in 
the more even spreading of 
the manure, thus giving 
more uniform results and 
making the manure cover 
more land. The manure 
should be put on the grass 
land when grass is used in the regular order of 
rotation, as described above. [For a discussion of 
the economy of the manure-spreader, see Vol. I, 
Chap. VI, page 215 ; also page 499.] 

Manure should be spread thinly, the purpose be- 
ing to cover a large area of land with a relatively 
small quantity, rather than to give a very heavy 
dressing to a smaller area. 
When the manure is spread 
thinly, over a large area, 
the crop on the land may 
get all the value of the ma- 
nure and no harm be done ; 
but when spread thickly, 
especially when plowed un- 
der, the crops may not make 
full use of the manure, and 
often there is danger, espe- 
cially in dry seasons, that 
the crop may be injured or 
destroyed by "burning out" 
of the soil. This means that 
the heavy coat of manure 
breaks the capillary connec- 
tion between the soil and the 
subsoil, cutting off the sup- 
ply of water and in a period 
of drought the crop suffers. 
The purpose and methods of 
green -manuring have al- 
ready been discussed under 
crop management and rota- 
tion on preceding pages. 




1901 Wheat 
'01 Grass 
'03 Gross 
~0+ Wheat 
'05 CulT. Crop 
'06 Wliear ' 
'07 Oats 
08 CullCrop 



1901 
'OZ 
'05 
'01- 
'05 
'06 
'0/ 

'oa 



Wheat 

Wheat 

Grass 

Grass 

Wheat 

Cult Crop 

Wheat 

0at5 



1901 Wheat I5A.- Pasture lOA 
'OZ Cult.Crop 
'05 Wheat '^ 
"04 Grass 
'03 Grass 
'06 Wneot 
'or Cult Crop 
'08 wneor ' ^ 



Oats ISA- Pasture 7A 
Wheat " ■ 

Cult Crop 
Wheat- 
Grass 
Grass 
Wheat 
CultCrop 



'OZ Wheat {P'^w^a. 

'U3 Oots 

'04- Cult Crop 

■05 Wheat 

'06 Grass 

'07 Grass 

'OS Wheat, 




Fig. 133. Plan of farm before (below) and after (above) laying out into regular fields: 
also plan for systematic rotation of crops. 



B7 



THE TRIENNIAL CROP ROTATION SYSTEM 



Crop practices. 

Details cannot be given here of the planting, 
culture, harvesting, storing and marketing of the 
several staple farm crops. In general, successful 
farming depends on doing everything at the right 
time and in the right way. After a crop has been 
grown it should not be lost or allowed to become 
damaged by a little carelessness in handling or 
storing, through the negligence of the farmer. 
The quality of wheat and other grain often is in- 
jured seriously by harvesting too late, by leaving 
in the shock too long, by wetting or heating in the 
stack because of careless stacking, and by thresh- 
ing and storing damp grain, resulting in bin-burn- 
ing and other evils. Often wheat that might have 
graded No. 1 or No. 2, grades No. 3 and No. 4, or 
is rejected, simply because of the neglect in taking 
proper care of it. Much of the wheat sold grades 
low because of being mixed, or not pure in type. 
Farmers should grow well-bred, pure types of grains. 
Much of the corn which farmers sell grades as 
mixed because it is not pure in color. Pure white 
or pure yellow corn of the same quality as mixed 
corn will often sell for two or three cents more 
per bushel. The subject of crop breeding is now 
attracting great attention. It pays to breed and 
grow pure varieties of crops as well as of live- 
stock. 

The writer believes that farmers should store and 
hold their grain and not sell so largely at harvest 
time. This practice throws a surplus of grain on 
the market, which usually results in low prices and 
less profits to the farmer, and perhaps not always 
greater profits to the dealer. Grain may be stored 
and kept for a time in small quantities with less 
loss to the growers than to the dealers when the 
same grain is bought and .stored in large quantities. 
This is especially true with corn, much of which is 
sold in the fall and early winter, too damp to keep 
weil when stored in large quantities. It is true also 
of wheat and other grain that, when hauled from 
the threshing machine, it may be too damp to store 
in large elevators. There is a risk to the dealers in 
handling such grain, hence the low prices. Also, 
doubtless, there is a tendency on the part of the 
dealers to make as low prices as possible when the 
farmer sells the bulk of his crop. Some farmers 
are obliffed to sell as soon as the crop has been 
harvested or threshed, needing the money and hav- 
ing perhaps no suitable storage room. But this is 
a hand-to-mouth method of living and farming, and 
the thrifty, experienced farmer will make himself 
independent of such conditions. 

From the results of several trials at different 
experiment stations, it appears that the shrinkage 
of grain put into the bin in good condition is very 
slight, and corn put into the crib in the fall, fairly 
well cured and dry, will not lose over ten per cent 
in weight during the four or five winter months, 
the shrinkage usually being much less proportion- 
ately than the rise in price. Also, as sold in the fall, 
ten to fifteen per cent greater weight per bushel of 
ear corn is required by dealers than is required in 
the winter or spring. 

The farmer should watch the market and sell at 



the highest prices. A good seller is usually a suc- 
cessful farmer. Farmers should give more atten- 
tion to the marketing of their products in this 
day of trusts and combinations. They should co- 
operate and protect their interests in maintaining 
fair prices for their products. But let us urge that 
every farmer, by his own efl'orts as well as by 
cooperation, seek first to prepare for the market a 
prime article, which on its own merit will bring 
the highest price. 

Literature. 

There has been little published on farm manage- 
ment as such, though various phases of the subject 
have received much separate treatment. Such 
books as The Fertility of the Land, by Roberts ; 
The Soil, by King ; Cereals in America, by Hunt ; 
Grasses, by Shaw, treat more or less on the subject 
of farm management. Somewhat fuller accounts 
will be found in Agricultural Economics, by Henry 
C. Taylor ; Physics of Agriculture, F. H. King 
(chapter on Farm Mechanics); Chapters in History 
of Agriculture, T. F. Hunt. The most specific in- 
formation will be found in the two bulletins. An 
Example of Model Farming, and Farm Manage- 
ment Investigations, by W. J. Spillman, United 
States Department of Agriculture ; Successful 
Farming, by William Rennie, Sr., published by 
Wm. Rennie's Sons, Toronto. For farm bookkeep- 
ing : The Farmer's Business Handbook, I. P. 
Roberts, The Macmillan Co.; The Model Farm 
Record, Minnick, Bliss & Co., Chicago ; Farm 
Account Book and Farm Record, E. A. Boehne & 
Sons, Hansen, Nebraska ; Practical Bookkeeping 
for Farmers, published by H. G. Phelps, Bozeman, 
Mont. The importance of study of this subject is 
being recognized, and the future will find available 
much helpful farm-management literature. 



THE TRIENNIAL CROP ROTATION SYSTEM 

By Hugh N. Starnes 

After the red-clay lands of the southern cotton- 
belt have been protected from erosion by terracing 
(Vol. I, page 402), experience has proved that a 
simple three-year crop rotation will rapidly restore 
their original fertility without materially derang- 
ing existing conditions or interrupting the contin- 
uous production of the three principal staples of 
that section — cotton, corn and oats. The two fac- 
tors which simplify the process are (1) the reten- 
tive clay subsoil and (2) the rapid growth and 
effective service (both chemical and mechanical) 
of the cowpea. This valuable legume, in the space 
of 90 days, not only stores in the soil, through its 
decaying roots and stubble, a large quantity of 
vegetable matter for subsequent conversion into 
humus, and transfers from the atmo.sphere a con- 
siderable supply of immediately available nitrogen, 
but it also "pays its own way" while .so doing. In 
principle, the process is of course not new, but its 
adoption as a practice is recent and by no means 
universal, as yet, though making rapid headway, 
particularly in Georgia. 



CROP ROTATION SYSTEMS IN CANADA, UNITED STATES, AND ELSEWHERE 



93 



Details of the systein. 

In brief, the details of the process are as follows: 
An equal farm area is devoted to each of the three 
staple crops. The best third is planted in cotton, the 
next best in corn and the poorest third in fall oats. 
The three areas need not be all in one body; indeed, 
it is seldom found possible, at the start, so to locate 
them. After the oats are harvested in June, the 
stubble is turned under and the area sowed broad- 
cast with cowpeas, which are later cut and con- 
verted into either hay or ensilage, leaving only the 
roots and stubble to be turned under, since there 
would be no economy in utilizing a feeding material 
for a fertilizer at forage prices. The cowpea area is 
planted the second season in cotton, and the former 
cotton area is put in corn, while oats occupy the 
previous corn plat. With the corn, cowpeas are also 
generally planted, either in the drill after the corn 
is waist-high or upward, or sowed broadcast on "lay- 
ing by," thus introducing a legume or nitrogen- 
gatherer into the rotation two years in three. The 
rotation is invariably (1) corn (with peas) after 
cotton, (2) oats and peas after corn, and (3) cotton 
after oats and peas — the grossest feeding crop, 
cotton, thus following the nitrogen-gatherer, the 
cowpea. The result, after two or three complete 
rotations, is an impressive increase in yield all 
around. Each crop, however, is, when planted, given 
its own specific fertilization, the formulas for which 
in the South are well-established standards. 

Results. 

At the end of the first rotation, that is to say in 
the fourth year, when the area first planted in cot- 
ton is again occupied by that crop, the increase in 
yield is always marked and frequently surprising 
(100 per cent is by no means uncommon); and the 
poorer the land originally the more likely is the 
percentage to be attained. For example, an initial 
yield of one-third of a bale, or 500 pounds of seed 
cotton per acre (the average output), often reaches 
two-thirds of a bale or 1,000 pounds of seed cotton, 
after the first rotation; one bale, or 1,.500 pounds of 
seed cotton, after the second rotation ; and one and 
one-third bales, or 2,000 pounds of seed cotton, 
after the third rotation. Here uniform increase 
seems to stop. Given a sufficient supply of moisture 
there would be, theoretically, no limit to the in- 
crease in yield, since the mechanical condition of 
the soil would be steadily improving under its en- 
larging content of humus, which would of course 
render possible a corresponding increase in the ap- 
plication of commercial fertilizers for each staple. 
As the water-supply, however, is a most erratic 
factor, it is found in practice that after the third 
rotation (or tenth year), the yield fluctuates con- 
siderably, yet seldom falls short of one and one- 
third bales as a minimum and frequently, in more 
propitious .seasons, attains a maximum of one and 
three-fourths to two bales per acre, in which there 
is a most satisfactory profit. 

The increase in the yield of the other two staple 
crops is neither so uniform nor so large, relatively, 
as the increase for cotton, yet it is nevertheless 
very obvious. 



When the available supply of lot manure, usually 
limited in the South, is distributed broadcast over 
the poorer spots, or "galls," in order to bring their 
fertility up to the average of the surrounding area, 
a terraced cotton-farm, subjected to the " triennial 
rotation " for ten or twelve years, presents a high 
type of progress, and becomes, with little cost or 
inconvenience, an impressive and profitable object 
lesson, and one that is fortunately placed each year 
more and more in evidence. The general adoption 
of the system throughout the entire cotton-belt is 
unquestionably assured. 



EXAMPLES OF CROP ROTATION SYSTEMS 
IN CANADA, UNITED STATES, AND 
ELSEWHERE 

By S. Eraser 

The list following includes the most common 
rotations employed in America, in Great Britain 
and parts of the continent, and some in other 
lands. The effort is not to make a complete list of 
all crop rotations in use : this would be useless, if 
indeed not impossible. The more common ones that 
have come under the writer's notice, and that will 
serve to show the importance generally attached to 
crop rotation in the farm management scheme, are 
given. The same rotation may be in use in many 
states, but it is given in one place, only where some 
special significance attaches. The rotations given 
under any state or province, for this reason, may 
not be the ones in general use ; the latter will be 
found elsewhere on the list. In most cases, however, 
the rotation or rotations are the ones most gener- 
ally accepted. A few states have been omitted, as it 
has been impossible for the writer to secure any 
authentic record of rotations in use. These rota- 
tions are made as a matter of record, not for 
recommendation ; nor is it to be understood that 
the persons cited as authorities necessarily recom- 
mend them, nor have they furnished them all. These 
records cannot fail to be suggestive to the reader. 

I. Canada 

Ontario. (G. E. Day.) Ontario Agricultural College 
Report, 1905. 

4-course : I, Rutabagas, mangels, potatoes, corn, 
barley, oats or peas ; 2, fall-sown wheat, or spring- 
sown oats or barley, and seeded to timothy and 
clover ; 3, meadow ; 4, meadow or pasture. 

A modification of the above in use at Ontario 
Agricultural College is : 

8-course : 1, Roots, corn or potatoes ; 2, fall- 
sown wheat, or spring-sown oats or barley, with 
four pounds of timothy and eight pounds of red 
clover per acre, and sometimes a little alsike clover; 
8, meadow ; 4, dwarf essex rape, land plowed and 
cultivated until June, rape sown and grazed ; 5, 
barley, oats or peas (spring-sown); 6, fall-sown 
wheat, or spring-sown oats or barley, with four 
pounds of timothy, eight pounds of red clover and 
five to eight pounds of a mixture of orchard-grass, 
meadow fe.scue and tall oat-grass. The addition of 
the three latter grasses has proved of considerable 



100 CROP ROTATION SYSTEMS IN CANADA, UNITED STATES, AND ELSEWHERE 



value for pasture, enabling more stock to be car- 
ried per acre than on timothy and clover alone ; 7, 
meadow ; 8, pasture or meadow, sut once and then 
grazed, it being usually arranged to have the area 
in pasture so that it may be grazed with the rape. 
When stock have access to both grass and rape at 
all times, better results are secured than from 
either alone. This land is manured and fall-plowed 
for the succeeding root crop. 

J. H. Grisdale, Experimental Farms Report, 1905, 
pp. 77-89: 

3-course : 1, Oats ; land plowed twice in previous 
fall, oats sown in spring and ten pounds of clover 
and ten pounds of timothy ; 2, clover hay, manured 
in fall ; 3, timothy hay or mixed clover and timothy. 

3-course : 1, Oats ; land plowed twice in pre- 
vious fall, and twelve pounds of timothy sown with 
oats; 2, timothy hay, land manured; 3, timothy hay. 

3-course. Primarily for feeding hogs : 1, Roots, 
turnips, carrots, mangels, sugar-beets; sugar man- 
gels are grown, part being pastured by hogs ; of 
these, mangels and sugar-beets were preferred by 
the hogs ; 2, grain (oats, etc., with peas), used for 
soiling or the peas pastured when ripe. Alfalfa or 
some other pasture crop is sown with the grain 
crop ; 3, hogs pastured on alfalfa or other crop, 
land manured and fall-plowed ready for the root 
crop. 

3-course. Suitable for farmer having consider- 
able rough pasture and desiring to keep consider- 
able stock. Roots might be grown in place of some 
of the corn : 1, Corn, land manured and plowed the 
previous fall, depth of plowing about five inches. 
The land is again fall-plowed when the corn is<;ut; 

2, grain, oats or barley spring-sown, with ten 
pounds of red clover, one pound of alsike clover, 
five pounds of timothy ; 3, hay, mown twice, and 
manured and fall-plowed for succeeding corn crop. 

3-course : 1, Corn, land manured the previous 
fall and winter and plowed in spring ; 2, grain ; 
oats or barley, spring-sown, with ten pounds of 
red clover, one pound of alsike clover, five pounds 
of alfalfa, five pounds of timothy seed per acre ; 

3, pasture. Thus far, pasturing the land, instead 
of mowing as in the previous rotation, has not 
been so remunerative. 

4-course : 1, Roots ; 2, grain (oats), land being 
fall-plowed if possible and ten pounds of red clover, 
one pound of alsike, ten pounds of timothy sown 
with the oats ; 3, meadow, mown twice ; 4, meadow, 
mown twice, land manured and fall-plowed. 

4-couvse. For a sheep-farm : 1, Roots, areas of 
the following crops being grown to furnish a succes- 
sion: White turnips, cabbage, rutabagas or swedes, 
kohlrabi, thousand-headed kale, rape, mangels, etc.; 
2, grain, oats or barley, used for soiling or for 
grain as circumstances dictate. The following seeds 
are sown with the grain : Alfalfa, red clover, alsike 
clover, awnless brome and timothy ; 3, meadow, 
mown once, the aftermath being devoted to pasture 
for newly weaned lambs ; 4, pasture, manured in 
the fall and plowed for the succeeding root crop. 

5-course : 1, Oats, with clover and timothy 
among ; 2, meadow ; 3, meadow, plowed twice in 
the fall and left ridged for winter ; 4, oats, with 



ten pounds of red clover per acre as a cover and 
green-manuring crop, land manured in winter ; 5, 
corn ; land spring-plowed for the corn and fall- 
plowed after its removal if possible. 

5-course : 1, Oats, with ten pounds of red clover, 
one pound of alsike clover, and five pounds of tim- 
othy per acre ; 2, meadow, manured in the fall and 
winter ; 3, corn or roots, land spring-plowed ; 4, 
oats, with clover and timothy as before ; 5, 
meadow, and land fall-plowed for succeeding oat 
crop. 

6-course : 1, Oats, land fall-plowed, and ten 
pounds of red clover sown with the oats and 
allowed to grow until late fall, when it is plowed 
under ; 2, oats or barley, with eight pounds of red 
clover and ten pounds of timothy per acre ; 3, 
clover hay, mown twice and last aftermath not 
grazed ; 4, mixed hay, land manured ; 5, timothy 
hay ; 6, timothy hay, land fall-plowed. 

If straight timothy hay is desired all the time, 
no clover need be sown ; such a course is not so 
profitable for general farming. 

11. United States 

Alabama. (J. F. Duggar.) Rotation not often 
attempted. 

1, Corn with cowpeas between ; 2, small grain, 
usually oats, with cowpeas ; 3, cotton ; 4, cotton 
or corn as before. 

1, Cotton ; 2, cotton ; 3, cotton ; 4, oats with 
cowpeas. (Wilcox county.) 

Arkansas. Cotton continuously on bottom-land. 
1, Corn ; 2, cotton ; 3, oats with cowpeas. 

California. (E. J. Wickson.) Rotation not general, 
in fact, generally avoided. Grain crops are 
sometimes grown after beans or alfalfa. 
Watermelons, tomatoes, etc., are followed by 
grain. Grain and pasture are alternated. 
1, Corn ; 2, wheat ; 3, oats. (Napa county.) 
2-course: 1, Barley; 2, fallow. (Monterey county, 
etc.) 

2-course : 1, Wheat ; 2, fallow. (San Joaquin 
county, etc.) 

1, Corn, for silage ; 2, oats, for hay. (Sonoma 
county.) 

Considerable multiple cropping is done on irri- 
gated land. 

Colorado. (W. H. Olin.) No general use of rotations. 

1, Grain ; 2-4, alfalfa, cut two or three times 
per year ; 5-7, roots, potatoes, sugar-beets, etc. 

1, Peas ; 2, potatoes ; 3, wheat ; 4, fallow. 

1, Potatoes ; 2, wheat ; 3, potatoes ; 4, wheat ; 
5, alfalfa, one to several years. 

Potato-growing sections. 8-course : 1, Potatoes ; 
2, potatoes ; 3, wheat ; 4, barley or oats and seeded 
to alfalfa ; 5, 6, 7, 8, alfalfa, manured before plow- 
ing under for potatoes. 

Connecticut. (L. A. Clinton.) Rotation common. 

1, Corn, manured, cut for silage, and rye sown 
among for cover-crop and plowed under ; 2, corn 



CROP ROTATION SYSTEMS IN CANADA, UNITED STATES, AND ELSEWHERE 101 



cut for silage and rye sown in fall ; 3, rye, and 
seeded to timothy and clover ; 4, timothy and clover 
mown and retained as long as possible. 
Tobacco continuously. (Hartford county.) 
1, Corn, with rye as cover-crop ; 2, rye plowed 
under and tobacco planted ; 3, grass for one or 
more years. (Litchfield county.) 

1, Tobacco ; 2, tobacco ; 3, corn ; 4, tobacco ; 
5, clover. (Tolland county.) 

Delaware. (A. T. Neale.) Rotations in general use. 

Most common one, now in use over one hundred 
years : 1, Corn ; 2, oats or potatoes ; 3, wheat 
seeded with timothy and clover ; 4, hay retained as 
long as considered profitable. 

1, Corn, with crimson clover seeded in it ; 2, 
crimson clover cut for seed and a volunteer crop 
allowed to grow until August, then plowed under 
and seeded to wheat ; 3, wheat seeded with tim- 
othy and clover ; 4 and 5, hay, or 4 hay ; 5, pasture. 

Dairy-farm. 1, Corn cut for silage, with crimson 
clover seeded in July ; 2, crimson clover cut for 
hay in May, followed by corn cut for silage, with a 
late variety of crimson clover sown in it ; 3, crim- 
son clover cut for hay and land seeded to cowpeas 
cut for hay, and land seeded to wheat in September ; 
4, wheat and land seeded to timothy and clover ; 5, 
hay ; or the latter crop may be omitted if desired. 
A very successful rotation. 

Florida. (C. M. Conner.) Rotation not largely prac- 
ticed. 

3-course : 1, Corn ; 2, cotton ; 3, velvet beans or 
cowpeas. 

(G. K. Holmes) 1, Cotton ; 2, corn with peanuts 
(Madison county). 

1,' Corn ; 2, cotton ; 3, corn ; 4, cotton ; 5, oats 
(Jackson county). 

Multiple cropping is often practiced ; thus, the 
following crops are often grown on the same land in 
one year: Cabbages, beans and hay; melons, sweet- 
potatoes and turnips ; melons, sweet-potatoes and 
perhaps peas ; two crops of hay and cabbage ; cab- 
bage, beans and hay; vegetables, followed by rice; 
corn, or cotton, followed by beggarweed (for hay 
in corn-fields but not in cotton-fields) ; tobacco, fol- 
lowed by Irish or sweet-potatoes, peas, turnips, etc. 

A crop of hay is generally grown after all early 
cultivated crops. 

Georgia. (R. J. Redding.) Rotation not common. 
See Alabama. 

6-course : 1, Cotton ; 2, cotton ; 3, cotton ; 4, 
oats with cowpeas ; 5, corn with cowpeas ; 6, oats 
or small grains with cowpeas. (Baldwin county.) 
Considered only as a compromise, with all the 
advantage in favor of the cotton. 

3-course : 1, Corn, with cowpeas ; 2, oats, with 
cowpeas ; 3, cotton. Recommended by Georgia 
Experiment Station. On thin land it is recom- 
mended to extend it to a 4-course, as follows : 1, 
Corn, with cowpeas ; 2, oats or wheat, with cow- 
peas ; 3, oats or wheat, with cowpeas ; 4, cotton. 

Frequently two or three crops are grown on the 
same land in one year ; thus, small grains, as oats. 



sweet-potatoes, potatoes, corn, cotton, cowpeas. 
millet, peanuts, sorghum hay, cabbage, watermelons, 
follow one another, and three crops are secured by 
growing these after a crop of oats or wheat. 

Idaho. (H. T. French.) Rotation practiced to con- 
siderable extent. 

7-course for irrigated land : 1-4, Alfalfa for four 
years ; 5, wheat ; 6, oats ; 7, barley, seeded to 
alfalfa. 

Northern part of state. 3 years: 1, Wheat; 2, 
wheat, oats or barley; 3, bare fallow. 

5 or 6 years : 1, Wheat ; 2, oats ; 3, barley, 
seeded with timothy and clover ; 4 and 5, timothy 
and clover. 

Illinois. (C. G. Hopkins.) For the corn-belt : 

Most common rotation : Corn for two or three 
years, followed by oats for one year. Sometimes 
clover is seeded with the oats and plowed under 
the next spring for corn. 

4-course : 1, Corn, with cowpeas, soybeans or 
clover as a catch-crop, sown at last cultivation ; 2, 
oats, with wheat seeded in fall ; 3, wheat, clover 
seeded in spring ; 4, clover, first crop used for hay, 
second for seed or grazed. 

For the wheat-belt : 

5-course : 1, Corn ; 2, corn ; 3, oats, with clover 
and timothy seeded ; 4, meadow ; 5, pasture. 

4-course : 1, Corn ; 2, oats ; 3, wheat ; 4, cow- 
peas or soybeans. 

3-course : 1, Wheat, with cowpeas or soybeans 
as a catch-crop ; 2, corn, with cowpeas or soy- 
beans as a catch-crop ; 3, cowpeas or soybeans. 

Some multiple cropping is done, as : Rape in 
corn ; cowpeas after rye or wheat ; corn after 
strawberries ; millet after winter rye, which has 
been used as pasture until June ; millet, turnips 
or rape after early potatoes, etc. 

Indiana. (A. T. Wiancko.) Rotation generally 
practiced. 
The 3-course is most common: 1, Corn ; 2, wheat; 

3, clover, used either as hay or for seed production. 
■ N. W. Indiana : 1, Corn ; 2, oats ; 3, clover. 

4-course : 1, Corn ; 2, oats ; 3, wheat ; 4, clover. 
E. and S. Indiana: 1, Corn ; 2, wheat; 3, clover ; 

4, grass. 

2-course : 1, Wheat ; 2, clover, fertilizers being 
applied to the wheat. 

Iowa. 

1, Corn; 2, oats; 3-5, grass and clover. 

1, Corn ; 2, oats ; 3, clover. 

1, Corn ; 2, corn ; 3, oats ; 4 and 5, hay for two 
or more years. (Common.) 

Kansas. (A. M. Ten Eyck.) Rotation not general. 

Northeastern Kansas : 1, Corn; 2, wheat, oats or 
other small grains, and seed to clover and grass ; 
3-5, clover and grass. 

Southeastern Kansas : 1, Com; 2, oats; 3, wheat. 
For others, see article on Farm Management, page 
90, by Professor Ten Eyck. 

1, Kafir corn ; 2, rye ; 3, corn ; 4, millet. 



102 CROP ROTATION SYSTEMS IN CANADA, UNITED STATES, AND ELSEWHERE 



1, Kafir corn ; 2, corn. 

1, Kafir corn ; 2, corn ; 3, sorghum. 

Kafir corn is grown as a catch- crop after wheat. 

Kentucky. (J. N. Harper.) 

1, Kentucky blue-grass for several years, hemp 
for several years, corn two years, wheat, cowpeas, 
wheat, clover two years, timothy and Kentucky 
blue-grass ; grass land manured ; fertilizer applied 
to hemp and corn. 

Tobacco, two years ; corn, three years ; wheat, 
two years ; clover, two years ; timothy and Ken- 
tucky blue-grass, the latter remaining for several 
years. 

Tobacco ; corn, with peas ; wheat ; cowpeas ; 
wheat ; corn, two years ; oats ; cowpeas ; rye ; 
corn ; wheat ; clover ; timothy ; Kentucky blue- 
grass. 

1, Corn ; 2, rye ; 3, clover ; 4, clover. (Clark 
county.) 

1, Tobacco ; 2, rye ; 3, clover. (Grant county.) 

1, Tobacco ; 2, wheat ; 3, clover. (Graves county, 
etc.) 

1, Corn ; 2, tobacco ; 3, wheat ; 4 and 5, clover. 
(Christian county.) 

Multiple cropping is practiced, as : Potatoes, 
followed by sweet corn, beans, corn, turnips, cab- 
bage ; onions with cabbage ; rye and millet, soy- 
beans, clover, cowpeas being sown with rape ; corn 
and small grains, with cowpeas, clover, etc. 

Louisiana. (F. H. Burnette.) 

2-course : 1, Cotton ; 2, corn with cowpeas. 

Rice-growing : Rice for two years ; one year 
rest, with no crop. 

Sugar-growing : Cane for three years ; corn with 
cowpeas. 

In use in 1850 and maintained until the land be- 
came unproductive : 1, Cotton ; 2, cotton ; 3, corn. 

Some multiple cropping is practiced. See Florida 
and Georgia. 

Maine. (W. D. Hurd.) Rotation not general. 

1, Potatoes ; 2, corn, manured, cut for silage ; 
3, oats, seeded with grass and clover ; 4 and 5, hay. 

Potato-growers' rotation : 1, Potatoes ; 2, oats 
or spring-wheat ; 3, grass and clover. 

1, Oats ; 2 and 3, clover ; 4, potatoes. This re- 
quires but one plowing in four years, viz., that for 
the potatoes. 

Maryland. (W. T. L. Taliaferro.) Rotation com- 
monly practiced. General farming. 

Very common : 1, Corn ; 2, wheat or oats ; 3, 
wheat, with grass and clover, stubble pastured ; 4, 
mixed hay cut once, second crop grazed ; 5, timothy 
cut once, second crop grazed. 

1, Corn ; 2, wheat, followed by some rapid-grow- 
ing cowpea ; 3, cowpeas plowed under and seeded to 
wheat with grass and clover ; 4 and 5, hay and 
pasture. 

1, Corn with crimson clover between rows ; 2, 
crimson clover plowed under and corn planted ; 3, 
wheat ; 4, winter oats ; 5 and 6, timothy. 

1, Corn ; 2, wheat ; 3, clover, pastured. 



1, Tobacco ; 2, wheat with clover ; 3, clover 
grazed. Often the clover fails when sown so fre- 
quently, and the third course is largely weeds. 

See Tennessee. 

1, Corn, with cowpeas between the rows and 
crimson clover sown at last cultivation ; 2, clover 
plowed under and cowpeas put in for hay or silage ; 
3, wheat, with timothy and clover ; 4 and 5, hay. 

Massachusdtg. (Wm. P. Brooks.) Rotation gener- 
ally practiced. 
Dairy-farming, 5-course, soil medium loam, good: 

1, Corn, manured for grain ; 2, corn, manured, cut 
for silage and grass and clover sown in the corn ; 
3, grass and clover mown twice ; 4, grass and 
clover, sometimes fertilized and mown twice ; 5, 
grass and clover, usually fertilized and mown twice. 

5-course. Heavy loams. Good: 1, Corn, manured ; 

2, oats, with grass and clover seeds ; 3, 4, 5, grass 
and clover, usually mown twice and fertilized the 
last two years. 

5-course. Light soil. Fair: 1, Corn, manured, 
for silage ; 2, corn, manured, for grain ; 3, rye, 
with grass and clover seeds ; 4 and 5, hay cut 
twice a year and fertilized. 

Potato-growing, 5-course. Medium to light soils. 
Good : 1, Potatoes fertilized ; 2, corn, for silage, 
manured ; 3, oats, cut for hay, and seeded to grass 
and clover; 4 and 5, hay, cut twice a year and 
fertilized. 

3-course. Light soils. Poor : 1, Potatoes with 
fertilizers ; 2, winter rye ; 3, clover. 

4-course. Light soils : 1, Corn manured ; 2, 
potatoes with fertilizers ; 3, rye ; 4, clover. 

1, Corn ; 2, oats ; 3, rye ; 4 and 5, grass and 
clover. (Hampden county.) 

In Buckland : 1, Corn, manured ; 2, oats manured, 
and land laid to grass, which was allowed to grow 
until the yield dropped to 1,.500 pounds per acre. 
First crop usually 2 tons per acre. 

In Shelburne, on one of the best farms : 1, Corn 
on a grass sward, manured; 2, spring-wheat, laid 
down to grass or sometimes rye ; then oats, or oats 
and peas ; then wheat, with grass ; grass remain- 
ing for five years. 

InDeerfield: 1, Corn, manured; 2, spring-wheat, 
or wheat and oats, or rye with southern clover ; 

3, clover, then plowed again. 

Sometimes an early crop of hay is followed by 
millet, barley or winter squash ; green rye by corn, 
oats or millet ; oat hay by barley. 

Coleman in Fourth Report of Agriculture, 
Ma.ss., 1841, says that rotation is limited. 

Michigan. 

1, Corn ; 2, rye ; 3, clover. (Gratiot county.) 
1, Corn ; 2, rye ; 3, rye ; 4 and 5, clover. (Alle- 
gan county.) 

Minnesota. (A. D. Wilson.) 

3-course for dairy sections : 1, Grain, as oats, 
etc.; 2, clover ; 3, corn. 

5-course : 1, Wheat, seeded to gra.ss and clover ; 
2, meadow; 3, pasture; 4, grain, usually oats; 5, 
corn, manured at eight tons per acre. 



CROP ROTATION SYSTEMS IN CANADA, UNITED STATES, AND ELSEWHERE 103 



Grain-growing. 7-course : 1, Corn ; 2, wheat and 
seed to grass ; 3 and 4, grass ; 5, 6, 7, grain crops 
with clover or rape among the grain, on at least 
one occasion, and plowed under as green-manure. 

4-course : 1, Corn ; 2, peas ; 3, barley ; 4, clover. 

5-course : 1, Wheat; 2, clover and timothy, 
mown ; 3, meadow ; 4, oats ; 5, mangels or pota- 
toes. 

1, Wheat ; 2, wheat ; 3, oats ; 4, wheat ; 5, flax. 

1, Corn ; 2, wheat ; 3, wheat ; 4, oats. 

1, Barley ; 2, barley ; 3 and 4, clover. 

1, Barley ; 2, corn ; 3, oats ; 4, corn ; 5, wheat. 
Last four poor. 

Mississippi. 

1, Cotton, with annual vetch in winter, contin- 
uously. 

1, Corn and cowpeas continuously. 

2-course : 1, Oats and cowpeas ; 2, cotton. 

2-course : 1, Corn and cowpeas ; 2, cotton. 

3-course : 1, Cotton ; 2, corn and cowpeas ; 3, 
oats and cowpeas. 

3-course. Poor : 1, Cotton ; 2, cotton ; 3, com 
(poor). 

Missouri. (M. F. Miller.) Systematic rotation not 
largely followed. 

Common rotation on black loam : Corn for one 
to five years, followed by oats or wheat, seeded 
with timothy and clover (left for two or three 
years). 

Stony loam : 1, Corn; 2, corn; 3, wheat; 4, clo- 
ver or clover and timothy, in which case the timothy 
may again be cut the fourth year. 

Montana. (A. Atkinson.) 

6-course : 1, Wheat ; 2, clover ; 3, oats ; 4, 
sugar-beets ; 5, barley ; 6. peas. 

3-course : 1, Wheat and barley ; 2, clover ; 3, 
roots and peas. 

Most common one : 1, Barley ; 2, clover ; 3, 
clover ; 4, oats or wheat ; 5, wheat. 

New Hampshire. (F. W. Taylor.) Few definite sys- 
tems in use. 
Dairying, clay loams. 6-course. Good : 1, Corn ; 

2, corn ; 3, oats and peas, with grass and clover 
seeds ; 4, 5, 6, hay or pasture. 

Loams. 7-course. Good : 1, Corn ; 2, corn ; 3, 
potatoes ; 4, oats and peas ; 5, 6, 7, clover and 
timothy for hay or pasture. 

8-course : 1, Corn ; 2, potatoes ; 3, barley seeded 
with clover and grasses ; 4, clover hay; 5-8, 
grasses, used for hay or pasture. 

Upland light loam, used by Prof. J. W. Sanborn, 
Gilmanton, N. H.: 1, Corn; 2, oats and peas; 3, 
clover; 4, potatoes; 5, Hungarian (millet); 6, 7, 
timothy (hay); 8, pasture. 

New Jersey. (E. B. Voorhees.) General farming. 
Medium clay loam. 4-course : 1, Corn ; 2, oats ; 

3, wheat ; 4, timothy and clover. 

Heavy clay loam. 5-course : 1, Corn ; 2, oats ; 
3, 4, 5, hay. 
Same. 4-course : 1, Corn ; 2, wheat ; 3, 4, hay. 



Loam. 4-course : 1, Corn ; 2, potatoes ; 3, wheat ; 
4, hay, timothy and clover. 

3-course : 1, Potatoes ; 2, wheat ; 3, clover. Has 
been used by T. B. Terry, Ohio, for several years, 
but he is abandoning it now, since a clover crop 
every third year is too frequent. 

Sandy loam. 4-course : 1, Corn ; 2, tomatoes ; 3, 
white potatoes (early) ; 4, clover. 

Light sandy loam. 4-course : 1, Corn ; 2, sweet- 
potatoes ; 3, rye ; 4, clover. 

Dairying. Clay loam. 3-course : 1, Corn (cut for 
silage) ; 2, rye ; 3, timothy and clover. 

Medium loam. 3 years : 1, Corn (cut for silage); 

2, oats and peas, followed by millet or cowpeas ; 

3, rye. 

New York. 

Gravel loam: 1, Potatoes, with rye sown in fall; 
2, rye, with clover sown in spring and plowed 
under for potatoes. No manure or fertilizers used. 
Successful for past twelve years. 

3-course : 1, Beans ; 2, wheat ; 3, clover. 

4-course : 1, Potatoes or corn ; 2, beans ; 3, 
wheat and sown to clover ; 4, clover cut for hay. 

4-course: 1, Wheat, manured and seeded to clover; 
2, clover hay ; 3, potatoes, cabbage or corn ; 4, 
oats. 

5-course : 1, Corn, manured ; 2, oats ; 3, rye, 
manured, with grass seeds ; 4 and 5, grass and 
clover hay. 

Heavy loams, 4 crops in three years : 1, Rye or 
oats, with clover ; 2, clover, cut once, land plowed 
and sown to buckwheat ; 3, potatoes. 

3-course : 1, Corn ; 2, wheat or oats ; 3, timothy 
and clover for hay. 

4-course: 1, Rye, seeded to clover, etc.; 2, clover 
and timothy; 3, corn or potatoes ; 4, oats or barley. 

4-course : 1, Wheat, manured, seeded to clover 
and timothy ; 2, clover and timothy (hay), manured 
before plowing ; 3, corn or oats ; 4, barley or 
beans. 

Clay, 6-course : 1, Corn ; 2, oats ; 3-5, hay ; 6, 
pasture. 

5-course : 1, Beans, cattle beets or cabbage ; 2, 
oats, with timothy and clover ; 3, meadow ; 4, 
meadow ; 5, pasture. 

Cornell University 4-course. Very successful for 
over thirty years. Dairy-farm, with one-third of 
area in permanent pasture. Clay loam : 1, Corn 
(manured), cut for silage; 2, oats; 3, wheat (ma- 
nured), and timothy and clover sown ; 4, meadow, 
cut twice. 

Dairy-farm : 1, Corn, cut for silage ; 2, oats and 
peas ; 3-5, grass and clover, (Delaware county.) 

1, Strawberries planted ; 2, strawberries har- 
vested in .June, land plowed and sown to rutabagas, 
followed by rye, which is plowed under the next 
spring for strawberries. 

1, Corn ; 2, cabbage ; 3, peas, followed by buck- 
wheat ; 4, oats ; 5, wheat, with grass seeds ; 6, 
meadow. 

Used in western part of Long Island, mentioned 
by General Washington in 1790 : 1, Indian corn on 
clay, manured in the hill or scattering the dung 
broadcast ; 2, oats or flax ; 3, wheat, with what 



104 CROP ROTATION SYSTEMS IN CANADA, UNITED STATES, AND ELSEWHERE 



manure can be spared, seeded with 4 to 6 pounds of 
clover and a quart of timothy ; 4, meadow, left 
down three to six years. 

For dairy-farm, soil gravel loam ; 33 per cent 
of the land permanent pasture, the remainder 
cropped as follows : 1, Corn, manured, cut for 
silage, clover to be sown at last cultivation ; 2, 
land manured, plowed and sown to peas for canning; 
land disked after peas come off and sown to clover, 
which is grazed in fall ; 3, land plowed, sown to 
barley or oats with alfalfa, grain crop cut for hay; 
4, 5, 6, alfalfa, mown three times a year and manure 
applied in fifth and sixth years ; 7, corn, cut for 
silage, with clover sown ; 8, clover mown twice 
and manured in fall, or oats ; 9, potatoes, beans, 
sugar-beets or cabbage ; 10, wheat, manured, with 
grass and clover seeds; 11, clover and grass, 
mown twice ; 12, pasture. Some straw or other 
material will need to be purchased for bedding. 
Part of the alfalfa will be mown green for soiling 
the cattle. Surplus hay may be sold, also peas, 
potatoes, wheat, to furnish cash to buy concen- 
trates. 

North Carolina. (C. K. McClelland.) 
Cotton-growing districts : 

2 years : 1, Cotton, followed by crimson clover ; 
2, corn with cowpeas. 

3 years : 1, Cotton, followed by crimson clover ; 
2, corn ; 3, wheat, followed by cowpeas. 

3 years. Cotton and grain : 1, Rye, wheat or 
oats ; 2, cotton ; 3, corn. A poor rotation, no 
legumes included. 

3 years. Cotton and grain : 1, Cotton ; 2, corn 
with cowpeas ; 3, wheat, followed by cowpeas. 
Better than one above. 

Tobacco-growing districts. 2 years : 1, Tobacco ; 
2, wheat, followed by cowpeas. 

4 years : 1, Clover ; 2, corn with cowpeas ; 3, 
tobacco ; 4, wheat seeded to clover. 

Grain-growing. 2 years : 1, Corn with cowpeas, 
latter not harvested ; 2, wheat, followed by cow- 
peas or crimson clover. 

Corn and potatoes : 1, Corn with cowpeas, fol- 
lowed by rye ; 2, Irish potatoes, followed by vetch 
or crimson clover. 

Corn and potatoes. 4 years : 1, Corn with cow- 
peas ; 2, oats with red clover ; 3, clover ; 4, Irish 
potatoes. 

Forage. 5 years : 1, Corn ; 2, oats with red 
clover ; 3, clover ; 4, cowpeas for seed or hay ; 5, 
wheat. 

1, Cotton ; 2, corn ; 3, peanuts. 

1, Corn with cowpeas or crimson clover ; 2, 
peanuts ; 3, oats with cowpeas ; 4, peanuts. 

1, Corn with cowpeas ; 2, peanuts ; 3, cotton ; 
4, cotton. 

North Dakota. (J. H. Shepperd.) Rotations not 
settled. 
1, Wheat ; 2, flax ; 3, oats ; 4, barley ; 5, fallow. 

(Benson county.) 

1, 2, Flax ; 3, 4, small grain (Ramsey county.) 
1, Corn ; 2, flax ; 3, wheat ; 4, oats. (Cass 

county.) 



1, Wheat ; 2, wheat ; 3, flax ; 4, wheat ; 5, oats. 
(Grand Forks county.) 

Ohio. 

1, Tobacco ; 2, wheat ; 3 and 4, grass and clover. 
Also, 1, Corn ; 2, beardless barley ; 3-6, alfalfa. 
(J. E. Wing.) 

3-course : 1, Tobacco ; 2, wheat ; 3, clover. 

3-courf5e: 1, Corn, manured; 2, wheat; 3, clover. 

4-course : 1, Corn ; 2, soybeans or cowpeas ; 3, 
wheat ; 4, clover. 

5-course : 1, Corn ; 2, oats ; 3, wheat ; 4 and 5, 
timothy and clover. 

T. B. Terry's 3-course : 1, Potatoes ; 2, wheat ; 
3, clover. Has been considerably used in England. 
(See Bavaria, p. 107.) This rotation "keeps the 
land moving." It repeats clover every third year 
and thereby becomes a great rejuvenator of the 
land. 

Oklahoma. (F. C. Burtis.) Rotation not general. 

3-course : 1, Corn ; 2, oats ; 3, wheat and cow- 
peas. 

5-course : 1, Castor-beans ; 2, kafir corn ; 3, cot- 
ton ; 4, oats ; 5, wheat and soybeans. 

1, Corn; 2, kafir corn; 3, sorghum. (Greer 
county.) 

Wheat and kafir corn the same year continuously. 

Kafir corn continuously. 

Oregon. (James Withycombe.) Many practice ro- 
tation. 

Dairying : 1, Corn, cut for silage and wheat 
drilled in between rows ; 2, wheat ; 3, clover ; 4, 
clover ; 5, wheat. 

2-course : 1, Barley or oats ; 2, vetch. 

1, Wheat ; 2, oats ; 3, corn or fallow. (Marion 
county.) 

1, Wheat ; 2, oats ; 3, oats ; 4, grass and clover. 

Pennsylvania. (G. C. Watson.) Rotation common 
and long practiced. 

Clay loam : 1, Corn ; 2 oats ; 3, wheat or rye ; 4, 
clover and timothy for one or two years. 

5-course : 1, Corn ; 2, tobacco ; 3, wheat ; 4, 
wheat ; 5, clover and timothy. 

5-course : 1, Potatoes ; 2, oats ; 3, wheat ; 4, 
wheat ; 5 clover and timothy. 

4-course : 1, Tobacco ; 2, oats ; 3, wheat ; 4, 
meadow. (Clinton county.) 

Gravelly soils : 1, Corn ; 2, oats ; 3, clover ; 4, 
oats ; 5, clover and timothy. 

Gravelly soils : 1, Corn ; 2, oats ; 3, rye, clover 
and timothy ; clover and timothy are left down as 
long as desirable, frequently two or three years, 
the second and subsequent crops being largely 
timothy. 

John Beale Bordley, on the rotation of crops, 
1792, Philadelphia, Pa.: 

Old English : 1, Fallow ; 2, wheat ; 3, peas or 
beans ; 4, barley. Maintained on half the farm for 
ten or twenty years, the other half being in grass, 
then vice versa. 

New English (suggested) : 1, Barley ; 2, clover ; 
3, wheat ; 4, clover ; 5, peas, beans or turnips. 



CROP ROTATION SYSTEMS IN CANADA, UNITED STATES, AND ELSEWHERE 105 



Old American systems r 1, Maize ; 2, wheat or 
rye ; 3, rubbish pasture. 

1, Maize ; 2, naked fallow ; 3, wheat ; 4, rubbish 
pasture. 

Yields of wheat six to eight bushels per acre. 

Suggested systems : 1, Maize ; 2, wheat :i bar- 
ley ; 3, clover ; 4, rye or winter barley ; C and 6, 
clover. 

1, Maize ; 2, beans ; 3, barley ; 4, clover ; 5, 
wheat ; 6, clover for one or two years. 

Montgomery county, 5-course. In use over one 
hundred years : 1, Corn on sod, limed and plowed 
in fall or spring ; 2, oats ; 3, wheat with timothy 
sown in fall and red clover in spring ; 4, clover and 
timothy mown ; 5, pasture. 

The old York and Lancaster rotation is similar 
to the above, but the grass is left down longer. 

A successful rotation long practiced in parts : 

1, Wheat ; 2, rye ; 3, clover ; 4, wheat ; 5, corn ; 
6, oats ; 7, wheat ; 8, clover. 

Porto Rico. (D. W. May.) Rotation not general in 
the island. 

Low land : Sugar-cane for three to eight years, 
and then Para grass cut and sold. 

A better rotation would be : Sugar-cane, rotated 
with cowpeas or alfalfa, the latter being fed and 
the manure returned to the soil. 

Rfiode Island. (H. J. Wheeler.) 

3-course : 1, Winter rye, with clover sown in 
spring ; 2, clover hay ; 3, potatoes. 

4-course : 1, Winter rye, with red clover sown in 
spring ; 2, clover hay ; 3, maize on clover sod ; 4, 
potatoes. 

5-course : 1, Rye, seeded with grasses and clover ; 

2, hay ; 3, hay ; 4, corn ; 5, potatoes. 

6-course : I, Corn, on grass sod ; 2, potatoes ; 3, 
winter rye, seeded to red clover, timothy and red- 
top ; 4-6, grass. When the land is poor it is bet- 
ter to begin the rotation with rye. 

Market-garden : 1, Sweet corn (Cory), followed 
by beans, with clover sown at last cultivation as a 
cover-crop ; or beans followed by corn (Crosby), 
with clover as cover-crop ; 2, clover plowed under, 
tomatoes planted and rye sown as cover-crop in 
fall ; 3, potatoes (early), followed by cabbage, or 
early cabbage followed by carrots ; 4, .spinach, fol- 
lowed by celery, followed by spinach again, or 
transplanted lettuce followed by celery. 

South Dakota. (J. S. Cole.) Rotation not general. 

In northern and western parts of state: Corn, po- 
tatoes or other intertilled crop, followed by wheat. 

In southern and eastern parts of state : Barley 
or oats grown instead of wheat. 

South Dakota Experiment Station. The following 
is a list of twent.v-four rotations which are now, and 
have been, on trial for the past ten years : 1, Flax; 
2, birley ; 3, millet ; 4, wheat ; 5, corn.— 1, Wheat; 
2, oats ; 3, peas (fed off by stock) ; 4, wheat ; 5, 
roots.— 1, Oats ; 2, wheat ; 3, fallow ; 4, wheat ; 
5, corn. — 1, Wheat ; 2, barley ; 3, peas, plowed 
under for manure ; 4, wheat ; 5, corn. — 1, Wheat ; 
2, oats ; 3, corn ; 4, flax ; 5, millet, fed off bv 



stock. — 1, Wheat ; 2, barley ; 3, peas ; 4, wheat ; 

5, corn, fed off by stock. — 1, Wheat ; 2, corn ; 3, 
wheat : 4, oats. — 1, Wheat ; 2, corn ; 3, oats ; 4, 
milkt. — 1, Wheat ; 2, corn, land manured ; 3, 
w'.eat ; 4, oats. — 1, Wheat ; 2, corn ; 3, oats. — 1, 
Oats ; 2, fallow ; 3, wheat. — 1, Barley ; 2, millet ; 
3, wheat. — 1, Barley ; 2, peas ; 3, wheat. — 1, 
Wheat ; 2, wheat ; 3, fallow. — 1, Wheat ; 2, wheat; 
3, corn. — 1, Wheat ; 2, fallow. — 1, Wheat ; 2, corn. 
— 1, Wheat ; 2, vetch. — Wheat continuously, no 
manure. — Wheat continuously, manured every five 
years. — Wheat continuously, manured every three 
years. — Wheat continuously, manured every year. 
— 1, Wheat, seeded to awnless brome-grass ; 2, 
brome-grass ; 3, brome-grass ; 4, flax ; 5, wheat ; 

6, corn. — 1, Wheat, seeded to awnless brome-grass; 

2, brome-grass ; 3, brome-grass ; 4, wheat ; 5, 
corn. — (For details of these rotations, see South 
Dakota Bulletins, Nos. 79, 98, and Yearbook, 
United States Department of Agriculture, 1903, 
pp. 447-452.) 

Tennesgee. (H. A. Morgan.) 

1, Wheat and covifpeas. (Same rotation is used 
year after year ) 

2-course : 1, Wheat and cowpeas ; 2, corn. 

4-course : 1, Wheat seeded to clover ; 2 and 3, 
clover ; 4, corn. 

1, Cotton ; 2, corn with cowpeas sown in it ; 

3, oats followed by cowpeas the same year. 

1, Corn ; 2, wheat ; 3, grass for two to three 
years. 

5-course : 1, Cowpeas, followed by rye (plowed 
under the following spring); 2, cowpeas ; 3, corn ; 

4, wheat ; 5, clover or cowpeas. 

1, Wheat; 2, clover; 3, clover (pastured); 4, 
wheat, peas; 5, corn (peas planted in the corn); 
6, oats followed by cowpeas. 

Common dairy-farm rotation : 1, Corn or sor- 
ghum or corn and sorghum ; 2, wheat, seeded to 
clover ; 3, clover. 

Utah. (W. M. Jardine.) Rotation little considered 
in the state. 

Sandy loam, 5-course : 1, Sugar-beets ; 2, peas and 
oats for forage ; 3, sugar-beets ; 4, oats, seeded to 
alfalfa ; 5, alfalfa, two crops mown, third plowed 
under. 

1. Corn (manured) ; 2 sugar-beets ; 3, peas for 
forage ; 4, sugar-beets ; 5, wheat, preferably fol- 
lowed by alfalfa, making a six- or seven-year 
course. 

Virginia. Rotations long established. 

1, Irish potatoes (2 crops) ; 2, sweet-potatoes ; 
3, sweet-potatoes ; 4, corn. ( Accomac county.) 

1, Potatoes followed by corn ; 2, oats, followed 
by cowpeas. 

1, Corn; 2, wheat; 3, clover; 4, wheat; 5, oats 
or pasture. 

1, Corn ; 2, wheat or oats ; 3, wheat ; 4, hay for 
two to nine years. 

In use in 1800, and previously (Farmers' Regis- 
ter, Va.): 1, Corn ; 2, wheat or oats; 3, land allowed 
to grow weeds, which were grazed. 



106 CROP ROTATION SYSTEMS IN CANADA, UNITED STATES, AND ELSEWHERE 



tss- 



On poorer land : 1, Corn ; 2, natural cover of 
weeds, either grazed or burned oft'. 

4-course, along James river, A. D., 1800: 1, Corn 
or oats ; 2, wheat and clover ; 3, clover grown as 
green-manure and plowed under ; 4, wheat. 

1, Tobacco ; 2, wheat ; 3 and 4, clover. 

1, Tobacco ; 2, wheat. 

1, Corn with cowpeas or crimson clover sown 
among ; 2, peanuts. 

1, Corn with cowpeas ; 2, peanuts ; 3, cotton ; 

4, cotton. 

1, Corn (soiling crop) ; 2, oats or other grain ; 
3-5, hay and pasture. 

Colonel Taylor's rotation, about one hundred years 
ago : 1, Corn ; 2, wheat and clover ; 3 and 4, clover, 
neither mown nor grazed. His idea was that this 
was necessary to prevent depletion of the soil. 

The Eastern Shore rotation consisted of three 
crops in two years : 1, Maize ; 2, oats, followed 
by Magothy Bay beans (also called partridge peas) 
which were plowed under. 

West Virgiriia. 

Buckwheat up to 6 years without change. (P 
ton county.) 

1, Buckwheat ; 2, wheat ; 3 and 4, grass and 
clover. (Marshall county, etc.) 

1, Buckwheat ; 2, corn ; 3, wheat. (Tucker 
county.) 

Wiseonsiii. 

1, Buckwheat ; 2, rye ; 3 and 4, grass and clover. 
(Juneau county). 

1, Potatoes ; 2, potatoes ; 3, buckwheat ; 4, rye; 

5, corn. (Juneau county.) 

1, Potatoes ; 2 and 3, grain ; 4 and 5, grass and 
clover. (Waupaca, etc., counties.) 

1, Potatoes ; 2, corn ; 3, potatoes; 4 and 5, grass 
and clover. 

1, Potatoes ; 2, wheat ; 3 and 4, clover. 

1, Corn ; 2-4, tobacco. 

Wyoming. (B. C. BufFum.) Rotations not generally 
used. 

1, Oats on .sod ; 2, potatoes ; 3, wheat, seeded to 
alfalfa ; 4 to 9, alfalfa. 

2-course : 1, Field peas, harvested or pastured by 
lambs ; 2, grain. 

1, Legume, either peas for one-year crop or 
alfalfa for three to five years ; 2, roots, either 
turnips or beets for stock or potatoes for sale ; 3, 
grain. 

III. Great Britain 

3-course : 1, Wheat; 2, beans ; 3, fallow. In use 
before the Roman invasion, and in some places as 
late as 1870. 

Norfolk 4-course. Introduced by Lord Townsend 
in 1730 on his Norfolk estates. Soil sandy and 
poor : 1, Turnips, fed on the land by sheep ; 2, 
barley with clover seeds ; 3, clover hay; 4, wheat. 
Mutton, wheat and barley are the products sold. 
This course is e.xpensive in labor, and it has been 
found to be impossible to grow clover so frequently 
as once in four years on many soils. 



Suffolk : 1, Turnips ; 2, barley ; 3, rye-grass and 
clover ; 4, peas ; 5, barley. 

Light calcareous soils : 

1, Turnips ; 2, barley ; 3, peas ; 4, wheat ; 5, 
turnips ; 6, roots ; 7, barley ; 8, sainfoin for ten 
or more years. (Alfalfa is sometimes used instead.) 

1, Peas ; 2, oats ; 3, turnips ; 4, barley with 
grass and clover seeds ; 5, meadow. 

Peaty soils : 1, Turnips or cabbage ; 2, oats ; 3, 
turnips or cabbage ; 4, oats ; 5, clover ; 6, wheat. 
(Everything fed to stock except wheat.) 

1, Potatoes (sold for seed) ; 2, oats ; 3, turnips 
or cabbage ; 4, turnips or cabbage ; 5, oats, with 
grass and clover seed ; 6, meadow. (Everything 
fed to stock except potatoes.) 

Heavy peaty land : 1, Cabbage ; 2, oats ; 3, beans 
or clover ; 4, wheat ; 5, cabbage or mangels for 
feed ; 6, oats. 

Light soils : 1, Turnips ; 2, barley ; 3, 4, 5, clo- 
ver and rye-grass ; 6, peas ; 7, rye ; 8, wheat. 

Common Hertfordshire system : 1, Turnips ; 2, 
barley ; 3, clover ; 4, wheat ; 5, peas or oats. 

Sir Mordaunt Martin's course one hundred years 
ago : 1, Turnips ; 2, barley ; 3, clover ; 4, wheat ; 
5, potatoes, mangels or vetches ; 6, turnips ; 7, 
barley ; 8, trefoil and rye-grass ; 9, peas ; 10, 
potatoes, mangels or vetches. 

1, Turnips ; 2, barley ; 3 and 4, grass and clover ; 

5, vetches ; 6, wheat. 

Heavy loam : 1, Beans or oats ; 2, turnips ; 3, 
barley ; 4, clover or winter vetches ; 5, wheat : 6, 
turnips or mangels ; 7, barley with grass and clo- 
ver; 8, grass and clover for three or more years. 

Old .system : 1, Oats ; 2, beans ; 3, wheat ; 4, 
grass and weeds for four or five years. 

1, Oats ; 2, turnips ; 3, barley with grass seeds ; 
4-6, grass and clover. 

1, Peas; 2, barley; 3, clover; 4, wheat; 5, turnips; 

6, barley, with grass seeds; 7-10, grass and clover. 
Clay : 1, Fallow ; 2, wheat or barley ; 3, peas 

or beans. 

1, Fallow ; 2, wheat; 3, clover; 4, oats. 

In use over one hundred years ago : 1, Fallow ; 2, 
wheat ; 3, oats ; 4, fallow ; 5, wheat. 

Another method : 1, Fallow; 2, wheat ; 3, clover; 
4, clover ; 5, wheat or other grain. 

1, Fallow or roots, manured ; 2, oats with grass 
seeds ; 3, pasture ; 4, oats ; 5, beans, manured ; 6, 
wheat. 

The Rothamsted course is : 1. Rutabaga ; 2, 
barley ; 3, beans or clover ; 4, wheat. 

Aymhire, Scotland. 

1, Oats ; 2, oats ; 3, meadow ; 4-7, meadow or 
pasture. 

Clover-sick land : 1, Turnips; 2, barley; 3, grass 
seeds for one or two years ; .4, wheat ; 5, barley or 
oats ; 6, peas ; 7, wheat. 

1, Turnips or potatoes ; 2, barley ; 3, clover ; 4, 
wheat; 5, turnips or mangels ; 6, barley; 7, vetches 
or beans ; 8, wheat. 

Midlanfl.<! of England. 

6-course : 1, Wheat ; 2, barley ; 3, roots ; 4, 
oats; 5, clover and grasses mown; 6, pasture. Wheat 



CROP ROTATION SYSTEMS IN CANADA, UNITED STATES, AND ELSEWHERE 107 



is grown before barley to ensure a more uniform 
sample of the latter. Grain and stock are sold. 

1, Turnips; 2, barley; 3, barley; 4, clover, 
grazed until May and then allowed to mature seed ; 
5, wheat ; 6, oats. 

1, Turnips ; 2, barley ; 3, peas ; 4, fallow or 
intertilled crop ; 5, wheat ; 6, oats. 

Common North England and Scotch. 

5-course : 1, Wheat or oats ; 2, turnips and pota- 
toes, part in each ; 3, barley or oats ; 4, clover and 
grass mown ; 5, pasture. This permits heavy crop- 
ping and there is but one intertilled crop in five ; 
labor bill comparatively light. 

Scotch (Lothians) 5-course. Land rented high : 
1, Oats ; 2, potatoes or beans ; 3, wheat ; 4, tur- 
nips ; 5, wheat or barley ; 6, clover or grass. 

Scotch 7-course used in the north of Scotland : 

1, Oats ; 2, barley ; 3, turnips ; 4, oats ; 5, 6, 7, 
clover and grass. Practically all of the crops are 
fed to the stock. Sometimes the oats are made into 
oatmeal. 

Aberdeenshire, Scotland, 1762 : 
The Aberdeen rotation : 1, Bere ; 2, oats ; 3, 
oats. Long practiced. 

The East Lothian : 1, Summer fallow, manured ; 

2, barley ; 3, oats ; 4, peas ; 5, wheat. 

The Carse : 1, Summer fallow and peas ; 2, 
wheat ; 3, barley ; 4, oats. 

The Norfolk 4-course was also used. 

Scotland, A. D., 1900, W. S. Ferguson, Picston- 
hill, Perth; farm, 1,000 acres : 1, Oats ; 2, turnips ; 

3, barley ; 4, potatoes ; 5, wheat ; 6, grass for one 
or two years. 

George Bell, Errol, Perth : 1, Wheat ; 2, turnips ; 

3, barley or oats with grass and clover ; 4, meadow; 
5 and 6, pasture ; 7, oats ; 8, potatoes. 

W. F. Bell, Dundee, farm, 2,000 acres. His rota- 
tion is : 1, Oats ; 2, potatoes ; 3, wheat ; 4, turnips; 
5, oats ; 6 and 7, grass, cut green and sold. For the 
past one hundred years all crops have been sold off 
the farm in Dundee, and manure hauled back, the 
grass going to cow-keepers. The farm is as pro- 
ductive as ever. 

Cunningham, of Delachy, Aberdour. Area, 593 
acres. Half the farm is in grass, the remainder is 
cropped as follows : 1, Potatoes ; 2, wheat ; 3, 
turnips ; 4, barley ; 5, hay ; 6, oats. Cattle and 
sheep are bred and sold fat. None are bought for 
fattening. 

IV. Other Rotations 

Europe. Used by beet-growers, 1900. 

3-course: 1, Oats (manured); 2, beets ; 3, wheat. 

3-course : 1, Oats ; 2, beets (manured); 3, wheat. 

4-course : 1, Wheat; 2, beets (manured); 3, bar- 
ley or oats ; 4, clover. 

4-course : 1, Wheat ; 2, clover ; 3, rye, or oats ; 

4, beets (manured). 

Ireland. Flax-growing regions. In use in 1906. 

_ 4-course : 1, Oats ; 2, potatoes, mangels or tur- 
nips ; 3, oats, barley or flax ; 4, rye-grass and 
clover. By changes in 2 and 3, this can be made 
8-course, flax being grown once in eight years. 



Bavaria. (Schubert, 1700-1800.) 

1, Potatoes ; 2, barley ; 3, clover ; 4, wheat. 
The land became clover-sick under this system. 
This was later found to be true by Lawes and Gil- 
bert, Rothamsted, England, in the Norfolk four- 
course of roots, barley, clover, wheat ; and still 
more recently by Terry, in Ohio, in his rotation of 
wheat, clover and potatoes. 

Belgium. Flax-growing districts. In use 1906. 

7-course : 1, Rye ; 2, oats ; 3, clover ; 4, barley 
or rye ; 5, potatoes ; 6, barley, wheat or rye ; 7, 
flax. Clover or carrot seed is often sown with the 
flax. The rotation is often extended to an 8-, 9- 
or 10-course, but practically none of the land is 
seeded for pasture. 

France. 

1750. Main crop woad : 1, Wheat ; 2, millet ; 3, 
woad ; 4, grass, allowed to remain several years ; 
sometimes two successive crops of woad were 
taken. 

For saffron, A. D. 1750, eighteen to twenty 
years rotation, the statement being made that it 
could not be grown at closer intervals. The crop 
takes four years to mature : 1, Land fallowed and 
frequently plowed ; 2-6, saffron, one crop ; 7, oats, 
and seeded to sainfoin ; 8-16, sainfoin cut for hay ; 
17, grapes for several years or barley ; 18, wheat ; 
and then land fallowed as before. 

1750. Main crop teasel : 1, Land manured, fall- 
and spring-plowed and sown to wheat or rye in 
fall, teasel seed sown with it or in spring ; 2 and 3, 
teasel, takes two years to mature. 

1750-1760. Main crop flax: 1, Fallow; 2, 
fallow ; 3, flax ; 4, grass for several years. 

1, Maize or turnips ;• 2, beans ; 3, flax ; 4, grass 
for several years. 

1, Flax or hemp ; 2, turnips or other roots ; 3, 
wheat or barley ; 4, clover or alfalfa for several 
years. 

1, Beans ; 2, carrots ; 3, wheat or barley ; 4, 
alfalfa or clover for several years. 

Normandy and Guienne, 1750 : 

2-course : 1, Wheat ; 2, fallow. 

2-course : 1, Wheat ; 2, clover. 

2-course : 1, Wheat ; 2, maize, land manured. 

3-course : 1, Wheat ; 2, clover, sown on wheat ; 
stubble irrigated and grazed by sheep in winter 
and spring, irrigated again later and mown for 
hay ; 3, land plowed and sown to kidney beans or 
millet. 

Patullo's rotation for rich land : 1, Fallow, 
manured, sown to wheat in fall ; 2, wheat ; 3, oats 
or barley ; 4, wheat. 

1760. Patullo's rotation for light land. Land 
cleared, fallowed, manured and wheat sown in fall; 
1, Wheat, stubble plowed and sown to turnips ; 2, 
peas, followed by turnips as a catch-crop; 3, barley, 
and seeded with clover ; 4, clover (hay) manuied ; 
5, clover (hay); 6, clover grazed and plowed in 
fall ; 7, barley ; 8, wheat. 

Angoumois, 1760 : 1, Meslin of barley, oats, 
wheat, peas, etc., cut green; 2, maize ; 3, wheat ; 
4, barley or oats or a mixture of same ; 5, fallow. 



108 CROP ROTATION SYSTEMS IN CANADA, UNITED STATES, AND ELSEWHERE 



1, Maize ; 2, wheat ; 3, maize, barley or oats ; 
4, wheat or fallow. 

1760, 5-course: 1, Maize; 2, potatoes; 3, wheat; 

4, clover, mown ; 5, clover pasture, for one or more 
years. 

1, Turnips, carrots, potatoes fed to stock ; 2, 
wheat or barley ; 3, alfalfa for several years. 

Normandy and Brittany, 1760 : 1, Oats ; 2, 
gorse or whin for several years, cut for stock and 
bruised. 

11 years : 1, oats, sown thinly and sainfoin ; 
2-10, sainfoin, mown ; 11, wheat or rye. 

Bayeux. 1760. Ten years, good : 1, Buckwheat, 
sown end of June, land manured, followed by 
wheat ; 2, wheat ; 3, oats or barley ; 4, peas, 
vetches or turnips, and sown to wheat in fall ; 5, 
wheat ; 6, oats and clover seed ; 7-10, clover, 
pastured. 

Holland. Flax-growing district near Rotterdam. 

In use 1906. 

7-course : 1, Rye or wheat ; 2, beets or oats, 

manured ; 3, flax, the land having been previously 

manured with liquid manure ; 4, beans or clover ; 

5, potatoes ; 6, rye or oats ; 7, clover. The rota- 
tion is not so strictly adhered to as formerly, 
owing to various economic conditions, largely 
scarcity of labor. Land is rented at about fifteen 
dollars per acre, per annum. 

Italy. Old rotations. A. D., 1500-1600. 

1, Millet ; 2, wheat. 

Brescia : 1, Flax and millet ; 2, maize ; 3, wheat ; 
4, pasture for a long time. 

Brescia : 1, Wheat ; 2, clover ; 3, flax and mil- 
let ; 4, maize ; 5, pasture for several years. 

Venice. 

C. Tarello, 1.566, suggested the following 4- 
course and was granted a royalty thereon, same to 
be paid by any person using the rotation : 

1, Fallow (manured) ; 2, grain ; 3, clover and 
grass ; 4, clover and grass. 

Russia. (I. M. Rubinow, United States Bureau of 
Statistics, Bulletin No. 42, p. .53.) There is lit- 
tle systematic rotation of crops in practice. 

The most primitive system in vogue, and the one 
largely used both in European Russia and Siberia, 
is to clear the land from the forest and sow to 
wheat or rye, which are grown continuously until 
the yield is reduced to almost nothing, when the 
land is abandoned for 10, 15 or even 30 years. 

A more advanced system is the "three-field," 
consisting of: 1, Winter rye ; 2, spring-wheat ; 3, 
fallow ; or, 1, winter rye; 2, oats ; 3, fallow. 

In some regions, the introduction of .potatoes, 
sugar-beets, maize, tobacco and sown grasses has 
led to their use in the system instead of the fallow. 

Egypt. 

.3-course on reclaimed irrigated alkali land : 1, 
Samar {Cyperus Imvigatus, a reed) ; 2, rice ; 3, 
cotton. 

1, Samar ; 2, cotton ; 3, maize. 



Iiulia, in general. 

The rotation of crops is well understood and is 
generally practiced with more or less system. 
Voelcker states that the same fields have grown 
the same crops on much the same system as at 
present for centuries ; it is averred, too, that, by 
rotation and fallows, the land receives the neces- 
sary change of cropping and the " rest " from cul- 
tivation which prevents its going down in quality 
(p. 36, Indian Agriculture). A remarkable feature 
is the frequent use of legumes and the sowing of 
mixtures of crops together, the same to be har- 
vested at diff'erent times. For example : 

Juar or millet {Sorghum vulgare) and arhar or 
pigeon pea (Cajanus Indieus) are sown in alternate 
rows like corn and cowpeas in the southern states, 
a grain and a leguminous crop being secured from 
the land in one year. 

Cotton and arhar, or 

Cotton and juar (millet) sown together are often 
more profitable than cotton alone. 

Wheat and gram or chick-pea {Cicer arietinum). 

Wheat and mustard. 

Wheat, barley and gram (Cicer arietinum). 

Wheat, barley, gram and rape. 

(From Report on the Improvement of Indian 
Agriculture, J. A. Voelcker, pp. 2.34, 235.) 

The following crops are placed in the order in 
which they would ripen and be cut ; two or more of 
them are often sown together. 

Rape, sveti-sorse, mustard, lentil, linseed, native 
peas {Pimm arvense), khesari {Lathyrus sativus), 
wheat, barley and gram or chick-pea. (From Hand- 
book of Indian Agriculture, p. 266, N. G. Mukerji.) 

Rice is grown continuously on flooded land. 

Indigo (a legume) is frequently grown contin- 
uously on the same land. 

Bengal. 

Main crop sugar. Four crops in two years. Prep- 
aration : Jungle cleared in March to May and sown 
to aus paddy or maize, which is harvested in Sep- 
tember ; then potatoes : 1, Potatoes, harvested in 
February and sugar-cane planted ; 2, sugar-cane, 
harvested in February and followed by either cow- 
peas, dhaincha {Scihania aculeata), sunn hemp {Croto- 
laria juncea) or indigo, to be succeeded by potatoes, 
gram {Sorghum vulgare) or pulse, preferably kurthi 
(Dolichos biflorus). 

High and light soils. Nine crops in five years : 
1, Aus paddy (May to September), followed by a 
pulse or oilseed crop or the two mixed together 
(October to March); 2, jute (April to September); 
followed by a pulse or oilseed crop or the two 
mixed together (October to March); 3, aus paddy 
(May to September), followed by potatoes (October 
to February) ; 4, sugar-cane (February to February) ; 
5, aus paddy (May to September), followed by a 
pulse crop (October to March). (Handbook of Indian 
Agriculture, p. 367, N. G. Mukerji.) 

For low and light soils. Eight crops in five years: 
1, Maize, sown in April, til (Scsamum Indicum), 
and barley, sown in September ; 2, sugar-cane, 
sown in February ; 3, sunn hemp and jute, sown in 
March, and mustard and country-peas (as distin- 



CROP ROTATION SYSTEMS IN CANADA, UNITED STATES, AND ELSEWHERE 109 



guished from European or American peas), sown in 
October ; 4, aman paddy, sown in June ; a, cucur- 
bitaceous catch-crop, sown in January, and aman 
paddy, sown in June. 

For high and heavy land. Eight crops in si.x 
years : 1, Sugar-cane, sown January to February ; 
2, buhri cotton (if virgin soil), or (if old tilth) 
arhar or pigeon-pea (Cajanus Indicus), sown in 
May ; 3, jute, sown in April ; linseed and gram 
(chick-pea), sown in October ; 4, maize, sown in 
April ; linseed or kalai (Phaseolus radiatus), sown 
in October ; 5, aus paddy, sown in May ; cowpeas, 
sown in September ; 6, fallow, also used as a cattle 
run, on which the cattle graze and are fed. 

For low and heavy soils. Six crops in five years: 
1, Aman paddy, sown in June, and a cucurbitaceous 
catch-crop, sown in January ; 2, aman paddy, sown 
in June ; 3, jute, sown in March, kalai {Phaseolus 
radiatus), musuri or lentils (Ervun lens), khesari 
(Lathyrus sativus) and linseed, sown in October ; 
4, aman paddy or a sugar-cane that can with- 
stand water ; 5, fallow. (Consult the Handbook 
of Indian Agriculture, p. 368, by N. G. Mukerji, 
Calcutta.) 

Burdwan division, India. 

Dearh land (sandy soils near rivers). A six-year 
rotation, furnishing ten crops and one year fallow. 
Good rotation, recommended for such conditions : 
1, Aus paddy (an early-maturing, rather coarse 
rice), followed by a pulse or oilseed crop, or the 
two mixed together ; 2, jute, followed by a pulse 
or oilseed crop or the two mixed together ; 3, aus 
paddy, followed by sugar-cane ; 4, sugar-cane, fol- 
lowed by aus paddy ; 5, potatoes, followed by aus 
paddy ; 6, bare fallow. 

2-course : 1, Aus paddy ; 2, wheat or barley. 

Dacca. 

3-course : 1, Potatoes ; 2, rice or jute ; 3, chilies 
{Capsicum frutescens) . 

2-course : 1, Jute; 2, tobacco or a pulse (legu- 
minous) crop. 

Lohardaga. On uplands. 

4-course : 1, Millet ; 2, rice ; 3, pulse ; 4, millet, 
followed by an oilseed or pulse crop. 

Palamau. 

3-course: 1, Cotton; 2, gingelly (oilseed); 3, 
Kodo (millet, Paspalum scrobiculatum). 

6-course : 1, Maize or millet ; 2, wheat ; 3, 
wheat ; 4, wheat ; 5, legume ; 6, legume. (Voelcker, 
Indian Agriculture, p. 235.) 

Northwest provinces of India. 

4-course : 1, Indigo ; 2, barley and peas : 3, fal- 
low ; 4, wheat. 

4-course: 1, Millet ; 2, fallow (green crop plowed 
in); 3, wheat or other winter cereal ; 4, millet. 

2-course : 1, Maize, with carrots between the 
rows ; 2, if rainfall is heavy, gram or chick-pea 
(Cicer arietinum), poppy, mustard or safflower. 

2-course : 1, Maize, with carrots ; 2, wheat or 
barlev. 



Punjab. 

Three crops a year : Wheat or barley harvested 
in March, followed by melons, harvested and land 
fitted by July and sown to maize. (Handbook of 
Indian Agriculture, Mukerji, p. 257.) 

4-course, with main crop sugar-cane: 1, Dhaincha 
{Sesbania aeuleala), sunn hemp {Crotalaria juneea), 
or cowpeas {Vigna Catjang), cut when in bloom 
(August), and potatoes planted in October ; 2, 
potatoes, harvested in February and sugar-cane 
planted ; 3, sugar-cane, harvested in February, and 
land sown to arhar (pigeon-pea, Cajanus Indicus) 
or aus paddy and then to potatoes ; 4, potatoes, 
harvested and sugar-cane planted. 

4-course on dry (barani) land. Two years fallow, 
two of crops : 1, Fallow ; 2, wheat and gram ; 3, 
chari (fodder juar. Sorghum vulgare); 4, fallow. 

5-course on rich land : 1, Cotton ; 2, senji (a 
millet) ; 3, sugar-cane ; 4, maize ; 5, wheat. 

4-course : 1, Wheat or barley, with gram (chick- 
pea) and oil seeds ; 2, juar (sorghum) or bajra, 
with pulses ; 3, fallow ; 4, fallow. (J. A. Voelcker, 
Report on Indian Agriculture, p. 235.) 

Bombay. 

Gujarat: 1, Cotton; 2, wheat or juar (sorghum) ; 

3, gram (chick-pea) or other legume. 

Mahim: 1 and 2, Betel vine {Piper Betel); 3, 
ginger {Zingiber officinale) ; 4, sugar-cane ; 5 and 
6, plantain {Musa sapientum) ; 7, rice. 

Sural: 1, Sunn hemp {Crotalaria juneea), plowed 
in, followed by sugar-cane ; 2, sugar-cane ; 3, rice, 
with arhar {Cajanus Indicus) or other legume ; 

4, legume. 

Konhan, on hill land : 1, Nagli ; 2, warai ; 3, 
nigerseed {Guizotia Abyssinica); 4 to 9, fallow. (J. 
A. Voelcker, Improvement of Indian Agriculture, 
p. 235.) 

Literature. 

In addition to works mentioned in the text, con- 
sult the Yearbook, United States Department of 
Agriculture, Washington, D. C, 1902, pp. 519-532, 
for modern American systems. The Complete Far- 
mer, London, England, five editions between 1767 
and 1807, contains many examples of rotations in 
use in Europe previous to and at this period. The 
writings of Sinclair and Arthur Young contain 
many examples of rotations in use in Europe, and 
the Journals of the Royal Agricultural Society of 
England and the Highland and .Agricultural Society 
of Scotland contain frequent reference to this topic. 
The reports of the Boards of Agriculture of some 
of the eastern states contain articles on this 
subject. Current agricultural books give some 
attention to rotations. 

A systematic rotation of crops is more commonly 
practised in Great Britain, Ireland and other coun- 
tries of northern and central Europe and in the 
eastern parts of the United States and Canada, than 
elsewhere. The subject has received but little at- 
tention in Australia, and practically none in Alaska, 
Philippine Islands, Central and South America and 
the greater parts of Africa and Asia. This note 
will guide the reader where to look for literature. 



110 



WEEDS, AND THE MANAGEMENT OF THEM 



WEEDS, AND THE MANAGEMENT OF THEM 



Weeds are plants that are not wanted. They are of two general kinds, — those that inhabit 
waste or unoccupied areas, and those that invade cropped lands and compete with the plants that the 

husbandman grows. Certain species of plants are by nature adapted to 
occupy such places or to engage in such competition, and these particu- 
lar plants are commonly known as weeds ; but weediness is not charac- 
terized by species but by habits and adapta- 'W 
bilities. Any plant may be a weed at times. ^« 
Buckwheat or rye is a weed when it volun- ^ 
tears in other crops and becomes a nuisance. 
Elm-tree seedlings may be pestiferous. When 
any crop is too thick, there is competition 
among fellows, and the weaker and useless 
ones are weeds to the better ones. It has 
been said that the worst weed in a corn-field 
is corn. 

All plants are contending for a place in 
which to live and to spread their kind. They 
all are invading new fields. The more suc- 
cessful their invasion, the more inimical they 
are to other plants. They overrun, and we 
call them weeds. The weed plants are there- 
fore virile and persistent types. They are 
weeds because of one or all of these attri- 
butes: (1) They are adapted to a wide range 
of conditions ; (2) many of them 
have a life-cycle similar to that 
of some cultivated plant ; (3) they 
are tenacious of life ; (4) they 
produce seeds or other propaga- 
ting parts in abundance ; (5) they 
have means of disseminating the 
Fig. 134. Pigweed, lambs-quarter seeds or parts, either by natural 
(Chenopodium album). agencies or by resembling crop 

seeds so closely in size or weight that they cannot be read- 
ily separated. 

All this- sounds very simple, but it is a fact that we 
really do not know just why some of the weeds follow cer- 
tain crops or how they injure the crops. More than once 
the editorials in these volumes have suggested that there 
may be relationships between plants that have been past 
finding out. On the face of it, it seems plain enough that ^ 
weeds reduce the yields in crops by competing for water and 
food. We think we know that this is often the case. 

These discussions at once suggest the one means of 
dealing with weeds, — the working out of such a system of 
crop management that they find the least opportunity to 
gain a foothold. It is commonly advi.sed that the farmer do 
this and do that to destroy weeds — always putting the em- 
phasis on the word destroy ; but while it may be useful to 
prevent wild carrot from seeding, it is much more to the 
point not to have wild carrot. Much of the current advice 
on the destruction of weeds is of small value, for the farmer ^ ,,, „ ^ ^ 

. . Fig. 135. Redroot or pigweed { A marantvs 

has little time or opportunity to hunt out the dmerent ehiurostachya) 





WEEDS, AND THE MANAGEMENT OF THEM 



111 



species and then laboriously to prevent them from seeding or to spud them out at a certain season of 
the year, or to practice other very special methods. The fundamental thing is to apprehend the fact 
that certain weeds follow 
certain crops and certain 
methods of farming. 

Crop management, there- 
fore, necessarily involves 
weed management. A weed- 
infested farm is not merely 
a shiftless farm in the sense 
of being untidy, but it is a 
poorly farmed farm. Some 
of the fundamental means of 
preventing weeds are: good 
rotation courses; clean till- 
age ; cleaning up of waste 
places in which weeds breed; 
care in the choice of clean 
seed ; care to see that the 
manure does not carry seeds; 
alertness to recognize new 
weeds when they begin to 
invade the neighborhood. 
This means that the farmer 
should endeavor to deter- 




Fig. 137. stick-tight 

or beggar-tick 

iSidens trondoaa). 







Fig. 136. Ragweed 

{Ambrosia artemisiie- 

folia). 



mine why he is possessed of certain weeds : 
this discovered, he can then proceed to treat 
the question rationally. 

There are, of course, special methods 
for certain weeds and cer- 
£ tain conditions. Summer- 

fallowing is a means of 
cleaning fields of weeds, but 
it is usually necessary for 
this purpose only in new 
lands or those that have 
been improperly handled. 
Pasturing with sheep is an- 
other special method. Spray- 
ing with poisons will despatch some 
kinds of weeds. Mowing at certain times 
of the year will dispense with others. 
Burning the fields is often useful. In 
meadows and lawns, it is often possible 
to eliminate weeds by fertilizing and 
re-seeding the invaded parts, for usually 
the weeds do not run out the gras.s, but 
the weeds invade because the sod is poor. 
In the contest with weeds, the farmer should dis- 
tinguish the kinds as to duration. It is obviously 
one problem to deal with perennials and another 
problem to deal with annuals. In the annuals, it is 
necessary only to prevent seeding, so far as dissemi- 
nation or persistence is concerned. In perennials, it 



112 



WEEDS, AND THE MANAGEMENT OF THEM 



th 




may be necessary to destroy or crowd out the entire plant, root and all. In grass lands, the annuals 
perish as a matter of course; or, if they do not, it is because the grass is poor. The annual weeds 
follow tilled crops; among such are the pigweeds, purslane, chess, ragweed. The perennials that follow 

cultivated crops are mostly such as have root- 
stocks or other underground parts that are car- 
ried by the tools; as bindweed, quack-grass and 
nut-grass. The weeds of dooryards are mostly 
perennial or, at least, biennial, as docks, bur- 
dock, plantains, self-heal, round-leaved mallow. 
In the accompanying pictures. Figs. 134 to 148 
show annuals; Figs. 149 to 1.54 biennials; Figs. 
155 to 171 perennials. 

Whenever any area becomes badly infested 
weeds, it is safe to assume that the place should 
be given a radical change of treatment. Areas long 
used for garden are likely to become very weedy: 
seed down the place and make the garden somewhere 
else for a time. A patch of Canada thistles can be 
killed by seeding down heavily and mowing for a few 
years. Meadows badly infested with carrot, daisy or 
hawkweed (paint-brush or hieracium), or dandelion 
should be broken up, thor- 
oughly tilled and put in 
rotation until it is safe to 
lay them down to grass 
again. 

Roadsides and waste 
places should be kept clean. 
Most states or localities 
have laws to compel property owners to mow the roadsides. It is probable 
that these weedy roadsides are less real menace to farming lands than is 
popularly supposed ; but the laws should be enforced, nevertheless, for the 
effect of attractive roadsides in elevating public taste is everywhere worth 
consideration. 

It would not be right to leave the impression that all weedy fields are 
necessarily poorly managed fields. In humid climates it is usually better that 
ground be bearing plants than that it be idle. Nature covers all the waste 
and raw places; and nature knows. If land is to go fallow for any rea- 
son, it may be very good practice to let the weeds grow, with the pur- 
pose of plowing them down for humus. The carcass of a weed may make 
just as good humus as that of a plant in good standing. Weeds in 

orchards may make good cover- 
crops; although this does not mean 
that other plants may not make 
better ones. 

The kinds of plants that are known as weeds are legion, but 
the really important or belligerent kinds in any community will 
usually not exceed two dozen. They are mostly homely plants, but 
this does not in the least interfere with their efficiency as weeds. A 
description of the kinds of weeds would scarcely be worth the while 
in this Cyclopedia, where every inch of space is needed for the most 
significant matters. The pictures will identify a few of the old 
friends. 

Of course, everybody deplores weeds. They always have. They 
probably will continue to deplore them even after this Cyclopedia 
is printed. But it would be an interesting question if some one were 



Fig. 138. Napa thistle or tocalote (Centaurea Melitensis 
Naturiilized iu California. 




Fig. 139. Seed top of the 
Shepherd's Purse {Cap- 
sella Bursa-pastoris) . 





Fig. 140. Purslane or pusley 
[Portulaca oleracea). 



Fig. 141. Spray of knotweed 
{Polygonum aviculare). 

Fig. 142, Chickweed, a winter annual, 
{Stellaria media). 



WEEDS, AND THE MANAGEMENT OF THEM 




Fig. 147. Prickly 
lettuce {Lactuca 
Scariola). An- 
nua! or biennial. 

B 8 



Fig. 148. 

Milk thistle (Sily 
bum Mariannm) 
A naturalized weed in Call 
fornia; annual or biennial, 



Fig. 149. 

Evening primrose in seed 

(tEnothera biennis^. 



Fig. 151. 
Bull or pasture thistle 
iCnicus lanceolatus). 



114 



WEEDS, AND THE MANAGEMENT OF THEM 




to ask to what state our agriculture would probably have attained at. this time if it had not been for 
weeds. There is no danger, however, that we shall cease to be taught. 

Poisonous plants. 

Certain plants are poisonous either when eaten or when handled. The most 
deadly of the poisonous plants are some of the mushrooms (which see, in Part 
III), and the water parsnip (Fig. 167) and poison hemlock (Fig. 168). The last 
two are rank-smelling, strong herbs, members of the parsnip family (Umbdlif- 
erce), inhabiting wet places. V. K. Chesnut in "Thirty Poisonous Plants of 
the United States" (Farmers' Bulletin No. 86, United States Department of 
Agriculture), writes as follows: The musquash-root, or water hemlock (Cicuta 
maeulata) "is one of the most poisonous native plants in the United States, 
being rapidly fatal to both man and animals. The roots are especially dan- 
Fig. 152. gerous, because the taste, being aro- 
Burdock {Lappa major). matic and to some people suggesting 
that of horse-radish, parsnips, artichokes, or sweet cicely, is 
apt to lead children to eat them when they are found forced 
out of the soil by washing, freezing, or other causes in early 
spring." The poison hemlock {Conium maeulatum) contains 
"the well-known volatile alkaloid, coniiie, which is found in 
the seeds, and, especially at flowering time, in the leaves. The 
root is nearly harmless in March, April and May, but is dan- 
gerous afterwards, especially during the first year of its 
growth. The poison hemlock is the most generally known 
poisonous plant historically, it being, 
without much doubt, the plant ad- 
ministered by the Greeks 
to Socrates and other state 
prisoners. Recent cases of 
poisoning have arisen ac- 
cidentally from eating the 
seed for that of anise, the 
leaves for parsley, or the 

roots for parsnips; also, from blowing whistles made from the hollow stems. 
It has recently been shown that some of the anise seed in both foreign and 
domestic markets is contaminated with hemlock seeds, but it is not known 
whether serious consequences have resulted therefrom." The only other 
poisonous plants or weeds that need be mentioned here are two or three spe- 
cies of the sumac genus: Rhus Toxicodendron, the poison ivy (Fig. 169); R. 
diversiloha, the poison oak of the Pacific coast (Fig. 170); R. venenata, the 
poison sumac (Fig. 171), an attractive bush growing in swamps. These are 
poisonous to the touch to many persons. It is enough for the present purpose 
merely to identify them by means of pictures. Poisoning by ivy and sumac is treated with a solution of 
sugar of lead (poisonous if taken internally), in 50 to 75 per cent alcohol. Add the sugar of lead "until 
no more will easily dissolve. The milky fluid should then be well rubbed into the affected skin, and the 
operation repeated several times during the course of a few days." There are a number of plants that 
are poisonous to live-stock, and these will be treated in Vol. Ill; and there are others that have 
medicinal qualities, and these are mentioned in Part III of the present volume. 





Fig. 154. Mallow or "Cheeses" {Malva rotunditolia) . 
Biennial or perennial. 



Fig. 153. Mullein ( Fcrins- 
cum Thapstts). 




Fig. 155. Bindweed (Convolvulus arvaisis). 



CHEMICAL WEED -KILLERS OR HERBICIDES 



115 



CHEMICAL WEED-KILLERS OR 
HERBICIDES 

By L. R. Jones 

The use of chemicals as herbicides offers no spe- 
cific cure-all against weeds. Cultivation, short 
rotations, watchfulness against the introduction 
and scattering of weed seeds, are all of more fun- 
damental importance than chemicals in combating 
weeds. There are, however, various cases in which 
chemicals intelligently used are more expeditious 
and economical than any other means for weed- 
killing. A practical difficulty is so to use the her- 
bicide as to kill the obnoxious plants without 
working permanent injury to the soil or to 
neighboring cultivated plants. This difficulty 
limits the chief usefulness of chemicals as 
weed-killers to the following cases: 

(1) When an especially obnoxious weed, as 
poison ivy, occurs in a limited locality and is 
to be destroyed regardless of consequences 
to soil or neighboring plants. 

(2) When the aim is to render the soil 
permanently sterile, as in roadways, tennis 
courts, and the like. 

(3) When the weed plant, as orange hawk- 
weed and mustard, is much more sensitive 
than the associated useful plants to the 
action of some herbicide. 

Chemicals useful as herbicides. 

Any soluble chemical, even including the 
various commercial fertilizers, if used in 
sufficient amount, will kill plants. Some act 
directly and quickly as poisons, e. g., arsenic 
and carbolic acid; others, such as salt, have little 
or no direct poisonous effect but kill the plants 
primarily by drawing the water from the tender 
foliage, or by holding the moisture of the soil so 
that it cannot be absorbed by the roots. It is 
important in this connection to note that in either 
case the herbicide is most effective on young plants 
that are in active growth. Effectiveness in one or 
the other of these ways, together with cheapness 
and convenience of application, are the things to 
determine choice among the various compounds 
available. Without attempting to list all of these, 
we include those whose worth has been best estab- 
lished by trial. 

Salt (sodium chlorid) is probably more commonly 
used than any other compound, chiefly because of 
cheapness and handiness. Its action depends almost 
wholly on the withdrawal and retention of moisture 
from the plant, therefore it should be applied dry 
or in strong solution; and it is mo.st effective in 
hot, dry weather. Salt can be used in any weed- 
killing operation, but it is most valuable on road- 
ways and like surfaces and for certain lawn 
weeds. 

Blue vitrinl (copper sulfate). — This is more pow- 
erful in herbicidal action than salt, but its cost 
prohibits its general use. For most purposes it is 
best used in solution, 2 to 10 per cent being effec- 
tive. It is often used on gravel walks and similar 
surfaces, but salt will generally be found cheaper 



and arsenical poisons more effective. Its chief value 
is against charlock, as noted on page 117. 

Kerosene. — This and other coal-oil products will 
kill plants. Because of handiness it is frequently 
used, but it is weak in efficiency, and relatively 
more costly than any other chemical here listed. 
A pint of crude carbolic acid will do better service 
than two gallons of kerosene, and costs much less. 
When crude petroleum is available at very low 
price it is commended. 

Carbolic acid. — This is one of the quickest and 
most valuable herbicides. The crude acid is rela- 
tively cheap. It is not quite equal to the arsenical 
poisons for penetrating the soil or in lasting 
effects, but it is often 
preferable because of 
cost or convenience. 
It does not corrode 
metals, hence, may be 
applied with any can 
or pump. An effective 
method is to squirt the 
strong acid from an 
ordinary oil can on the 
roots or crown of in- 
dividual weeds. If it 




Fig. 156. The orange hawkweed, or paint-brush (Hieracium 
uurantianmi). This pliiiit origiiiated from tlio runner 
sliown at the lower riKht-h.ind corner. The two young 
runners at the left have .-ilready talien root and will soon 
give rise in turn to new plants. (Adapted from Vermont 
Experiment Station.) 



116 



CHEMICAL WEED -KILLERS OR HERBICIDES 




Fig. 167. Water hemlock (Oicuta manUata). A similar spe- 
cies, also poisouous, grows from Idalv^ westward. 



Fig. 164. 

Toad-flax (Linaria 

vulgaris). 



Fig. 165. Yarrow 



CHEMICAL WEED -KILLERS OR HERBICIDES 



117 



is to be sprayed or sprinkled broadcast on the foli- 
age or ground, it should be diluted with 15 to 30 
parts of water, and this mixture agitated fre- 
quently during use. 

Sulfuric acid (oil of vitriol). — This, of course, is 




Fig. 168. Poison hemlock {Oonium maculatum). 

destructive to everything it touches. It can be 
applied in the crown or about the roots of coarse 
or especially hardy plants, provided the user is 
willing to kill the adjacent vegetation, also. In 
general, carbolic acid will be preferred, partly be- 
cause sulfuric acid can be handled only in glass 
vessels. 

Caustic soda. — A strong solution of this makes a 
cheap and effective-herbicide, commended especially 
for pouring on soil where it is desired to destroy 
poison ivy or other deep-rooted or woody plants. 
Of course, soil so treated will be rendered sterile 
for some time, but the soda will gradually leach 
away. Like salt, this is most effective if applied in 
hot, dry weather. 

Arsenical compounds. — One or another of the 
soluble arsenical compounds form the most effec- 
tive herbicides known. These form the basis of all 
or nearly all of the various proprietary "herbi- 
cides" or "weed-killers." Such compounds are 
handled by leading horticultural supply houses, 
and, so far as the writer has tested them, are 
highly efficient. The only reason for seeking 
elsewhere is their high price. Soluble arsenical 
poisons as a rule can be bought considerably 
cheaper in the drug trade and are similar in action. 
The simplest to employ is arsenate of soda. This 
needs only to be dissolved in water for use, at the 
rate of 1 pound in 3 to 9 gallons of water. White 
arsenic is still cheaper, but according to Schutt's 
formula, which the writer has used, it must be 
combined with sal soda, which is somewhat both- 
ersome. (White arsenic, 1 pound ; washing soda, 



2 pounds; water, 3 to 9 gallons.) An important 
characteristic of these arsenical poisons is that 
they endure for a long time and do not readily 
wash or leach away. For this reason they are the 
most useful herbicides to use on roadways and 
other plain surfaces, as explained below. 

More specific directions for use. 

Any of the above chemicals will kill any plant 
if applied directly to it in sufficient amount. In 
addition to the more general advice included in the 
above account, the following specific directions are 
adapted to special cases. 

Gravel roadways, gutters, tennis courts and like 
surfaces can be kept free from weedy growths by 
the application of any of the above. If salt is 
used it should be scattered freely in the dry form. 
Caution is necessary where it is liable to be 
washed on to lawns, lest it damage the grass bor- 
ders. Carbolic acid or arsenical poisons are pref- 
erable, being both less liable to wash and more 
enduring in their action. One quart of crude car- 
bolic acid in 8 gallons of water, or one pound of 
either arsenical compound mentioned above in a 
like amount of water, will suffice to cover a square 
rod or more of surface; and one, or, at most, two 
applications per year, will be suflicient. 

Charlock, known also as kale or wild mustard 
(Brassica arvensis, Fig. 143), is easily destroyed 
in oat-, wheat-, or other grain-fields by spray- 
ing with a solution of 1 pound of copper sul- 
fate in 4 to 6 gallons of water (2 to 3 per cent 
solution). A force pump should be used, supplied 
with fine nozzles. The treatment is most effec- 
tively made when the grain is 3 to 6 inches tall, 




Fig. 169. Common poison ivy {Rhxis Toxicodendron). 
Climbing or trailing. 

since at this stage the large charlock leaves 
spreading above the grain are easily covered by 
the spray. One barrel or less of the solution (30 
to 50 gallons) suffices to cover an acre and destroy 



118 



CHEMICAL WEED -KILLERS OR HERBICIDES 



the charlock, and this amount causes little or no 
damage to the grain. This same treatment is 
reported to be more or less effective against a 
variety of other common grain-field Vfeeds. The 




Fi£. 170. Pacific Coast poison oak {Rhus diversiloba), 
A trailing or climbing plant. 

wild turnip (Braasica eampestris) and some allied 
cruciferous weeds are less easily killed because the 
spray does not adhere to their smooth leaves. 

E.xperiments by the Cornell Station gave the 
following general conclusions: Wild mustard grow- 
ing with cereals or peas can be destroyed with a 
solution of copper sulfate, without injury to the 
crop. A 3 per cent solution (about 10 pounds to 
the barrel, or 40 gallons of water), at the rate of 
40 to 50 gallons per acre, gives very satisfactory 
results. 

The following notes on the effect of the copper 
sulfate solution on different plants are from obser- 
vations and reports from various sources : 

"Plants reported killed by copper sulfate solu- 
tions: wild mustard, wild radish, wild barley, 
penny-grass (if young), shepherd's-purse, wild 
buckwheat, lamb's-quarters, ragweed, sow-thistle, 
hemp-nettle, bindweed, dock, dodder. 

"Plants reported severely injured: curly dock, 
black bindweed, dandelion, sow-thistle and senecio. 

"Plants reported as not injured: wild rose, pop- 
pies, pigweed, spurge, corn-flower, field-thistles, 
chamomile, couch-grass, bent-grass and horsetails. 

"Crops that may safely be sprayed: all cereals, 
as wheat, rye, barley and corn; the grasses; peas; 
sugar-beets. 

"Crops that are killed or severely injured by 
the copper sulfate solution : beans, potatoes, tur- 
nips, rape." 

Lawn weeds. — Orange hawkweed (Hieracium 
aurantiacum, Fig. 1.56-7), chickweed (Stcllaria 
media. Fig. 142 ), and some other of the shallow- 
rooted succulent weeds of lawns and grasslands 
can be combated more effectively by the use of 
salt than by any other chemical. Fine, dry salt 
should be applied on a bright, hot summer day 



(late June or early July best), broadcasting it so 
as to cover all plants uniformly, since it kills 
chiefly by drawing water from the leaves. One to 
four quarts of salt can be used per square rod, 
with little or no permanent injury to the grass 
if on a strong soil in the northeastern states. 
Since the eft'ect varies with local conditions, 
advance trials should be made on a small .scale. 
Following the application, the dead weeds should 
be raked out and a liberal application of grass seed 
made. 

Poison ivy and similar woody-rooted pests can 
be eradicated by cutting off the tops in hot, dry 
weather in midsummer and pouring a saturated 
solution of caustic soda about the roots. The 
arsenical solutions mentioned above can be used, 
but are generally objectionable because they render 
the soil sterile for so long a period thereafter. 

Literature. 

For more extended discussion the reader should 
consult : Bolley, The Destruction of Weeds in Ce- 
real Crops by the Use of Chemicals Sprayed on the 
Foliage, Proc.Soc. Prom. Agri. Sci. XX, 107 (1899); 
Jones and Orton, The Orange Hawkweed or Paint- 
brush, Vermont Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 
56 (1897); Killing Weeds with Chemicals, Vermont 
Experiment Station, Report XII, 182 (1899); Report 
XIII, 282 (1900); Shutt, Canada Experimental 
Farms, Bulletin No. 28 (1897); Report for 1899, 




Fig. 171. Poison sumac (Rhus venenata). 

page 194; Voelcker, The Destruction of Charlock, 
Journal Royal Agricultural Society, England, 3 
Series, X, 767 (1899). This last gives an excellent 
summary of results in England. Stone, Cornell 
University Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 216, 
1904. 



CHAPTER VI 



GROAVING PLANTS UNDER COVER 




»OUSES IN WHICH PLANTS MAY BE GROWN have come to be one of the necessi- 
ties of agriculture. Until recently, these houses have been chiefly glass structures 
used for the so-called horticultural crops; but various slat-covered sheds have been 
devised to protect crops and plants in the extreme South from sudden periods of cold, 
and now the cloth-covered house has begun to come into somewhat extensive use, 
not only for horticultural plants but for plants that are customarily grown as field 
crops. The demand for certain high-class products the entire year has made it nec- 
essary to protect plants from heat and sun and storms in summer as well as from 
cold and snow in the winter, and the cloth house is often substituted in summer for 
the hot and uncongenial whitewashed glass house. Moreover, it is now found that certain field crops, 
of which some kinds of tobacco are examples, actually thrive better and produce a better product when 
protected from the sun. Hereby has also arisen a new subject in agriculture, — the study of the efl'ect 
of shade on plants. With the ever-increas- 
ing niceties of agriculture, protection to 
plants in summer will assume added im- 
portance. 

All this means that we are constantly 
pressed by the necessity of growing plants 
under conditions of control; and this control 
now runs the round of the year. The gar- 
deners have long practiced such control, and 
they have carried the cultivation of plants 
to its greatest perfection. These ideas are 
now working out into general field condi- 
tions, demanding a new kind of crop man- 
agement. The general subject of plant-grow- 
ing under cover is scarcely germane to the 
present work. It is discussed in its many 
relations in the Cyclopedia of American 
Horticulture. Two phases of it may be considered to be within the scope of this volume, — the growing 
of plants under shade (the subject will be referred to again under Tobacco in Part III), and the making 
of glass houses for the cultivation of vegetable-garden crops. Figs. 172 to 178 illustrate some of the 
new practices; see, also, page 100, Vol. I. In addition to these phases, it may be worth while to add 
to the chapter some advice to the farm-wife on the growing of plants in windows. 







Fig. 172. 



A laih-covered nurseiy house, in which young camellias 
are grown. 



THE SHADING OF PLANTS 

By i?. M. Dug gar 

The shading of plants is a relative expression. 
It is qualitative and means simply reduced light 
intensity. As used by horticulturists, shading has 
reference most frequently to half or partial shade, 
or to the growth of plants under some form of 
improvised screen. The extremes of shading are 
great ; and properly to circumscribe the subject 
we must consider all plants exposed to grades of a 
light intensity between bright diffused light, as 
one extreme, and the darkness of cellars and 
caves, as the other extreme. 



Shading is a distinct phase of horticultural 
work, and it has its physiological, or fundamental, 
side. Such quantitative physiological work as has 
been done relates, for the most part, to absolute 
shading, or darkness, and an insignificant amount 
of accurate physiological data have to do with half 
or partial shade, which latter is more important 
horticulturally. The physiological work is not )fet 
so helpful as it might be, but some of the general 
principles modifying form, size and quality of 
plants in shade or darkness enable us better to 
direct half-shade operations, and better to interpret 
the results that may be secured. The subject offers 
an interesting field of investigation. 



(119) 



120 



THE SHADING OF PLANTS 



A general discussion of shading involves the 
following considerations: 

I. The Plant. 

(a) Direct effect on the plant. 

(6) Indirect effect on the plant 

through environment, 
(c) Kinds of plants with which the 

operation of shading may 

be employed. 

II. The Screen Mechanism. 

Laths and boards, cloth screens, 
plant covers. 

The plant. 

(a) Direct effect. — It must be borne in mind that 
plants are very differently adapted to light in- 
tensities. Some plants to a large degree are in- 
dependent of light conditions. Certain small 
fungi grow equally well in total darkness or in 
strong diffused light. The common mushroom, so 
far as the production of the fruit, or mushroom 
proper, is concerned, is uninfluenced by light, ex- 
cept in so far as light affects temperature and, 
thereby, evaporation. Among common green plants 
there are shade-loving and sun-loving species. In 
the shade of certain trees, no green plant may live 
constantly. In the deepest gorge the densest ferns 
may grow, and on the exposed cliff a grass or a 
heavy vine may find its suitable home. 

In considering the direct physiological effects of 
shading on plants, we may note the effect on 

(1) Color: Etiolation or blanching. 

(2) The form and size of the plant. 

(3) The minute structure, i. e., on the 

elements of the framework which 
have to do with texture and suc- 
culence. 

(4) The bulk of the plant, by reducing or 

modif yingthe products of growth. 

(5) The checking of nitrogen assimila- 

tion and albuminoidal synthesis. 

(6) Modification of the acid content, as 

well as the content of soluble 
carbohydrates. 

(7) The aromatic content in the plant 

juices, and other minor meta- 
bolic modifications affecting the 
quality of the product. 

(8) The development of flowers, fruits 

and seeds. 

(1) The effect on color is considerable. The 
intensity of the light will usually directly affect 
the chlorophyll development. In darkness most 
plants are soon etiolated, or blanched, and many 
are much affected in half-shade. The produc- 
tion of brilliant color is also less under dimin- 
ished light. In garden products blanching may 
add directly only to the appearance or tenderness, 
freshness or crispness; it is in its indirect relation 
to other modifications discussed below that it is 
most important. 

(2) The ordinary green plant shows, with the 
exclusion of light, either partial or complete, an 



elongation of the main axis accompanied by some 
suppression of branches. This is of little practi- 
cal advantage. Plants with restricted stems, and 
consequently with basal or truly "radical" leaves, 
usually show an elongation of the petiole with re- 
duction of the leaf-blade. This effect is of prac- 
tical value when the plant has been grown pre- 
viously under full light, and has accumulated in 
root and stem an abundant supply of nutriment. 
A crop in point is rhubarb when grown by the 
"new culture" method ; and celery is somewhat 
similarly influenced in addition to the blanching 
effect. 

(3) The diminished development of tough fiber 
in etiolated plants has been known since the time 
of Sir Humphrey Davy, and even earlier. The re- 
duction is largely in the amount of mechanical or 
supporting tissues. This effect is an advantage 
when succulence is a chief concern. It is true 
of the crops mentioned in the preceding para- 
graph, and it may also be of interest in growing 
certain salads. 

(4) The dry weight of certain shaded plants is 
less than of plants under normal light intensity, 
and this probably is due largely to the lessened 
chlorophyll activity. In this connection, however, 
it is important to remember the specific light re- 
lations of the plant. It is asserted that under 
favorable conditions of temperature and moisture 
the common evening primrose {(JSnothera biennis), 
a sun-plant, has the power to fix in direct sunlight 




Fig. 173. A tea nursery in South Carolina. (C. U. Shepard.) 



about three times as much C0> as in ordinary dif- 
fused light. The common polypody (Polypodium 
vulgare), on the other hand, has shown a more 
energetic assimilative (photosynthetic) activity 
in diffused light than in direct sunlight. This 
doubtless would be true for the ginseng. Indeed, 
it may be said that shading is an antidote for ills 
with one species, while with another it may prove 
a bane. Varieties may likewise show diverse sun 
relations. It is therefore of comparatively little 
value to make shading tests with only two or three 
of many diverse varieties of a cultivated plant, 
the extremes of whose light relations have been 
merely assumed. 

(5) In ordinary green plants light seems to be 



THE SHADING OF PLANTS 



121 




Fig. 174. Raising tea under shelter in South Carolina. 

essential to nitrogen assimilation. Just what in- 
tensity of light may be the optimum for this par- 
ticular function is not known, and there are doubt- 
less complex relations to be considered. At any 
rate, the proteid content 
is usually less in shaded 
plants. 

(6) It has been held 
that there is an increase 
in the acid content of 
shaded plants. This may 
be relative. A certain 
amount of acid lends 
quality and flavor, while 
an increase without gain 
in sugar may be deci- 
dedly objectionable. In 
shading strawberries 
with cheese-cloth it has 
been shown that there is 




Fig. 175. 



Muslin-covered plant house 
Experiment Station. 



an actual reduction in the acid content. The acid- 
ity, however, is more marked in taste, and this be- 
cause of a marked reduction of sugar. The reduc- 
tion of the sugar content, as well as of certain 
other carbohydrates in fruits, seems to be general 
under such cultural conditions. 

(7) The aromatic products may not be 
very important as animal nutrients, but 
they are physiologically essential, and 
represent almost the sole value of eco- 
nomic plants used as condiments. In 
1838, De Candolle called attention to 
the diminished production of savors and 
odors in shaded plants. It was found 
later that plants removed from south- 
ern latitudes to the latitude of Scandi- 
navia during the two months of maxi- 
mum sunshine in the latter region, 
showed an increase in the development 
of aromatic products. Indeed, it has long 
been suggested that many fruit-bearing 
plants containing objectionable flavors 
might be benefited by etiolation. 

(8) In total darkness very few plants 



will develop normal flowers or fruit, even 
when grown from bulbs or other storage 
organs, and a general eff'ect of etiolation is 
usually apparent in the reduction of fruit- 
ing, while increased or continuous illumina- 
tion often hastens flowering or fruitage, or 
may lengthen the flowering period. How- 
ever, when there is only partial shading it 
is quite possible that the size of succulent 
fruits may be increased, and the time of 
ripening hastened, for the moisture and 
temperature factors under half-shade will 
play important roles. It has been found, 
for instance, that under cheese-cloth sev- 
eral varieties of strawberries bear a larger 
fruit ; and that lettuce runs earlier to seed, 
(b) Indirect effect through the eninronment. 
— The practice of shading may modify the 
factors of the environment in a variety of 
ways ; and each of these factors is impor- 
tant in the life relations of the plant. The 
purpose, of course, is primarily the modified light 
efl'ect, yet frequently the efl^ect on other factors is 
much more important. Aside from reducing the 
light, shading is important in the relations of the 
plant in order 

To regulate hu- 
midity. 

To conserve soil 
water. 

To mitigate or 
equalize temper- 
ature. 

To give partial 
protection from 
wind. 

To maintain bet- 
ter physical con- 
Haw.aii ditioH of the soil. 

(1) In wet periods, 
shaded plants may have no advantages, certainly 
none so far as the humidity is concerned ; but in 
dry weather the humidity is reported as more reg- 
ular under partial shade. This relation is important 
in dry regions. It is a mistake to assume that 



(1) 
(2) 
(3) 



(4) 



(5) 




Fig. 176. Interior construction of house shown in Fig 



122 



THE SHADING OF PLANTS 



because of greater humidity plants will always be 
more subject to fungous diseases. The relation of 
plants to fungous diseases is complex, and the 
general vigor of the plant is usually of more 
importance than any single environmental factor. 
(2) The evaporation of water from the soil is 




Fig. 177. Cheese-cloth shelter for vegetables. 

unquestionably less under the covers used in shad- 
ing, and this has been experimentally demonstrated 
time and again. The extent of the benefit would 
necessarily be determined by the dryness of the 
season or the region. 

(3) Extremes of temperature are somewhat miti- 
gated by shading. Radiation from the soil is pre- 
vented to a considerable extent, and the light that 
does enter carries with it heat, much of which is 
absorbed. The minimum temperature under cover 
devices will always lag behind the minimum of 
the external air. Experiments in the North in early 
summer in moist seasons have shown a desirable in- 
crease in the temperature under cloth cover. Other 
experiments in .July and August, when the amount 
of sunshine is much greater, have shown a slightly 
lessened temperature under cover, yet a greater uni- 
formity. Repeated experiments in the South, how- 
ever, show that by shading a very desirable equali- 
zation of temperatures is effected. In the famous 
market-garden and floricultural region of France, 
east of Toulon, many crops are grown throughout 
the winter under the protection of half-shade. The 
temperature thus secured is sufficient for the main- 
tenance of growth in the semi-hardy ilowers and 
vegetables. 

(4) Shading devices are not wholly unimportant 
from a consideration of the wind relation. There 
is, in the first place, a lessening of the mechanical 
injuries, and, in the second place, the prevention of 
desiccation or excessive loss of water at times 
when the water content should be conserved. 

(5) Under cover the soil does not bake so readily 
and is more or less constantly in excellent workable 
condition. 

Shading devices may have an important bearing 



on all the above environmental factors, but, of 
cour.se, it would be absurd to use such devices 
merely for the regulation of some of these, such as 
the conservation of soil moisture or the mainten- 
ance of a good physical condition of the soil, 
(c) Kinds of plants to shade. — Shading is appli- 
cable to celery, rhubarb and tobacco un- 
der a variety of conditions, and may be 
employed for cauliflower, lettuce, aspara- 
gus and probably some other crops, — 
these all being plants commonly culti- 
vated throughout the country. It is par- 
ticularly applicable in pineapple-culture 
in Florida, and it has been shown to be 
undesirable in citrous culture in the sjme 
state. In addition, shading must be prac- 
ticed to a certain extent in the cultiva- 
tion of those greenhouse or floricultural 
plants whose native habitats are beneath 
the shade of the forests in subtropical or 
tropical regions. Among such plants are 
some species of ferns, palms, selaginella, 
anthmnum, caladium, certain orchids and 
many others. Indeed, in the case of orna- 
mental plants, a knowledge of the habitat 
will generally indicate the procedure to 
be used in their propagation with refer- 
ence to light. Moreover, in some casts it 
will be necessary in drier regions to pro- 
pagate under half-shade plants whose native habi- 
tats are more moist. Under the severe sunshine ol 
the Sahara, shading is practiced on a large scale, 
for the garden cultures are beneath the palms of 
the oases. In other lands, tea may be grown in 
forest glades. 

The sc7-ee)i mechanism. 

Lath screen. — The materials to be used in the 
construction of the shading screens will depend on 
local conditions and prices. One of the earliest 
forms of screening was a lattice composed of sepa- 
rate lath screens supported on scantling at the 
height desired. Such screens are still in u.se where 
tropical plants are being propagated. The lath 
screen is durable but, of course, is expensive in 
most regions. 

A desirable lath shed for half-shade work, suit- 




Fig. 178. Tents for growing tobacco. Oonnectient valley. 

able in the cultivation of pineapptes or tobacco, 
may be nlade as follows : 

Posts of 2 X 4-inch or 3 x 3-inch pine are placed 
nine or ten feet apart the short way and fourteen 
feet apart the long way. For solidity these may be 



GLASS HOUSES FOR VEGETABLE CROPS 



123 



set about one foot in the soil. Boards sixteen feet 
long are nailed across the long way and spliced 
at the posts, forming the joists of the structure. 
Stringers, 1x3 inches, are then nailed across the 
boards, the stringers in turn supporting plastering 
laths, nailed about one inch apart. The shed may 
be of any height desired, but for ease in cultiva- 
tion it should be at least seven feet high. 

Cloth screen. — In recent times, the cheese-cloth 
screen has come into very general use in tent-mak- 
ing on a large scale. The screens may be either 
open or closed at the sides, and the height will vary 
according to the crop and the cultivation to be 
given. Details of the cost of such screens per acre 
are available. When 2x4 scantlings are used for 
posts and good support is given overhead by means 
of scantling and stout wire, the materials and labor 
have been variously estimated at $300 to $350 per 
acre the first year. The lighter grades of cheese- 
cloth, which are preferable for most cultures, can- 
not well be used a second season ; nevertheless, 
the cost for the second and subsequent years will 
be materially lessened. Heavier grades of cloth may 
be used in some cases. Cloth is now manufactured 
in sixteen and one-half-foot breadths for this pur- 
pose. "Domestic " is sometimes to be recommended ; 
for small, more resistant covers, such as for cold- 
frames, this material may be treated with linseed oil. 

A good shelter -tent for tobacco, and, conse- 
quently, one suitable for almost any shade - crop, 
may be constructed as follows : 

Posts of pine, chestnut, locust or other durable 
wood, eleven feet long are placed two feet in the 
ground and sixteen and one-half feet apart each 
way. Sixteen -and -one -half -foot stringers, 2x4 
inches, nailed at the top of the posts, run one way, 
and across the other way are stretched No. 9 cable 
wires, stapled to each post and secured at the bor- 
ders of the field by stakes placed six to nine feet 
beyond the tent borders and connected by a base- 
board. Two lines of smaller wire (No. 12) are placed 
between and parallel to the heavy cables, hence, 
five and one-half feet apart. The lighter wire may 
also be run along the stringers and baseboard, over 
which wire may be wrapped the selvage of the 
cloth when stapled. G. B. cloth of a special width 
(sixteen and one-half feet) may be employed in this 
construction, or a heavier grade if it is hoped to use 
the cloth through a second year. G. B. cloth is 
somewhat heavier than cheese-cloth. At the two 
open sides twelve -foot cloth may be employed. 
When the shade is desired for only a part of the 
growing season this construction may be consid- 
erably simplified by reducing the height of the 
shed, the size of timbers, and the like. 

Shelter-tents in the form of propagating-houses 
could be used advantageously in those sections in 
which the winters are mild, but where some form 
of shed is essential. 

Small frames covered with cloth for coldframe 
purposes should be painted with raw linseed oil if 
imperviousness and durability are desired. 

Miscellaneous screens. — In some regions, mat- 
tings may be cheaply prepared from plant products. 
In the far South palmetto leaves have been used 



successfully, and straws of various kinds have been 
employed in countries where labor is cheap. In the 
Riviera section of France and Italy a very common 
species of heath. Erica arborea, is valuable for this 
purpose. Its uniform height after a few years of 
growth, the slender yet dense branches, and its 
lightness, render it very efficient and remarkably 
cheap. Bamboo has been employed where it is 
sufficiently common. 

Literature. 

General references: The Pineapple Industry in 
the United States, Yearbook United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, 1895, p. 274 ; American Gin- 
seng, Bulletin No. 16 (revised edition). Division of 
Botany, United States Department of Agriculture, 
1898 ; Growing Sumatra Tobacco under Shade, 
Bulletin No. 20, Bureau of Soils, United States 
Department of Agriculture, 1902 ; Growing Straw- 
berries Under Cover, The Strawberry Specialist, 
February, 1902 ; Experiments in Ginseng Culture, 
Bulletin No. 62, Pennsylvania Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station, 1903 ; Shading, Proceedings of the 
Society for Horticultural Science, 1903 (several 
papers); An Experiment in Shading Strawberries, 
Bulletin No. 246, New York (Geneva) Agricultural 
Experiment Station, 1904; Tent -Covering for 
Vegetables, Rhode Island Experiment Station Re- 
ports, 1904 and 1905 ; Experiments in Growing 
Sumatra Tobacco Under Shelter-Tent, Bulletin No. 
72, Pennsylvania Agricultural Experiment Station, 
1905 ; Tent-Grown Berries and Celery, American 
Culturist, Vol. 67, p. 2, 1905. 

Physiological references : Physiology of Plants, 
Vines, Oxford ; Pfeff'er's Physiology of Plants, 
Vols. I, II and III, Ewart, Oxford ; Effect of Light 
upon Plants, MacDougal, Memoirs of the New York 
Botanical Garden, 1903. 



GLASSHOUSES FOR VEGETABLE CROPS 

By L. R. Taft 

For many years gardeners made use of cold- 
frames and hotbeds for the starting of vegetable 
plants in the spring, and for the forcing of lettuce 
and radishes, to get them on the market before 
they could be produced in the open air. A de- 
mand soon sprang up for a great variety of other 
vegetables, and it was found that, if they could 
be produced throughout the winter months, the 
prices they would bring would be sufficiently 
remunerative to make their culture very profit- 
able. This has led to the erection of numerous 
forms of vegetable forcing-houses, and some of 
the ranges are so extensive as to cover several 
acres. Some of the larger houses are several 
hundred feet in length and fifty to one hundred 
feet in width, and are so arranged as to permit 
teams to be driven through to bring in soil and 
manure; and horses are often used for plowing 
and working the ground. The modern vegetable 
forcing-house makes it possible to produce crops 
of all kinds of vegetables with comparatively 
little risk, and with far less labor and expense 



124 



GLASS HOUSES FOR VEGETABLE CROPS 




than was possible with hotbeds or coldframes or 
with the form of greenhouses used in the early 
days. 

The business of growing vegetable plants either 
for sale or home use has assumed large proportions. 
In some cases, the houses that have been used 
for the growing of vegetables or flowers are 
used for this purpose, while in others spe- 
cial houses are used. Although not 
necessary, it will be convenient 
to have raised benches in 
houses to be used for 
this purpose, at least 
enough to serve as 
seed-beds, other- 
wise the vegeta- 
ble houses will 
answer very well. 
Less care is re- 
quired in the con- 
struction of 
houses to be used 
exclusively for 
the starting of 
plants in the 
spring. The roof covering of small houses can be 
of hotbed sash, and the houses can be heated by 
means of flues. 

Types of houses. 

The forcing-houses in use thirty years ago, and 
which are occasionally found today, were about 
ten feet in width, with wooden walls and the roof 
covered with a row of hotbed sash on each side of 
the ridge. They were commonly heated with a flue. 
The width of the houses was gradually increased 
to about twenty feet. (Fig. 179.) The walls were 
either of posts covered with a double thickness 
of boards, or there was a row of glass one to 
two feet in width under the plates to furnish light 
and ventilation. In addition to the two benches 
about four feet wide found in narrow houses, these 
contained a bed or bench through the center about 
eight feet wide. While some of the houses of 
this size were heated with flues, hot water was 
more commonly used, although in large ranges 
steam was generally preferred. This width and 
style of house gives good satisfaction, and even 
today will be found very well suited to the pur- 
pose if only one or two small houses are required. 

The modern vegetable forcing-houses are more 
commonly constructed of widths varying from 
twenty-si.x to fifty or more feet, as it has been 
found that better crops can be grown in the wide 



Even-span glass house with wooden posts. 




Fig. 180. A side-bill greenhouse. 



_,.,-»-iiS5ww?«M:^.'v>.V 



houses and there will be less waste room. By 
building the houses where there is a slight gradual 
slope of the land toward the south, it is possible to 
erect a house forty or fifty feet in width without 
having the ridge excessively high, while the 
amount of space lost along the south wall will 
be much less than when three to five houses 
are required to give the same area. (Fig. 
180.) 

In addition to the ordinary form 
of greenhouse with vertical 
walls, a style that will 
add eight to ten feet 
to the available 
width of the 
house, without 
greatly increas- 
ing the cost of 
construction or of 
heating, is built 
with a sort of hip- 
roof ; that is, in- 
stead of having 
vertical walls, the 
plates are sup- 
ported by means of iron posts and the side walls 
stand at an angle so that at the ground the walls 
are three to five feet outside of the plates on each 
side of the house. 

If the houses are not sufficiently large to make 
it worth while to drive in at the ends with compost, 
there should be either ventilators or movable sash 
in the side walls that can be taken out so that soil 
can be thrown in. 

The most common form of roof for vegetable- 
houses is the even span, with the houses running 
either east and west or north and south. The three- 
quarter-span houses, with the long slope either to 
the south or to the north, are also much used. In the 
former case, the north wall is usually somewhat 
higher than the south, but if the long slope is to 
the north the walls are of the same height. It is 
possible to build a house fifty or more feet in width 
under a single roof by placing it on a gentle slope. 
As much as five-sixths of the roof may then be in 
the south slope. 

The framework. 

There is considerable variety in the methods of 
construction used for vegetable-houses, as indi- 
cated in Figs. 179-183. In some cases, posts of 
cedar, or some other durable timber, are set at 
intervals of six feet so as to stand five or six feet 
above ground. They are then covered to the height 
of two or three feet with sheathing and siding, 
with a double thickness of building-paper between. 
A sill is placed on this and the space up to the 
plate is filled in with sa.sh-bars and glass. Another 
method is to build a wall of concrete to the height 
of two feet. In this, two-inch gas-pipes are set 
at intervals of five feet. These support the plate, 
and the space between the plate and the concrete 
is occupied by glass. In other cases, angle or flat 
bar iron is used for the posts, to the upper ends of 
which iron rafters are fastened. 



GLASS HOUSES FOR VEGETABLE CROPS 



125 




<}ALV. IflllRC 



~CAST /RON POSTS ■ 



GALV. Wlf>£ 



CAsr/ffo/Y floats 



GALV. W/f>e 

CAST IRON POSTS 
=-r!^rf-»-'='-| 




Fig. 181. Ridge- and furrow-houses witli iron gutters. 



When several houses are built with common gut- 
ters between the adjacent houses, if they are used 
for the same classes of crops, a row of posts to sup- 
port the gutters will be all that is required. (Fig. 
18L) Although less commonly used for vegetables 
than for flowers, what is known as the ridge-and- 
furrow style of construction has much merit, espe- 
cially for tomatoes and cucumbers. As now con- 
structed these establishments are made up of several 
narrow houses, with a width of sixteen to twenty- 
four feet, and at least six feet in height to the gut- 
ters. As there is nothing but posts under all except 
the outside walls, it practically makes one wide 
house. There is less trouble from the shadows of 
the gutters than in most narrow houses, as the 
walks are located where the deepest shadows fall. 

The roof. 

For the construction of the roof of a green- 
house there is no material equal to southern 
cypress that is free from sap-wood. If soaked in 
oil and the joints put together in white lead, a 
cypress greenhouse will last for many years when 
kept properly painted. Although iron rafters and 
purlins make possible the use of lighter sash-bars 
(Fig. 182), a great majority of vegetable-houses are 
built without rafters, the framework of the roof 
being formed of cypress sash-bars that run from 
the plates to the ridge. These are two to two 
and a half inches deep and about one and one- 
eighth inches wide, according to the size of the 
glass and the distance between the supports. The 
plates may be either of wood, beveled so that the 
water will run off, or formed into a gutter to 
carry the water to a drain ; or various 
forms of iron plates and gutters 
may be used. The iron gutters 
are of course more durable, 
but the houses are harder to 
heat and with some kinds 
the ends of the sash-bars 
decay sooner than with 
wooden gutters and plates. 

Ventilating. 

Ample means should be 
provided for the ventilation " 
of vegetable - houses. This 
can be secured by means of 
a row of ventilating sash at 



the ridge and another row beneath the plates, 
which should have a width of two to three feet. 
They should be supplied with some of the modern 
ventilating machinery that will permit of opening 
stretches of one hundred feet at a time. 

Glass. 

The glass most commonly used is sixteen by 
twenty to twenty-four inches, double strength, and 
of " B " quality, although " A " glass is better. For 
small houses it answers fairly well if it has a width 
of twelve to fourteen inches. The putty used for 
bedding the glass should be mixed with about ten 
per cent of white lead. In laying the glass, it 
should be lapped about one-eighth of an inch. As 
the lower edge of each pane will be raised from the 
sash-bars the thickness of the glass, a sufficient 
amount of putty should be placed on the rabbets 
to fill this space before the glass is laid. Care 
should be taken to select the panes so as to make 
tight joints where they lap, and they should be held 
in place by zinc shoe-nails, using four to six ac- 
cording to the size of the panes. The double-pointed 
glazing tacks also answer well for holding the 
lower corners of the panes in place. No putty 
should be used on top of the glass and all surplus 
should be scraped off, care being taken to fill all of 
the cracks. In addition to soaking the sash-bars in 
oil, and giving them a coat of paint after they are 
in place but before the glazing is done, the roof 
should receive a final painting after the glass is in 
place, care being taken to "draw" 
the putty wherever it 
shows. It is economy 
to repaint every 
five years. 




Fig. 182. Eren-span gieenbouse with iron rafters 



126 



GLASS HOUSES FOR VEGETABLE CROPS 



Benches and beds. 

In the narrow houses it has been customary 
to have raised benches three or four feet in 
width along the walls, with one or more others 
six or eight feet in width in the middle of the 
houses, the walks being eighteen to twenty-four 
inches in width between the benches, or the walks 
placed along the walls, and all of the benches have 
a width of seven or eight feet. In some cases, the 
gutters are supported by means of arches so as 
to permit the placing of walks under the gutters, 
where the space is less useful than in the center 
of the houses. The raised benches are often built 
entirely of wood, or with wooden bottoms and some 



in five feet in the width of the house. This some- 
times hastens development 10 to 25 per cent. 

Heating by- means of flues. 

Various methods are used for heating vegetable 
houses and all have their merits under certain con- 
ditions. The old-fashioned flue answers very well 
for small houses in sections where wood can be ob- 
tained cheaply for fuel, but it is not very reliable 
in the colder climates, e.xcept after severe cold 
weather is over. A brick furnace is constructed at 
one end of the house, with a length of three to 
five feet according to the length of the wood. An 
opening can be left at one end near the bottom to 




Details of construction of a long-slope greenhouse. 



less destructible materials such as gas-pipe or 
cement for the supports. In some cases, cement 
has been used with good satisfaction for construct- 
ing the bottoms of raised benches. The practice is 
becoming more common in the construction of 
houses designed entirely for vegetable forcing, to 
do away with raised benches. Sometimes the 
ground is handled exactly as in a garden, all of the 
ground being covered with the crop with the ex- 
ception of a narrow space every fifteen or twenty 
feet for use when watering or ventilating. It is 
more common, however, to keep the surface soil a 
foot or more above the level of the walks. This 
certainly helps in the drainage of the soil. If the 
soil is inclined to be heavy, it is an excellent plan 
to sink the walks or to fill up the beds so as to 
make the surface at lea.st eighteen inches above 
the walks. The soil can be held in place by cement 
walls that need not be more than two inches thick 
at the top. If drain tiles are run about a foot be- 
low the surface, either across or lengthwise of the 
beds, it will aid both in the drainage and the aera- 
tion of the soil. Even better results can be secured 
by running one of the heating pipes in a tile once 



serve for a draft, and a tile or iron smoke-pipe 
should lead from near the top of the other end, 
with a slight ascent, to a smoke-stack at the far- 
ther end of the house. There should be a door for 
putting in the fuel in the end or top of the furnace. 
In addition to the increased danger from fire when 
a flue is used, these furnaces give more or less 
trouble with smoke and do not work well when the 
flue is more than fifty feet long. For use in fire hot- 
beds, which are really low and narrow greenhouses 
used for starting lettuce and similar crops in the 
spring, a flue with a tile running through the soil 
at the depth of a foot answers very well. 

Heating with hot water. 

For greenhouses with less than 5,000 square feet 
of glass, a hot water heating system will be more 
satisfactory than either a flue or steam system, as, 
although it will cost nearly 50 per cent more to 
install, it will be more economical in fuel and will 
require less attention than a steam-heating plant, 
besides giving a more regular heat if run without 
a regular night fireman. 

In a hot-water system the water is heated in 



GLASS HOUSES FOR VEGETABLE CROPS 



127 



a boiler and then carried through the houses in 
a series of pipes. The circulation is due to the 
fact that cold water is heavier than hot water, 
and as one end of the circuit of pipes is attached 
to the bottom, while the other is connected with 
the top of the boiler, the heavy cold water in 
the greenhouse flows back in the pipes and pushes 
the light hot water out at the top to flow off 
into the system to take its place. A great variety 
of hot-water boilers, of both cast- and wrought- 
iron, are made for greenhouse heating. The cast- 
iron boilers are to be preferred for small plants, 
but there are a number of tubular boilers that are 
made for hot-water heating that answer very well. 
An ordinary tubular steam boiler will also be 
found very satisfactory for hot-water heating, 
although if a tubular boiler is to be constructed 
for the purpose it would be better to have tubes 
also in the top of the boiler. 

Four-inch cast-iron pipe was formerly used for 
hot-water heating, but two-inch wrought-iron 
pipe is now more commonly used for the coils, and 
the same size will answer for the flow pipes in 
houses less than 100 feet in length. In deter- 
mining the amount of pipe to be used in a green- 
house, it will be safe under ordinary conditions to 
use one square foot of pipe for three square feet 
of glass, when a temperature of 60° is desired, or 
for four square feet of glass if 50° will suffice. All 
of the glass in the roof, sides and ends of the house 
should be computed, and it will be safe also to con- 
sider the e.xposed woodwork as equivalent to 20 per 
cent as much glass. 

After determining how many feet of radiation 
will be required in the house, the size and number 
of flow pipes should be determined. As a rule, 
two-inch pipes can be used in houses 50 feet in 
length if they are not more than 20 feet wide, 
but they should not be used to carry more than 
200 square feet of radiation, including that in the 
main itself. While a larger number might be 
used in short houses, when the boiler is some 
distance below the coils, the circulation will be 
more even when not more than two two-inch 
returns are supplied by a two-inch flow pipe. 
A two and one -half -inch flow pipe will ordi- 
narily handle 400 square feet of radiation, in- 
cluding its own surface. Unless the hou.ses are 
rather long, it will be best not to use flow pipes 
within the houses larger than two and one-half 
inches. 

It is an easy matter to adjust the radiation in a 
greenhouse. If a house is 20 feet wide and 100 
feet long, and has two feet of glass in each of the 
side walls, it will require about 1,000 feet of radi- 
ating surface to heat it to a temperature of 60° in 
zero weather, provided the house is reasonably well 
built and is not too much exposed to strong winds. 
From the above, it will be seen that three two-and- 
one-half-inch flow pipes should be used. These will 
supply '-'25 square feet of radiation, while twelve 
two-inch returns will supply the remainder of the 
radiation required. In addition to the data given 
above, one merely needs to know that a two and 
ene-half-inch pipe has .75 of a square foot of sur- 



face, while a two-inch pipe has .621 of a square foot 
for each foot in length. 

In arranging the pipes, it will ordinarily be 
well to place the return pipes on the walls and 
under the benches, or in the walks when beds are 
used. The flow pipes may also be under the 
benches, provided the returns are above the level 
of the heater; but a better circulation can gen- 
erally be secured if there is one flow pipe placed 
on each of the plates. When more than two flows 
are required and are not placed under the benches, 
one or two may be carried on the center posts two 
to four feet below the ridge, and, in wide houses, 
one can be on each row of purlin posts. In all 
systems of heating, the return pipes should be 
given a fall of one inch in ten or fifteen feet to 
allow the air to escape. The flow pipes give the 
best circulation when they also are given a slight 
fall, but they can run uphill with but little loss 
of circulation. If the downhill system is used, it 
will not be necessary to use air-valves, provided 
the pipe which connects the system with the 
expansion tank leads from the highest part of the 
main flow pipe. It will also be well to place a 
valve on each of the flow pipes to the different 
houses so that the circulation of the water can be 
regulated. If the lower ends of the returns are 
higher than the top of the boiler, there will be 
little difficulty in securing a good circulation, even 
though the flow pipes are on the same level. By 
giving the flow pipes considerable elevation, a 
fairly good circulation can be secured even when 
the returns are only slightly above the bottom of 
the boiler. 

The above applies to what is known as the open- 
tank system. This will always be most satisfactory 
for small ranges, but by the use of a closed system, 
the water, which with an open tank seldom has 
an average temperature of more than 160°, can 
be raised above the boiling point. This makes it 
possible to use fewer and smaller heating pipes, 
thus reducing the cost of installing the plant ; but 
it is less economical of fuel, requires greater care, 
and may become somewhat dangerous. 

Steam heating. 

In a general way, much that has been said re- 
garding hot-water heating plants applies to steam- 
heating. Both wrought- and cast-iron boilers are 
used, the latter being rather more expensive and 
lasting but little longer than tubular boilers that 
are well cared for. The ordinary return tubular 
boilers seem well adapted to the heating of green- 
blouses containing more than 5,000 square feet of 
glass. Aside from the steam boiler fittings, there 
is but little difference in the arrangement of a hot- 
water and a steam-heating plant e.xcept that the 
pipes used for the latter are much smaller and the 
air-valves are placed at the lower end of each coil. 
In a general way, it can be said that the number of 
one-inch steam-pipes required to heat a greenhouse 
will be about the same as the number of two-inch 
pipes when hot water is used. In all except very 
small houses, it will be better to use one and one- 
fourth-inch steam-pipes for the returns. The flow 



128 



PLANTS IN RESroENCE WINDOWS 




Fig. 184. A modern floncultural establislunent. (Pierce Bros., Waltham, Mass.) 



pipes also can be much smaller than with hot water, 
a two and one-half-inch pipe being amply large 
for a house 20 by 100 feet. 

Two methods are commonly used for arranging 
the steam heating pipes in greenhouses. In one, 
the flow-pipe is carried to the farther end of the 
house where it is joined by means of branch pipes 
to the coils, which are distributed about the same 
as with hot water. The other way is to connect the 
flow pipes with the coils at the end nearest the 
boiler. Each of the coils may be provided with 
a return pipe for the drip, or all of the coils may 
be connected at the farther end of the house with 
one pipe which serves as a common return pipe 
for the series. 

Literature. 

Greenhouse Construction and Greenhouse Man- 
agement (two books), L. R. Taft, Orange Judd Co., 
New York. For chapters on the building and care 
of greenhouses, see also Gardening for Pleasure, 
Peter Henderson ; Success in Market Gardening, 
W. W. Rawson ; Vegetable Gardening, S. B. Green; 
Vegetables Under Glass, Henry A. Dreer. The Forc- 
ing-Book, L. H. Bailey. All recent garden books 
are likely to offer good advice. Recent years have 
seen great changes in methods of constructing glass 
houses for both vegetable gardening and floricul- 
ture under glass. The reader will need to consult 
the current horticultural periodicals to keep in 
touch with the progress. The tendency is toward 
very wide houses of simple construction. Some of 
the newer forms are shown in Figs. 184-188, as 
well as in the pictures on preceding pages. Fig. 
184 is redrawn from a print in The Florist's Ex- 
change. 



PLANTS IN RESIDENCE WINDOWS 

By Charles E. Hunn 

There is no one way to grow plants in windows, 
since there are so many kinds of plants to be con- 
sidered ; but it will be worth while to give the 
farmer's wife advice. There is no intention of cov- 
ering the general question of window-gardening in 
this article ; that will be found in many special 
books and articles. It is purposed only to mention 
the four or five main causes of success and failure, 
omitting all details of the culture of special plants. 

General cultural requirements. 

Soils that will grow a good corn crop, will, with 
the addition of manure and sand, generally grow 
good crops of flowers. But for the best results, a 
made soil is preferable. This soil may have for a 
base any good garden soil or the soil next under 
the sod of an old pasture, to which may be added 
well-rotted manure, leaf-mold and sand. The pro- 
portion of the latter to the former will depend 
somewhat on the kinds of roots the plants have ; 
whether strong, stiff roots, capable of pushing 
through the soil, or fine, fibrous roots that require 
mellow, easily penetrated soil. 

As to the kinds of manure to use, preference 
should be given to well-rotted cow manure, as this 
is a cool, slowly available plant-food. Horse ma- 
nure is of value, but heats and soon loses its value 
as plant-food. Sheep manure, poultry manure and 
the commercial fertilizers are best used in the 
liquid form, dissolved in water, and are of value 
as a stimulant after the plants have filled the pots 
with roots. There are no rigid rules as to the 
make-up of soils, and plants may thrive in a vari- 




Fig. 185. Modern greenhouse construction. Design of even-span house, 150 feet wide. (Kiug Construction Company.) 



PLANTS IN RESIDENCE WINDOWS 



129 



ety of mixtures of soils. With a larger number 
of plants a mixture of three parts loam, one part 
each of well-rotted manure, sand and leaf-mold, 
or woods dirt, will prove satisfactory. 

Having in mind the fact that the growing of 
plants in a room through the winter is an unnat- 
ural process, every care should be taken to make 
all conditions favorable for plant growth. The 
most important point in house-culture of plants is 
to have ample drainage in the box. The neces- 




Fig. 186. House without eaves. The glass at the shoulder or 
plate is bent, and the glass extends nearly to the grouud. 

sarily dry atmosphere of the living-room soon 
dries out the soil and frequent waterings are neces- 
sary ; but if there is imperfect drainage there 
may be water standing around the roots of the 
plant when the top soil needs moisture. With but 
few exceptions, such as callas and cyperus or 
umbrella plant, water is decidedly injurious to 
plants and facilities for the escape of excessive 
water should be furnished, leaving only moisture. 
When one has facilities, window-boxes should be 
used rather than shelves or ledges, setting the 
potted plants in the box and filling in around the 
pots with moss or sifted coal-ashes. This prevents 
the soil drying out, keeps the roots cool, and saves 
in the watering. 

Kinds to grow. 

A prime cause of failure in raising house plants 
is a poor choice of the kinds. The practiced grower 
usually has a rather small range, such as experi- 
ence has taught him will thrive under his condi- 
tions. The cluice of the plants, therefore, is of 
the greatest importance. In this age of furnace- 
warmed and gas-lighted houses, the range of plants 
that may be successfully grown in a dwelling- 
house, to a certain extent, is limited ; yet a good 
choice remains if one is willing to give the atten- 
tion that the plants require and will use good judg- 
ment as to temperature and moisture. The so- 
called "foliage plants" — those grown for their 
graceful or colored foliage rather than for their 
flowers — are, perhaps, the easiest to manage. Hav- 
ing no flowers or buds to be injured by water, 
they may be sprayed or washed as often as re- 
quired ; and, needing no change in the temperature 
to develop flowers, they may be grown together 
without difficulty ; and, as many of them can be 

B9 



grown from seed, they may be had cheaply. Choos- 
ing a list of six plants of this character, we could 
start with Draeana indivisa, a graceful, narrow- 
leaved, erect-growing plant with a drooping leaf 
habit. Another good choice would be Grevillea 
robusta, or silk-oak, a rapid-growing plant of erect 
habit and graceful, finely-cut, dark green foliage. 
For a drooping plant, nothing is better than 
Asparagus Sprengeri, a rapid grower and a plant 
that lends itself to almost any treatment, training 
along the windows, held upright, or hanging in a 
natural way. The Boston fern, or some of the 
more graceful types of the same species, are en- 
tirely satisfactory. A small Date palm, Phanix 
rediiiata, and either a Kentia or an Areca palm, 
will finish the list, giving one a range of upright, 
spreading and drooping plants, all requiring prac- 
tically the same general treatment. 

The Dracaena, Grevillea and Asparagus may 
readily be grown from seed, plants from seed sown 
in early summer growing to good size by winter. 
The other three plants may be purchased at rea- 
sonable prices. The common rubber plant (Ficus 
elastiea) should not be omitted from the foliage 
plants. When young and vigorous, it is attractive. 

Among the flowering plants that submit to house 
treatment, the geranium is perhaps the most popu- 
lar, and a well-grown plant in full bloom speaks 
of very careful treatment. The objections to this 
plant are the tendency to grow leggy or spindling, 
having a bare stalk with a few leaves at the top, 
and the habit of turning its leaves toward the light 
and becoming one-sided. Begonias, both the orna- 
mental-leaved and the flowering type, may be grown 
to fine specimen plants if given care. Primroses 
grown from seed sown in May, or purchased in 
November, should bloom profusely through the 
winter. Cyclamen grown from seed sown in Jan- 
uary make fine little plants by the following 
winter. A few 
careful grow- 
ers with excep- 
tional facili- 
ties and the 
knack of mak- 
ing plants 
thrive, succeed 
with a wide 
range of 
plants; but 
one who has 
only a limited 
experience and 
but little time 
to devote to 
plants should 
attempt to 
grow but few, 
if any, of the plants most difficult of culture. 

Window-gardens are never complete without a 
show of spring-flowering bulbs. These take the 
place of plants that have bloomed through the 
winter and have become unsightly, thus allowing 
one to have his windows full and, at the same time, 
to have, a change of blooms. Hyacinths, narcissi 




Fig. 187. Eaveless house, interior view 



130 



PLANTS IN RESIDENCE WINDOWS 



and freesias are perhaps the best to grew. The 
first two, if potted in October or November and set 
away in a cool, dark place to form roots, will be fit 
to put into the windows in six te eight weeks, or 
may be allowed to remain cool until wanted later. 
The freesias may be placed in the window as soon 




Fig. 188. Intenor of one of the great modern glasshouses, 
There are no e.ives. (F. R. Piersnn t'ompany.) 

as potted, but will give better satisfaction if grown 
cool for a month before being set in the window. 
The freesia bulbs may be saved after blooming for 
the next winter. The hyacinth and narcissus bulbs 
do not furnish satisfactory bloom the second year, 
but, if planted out, will grow and bloom for several 
years. 

Window-boxes. 

A very satisfactory type of window-gardening 
is the window-box made to set into the window 
ledge or supported in front of the window. By 
means of such a box, which should be at least six 
inches deep and ten inches wide, a more even con- 
dition of moisture and a more abundant supply of 
plant-food may be had and consequently a larger 
range of plants may be grown. Climbing as well 
as drooping vines, such as parlor or German ivy, 
Asparagus plumosus, Lygodium scandeiis or climb- 
ing fern, or maurandia, all rapid growers, may be 
trained along the windows. The last mentioned 
vine, maurandia, ha.s, added to its attractive leaves, 
a profusion of light blue flowers produced through 
the entire season. Of drooping vines, perhaps the 
best is the Asparagus Sprengeri, followed by 
wandering jew, saxifrage, and Kenilworth ivy. 
Geraniums, begonias, in fact all plants recom- 
mended for house-culture may be grown to advan- 
tage in such a box, and as spring advances the 
seeds of such annuals as sweet alyssum, candytuft, 
lobelia and mignonette may be sown along the 
edge, thus renewing the plants and changing the 
character of the box from a winter to a spring 
collection of plants. It often happens that one or 
more plants in such a window-box fail to make 
a satisfactory growth, in which case their places 



may be filled by pots of bulbs that are ready to be 
brought into flower, or the whole box may be 
changed into a bulb bed with very little trouble. 
One more point in favor of these boxes is the fact 
that, if they contain no climbing vines, or if such 
vines are not attached to the walls, the boxes may 
easily be moved from an expo.sed window 
and protected through severe weather. 

■^ Pests and diseases. 

^! Red-spider and green fly are the two 

==^'^1 pests that are most commonly found on 
house plants. The former is a very minute 
mite, hardly visible to the naked eye, but 
whose presence is easily known by the gray 
appearance of the under side of the leaves, 
and when the spider is abundant by a fine 
cobweb covering both sides of the leaf. 
This insect lives only in a dry atmosjihere 
and if attention is given to spraying and 
washing the foliage, there is very little 
danger of its obtaining a foothold. The 
green fly may be destroyed by fumigation 
with tobacco or by dusting fine tobacco over 
the plants. 

Insects of minor importance are, mealy 
bugs, whose presence is known by a cot- 
tony appearance in the axils of the beans, 
and several species of scale which infest 
palms, ferns, and other plants. For the mealy bug, 
lay the piant on its side and spray forcefully with 
clear water ; or dip the plant in strong soapsuds 
and after a few moments clean it with clear water. 
The scale may be destroyed by spraying the leaves 
with soapsuds, or, in severe cases, with a solution 
of whale-oil soap (one pound to five gallons of 
water). Soon after this treatment the plant must 
be cleansed with clear water. 

House-plants often show a sickly appearance, and 
from some cause or other fail to thrive. If the 
leaves turn yellow and fall, one of two things is 
the cause, — imperfect drainage and consequent 
sour soil, or neglect in watering and consequent 
drying up of the sap in the plant : very rarely can 
the wilted, yellowing leaves be saved. The trouble 
may be rectified and the plant recover. 

Another disease, due to sudden changes in tem- 
perature, is mildew. It is revealed by a whitish or 
grayish appearance of both sides of the leaves, 
causing them to fall. The treatment is to dust 
the plants with flowers of sulphur or spray with 
sulfate of potassium (one-half ounce dissolved in 
two gallons of water). 

Literal lire. 

Some American books are:- Anders, House Plants 
as Sanitary Agents ; Julius J. Heinrich, The Win- 
dow Flower Garden; Eben E. Rexford, Home Flori- 
culture ; E. S. Rand, Jr., Window Gardener ; Daisy 
Eyebright (Mrs. S. 0. Johnson), Every Woman Her 
Own Flower Gardener ; Edwin A. Johnson, Winter 
Greeneries at Home; N. Jonsson Rose, Window and 
Parlor Gardening ; Henry T. Williams, Window 
Gardening ; Lizzie Page Hillhouse, House Plants 
and How to Succeed with Them, 



CHAPTER VII 

SEEDING, PLANTING AND YIELDS 




lELD CROPS ARE PROPAGATED chiefly by means of seeds, rather than by means 
of cuttings or other special parts. Moreover, the seed-propagation is of the 
easiest and simplest kind, adaptable to wholesale methods. There is no necessity 
for the employing of grafting or other very special practices. For these reasons, 
the subject of propagation of plants is usually considered to belong to that phase of 
agriculture known as horticulture. 

A very few of the field crops are propagated by asexual parts or cuttings of them, 
as white potato, sweet-potato, sugar-cane, cassava, chicory. Whenever cutting- 
propagated plants are raised from seeds, the seedlings are likely to vary greatly, so 

greatly, in fact, that seed propagation may be employed with such plants for the purpose of securing 

new varieties. The white or Irish potato is a good 

example ; and as this species seeds relatively freely 

and seedlings are easily grown, the number of varie- 
ties is very large. The sweet-potato and sugar-cane 

seed so rarely, at least in this country, that this 

means of securing new varieties is practically little 

employed, and reliance must be had on variation 

through asexual parts. The reason why seeds give 

such uncertain results in cutting-propagated plants, 

as potatoes, apples, grapes, strawberries, is because 

there has been no seed-selection to make them "come 

true." In the seed-propagated plants, as the cereal 

grains and garden vegetables, selection has been 

practiced so long and so carefully that the tendency to vary has been largely bred out. The tendency 

of seeds to give variable offspring is greatly increased, as a general thing, by crossing, whereby 

different elements or tendencies are combined. 




Fig. 189. Seed storage room. 



Quality in seeds. 

The merits of good agricultural seeds lie in the following characteristics : 

They are " strong," or able to produce vigorous normal plants ; 

They are free of disease ; 

They are of the proper variety or strain ; 

The sample carries no impurities or adulterations. 

Whether seeds are strong depends in part on the vigor or strength of the plants that produced 
them, in part on their age, in part on the way in which they were grown, and in part on the way in 
which they have been handled and kept. Tables of longevity, — that is, of the number of years that 

seeds retain their germinating power, — are of some 
value in determining whether seeds of a given age 
are likely to be good. Such a table, compiled from 
various sources, for some of the field crops is given 
below. Such tables present only averages, however, 
and are likely to be of more use as information than 
as advice. Many conditions influence the longevity 
of a seed. When well ripened and kept in a dry cool 
aerated storehouse, the viability may be retained 
longer for some seeds than the figures indicate. The 




y» 



Fig. 190. Poor and good cabinets. In the chest on the 
left, rats .-ind luiee pas'^ i*eadily from one drawer to the 
other. In the one on the right, this is impossible be- 
cause of solid partition between drawers. (Cornell 
Keading- Course Bulletin,) 



(131) 



132 



SEEDING, PLANTING AND YIELDS 



tables usually represent extreme average longevity. The vigor of the seed — as expressed in crop-pro. 
ducing power — may decline long before it ceases to retain life. Fresh seed is therefore safest ; although 
certain seeds of the melon family are said to produce better crops when a year old. 



Longevity of Certain Seeds. 
The asterisk (*) denotes that the seeds had not all lost their germinating power at the termination of the number 



of years recorded. 



Average 
years 

Barley 3 

Bean 3 

Beets 6 

Buckwheat 2 

Cabbage 5 

Carrot, with the spines . . . 4 or 5 
Carrot, without the spines . 4 or 5 

Chicory 8 

Chick-pea 3 

Clover 3 

Flax 2 

Hop 2 

Lentil 4 

Maize 2 

Millet 2 



Extreme 
years 

8 
10 

10 
10* 
10* 
10* 
8 



Mustard . . . 

Oats . . . . 
Orchard-grass 

Parsnip . . . 

Peanut . . . 

Peas . . . . 

Pumpkin . . . 

Rape . . . . 

Rye . . . . 

Soybean . . . 

Squash . . . 

Timothy . . . 

Turnip . . . 

Wheat . . . 



Average 


Extreme 


years 


years 


3 


10 


3 




2 




2 


4 


1 


1 


3 


8 


5 


9 


5 




2 




2 


6 


6 


10* 


2 




5 


10* 


2 


7* 



Haberlandt's Figures of Longevity (Quoted in Johnson's "How Crops Grow"). 

Percentage of seeds that germinated in 1861 from the years 

1830 1851 1854 1855 1857 1858 1859 1860 

Barley 24 48 33 92 89 

Maize not tried 76 56 not tried 77 100 97 

Oats 60 56 48 72 32 80 96 

Rye 48 100 

Wheat 8 4 73 60 84 96 

Experience and experiment have determined certain seed standards. The following standards of 
purity and germination in seeds are recommended by the Department of Agriculture : " The term 
purity, the percentage of which is reckoned by weight, denotes freedom from foreign matter, such as 
chaff, dirt, or seeds of other plants, but it has no reference to the genuineness of the variety, which is 

called by seedsmen purity of stock. The percentage of germination is 
reckoned by count from a sample freed from foreign matter, a seed 
•^-o^ being considered as having germinated when the rootlet, or radicle, 

has pushed through the seed-coat. It is not to be understood from 
these standards that the real value of a quantity of seed is dependent 
wholly upon the number of pure germinable seeds it contains. The 
ancestry of the seed and its trueness to type are factors of pri- 
mary importance in determining seed value, especially in the case of 
vegetables. These points, however, are very difficult, if not impossi- 
ble, to determine at the time of purchase, while the purity and germi- 
nation are easily ascertained and are very essential points. The 
germination standards are based upon tests conducted between moist 
blotters in a germinating chamber. Such tests usually give a little 
higher result than those made in soil. For the best results in blotter 
tests of lettuce and beets the seed should first be soaked in water for 
from four to six hours." 

The following table showing percentages of the purity and the 
germination of leading agricultural seeds of high grade is prepared 
Fig. 191. MiUet's seed-sower. f^j. ^jjjg ijoo]^ jjy j_ ^_ t_ Duvel, of the Seed Laboratory of the United 
States Department of Agriculture. These figures represent what may be considered a high average for 
such seeds, but not the maximum, even of commercial seeds. While the figures are only tentative and 
subject to change, it should be stated that they are the result of all the information available at the 
present time, including nearly fifty thousand germination tests conducted in the seed laboratory of the 
Department of Agriculture. 




SEEDING, PLANTING AND YIELDS 



133 



Percentage of Purity and op Germination op High-Grade Seed. 



Seed 

Alfalfa 

Asparagus .... 

Barley 

Beans 

Beet, garden . . . 
Beggarweed .... 
Bermuda-grass . . . 
Blue-grass, Canada . 
Blue-grass, Kentucky 
Brome, awnless . . 
Buckwheat .... 

Cabbage 

Caraway 

Carrot 

Cauliflower .... 

Celery .• 

Clover, alsike . . . 
Clover, crimson . . 
Clover, red .... 
Clover, sweet . . . 
Clover, white . . . 

Collard 

Corn, field .... 
Com, sweet .... 

Cotton 

Cowpea 

Cress 

Cucumber .... 

Eggplant 

Endive 

Fescue, meadow . . 
Fescue, sheep's . . 

Flax 

Hemp 

Kafir 

Kale 

Lettuce 

Melon, musk . . . 
Melon, water . . . 



Purity 
Per cent 
99 
99 
99 
99 
99 
99 
98 
95 
95 
90 
99 
99 
98 
98 
99 
98 
98 
98 
98 
98 
96 
99 
99 
99 
99 
99 
99 
99 
99 
99 
98 
96 
99 
99 
99 
99 
99 
99 
99 



Germination 
Per cent 
95 
85 
98 
98 
*150 
90 
90 
85 
85 
90 
96 
95 
90 
85 
85 
85 
95 
97 
95 
90 
90 
95 
99 
94 
90 
95 
90 
96 
90 
85 
90 
85 
95 
90 
97 
95 
98 
96 
96 



Seed 
Millet, common . 
Millet, hog . . . 
Millet, pearl . . , 
Mustard .... 

Oats 

Okra 

Onion 

Orchard-grass . . 

Parsley 

Parsnip .... 

Peas 

Pumpkin .... 

Radish 

Rape 

Red-top .... 

Rice 

Rye 

Rye-grass, Italian 
Rye-grass, English 

Salsify 

Sainfoin .... 



Sorghum 

Soybean 

Spinach 

Spurry 

Squash 

Sugar-beet (large balls) 
Sugar-beet (small balls) 
Sunflower 



Sweet-pea 

Teosinte 

Timothy 

Tomato 

Tobacco 

Turnip 

Velvet bean .... 
Velvet grass (hulled) 

Vetch 

Wheat 



Purity 


Germination 


Per cent 


Per cent 


99 


90 


99 


90 


99 


90 


99 


95 


99 


96 


99 


80 


99 


96 


95 


90 


99 


80 


98 


85 


99 


98 


99 


96 


99 


97 


99 


96 


96 


90 


99 


95 


99 


96 


98 


90 


98 


90 


98 


85 


99 


95 


98 


95 


99 


95 


99 


90 


99 


90 


99 


96 


99 


•175 


99 


♦150 


99 


90 


99 


90 


99 


90 


99 


96 


99 


94 


99 


90 


99 


98 


99 


90 


97 


85 


99 


93 


99 


98 



*Each beet fruit, or "ball," is likely to contain two to seven seeds. The numbers given in the table represent 
the number of sprouts from one hundred balls. 

The seed-bed. 

The character of the seed-bed, or the ground in which the seed is planted, has very much to do with 
the success of the crop. A vigorous start is a long step toward a good crop. Such a start contributes 

to early continuous growth, the plant has "constitution" to with- 
stand adverse conditions, it may be able to overcome insects or 
plant diseases or to recover from the attacks of them. The fit 
preparation of land has for its object the making of a good seed- 
bed, the increasing of the pasturage for roots, the physical and 
chemical ameli- 
oration of the 
soil. If the seed 
germinates 
freely, it must 
be in close con- 
Fig. 192. Hand broadcast seeder. tact with a 

firmly settled soil. This means that the soil must be 
finely broken and evenly surfaced. Many implements 
are now manufactured to aid in putting the finish on 
the seed-bed, as smoothing harrows and special forms 
of cultivators. After the crop is well up, the seed-bed 





Fig. 194. 



horse broadcast seeder. 



134 



SEEDING, PLANTING AND YIELDS 




Fie. 202. A flve-hoe grain-drUl. 



Fl£. 203. A five-disk gtain-drOI. 



SEEDING, PLANTING AND YIELDS 



135 



is broken up by subsequent tillage ; or if the crop is not tilled, as the cereal grains, the seed-bed 

disappears by the action of the elements and the natural settling together of the soil. The seed-bed is 

therefore only an epoch in the care of the field. 

The comminuting tillage tools leave the ground loose and more or less open. In this loose earth the 

seed is readily incorporated. But the earth may be 

too loose to promote the best germination. In such 

cases the roller is used to compact the earth. The 

soil-grains are then settled about the seeds, and the 

subsurface moisture passes up from grain to grain or 

through the small cavities, and supplies the seed. 

This moisture is on its way toward evaporation into 

the air ; therefore it is well to break up the com- 
pact surface by tillage, as soon as the plants are well 

established, in order to prevent the further loss of 

moisture, particularly if it is the case of a spring-sown 

crop. The com- 
mon practice of ^8. 204. Combined disk-drill and force-feed seeder, 
tramping on the row in making garden hereby finds explanation; 
and it is probable that the custom of spatting the hill with the 
hoe in the steadfast old days when we planted corn by hand, had 
other merit than merely to mark the spot where we had dropped 
five kernels from a bed-ticking bag. 



The quantity to sow. 





The reader will want to know how much seed of the various 
things is required for an acre. This information was once easy 
to give, when fields were small and every one followed the cus- 
tom of his father or his neighbor. But now we plant in hills at 
all distances, or drills at all distances, or semi-broadcast at no 
distances, and we grow crops for more purposes than were ever 
dreamed of in the old philosophy. The tables, therefore, represent 
either averages or extremes, and the person who is looking for 
precise direction is likely not to find it, and he is told that it all 
depends on conditions, and as likely as not he does not know what the conditions are. However, a table 
has been compiled from good sources, and the reader is referred, for further information, to the articles 
on the special crops comprising the major part of this book ; from these sources the reader should 
be able to derive some help. 



Fig. 205. A six-foot seeder, with grass 
seed attachment. 



Alfalfa (broadcast) 

Alfalfa (drilled) 

Artichoke, Jerusalem 

Barley 

Barley and peas 

Bean, field (small varieties) . . 
Bean, field (large varieties) . . 

Beet 

Beggarweed (for forage) . . . 

Beggarweed (for hay) 

Bent-grass 

Berseem 

Blue-grass 

Brome-grass (alone, for hay) . . 
Brome-grass (alone, for pasture) . 
Brome-grass (in mixture) . . . 

Broom-corn 

Broom-corn (for seed) 

Buckwheat 

Bur-clover 

Cabbage 



Quantity op Seed Per Acre. 

20-25 lbs. Carrots (for stock) 4-6 lbs. 

15-20 lbs. Cassava By cuttings 

6-8 bus. Chick-pea 30-50 lbs. 

8-10 pks. Chicory (and by cuttings) . . . 1-1 J lbs. 

1-2 bus. each Clover, alsike (alone, for forage). 8-15 lbs. 

2-3 pks. Clover, alsike (on wheat or rye 

5-6 pks. in spring) 4-6 lbs. 

4-6 lbs. Clover, Egyptian or berseem . . J-1 bu. 

.5-6 lbs. Clover, Japan (lespedeza) ... 12 lbs. 

8-10 lbs. Clover, Mammoth 12-15 lbs. 

1-2 bus. Clover, red (alone, for forage) . 16 lbs. 

J-l bus. Clover, red (on small grain in 

25 lbs. (pure) spring) 8-14 lbs. 

12-15 lbs. Clover, sweet (melilotus) .... 2 pks. 

15-20 lbs. Clover, white 10-12 lbs. 

2-5 lbs. Clover, yellow (for seed) .... 3-5 lbs. 

3 pks. Clover, yellow (in mixture) ... 1 lb. \ 

1 pk. Corn 6 qts.-l bus. 

3-5 pks. Corn (for silage) ...;... 9-11 qts. 

12 lbs. Cotton 1-3 bus. 

l-l lb. Cowpea 1-li bus. 



136 



SEEDING, PLANTING AND YIELDS 



Quantity op Seed Per Acre, continued 



Cowpea (in drill, with corn) . . 

Cowpea (for seed) 

Crimson clover 

Durra. See Kafir and Milo. 
Field-pea, (small varieties) . . . 
Field-pea, (large varieties) . . . 

Flax (for seed) 

Flax (for fiber) 

Guinea-grass 

Hemp (broadcast) 

Hungarian grass (hay) 

Hungarian grass (seed) .... 

Johnson-grass 

Kafir (drills) 

Kafir (for fodder) 

Kale 

Kohlrabi 

Lespedeza 

Lupine 

Mangels 

Meadow fescue 

Millet, barnyard (drills) .... 

Millet, foxtail (drills) 

Millet, German (seed) 

Millet, Aino (drills) 

Millet, Pearl (for soiling) . . . 

Millet, Pearl (for hay) 

Millet, Proso or Panicle (drills) . 

Milo 

Oat-grass, tall 

Oats 

Oats and peas >• 

Orchard-grass 

Para-grass 

Parsnips 

Popcorn 

Potato (Irish) average 

Potato, cut to 1 or 2 eyes . . . 
Potato, recommended by many 

for best yields 

Pumpkin 

Rape (in drills) 

Rape (broadcast) 

Red-top (recleaned) 



i-lbu. 
3pks. 
12-15 lbs. 

2Jbu3. 

3-3i bus. 

2-3 pks. 

li-2 bus. 

Root cuttings 

3J-4 pks. 

2 pks. 
1 pk. 

1-1 J bus. 

3-G lbs. 
10-12 lbs. 

2-4 lbs. 

4-5 lbs. 

12 lbs. 
li-2 bus. 

5-8 lbs. 
12-15 lbs. 

1-2 pks. 

2-3 pks. 
1 pk. 

2-3 pks. 

4 lbs. 
8-10 lbs. 
2-3 pks. 

5 lbs. 
30 lbs. 

2-3 bus. 

oats 2 bus. 

peas J bu. 

12-15 lbs. (pure) 

Cuttings 

4-8 lbs. 

3 lbs. 
10-14 bus. 

6-9 bus. 

15-20 bus. 

4 lbs. 
2-4 lbs. 
4-8 lbs. 

12-15 lbs. 



Rescue grass 

Rice 

Rutabaga 

Rye (early) 

Rye (late) 

Rye (forage) 

Rye-grass 

Sainfoin .... (shelled seed) 
Sand lucern (broadcast) . . . 
Serradella (alone, in drills) . . . 

Sheep's fescue 

Sorghum (forage, broadcast) . . 
Sorghum (for seed or syrup) . . 
Sorghum, saccharine (for silage 

or soiling, drills) 

Sorghum and peas 

Soybean (drills) 

Soybean (broadcast) 

Spurry 

Spurry (for seed) 

Sugar-beets 

Sugar-cane 

Sunflower 

Sweet clover 

Sweet-potato 

Teasel 

Teosinte 

Timothy 

Timothy and clover ■] 



Tobacco 



Turnip (broadcast) 
Turnip (drills) . . 
Turnip (hybrid) . 
Velvet bean . . . 



Vetch, hairy (drilled) . . 

Vetch, hairy (broadcast) . 

Vetch, kidney 

Vetch, spring 

Wheat 



30-40 lbs. 

1-3 bus. 

3-5 lbs. 

3-4 pks. 

6-8 pks. 

3-4 bus. 

2-3 bus. 

40 lbs. 

15 lbs. 

40-50 lbs. 

2i-3 bus. 

lJ-2 bus. 

2-5 lbs. 

6 lbs.-| bu. 

3-4 pks. each 
2-3 pks. 
1-1 J bus. 
6-8 qts. 
4 qts. 
15-20 lbs. 
4 tons of cane 
10-15 lbs. 
2-4 pks. 
li-4 bus. 
1-1 J pks. 
1-3 lbs. 
15-25 lbs. 
timothy 10 lbs. 
clover 4 lbs. 
1 tablespoonful to 
100 sq. yds. to set 
out 6 acres. 
2-4 lbs. 
1 lb. 
3-5 lbs. 
1-4 pks. 
1 bu. + 1 bu. 
small grain 
IJ bus. + 1 bu. 
small grain 
18-22 lbs. 
i pks. -f 1 bu. 
small grain . 
6-9 pks. 



Permanent meadows: 

Timothy 12 lbs. 

Red clover .... 4 lbs. 

Alsike 2 lbs. 

Timothy 16 lbs. 

Red-top 16 lbs. 

Red clover .... 4 lbs. 

Red-top 13 lbs. 



Orchard-grass . . . 


18 lbs. 


Meadow fescue . . 


9 lbs. 


Red clover .... 


4 lbs. 


Tall oat-grass . . . 


28 lbs. 


Red clover .... 


8 lbs. 


Timothy 


8 lbs. 


Red clover .... 


4 lbs. 


Alsike 


2 lbs. 


Kentucky blue-grass. 


2 lbs. 


Red-top 


2 lbs. 


Orchard-grass . . . 


10 lbs. 


Red-top (recleaned) . 


5 lbs. 


Red-top (in chaff) . . 


12 lbs. 


Tall meadow oat-grass 


12 lbs. 


Red clover .... 


8 lbs. 


Alsike clover . . . 


4 lbs. 



20-24 lbs. per acre. 



Permanent pastures: 

Timothy 3 lbs. ^ 

Orchard-grass . . 2 lbs. 

Red-top 2 lbs. 

Kentucky blue-grass 2 lbs. 

Italian rye-grass . 1 lb. 

Meadow fescue . . 2 lbs. 

Red clover .... 4 lbs. 

White clover ... 2 lbs. 

Kentucky blue-grass 8 lbs. 

White clover ... 4 lbs. 

Perennial rye-grass. 9 lbs. 

Red fescue .... 3 lbs. 

Red-top 8 lbs. 

Red-top 14 lbs. 

Alsike 8 lbs. 

Creeping bent ... 6 lbs. j 

Perennial rye-grass. 12 lbs. J 

Red fescue .... 20 lbs. "j 

Red-top 10 lbs. |_ 

Kentucky blue-grass 8 lbs. j 

White clover ... 2 lbs. j 
Timothy, red-top, Kentucky blue-grass and red clover, 
equal parts, 8 to 20 pounds per acre of the mixture. 



- Wet pasture. 



Light sandy soil. 



SEEDING, PLANTING AND YIELDS 



137 




Storing of seeds. 

The first requisite to the keeping of seeds is to have them well grown, from strong and healthy 
parents. The second requisite is to have them well cured, or free from mold and damp. Usually it is 
best to thresh before storing, for there is less danger from damp and 
from vermin, and the seeds occupy less space. The room should be dry 
and devoid of great extremes in temperature. Very low temperature 
is less inimical than very high temperature. Moist seeds are less able 
to withstand extremes of temperature than dry seeds. Ordinary winter 
temperatures in a secure loft are harmless. In large quantities seeds are 
usually best stored in bags. (Fig. 189.) In all cases, 
it is well to keep the bags or bo.xes tied or shut, to 
avoid currents of air and thereby avoid either too 
much dampness or too great drying, and to exclude 
vermin. Most nests of drawers allow runways for 
mice. Fig. 190 illustrates poor and good construction. 
Peas and beans and maize are specially liable to in- 
jury by weevils when in storage. Bisulfid of carbon 
may be poured into the receptacle on the seeds. It ^^- ^°^- ■* <=<'"i-Pi»''ter. 

quickly volatilizes and destroys all animal life if the receptacle is immediately closed tight. A tea- 
spoonful is sufficient for eight or ten quarts of seed in a very tight box or drawer. Carbon bisulfid is 
very inflammable and care should be exercised to avoid the danger of an explosion. It should never 
be handled freely in rooms containing fires of any kind. It is a thin liquid, volatilizing at low 
temperatures ; therefore the receptacles containing it should be tightly sealed. Hydrocyanic acid gas 
(made by pouring sulfuric acid on pieces of cyanide of potassium) may be used to destroy insects when 

they infest whole rooms or buildings. This gas is 
e.xceedingly poisonous, however, and it should be used 
only by those who have had experience. (See page 45.) 

Planting calendar. 

In the great expanse of North America, it is impos- 
sible to give in any brief space a very useful list 
of dates for the planting of the various field crops. 
The subject is one that demands careful and pro- 
longed study, however. It needs to be approached 
from the point of view of phenology, and to be related 
to farm-practice questions. (See discussion of Phenol- 
ogy on pages 532 and 533, Volume I.) To be of much 
service, such records should be averages of several 
years. The farmer, long accustomed to a locality, depends less on the calendar than on the general 
state of the weather and the " signs " of the season. It is an old custom to plant corn when the oak 
leaves are the size of a squirrel's ear. In order to systematize their business and to establish a fixed 
point to which men may work, some large planters set a formal date on which they plant certain crops 
year after year. The season, however, properly determines the date of planting. The forwardness of grass 
and trees, the condition of the soil, the type of crop succession, all indicate season of planting. As a 
suggestion to the uninstructed planter, the average or usual dates of planting have been secured from 
careful persons in several parts of the country, and these dates are given on the following pages for what 
they may be worth to the reader. These records will 
be suggestive to the beginner, to whom any fixed 
points or standards, of whatever kind, are valuable in 
enabling him to plan his work. As he becomes expe- 
rienced, the fixed and formal epochs will have less 
significance to him. In a restricted region, it is pos- 
sible to give advice by months. Once books called 
"calendars" were popular, particularly with gar- 
deners; but these are inapplicable to continental 
areas. 

Fig. 208. A sulky lister, for planting com. 




Fig. 207. Riding cotton- and corn-planter. 




138 



SEEDING, PLANTING AND YIELDS 



USUAL PLANTING DATES 



Alfalfa . . 

Artichoke . 

Asparagus . 

Barley . . . 
Beans ... 
Broom-corn . 

Buckwheat . 

Cabbage . . 

Carrot . . . 

Clover . . . 

Cotton . . . 

Cowpea . . 

Field-pea . . 

Flaxt . . . 

Kafir corn . 

Kohlrabi . . 

Lespedeza . 

Lupine . . 

Maize . . . 

Mangels . . 

Melilotus . . 

Millet . . . 

Oats . . . 

Parsnip . . 

Peanut. . . 

Potato . . . 

Pumpkin . . 

Rape . . . 

Rice . . . 

Rutabaga . 

Rye ... . 

Sainfoin . . 

Sorghum . . 

Soybean . . 

Squash . . 

Sugar-beet . 

Sugar-cane . 
Sweet-potato 

Timothy . . 

Tobacco . . 



Turnip . 

Vetch . 
Wheat . 



Maritime 
Provinces 



May 10- July 



May 
June 1-15 



June 
May 1-15 

May 



May 
May 



May 20-June 1 
May 1-20 



June 

May 
May 



May 15-June 1 
June 1 
June 



May 



May 10-June 1 
May 15 



May 



May 15- Ju. 30 

May 
May 



*Quebec 



May 
May 
May 

May, June 
May 15-30 
May 15-30 
May-July 
Hotbed April 

May 
May 



May 
May 



Hotbed April 



May 

May, June 

May 

May 

May-July 

May, June 

May 



May 

May 15-30 

May-July 



May, June 
May or Sept. 



May 15-30 
May 



May 

May 

Hotbed Apr., 
plant June 1 

May-July 

May, June 
May 



Kew England 



May-July 

April 

April, May 

May 

May 15-25 

June 1-20 

Mar.- June 15 

May 

Mr. 15-Sept. 1 



May 15-June 1 
Mar. 15-May 



April 



April-May 12 

May 10- Ju. 10 

Apr. 15-My. 20 

July 

May 10-Ju. 20 

April 

April, May 



Apr. 15-My. 10 
May 5-31 
April 



June 5-30 
Apr., My., Sept. 



May 10-30 

May 

May 15-Ju. 15 



Apr. 1.5-My. 15, 
Aug.-Oct. 

May 20- Ju. 15 

April, May, 
July, August 

July 

April 



Central 
New York 



May-Aug 15 
May, June 

April, May 15 
May 15-Ju. 25 

June 15-July 5 
May 

May 
March-Aug. 



May 15-Ju. 25 
April-June 



May 
May 



May 

May 

May 

March-Sept. 

May 15- Jy. 10 

April 

May 



March-July 5 

May 

May-July 



May, June 
August-Oct. 



May 15-Ju. 25 
May, June 
May, June 
May 



March-Sept. 

Seed-bed Mar., 
Apr., June 1 

May-July 

May-August 
April-Sept. 



Georgia and 
Alabama 



Feb. 20-Mar., 

Oct. 
March 
Feb., Mr., Nov. 

20-Dec. 10 
Sept. 20-Oct. 

April-June 

April, May 

March 15-30 

Jan.-Maroh } 

Mar. 20-April 
Mar., Sr., Oct. 
Mr. 20-May 15 
May-Aug. 1 
Feb., April 



April-June 

March 

March 1-15 

March 

March-July 1 

Mar., Aug. 1 

Feb., March 

April-July 
Feb., March, 
Sept.-Nov. 
Mr.25-Apr.25 

May, June 
Feb. 15-Mar., 

July 1-10 
May 

March, Oct. 

March-May 

July 

Mr., Sr.-Nov. 

Sept., Oct. 

Mar. 15-June 

April 10-June 

April 5-30 

Mar. 21-Apr. 5 
May 1-July| 
March-Oct. 

May 

Feb.-Apr. 25, 
July 1-10 

Feb. 25 -Mr. 10, 
Sept., Oct. 

Oct., Nov. 



Indiana 

(Lafayette) 



April-August 


April 15 


April 1 


May 20 


May 20 


June 1 


Apr. 10-June 1 



April 15 
Peb.-April 

May 15-25 
April 1 



May 20 
April 15 



May 1-20 
May 1-20 

June 1 

Mr. 15-Apr. 10 

April 25-30 

April-June 
May 15 
May-July 

April 20-25 
Sept. 20-Oct. 10 

May 20-31 
May 15-25 
May 1-10 
May 1-20 

May 10-15 
Sept., Oct. 



May-August 

April 1 

Sept. 20-Oct. 10 



Mr.=March ; My.=May ; Ju.=June; Jy.=:July ; Sr.^September. 
•District of Quebec; District of Montreal about twelve days earlier. 



t For others, see article on flax. 
J Transplanting. 



SEEDING, PLANTING AND YIELDS 
USUAL PLANTING DATES, continued 



139 



Wisconsin 


Manitoba 


Missouri 
(Columbia) 


Oklahoma 


New Mexico 


Colorado 


t Montana 


April 10-July 1 
May, June 


May 15- June 1 
May 18 
Shoots May 6 
May 10-25 
June 11 


Apr. 15 My. 15, 
Aug.l5-Sr.l5 
April 1-30 

Mr. 20-May 1 

Mr.20-Apr.l0 
April 15-mid- 
summer 
May 10-25 

Not grown 

Mr. 15-Jly. 15 

Mr.20-Apr.l5 
Feb. 1-Apr. 1 
June 1-10 
June 1-July 10 
Mar. 1-Apr. 1 


Mr. 15-May 15 
Aug. 15-Oct. 1 


March, April, 
Aug. 15-Oct. 1 


Mar. 15-Apr. 20 
April 
April 

March 15-30 
May 15-June 1 
May 15 
June 15-July 
April 15 

April 1-15 
Mar. 15- Apr. 20 


Apr. 15-My. 10 






May 15 


April 10-25 
May 10-30 


Feb. 15-Mr. 15 




May 5 
May 20 


Apr. 1-May 15 


April, May 


April 10 


June 20- July 10 
Tr. May 15-30 

April 25-May 15 
April 15-May 10 


May 1 
April 25 

May 7-16 
May 15-June 1 




Apr. l-June 1 




May 20 
May 1 






May 10 


Apr. 15-My. 15 
May 15- Jy. 15 
March 1 




May 20-31 
April 20-30 


June 11 
May 4-8 
May 16-Ju. 15 


Spring & sum. 
March-June 


June 15 
April 1 


May 1 
April 10 




May 1-25 
Mar. 1-Apr. 30 


April 1-July 1 


March-June 


May 15 
April 15 


April 10 




























Mar. 15-April 




May 15-30 
May 1-15 
April 15-30 
May 20-July 
April 10-30 


May 21-June 1 
May 16 

May 1-8 
May 10-20 
April 10 


May 1-25 
May 5 
April, May 
June, July 
March 15-31 
Mar. 1-Apr. 1 
Apr. 15-May 1 
Mr. 15-Apr.30 
May 1-June 1 
March-May 


Mr. 15-Ju. 15 
April 1-May 1 


April, May 
May, June 


May 15 
April 15 


May 12 
Mayl 


Mar. 1-June 1 
Feb. 15-Mr. 15 


June, July 
Feb.-July 


Mar. 15-Apr. 15 
April 1-10 


May 15 
May 10 
May 10 




Apr. 15-Ju. 15 
Feb. 15-Mr. 15, 
June 15- Jy. 15 
April 1-May 1 

Feb. 15-Apr. 1 




May 1-June 30 
May 10-30 
May 1-August 1 


May 18 
June? 
Apr. 20- Jy. 1* 


April-May t 


May20-Ju. 10 

May 25 
April, May 


May 25 
May 20 
Up to July 10 


May 1-30 
Aug. 25-Sept. 10 
May 10-20 
May 15-30 
May 10-30 
May 20-June 10 
May 1-30 


May, Jun,e 
Apr. 10-My. 10 


May 25 
Sept., October 


April 1-May 1 
Aug.l5-Nov.l5 


Jan.-July, 
Sept., Oct. 


March-June 
Mar. 15., Apr. 1, 
Sept. 15 


May 5 

Apr. 1-May 10 


May 21-Ju. 1 
June 11 
June 7 
May 16 


May 1-25 
Junel-July 10 
May 1-June 1 
May 5 
May 1-25 
My. 15- Ju. 15 
April, Sept. 

May 1-25 

March-August 

April, August 
Sr. 15-Oct. 30 


Mar. 1-Aug. 1 
May 15-Jy. 15 
Apr. 1-May 15 


March-June 


May 20 


May 10 




May 20 

Mr. 15-_Apr.l5 

May 20 


May 20 
Mayl 












April 1-May 1 








May 15-June 1 

May 16-21 

May 15-June 1 
Apr. 10-My. 10 




Mr. 15-Apr. 15 


May 10 


May 1-20 
April 20-30 








Jy.l5-Aug.31 




March-June 

September 
Mr. 15-Apr.l5 


May 5 




Sr.l0-Nov.30 


Jan.-April 15, 
Sept. 1-Oct. 15 


Mayl 



*If there is enough moisture. 
J For irrigated crops ; for non- 



t Grown only at high elevations, 
irrigated crops, as soon after March 25 as conditions allow. 



140 



SEEDING, PLANTING AND YIELDS 



USUAL PLANTING DATES, continued 



Alfalfa . . 

Artichoke . 

Asparagus . 

Barley . . . 

Beans . . . 

Broom-corn . 

Buckwheat . 

Cabbage . . 

Carrot . . . 

Clover . . . 

Cotton . . . 

Cowpea . . 

Field-pea . . 

Flax**. . . 



Kafir corn . 

Kohlrabi . . 

Lespedeza . 

Lupine . . . 

Maize . . . 

Mangels . . 

Melilotus . . 

Millet . . . 

Oats. . . . 

Parsnip . . 

Peanut . . 

Potato . . . 

Pumpkin . . 

Rape . . . 

Rice . . . 

Rutabaga . 

Rye ... . 

Sainfoin . . 

Sorghum . . 

Soybean . . 

Squash . . . 

Sugar-beet . 

Sugar-cane . 
Sweet-potato 

Timothy . . 

Tobacco . . 

Turnip . . . 



* Arizona 
(Phoenix) 



Jan., Feb., Sr. 
20-Nov. 10 



Jan.-March, 
Oct., Nov. 
Sept.-March 1 
Mar.-Apr. 15, 
Aug. 15-Sr. 15 



Tr. Jan., Feb., 

Sr. 15, Oct. 20 
Jan., Feb., 
Aug.20-0ct.l5 



April 

April-August 
Jan., Feb., 
Aug.20-Nov.20 



April-June 



Feb. 20-Mr. 15, 
Jy. 10-Aug. 5 



August 
October-Dec. 



Jan. 15-Feb. 15, 
Aug. 20-Sr. 10 
March-June 



Nevada 



March-August 



April .... 
May 20 

Apr.20-My.20 
May 1-10 
May 15 

May 15 
March, April 



April, May 
May 1-20 (not 

grown) 
Apr. 20-My. 10 

(not grown) 
May 15 



Apr. 20-My. 20 
Apr.l5-My.l5 



Early April 
Early April 
May 15 



Apr. 15-My.l5 

May 10 
Early April 
(not grown) 



California 



October-Feb. 
Dec-March 
Dec, January 
Dec-March 
April, May 
April, May 
May 
Sept.-April 

Sept.-April 
April, May, 
Oct.-Feb. 
April, May f 

April, May 

Sept.-May 

Dec-April 

April-June 
Dec-April 



October-Feb. 
April, May 
October-June 



April, May 
Dec-April 
April, May 
April, May 
Sept.-May 
April, May 



Oregon 



March-May 15 

March-May 15 

March-May 15 
Mar.-May 15, 

Oct.-Dec 
March-May 15 

May 15-June 1 

March-May 15 

Mar.-May 15, 

Oct.-Dec 

March-May 15 

Mar.-May 15, 

Oct.-Dec. 



March-May 15 
March-May 15 

March-May 15 
March-May 15 



March-May 15 

March-May 15 

March-May 15 

March-May 15 

May 15-June 1 
March-May 15, 

Oct.-Dec. 
March-May 15 



March-May 15 
May 15-June 1 
March-August 



Washington 



Apr. 20-My. 15 

April 1-May 1 

Mr. 10-May 15 

April 20 

Apr. 25-My. 25 

May 10-20 

May 10-20 
Mar. 15-Apr. 1 
(under glass) 

Apr. 15-My. 15 

Mr., Apr., Sept. 



Mr. 15-May 15 
May 1-15 

May 1 

May 15-Apr. 1 
(under glass) 



Apr. 15-May 1 
May 1-15 
April 1-June 1 
March-May 



April 10 
April 1-May 1 



April 1-May 1 
May 1-15 
April 1-June 1 



Alaska 



May 1-15 

May 10 

May 1 
April 1 



April 15 
May 1 

Tr. June 1 



April 15 



Apr. 20-My. 15 
April 15 



May 1 



May 1 



Vetch . 
Wheat , 



May 1-10 
Feb.-April, 
Sept.-Nov. 



Sept.-April 
Dec-Feb. 



May, June 



Apr. 20-My. 10 



Mr., Ju., Aug. 
Jan. 15-Feb. 28, 
Sr.20-0ct.l0 



May 20 

Apr. 20-My. 10 



April-June 
Feb.-April 
April, May 
January-May 



March-May 15 
March-May 15, 

Oct.-Dec. 
March-May 15 

March-May 15 

May 15-June 1 

May 15-June 1 

March-May 15 



May 1-June 1 
Mr., Apr., Sept. 



Apr. 15-My. 15 
Winter, July 
Spring, May 1 



March-May 



Jan., Feb., 
Aug.-Oct. 



March, April 
May 15 



Early April 



May 

April, May X 

Sept.-May 

Sept.-May 

Sept.-Feb. 

Dec-March 



October-Dec. 

March-May 15 
March-May 15, 

Oct.-Dec. 
March-May 15, 

Oct.-Dec. 
March-May 15, 

Oct.-Dec 



May 1-15 

April 1 

May 1-20 

May 1 

May 1-15 

May 1-15 

Mr., Apr., Sept. 
March 20 

(under glass) 
April-June 

April-Sept. 

Feb.-April, 
Aug., Sept. 



April-July 31 



Winter, July 
Spring, May 1 



* From Bull. No. 48, Part III, Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station. 
fNo commercial product. 



**See article on flax. 

J Grown only in extreme northern part. 



PRACTICAL ADVICE ON SEED-TESTING 



141 



Seed machinery. 

Seed-sowing is one epoch in crop practice. Whatever modifies the crop management of a farm also 
modifies the methods or purposes of seeding. In Chapter V it was shown that crop management has 
been profoundly influenced by the invention of machinery. Some of this invention, also, has been modi- 
fied and directed by changes in crop management. The same remarks may be made with special force 
in reference to the seed-sowing phase of the work. In seeding and harvesting machinery we have 
made great progress. Figs. 191-208, and also Figs. 117-119 and 122, 123, illustrate some of the 
progress in seeding machinery, and at the same time exhibit most of the mechanical principles that 
have been applied for putting seeds into the ground. The number of different patterns and styles 
of machines is very great. Every largely grown crop has its own range of planters or seeders. 



PRACTICAL ADVICE ON SEED-TESTING 

By E. Brown and F. H. Hillman 

The quality of agricultural seeds, especially of 
forage crops, has been given much more attention 
in Europe than in America. European countries 
have seed control in various forms, with over one 
hundred seed-control stations, some of them with 
an international reputation. We have developed a 
system by means of which commercial fertilizers 
are sold under guaranteed analyses, and a large 
part of the work of some of our state agricultural 
experiment stations is given to making these 
chemical analyses ; but comparatively little atten- 
tion has been given to the quality of seeds. No 
seeds sold in this country are guaranteed as to 
purity and germination, and but few e.xperiment 
stations have facilities for seed - testing. The 
United States Department of Agriculture and some 
of the agricultural experiment stations, however, 
have done much to show the importance of good 
seeds. Publications have been issued calling atten- 
tion to the quality of various kinds of seeds on the 
market, and samples have been tested for the infor- 
mation of the senders. 

Large quantities of low-grade screenings, espe- 
cially of clover and alfalfa, are imported annually 
to be mixed with better seeds and sold as medium 
and low grades. Besides dirt and dead seed, these 
screenings contain large quantities of weed seeds. 
Beal has shown (Bot. Gaz., August, 1905, "The 
Vitality of Seeds") that the seeds of many com- 
mon weeds grow after having been buried in the 
ground for twenty-five years. Among these are 
pigweed, black mustard, shepherd's purse, pepper- 
grass, evening primrose, smart- 
weed, purslane, curled dock, pigeon- 
grass, chickweed and mayweed. The 
purchaser of low - grade seed is 
fouling his land with weeds which 
may appear for years afterward, 
whenever the conditions are right 
for their germination. Farmers 
make the mistake of thinking that 
there is not so much difference in quality as in 
price, while as a matter of fact the good seed in 
the low grades costs often many times as much 
per pound as the good seed in the best grades. 

Testing for purity. 

Everyone buying seeds should have some kind of 
a lens with which to examine them. The form 




Fig. 209. Tripod 
magnifier. 



shown in Fig. 209, costing twenty-five to fifty 
cents, is satisfactory. By spreading grass or clover 
seed thinly on a sheet of white paper and looking 
at it carefully with a lens, it is easy to detect the 
presence of any considerable amount of weed seeds 
or chaff. The seeds used as adulterants are much 
more difficult to distinguish, and in all cases of sus- 
pected adulteration samples of the seed should be 
sent for examination to the state agricultural ex- 
periment station or to the Seed Laboratory of the 
United States Department of Agriculture. All seed 
should be practically free from weed seeds and 
chaff, and contain no adulterants. Clover and 
alfalfa should be bright and contain no brown 
seeds or dodder seed. 

Testing for germination. 

All the quick-germinating seeds, such as clovsr, 
timothy and grain, can be easily tested for ger- 
mination by any one 
with the simple tester 
shown in Fig. 210. 
Mix the seed thor- 
oughly and count out 
100 or 200 seeds just 
as they come, mak- 
ing ne selection ex- 
cept to discard any 
weed seeds. Put 
them between a fold 
of canton flannel or 
some similar cloth 
that has been washed 
in boiling water, tak- 
ing care not to let 




Fig. 210. A simple home-made 
seed-tester. See pp. 280, 281. 



the seeds touch one another. Lay the cloth on a 
plate, moisten it well but do not saturate it, cover 
with another plate and keep at a temperature of 
about 70° F. Every day count and take out the 
sprouted seeds. In four to ten days all of the 
good seeds will have sprouted, and the percentage 
of seed that will grow is known. 

Some of the grass seeds are more diflicult to 
test, requiring more exact conditions and an alter- 
nating temperature. In all cases where seeds do 
not germinate well in the simple tester shown, it is 
best to send them away to be tested before dis- 
carding them. 

Adulteration. 

Several of our most important forage crop seeds 
are frequently adulterated with seeds costing one- 



142 



PRACTICAL ADVICE ON SEED-TESTING 



third to one-half the price of those with which they 
are mixed. Red clover, alfalfa, Kentucky blue- 
grass and orchard-grass seed are the principal ones 
affected. The seed of yellow trefoil is imported in 




Fig. 211. "Seeds" or perigynia of species of carex, sedge 
plants that are sometimes found in grass seed. 

large quantities from Germany to be used as an 
adulterant of red clover and alfalfa. It is a low- 
growing, leguminous plant not cultivated in the 
United States and of no value where red clover or 
alfalfa will grow. Bur-clover seed, which is combed 
out of South American wool, is also imported from 
Germany and mixed with alfalfa seed. English 
and Italian rye-grass and meadow fescue seed are 
frequently mixed with orchard-grass seed in vary- 
ing proportions. Canada blue-grass seed, although 
used to some extent in this country, is imported in 
large quantities from Canada, to be mixed with, or 
sold as Kentucky blue-grass seed. All of these 
seeds used as adulterants resemble so closely the 
seeds with which they are mixed that they are 
difficult to distinguish. In the following discussion, 
enlarged pictures are given of the true seed, in 
order that the examiner may distinguish adulter- 




Fig. 212. Red clover. 




Fig. 213. Alsilse clover. 



ants. The sedges frequently occur with grasses but 
are not used as adulterants. Some of the seeds or 
fruits are shown in Fig. 211. 

Farm seeds and adulterants. 

JiEDChOVEKiTrifoliumpratense). Fig. 212. Fresh, 
well-matured seed is plump and has a slight luster. 
The color is clear yellow, violet or variegated. Old 
seed loses these colors, which are replaced by dull 
brown. Artificial polishing produces a high luster 
but does not redeem the original colors. Shriveled 
screenings are thin owing to the poorly developed 
embryo, and dull greenish or brown. Well-devel- 
oped seeds are somewhat triangular, rounded and 
have a broad notch at the scar. Samples of com- 
mercial seed exhibit considerable difference in the 
average size of the seeds. 



Alsike clover (Trifolium hybridum). Fig. 213. 
Seeds smaller than in red clover, averaging some- 
what larger than white clover seed. Fresh seed 
has little if any luster, but the olive to dark green 
color is bright, and the mottled surface exhibited 
by many of the seeds is distinct. Old seed loses its 
green color and becomes dull brown, the mottling 
becoming indistinct or -disappearing. Such seed is 
not readily distinguishable from old white clover 
seed. 

Crimson clover {Trifolium incarnatuni). Fig. 
214. Crimson clover seed is readily distinguished 
from that of the other clovers by the large size, 
oval and more rounded form of the individual seeds. 
Fresh seed is reddish pink and has a pronounced 
luster. A dull reddish brown replaces these in old 
seed. There is considerable variation in the size of 
seeds in commercial samples. 

Alfalfa or lucerne (Medicago saliva). Fig. 215. 
Fresh, well-matured seed has a clear greenish yel- 





Fig. 214. Crimson clover. 



Fig. 215. Alfalfa seed. 



low color but no distinct luster. Its greenish color 
readily distinguishes it from the seed of the culti- 
vated true clovers. Individual seeds vary consider- 
ably in form, since several are produced in each 
spiral pod. They are angular, oval -oblong or kidney- 
shaped and usually have a light stripe on each side. 
Yellow trefoil (Medicago lupulina). Fig. 216. 
This seed is largely used as an adulterant of red 
clover and alfalfa, and to some extent in alsike and 
crimson clovers. Individual seeds are practically 
the same size as those of red clover and alfalfa, but 
larger than alsike seed and smaller than average 
crimson clover seeds. The admixture of 35 to 45 
per cent of this seed in red clover seed gives the 
latter in bulk a greenish tinge. It lightens the 
general color of alsike seed, but does not materially 
change that of alfalfa or crimson clover seed. Its 
detection is readily accomplished by examining in- 
dividual seeds with a lens. The seeds are produced 
singly in the pod and so are fairly constant in form. 




Fig. 216. Yellow trefoU, 
an adulterant. 



Fig. 217. Bur-clowr, 
an adulterant. 



PRACTICAL ADVICE ON SEED-TESTING 



143 



They are oval, with the scar notch near the smaller 
end with a prominent projection beside it. A light 
stripe on each side usually extends from the scar 
toward the broader end of the seed. These seeds 




Fis. Hi. Timothy. 



Fig. 219. Oichard-grass. 



are faintly greenish yellow, becoming reddish brown 
in age. 

Red clover seed (Fig. 212) is distinguished by 
its lighter yellow or violet colors, its triangular 
form, broad scar notch and the absence of a pro- 
jection at the scar. Alfalfa seed (Fig. 215) is dis- 
tinguished by its more angular, oblong or kidney 
form, only the latter having a projection beside the 
nearly central scar. The contrast in form is even 
more pronounced in alsike and crimson clover 
seeds. (Figs. 213, 214.) 

Bur -CLOVER (MeJieago Arabiea, aa ; Medicago 
denticalata, b). Fig. 217. These kinds are used as 
an adulterant of alfalfa seed. Medicago Arabiea 
seeds are mostly kidney-shaped, the scar being 
nearer one end than in alfalfa, a distinct projec- 
tion beside it. Fresh seeds are light yellow. The 
large seeds are larger than alfalfa seeds and are 
readily distinguished from them, the smaller being 
distinguished only with difficulty. Medicago dentie- 
ulaia seeds are mostly larger than alfalfa seeds, 
oblong -kidney -shaped, the scar notch prominent 
near tlie center and the projection slight or want- 
ing. Most of these seeds are distinguishable from 
the others. They are commonly darker than the 
seeds of Medicago Ai-ahiea. 

Timothy (Phleum pratense). Fig. 218. This seed 
has a characteristic appearance and is readily rec- 




, 221. Red-top. 

ognized. It is not subject to adulteration, but is 
often an impurity of alsike seed, sometimes of red 
clover seed. The seed may either bear the hull (a a) 
or be free from it (b b). The presence of the hull 
gives fresh, well-cured seed a bright, silvery white 
appearance. The dull, oval seeds free from the hull 
are darker. -r- 



Orchard - grass (Dactylis glomerata). Fig. 219. 
This seed appears mostly in the hull. In this form 
it is straw-colored or darker. Individual seeds are 
triangular in section, being sharply angled along 
the back, tapering toward the ends, the apex awn- 
pointed. Viewed from the angled back or front 
they are curved to one side (a). The surface may 
be smooth or somewhat hairy, the back hairy 
toward the apex. The rachilla segment is slender, 
terete and slightly curved. Seeds rest on the front 
face (a) or oblique sides (b b) on a level surface. 

Meadow FESCUE (Fcs/wcae/a^w?-). Pig. 220. This 
seed in the hull is dark straw-colored or light 
brown. Individual seeds are somewhat boat-shaped, 
tapering to the ends, often frayed at the thin, 
papery apex. The inner face (a) is flattened and 
concave, the back rounded, not angled ; seeds rest- 
ing on the front or back on a level surface. The 
rachilla segment is slender, terete, straight, dis- 
tinctly expanded at the apex, important in distin- 
guishing this seed. 

Red-top {Agrostis alba). Fig. 221. Seeds minute, 
mostly in the hull (a a), or in the "chaffy" grades 
largely surrounded by the outer chaff (b). In the 





Fig. 222. 
Kentucky blue-grass. 



Fig. 223. 
Canada blue-grass. 



"fancy" grade the seed, practically all in the inner 
hull, is very light gray ; individual seeds spindle- 
shaped, slightly angled on the back, the edges of the 
hull separated on the inner face, exposing the grain. 
"Chaffy" seeds, covered by the outer hull, are 
longer, lance-shaped and bear a part of the flower 
stemlet. Such seed is darker colored and much 
lighter in weight than the "fancy." "Extra" or 
"fancy cleaned " seed consists largely of this outer 
chaff devoid of seed. 

Kentucky blue-grass (Poapratensis). Pig. 222. 
Bulk seed is light brown and well-cleaned seed is 
free from chaff. Individual seeds are in the hull, 
which is lance -shaped, tapering to each end, 
broadest at the middle and triangular in cross-sec- 
tion, the back of the seed being sharply angled. 
The intermediate nerves of the hull, one along the 
center of each oblique half of the back, are plainly 
evident under a lens as broad ridges (a a). These 
are important in distinguishing this seed. The 
edges of the hull are separated along the inner 
face (b). The free grain of the seed (c) is lance- 
shaped, wine-colored and grooved on one side. 
Commercial seed is usually rubbed free of the hairs 
on the angles of the hull and the frail apexes are 
usually more or less torn. 

Canada blue-grass {Poa eompressa). Fig. 223. 
This seed in bulk is usually somewhat lighter col- 



144 



GROWING SEED CROPS 




Fig. 224. 
English rye-grass. 



ored than Kentucky blue-grass. Individual seeds 
are very similar to the latter, hence this seed is 
used successfully as an adulterant. The apex of 
the seed is less sharply 
pointed and often flares 
somewhat, becoming 
rounded (c). The seed 
usually is widest a little 
above the middle (a). 
The intermediate nerves 
(b) are very indistinct. 
The presence of Canada 
blue -grass seed as an 
adulterant can be de- 
termined only by the use 
of a lens. 

Perennial or English rye-grass (Lolium per- 
enne). Fig. 224. The seed is so similar to that of 
meadow fescue that it is distinguished with diffi- 
culty. The distinguishing mark lies in the rachilla 
segment (a) which is flattened externally and grad- 
ually broadens toward the apex, which is scarcely 
expanded. 

Italian rye-grass (Lolium Italimm). Fig. 225. 
The seed is similar to that of perennial rye-gasss, 
with the exception that most of the seeds bear a 
slender awn at the 
apex. The rachilla 
segment is some- 
what intermediate 
in form between 
that of perennial 
rye-grass and that 
of meadow fescue, 
but usually dis- 
tinguishes the rye- 
grass from the 
fescue. 

Both kinds of 




Fig. 225. Italian rye-grass. 



rye-grass seed are used as adulterants of orchard- 
grass seed. Their flatter form and the awn of 
Italian rye-grass readily distinguish them from 
the angular, curved seeds of orchard-grass. 



GROWING SEED CROPS 
By W. W. Tracy 

The requisities for growing farm seed of the 
best quality are, (1) a field free of weed seeds or 
plants ; (2) the use of pure stock seed of desira- 
ble strain ; (3) so to harvest the crop as to secure 
a clean, bright sample of high vitality ; (4) the 
careful use of machines for threshing and cleaning 
the seed. The way the machines are used is quite 
as important as their structure. Often one person 
will secure a poor sample of seed when another, 
by a wiser use of the same machines, will get an 
extra-fine sample from a similar lot of seed. 

The business of growing seed crops on the farm 
may be considered under three general divisions, 
according to the direct purposes for which the 
seeds are grown : (I) The growing of seeds, usu- 
ally of cereal and forage crops, to be sold on the 
market by sample, as are other farm crops ; (2) 



the growing of seeds, chiefly of g&rden vegeta- 
bles, on contract with seedsmen ; (3) the grow- 
ing and breeding of improved strains of seeds to 
be used on the farm, with the sale, perhaps, of the 
surplus. 

(1) Growing cereal and forage-crop seeds for the 
general market. 

The crops grown specifically for seed in the past 
have been chiefly the grasses and clovers, the only 
special effort being to secure pure seed unmixed 
with weed seeds ; but of recent years there has 
been increased attention to growing seed not only 
of grasses and clover but of cereals, corn and other 
crops of selected strains that are adapted to spe- 
cial soils and uses. Certain sections are especially 
adapted to the growing of certain kinds of seeds. 
For example, millet seed can be grown best in the 
southern states, clover and wheat in more northern 
sections, and field corn in the central states. 

The methods vary with the kinds of seed and the 
places where they are grown. Usually timothy is 
cut, bound into bundles, cured, and then threshed, 
being cleaned in ordinary farm mills with special 
screens. Orchard-grass is harvested in much the 
same way. Kentucky blue-grass is harvested by 
strippers, which strip the seed from the standing 
stalks. The gathered seed is allowed to cure in 
windrows, on hard earth floors or in open sheds, 
and is there threshed and cleaned. Clover is gen- 
erally cut with the mower, allowed to cure in 
windrows or bunches in the field, and is then 
threshed in special machines or hullers. With the 
exception of the stripper or comber used in gather- 
ing blue-grass, red-top and a few other kinds, and 
possibly of some fingers to be attached to the cut- 
ting-bars of mowing machines for cutting clover 
and peas, no special machines are necessary. Spe- 
cially constructed machines for hulling clover are 
desirable, but in sections where clover seed can be 
grown profitably, threshers with such machines 
usually move from farm to farm. The final clean- 
ing for market is done by farm mills, of which 
there are many forms that do good work. 

(2) Growing vegetable seed crops on contract. 

To many farmers, seed-growing for a widely 
advertised firm is more attractive than growing 
ordinary farm crops ; and a seed crop which can 
be sold only to the contractor and cannot be used 
or frittered away has advantages for one who rents 
on " crop-share rental," so that such contracts are 
eagerly sought, with the exception of biennial 
plants, as onions, which are usually grown on spe- 
cial seed farms. Seedsmen secure most of their 
stock of vegetable seed by contracting with farm- 
ers to plant a certain area and deliver the entire 
seed product at an agreed price. The seedsman 
furnishes the stock seed, the farmer only under- 
taking to grow and harvest the crop so as to 
secure a good clean sample, the seedsman being 
responsible for the quality of the stock. Although 
a single seedsman, but one of the largest of the 
more than five hundred in the country, annually 
contracts with farmers for the product of 20,000 



GROWING SEED CROPS 



145 



to 30,000 acres of vegetable seed crops, yet a very 
small proportion of the farmers of the country 
can easily produce all the seed needed, and a slight 
over-production results in a surplus and a conse- 
quent reduction in the contract prices that seeds- 
men are willing to otfer, so that generally a seed 
crop is not especially profitable. 

One who has soil and climatic conditions espe- 
cially adapted to the growing of some particular 
vegetable, and who is familiar with its culture, 
but who is situated where he cannot handle profit- 
ably the ordinary farm product, can frequently 
grow seed to advantage. The cultural require- 
ments of a seed crop are not different from those 
of a crop for market except in the harvesting 
and curing of the seed, and these features are 
not especially laborious or expensive. Careful 
attention and the doing of the work at the proper 
time are the real essentials. Sweet corn, peas 
and beans are grown and the seed harvested and 
cured in the same way and at no greater ex- 
pense than is required for a crop of the grain, 
except that it is more important to gather, cure 
and handle these in such a way as to secure a 
bright sample and to avoid mixing in seed from 
other crops. The yields that may be expected vary 
greatly with difl'erent varieties, but generally are a 
little less than those of field sorts. The prices paid 
are usually somewhat higher, so that the seed crops 
are often more profitable than the grain crops. 

With tomatoes, cucumbers, melons and other 
pulpy fruits, the fruits are allowed to ripen and 
the early-maturing ones to get a little over-ripe but 
not soft, so that the bulk of the crop can be gath- 
ered in one to three pickings. The fruit is crushed 
by passing through rollers, and the seeds are sepa- 
rated from the skins and coarse pulp in a slowly- 
revolving cylinder of wire netting of such size 
as to allow the seed and fine pulp to pass through, 
while the skin and coarse pulp pass out at the end. 
The cylinder is .set at an angle and revolves slowly 
so that the seed will all be shaken out into a vat 
or into a simple board-lined pit in the ground, and 
only the coarse pulp pass out at the open end of 
the cylinder. The seed and liquid pulp is then 
allowed to ferment for a few days, care being 
taken that there is no water or rain added while 
fermenting. As soon as the mass is sufficiently 
soured so that the seed will slip clear of the pulp 
(2 to 10 days, according to temperature), it is sep- 
arated and washed by passing it through a trough 
or sluice box of slowly-moving water. The seed 
settles to the bottom to be removed by perforated 
scoops, while the pulp floats off and away. The 
seed is then rapidly dried by spreading very thinly 
and stirring. If the seed is allowed to stand in a 
mass when wet, it will speedily be discolored or rot 
and become worthless for seedsmen. 

The cost of separating and curing the seed after 
the fruit is gathered is much less than one would 
suppose, and with the best conveniences need not 
exceed five to ten cents a pound, according to va- 
riety. Very little special machinery is required in 
vegetable seed-growing, and most of this can be 
constructed on the farm. 

B 10 



In Fig. 226 is shown a side view of a horse- 
power machine for seeding cucumbers, melons, 
summer squashes, tomatoes and other pulpy crops. 
The cut shows the machine ready for work, except 
that the reel is shown without the wire netting 
with which it should be covered. This netting 
should be of stout wire and of one-half-inch mesh, 
or a little larger. The reel is about three and one- 
half feet in diameter and six feet long. Its upper 




Fig. 226. Machine for seeding pulpy vegetables. The net- 
ting about the cyclinder is omitted. 

end is formed of two common bent felloes of buggy 
wheels, bolted together so as to break joints ; the 
lower end has no rim except the selvage edge 
of the piece of wire netting. The reel is built on 
a shaft connected with the trundling rod from the 
power and the shaft of the roller by knuckle joints. 
These allow the reel to be given any desired incli- 
nation by raising or lowering the journal block in 
the jack which supports the lower end. The vat is 
simply a hole in the ground lined with boards so 
as to keep dirt out of the seeds but allow the juice 
to soak away into the soil. In practice the vat 
should be made deeper than is shown and have 
guard boards to prevent the seeds and juice flying 
from the reel out on the ground. It will be neces- 
sary to set the machine where there will be no 
danger of rain or other water soaking or running 
into the vat. In Fig. 227 the same machine is 




Fig. 227. Detail of seeder shown in Fig. 226. 

shown with the hopper and reel taken off, and the 
frame tipped forward to show the rollers as if we 
were looking down on them. The rollers should be 
made of hard wood, and are about sixteen inches 
long and twelve inches in diameter, having eight 
grooves about three inches wide and one and one- 
half inches deep, cut with a spiral of one cog. The 
teeth or cogs are about one and one-half inches 
wide and would be better if faced with strap iron. 
The rollers might be made of soft wood and the 
teeth faced with iron, but they would be much in- 



146 



GROWING SEED CROPS 



ferior to those of hard wood. The bolts which 
secure the journal block, in which the left-hand 
roller turns, should move in slots in the frame so 
that the rollers can be set different distances 




Fig. 228. Machine for seoarating watermelon seed. 

apart. For cucumbers, tomatoes and watermelons, 
it will be found best to set the rollers as close as 
possible without injuring the seeds ; but as open as 
possible and still turn, for summer squash and 
muskmelons. The frame is made of 4x4, and 
may be of pine. Fig. 228 illustrates the machine 
in action. In Fig. 229 is pictured a table on 
which cucumbers may be seeded. 

(3) Growing and breeding seed crops for home use. 

It has been clearly demonstrated that it is pos- 
sible to increase the product per acre of the average 
farm up to 40 per cent simply by the use of im- 
proved strains of seed developed on the farm itself, 
at the cost of a little well-directed effort on the 
part of the farmer. There is no more effective 
way of increasing the money profit of the farm and 
the attractiveness of farming as an occupation, 
particularly to alert -minded young men, than 
through wise efforts in the improvement of the 
quality of the seed to be used. 

A most important factor controlling the profit 
of any crop is uniformity in the plants. With most 
crops, the profit would be greatly increased if 
each plant were only equal in quantity and quality 
of yield to that of the best one-third of them. 
Superlative individuals rarely add to the value of 
a crop, while markedly inferior ones always detract 
from it. 

The character and potentiality of every plant 
grown directly from seed seems to be fixed and 
inherent in the seed itself, and is made up of 
a balanced sum of potentialities and limitations 
inherited in different degrees from each of its 
ancestors for an indefinite number of generations. 
There is a difference in the degree to which plants 
have the power of transmitting their individual 
characteristics to their descendants, or in their 
prepotency, and we can be sure as to the potential 
character of the seed only in proportion as we 
know the character and prepotent power of its 
ancestors. It may not be possible to know this 
fully, but we can accomplish much by a wise sys- 
tem of plant selection and breeding. A somewhat 
full discussion of this subject is given in Chapter 
III and under a number of the individual crops, so 
that it is necessary here to give only a few general 



directions. Study your plant and settle on the 
exact type which would be most practically desira- 
ble, and write out as full and complete description 
of its characteristics as possible. With the descrip- 
tion in hand, select one to ten or more plants, 
which most fully accord with it, avoiding those of 
phenomenal excellence in some particulars at the 
cost of deficiencies in others. Save the .seed of 
each selected plant separately, even if the plants 
themselves cannot be distinguished from each other, 
and plant that of each selected individual by itself, 
though all may be side by side in a single block. 
When the plants mature, go over the different lots, 
that is, the plants grown from the seed of each of 
the selected individual plants, and reject those 
lots in which the plants show the greatest varia- 
tions, even if in so doing you reject a few plants 
of superlative merit. Select the two or three lots 
in which the plants most uniformly accord with the 
description, and from these lots select plants to 
repeat the process. The object is to secure a fixed 
type of plants that are uniformly of the desired 
type, rather than superlative individual plants. The 
remainder o f 
the seed from 
the best lots 
can be used for 
a general crop. 
The essen- 
tials for success 
in seed -breed- 
ing are (1) a 
clear concep- 
tion of the ex- 
act type o f 
plant wanted ; 
(2) a carefully 
written out de- 
scription of 
that type and 
very rigid ad- 
herence to it 
in all selec- 
tions; (3) saving and planting separately the seed 
of each selected plant ; (4) continuing to select 
from generation to generation from the product of 
the selected plants those that are most uniformly 
of the desired type. In some cases, where such 
crops as garden peas, beans or sweet corn, which 
have some feeding value, have been grown, farmers 
often come into possession of seed that has been 
rejected by seedsmen as unfit for their use, and 
plant it as a field crop, making no effort to have 
the seed pure and unmixed. Such stock speedily 
degenerates and can be sold only at a reduced price 
or when the regular supply has failed. Quite a 
proportion of the tomato seed used in this country 
comes from canning factories, being washed out 
from the waste of the tables where the fruit is 
prepared for canning, or from lots of fruit that is 
over-ripe, or that used for catsup. If saved from 
equally good fruit, such seed is as good as that 
from fields grown especially for seed, but u-sually 
it comes from a mixture of fruit of different sorts 
and qualities and is of very poor quality. 




Fig. 229. Table on wliich cucumbers maj 
be seeded. The fruit is emptied on 
the t;ible and lialved by being pushed 
against the set blade, and the seeds 
tlieu scraped into barrels as shown. 



THE GROWING AND TRANSPLANTING OF FIELD-CROP PLANTS 



147 



THE GROWING AND TRANSPLANTING OF 

FIELD-CROP PLANTS 

By L. C. Corbett 

From a cultural standpoint, field, as well as truck 
crops, may be divided into two groups : (1) those 
that are propagated from seed planted where the 
crop is to mature, and (2) those grown from seed 
])lanted under special environment for the purpose 
of producing plants which may be transferred to 
the field when the soil and temperature conditions 
have become congenial. The objects sought by the 
use of specially prepared seed-beds are to lengthen 
the season for plants requiring a long period for 
maturing, to bring plants to maturity out of their 
natural season and to increase the supply of plant- 
ing material from plants requiring special methods 
of propagation. 

Among the crops which are handled extensively 
in artificially prepared seed-beds, are the follow- 
ing : cabbage (page 221), onions, beets, sweet-pota- 
toes (page 613), celery, tobacco (page 639), tomatoes, 
peppers, and, to a less extent, sugar-cane (page 599) 
and cassava (page 227), the last two being crops 
which are grown by transplanting, although no 
special seed-bed is usually employed for starting 
the plants. With each of the crops mentioned, the 
peculiar nature of the plant, the time and method of 
transplanting it to the open, as well as its resist- 
ance to cold, determine to a large extent the type 
of seed-bed in which the young plants are grown. 

Advice on specific crops. 

CaJ)bage. — Plants for the early crop of cabbage 
at the South are grown from seeds sown in the 
open in September, for transplanting to the field in 
December; while at the North seeds are sown either 
in coldframes in September, and wintered under 
cover, to be transplanted to the open early in the 
spring, or they are sown in the greenhouse or hot- 
bed from .January to March and grown in a low 
temperature with plenty of air in order that the 
plants may be of suitable size for transplanting to 
the open in April or May. 

Onions. — In the case of onions of the Bermuda 
type, the common practice in Texas is to sow the 
seed in September or October in a carefully graded 
and well-enriched bed, which can be irrigated and 
the young plants kept growing vigorously up to 
the time to transplant them to the field in Decem- 
ber. At the North onions are handled in a different 
way. All the onions which are transplanted for 
field purposes are grown either in coldframes or 
hotbeds, the seed being sown early in February or 
March and the young plants placed in the open 
after the soil has become thoroughly warm and in 
a high state of cultivation. 

Beets are less extensively transplanted than the 
two crops just mentioned, but in some localities 
they are sown in coldframes in the fall to be trans- 
planted to the field early the following February or 
March. 

Celery. — While celery is cultivated very exten- 
sively in certain parts of California, Ohio, Michi- 
gan, New York and Florida, plants are usually 



started in plant-beds in the open. For some of the 
extremely early crops at the North, it is necessary 
to bring the plants on in the greenhouse or hot- 
bed, but for the main crop it is sufficient to sow 
the seed in the open in specially prepared beds, 
the seed being scattered in rows or broadcasted, 
and in ^ome cases transplanted before it is finally 
set in the field. Ordinarily, however, on an exten- 
sive scale, the plant-bed is simply sheared or gone 
over with a light mowing machine before trans- 
planting in order to reduce the top surface. Then, 
with a special digging machine, the plants are 
lifted. They are usually set in the field by hand. 

Commercial production of plants for transplanting 
purposes. 

Beside the methods of producing field-crop plants 
already suggested, which are usually practiced by 
the proprietor of the market-garden or truck-farm, 
there are tho.se who plan to meet the inevitable 
losses and failures which annually befall a greater 
or less number of those engaged in the field culture 
of transplanted plants. Large and distinctive enter- 
prises of this character now exist near both Bal- 
timore, Md., and Charleston, S. C. The managers 
of these industries maintain extensive seed-beds 




Fig. 230. A transplanting machine. The two men who handle 
the plants sit behind. 

both in the open and under glass in order that they 
may be prepared to meet the demand for plants for 
the garden or truck-farm at all seasons and in any 
quantity. One firm operating a business of this 
character annually devotes four to five acres to 
cabbage plants, four to six acres to celery, and 
large areas to tomatoes, beets, peppers and aspar- 
agus, beside some two acres under glass devoted 
to the propagation of ornamental bedding plants. 
The.se firms do exclusively wholesale business and, 
while well known in the trade, are little known to 
the public outside of truck-farming districts. One 
of the plant producers located in an especially 
favored locality on the south Atlantic coast, con- 
ducts a business which enables him to supply 
cabbage plants in carload lots. This grower six 
years ago, was able to meet the demand for cab- 
bage plants from sixty pounds of seed sown on two 
acres. At the present time he uses over one ton of 
seed on about seventy acres of land. Extensive 
growers are able to produce plants under favorable 
conditions at very low cost, and in many localities 
it has come to be the practice of the growers to 
depend on the "plant men" for their annual supply, 
often as a question of economy. 



148 



LEGAL WEIGHTS OP AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS 



Transplanting machinery (Figs. 230, 843, 871). 

Sweet-potatoes, tomatoes and tobacco are the 
crops most extensively planted by machinery at 
the present time. The feasibility of handling cab- 
bage by machinery is attracting the attention of 
growers, because of the difficulty of securing suffi- 
cient hand labor to transplant the extensive acre- 
age of this crop now grown in the trucking region 
of the Atlantic coast. Up to the present, however, 
the work of transplanting the immense numbers of 
cabbage plants annually produced has all been 
done by hand, as is also the case with onions and 
beets which have been subjected to this type of 
cultivation. It is probable that a machine-trans- 
planter will never be adapted to the growing of 
beets or onions because of the limited space be- 
tween the individual plants, and the proximity of 
the rows in which they are set ; but where the 
space between the individual plants is eighteen 
inches, and the distance between the rows suffi- 
cient to allow of cultivation by horse-power, as in 
the case of cabbage, sweet-potatoes, tobacco, toma- 
toes and peppers, it is perfectly feasible to use a 
machine to assist in transplanting these crops. 

Truck-growing has reached the point where it is 
necessary to take advantage of every opportunity 
to reduce the cost of production. The use of the 
mechanical transplanter is one of the factors 
which is bound to play an important part in reduc- 
ing the cost of producing cabbage. It will un- 
doubtedly do for cabbage what it has already done 
for sweet -potatoes and tobacco. Celery, while 
grown at sufficient distance between the rows to 
admit of using a transplanter, is set so closely in 
the rows that it is probable that it will never be 
feasible to use this implement for transplanting 
the crop. In fact, many of the plants which require 
special attention at transplanting time and are 
more or less exacting in regard to handling will 
always have to be transplanted by hand. It should 
be perfectly feasible to handle sugar-cane and 
cassava with the transplanting-machines. 



LEGAL WEIGHTS OF AGRICULTURAL 
PRODUCTS 

I. United States. — Adapted from Circular No. 10 of 
Bureau of Standards, Department of Commerce and 
Labor, issued April 15, 1905. 

"These tables show the weights in pounds per 
bushel legally established for various products by 
the .several states and (for customs purposes) by 
Congress. The lack of agreement between the 
weights thus locally established is greatly to be 
regretted; they are published here exactly as they 
appear in the statutes. The local weights for the 
more common commodities, such as wheat, corn, 
and oats, are fairly uniform, but even these do not 
agree with the weights of Standard United States 
bushel measures of the respective products. In 
many cases, moreover, in which the weight of the 
bushel is fixed by law, purchase and sale are also 
permitted by capacity measures, which deliver 
quantities differing from those based on the legal 



weights." Since these figures were compiled, Indian 
and Oklahoma territories have been combined, and 
it is not known to what extent the figures now 
apply in the new state. 

List of products for which legal weights have 
been fixed in but one or two states : 

Apple seeds, 40 pounds (Rhode Island and Ten- 
nessee). 

Beggarweed seed, 62 pounds (Florida). 

Blackberries, 32 pounds (Iowa); 48 pounds (Ten- 
nessee); dried, 28 pounds (Tennessee). 

Blueberries, 42 pounds (Minnesota). 

Bromus inermis, 14 pounds (North Dakota). 

Cabbage, 50 pounds (Tennessee). 

Canary seed, 60 pounds (Tennessee). 

Cantaloupe melon, 50 pounds (Tennessee). 

Cherries, 40 pounds (Iowa); with stems, 56 
pounds (Tennessee) ; without stems, 64 pounds 
(Tennessee). 

Chestnuts, 50 pounds (Tennessee); 57 pounds 
(Virginia). 

Chufa, 54 pounds (Florida). 

Cotton seed, staple, 42 pounds (South Carolina). 

Cucumbers, 48 pounds (Missouri and Tennes- 
see); 50 pounds (Wisconsin). 

Currants, 40 pounds (Iowa and Minnesota). 

Feed, 50 pounds (Massachusetts). 

Grapes, 40 pounds (Iowa); with stems, 48 pounds 
(Tennessee); without stems, 60 pounds (Ten- 
nessee). 

Guavas, 54 pounds (Florida). 

Hickory nuts, 50 pounds (Tennessee). 

Hominy, 60 pounds (Ohio); 62 pounds (Tennes- 
see). 

Horseradish, 50 pounds (Tennessee). 

Italian rye-grass seed, 20 pounds (Tennessee). 

Johnson-grass, 28 pounds (Arkansas). 

Kafir, 56 pounds (Kansas). 

Kale, 30 pounds (Tennessee). 

Land-plaster, 100 pounds (Tennessee). 

Meal ( ? ), 46 pounds (Alabama ; unbolted, 48 
pounds (Alabama). 

Middlings, fine, 40 pounds (Indiana); coarse mid- 
dlings, 30 pounds (Indiana). 

Millet, Japanese barnyard, 35 pounds (Massa- 
chusetts). 

Mustard, 30 pounds (Tennessee). • 

Plums, 40 pounds (Florida); 64 pounds (Ten- 
nessee). 

Plums, dried, 28 pounds (Michigan). 

Popcorn, 70 pounds (Indiana and Tennessee); in 
the ear, 42 pounds (Ohio). 

Prunes, dried, 28 pounds (Idaho); green, 45 
pounds (Idaho). 

Quinces, 48 pounds (Florida, Iowa, and Tennes- 
see). 

Rape seed, 50 pounds (Wisconsin). 

Raspberries, 32 pounds (Kansas); 48 pounds 
(Tennessee). 

Rhubarb, 50 pounds (Tennessee). 

Sage, 4 pounds (Tennessee). 

Salads, 30 pounds (Tennessee). 

Sand, 130 pounds (Iowa). 

Spelt or Spiltz, 40 pounds (North Dakota); 45 
pounds (South Dakota). 

Spinach, 30 pounds (Tennessee). 

Strawberries, 32 pounds (Iowa) ; 48 pounds (Ten- 
nessee). 

Sugar-cane seed, 57 pounds (New Jersey). 

Velvet-grass seed, 7 pounds (Tennessee). 

Walnuts, 50 pounds (Tennessee). 



LEGAL WEIGHTS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS 



149 













LEGAL WEIGHTS 


{IN 


POUNDS) PER BUSHEL. 


















Apples 




Beans 




1 












Corn 


Com meal 


Cotton seed 






S 




. 
e 








?. 


w 




* 


tt 


a 
o 




s 


1 

he 


sa 


• 


2-= 


CO 

1 


1 


1 


8 

i 


S 

3 


00 

2 


1 

1 


o 


— ^ 


S3 


8 
1 


a 

Q 
O 




an 


1 


01 c 


o 




-<! 


» 


m 


w 


O 


« 


n 


m 


« 


m 


u 


o 


O 


o 


o 


oa 


O 


o 


^ 


O 




I-* 


United States 






48 


. 


50 










42 






56 








48 












Alabama . . 


, , 


24 


47 


60 


, , 




, , 


, , 






. . 




, . 


70 


75 


56 


, . 






32 












45 
48 


»55 
"60 


• • 




14 


20 


48 


52 




60 


54 


70 


74 


56 


48 






33J 






Arkansas . . 


"50 


24 




California . . 


. • 




50 


• • 






. . 






40 




. . 




• • 




• . 








• • 






Colorado . . 






48 


60 






14 






52 




60 


• • 


70 






50 












Connecticut . 


48 


25 


48 


60 




'60 


. . 


20 




48 


50 


60 




. , 




. . 


50 






, . 


44 


30 


Delaware . . 


, , 


, , 


, , 


, , 


, , 




. . 


, , 




, , 




, , 




, , 




. . 


. . 


44 


48 


. , 






Dist. Col. . . 




, . 




, , 






. 


. . 








. . 




, , 




. . 








, , 






Florida . . . 


''48 


24 


48 


•'&0 


48 




• ■ 


20 








. • 




• • 


70 


56 


48 






32 


46 




Georgia. . . 




24 


47 


'60 






14 


'20 




52 




60 




70 




56 


48 






30 












48 
48 




• ■ 






• • 




42 




60 




• • 




• ■ 


• • 












Idaho .... 


"45 


28 








24 


48 


'60 


46 




14 


20 




52 


, . 


60 




70 




56 


48 












Indian Ter. . 


. . 




Indiana . . . 




25 

24 


48 

48 


60 
60 


46 
46 




14 

14 


20 


30 


50 
52 




60 
60 




(g) 
"70 




56 
56 


50 












Iowa .... 


48 




Kansas . . . 


"48 


24 : J ' GO 


46 




'14 


20 




50 




60 




J70 






50 












Kentucky . . 


. . 


24 1 47, "GO *45 




14 


20 




56 




60 


''70 






56 


50 












Louisiana . . 


• • 




48 


• • 


• • 




• . 










• • 


56 






. ■ 


• • 












Maine . . . 


44 




48 


60 




60 








48 


50 




56 






. . 


050 












Maryland . . 




, . 










, , 










. 






















Massachusetts 


48 


25 


48 


'60 








20 




48 


50 


60 








'"50 


50 








44 


30 


Michigan . . 


48 


22 


48 


60 


46 




14 






48 




60 




"70 




56 


50 












Minnesota. . 


"50 


28 


48 


60 


. • 


50 


14 




57 


50 


45 


60 




70 




56 


■ . 












Mississippi. . 




26 


48 


'60 


46 




14 


20 




48 




60 




72 




56 


48 


44 


48 


32 






Missouri. . . 


48 


24 


48 


"60 


46 




14 


20 




52 


.50 


60 




. 


70 


56 


50 






33 






Montana . . 


45 


, , 


48 


60 




50 


14 


20 




52 


50 


60 




70 




56 


50 












Nebraska . . 


. . 


24 


48 


'60 


46 




14 


20 




,52 




60 




70 




56 


50 












Nevada . . . 


• • 














. . 




. . 




. . 








. . 


. . 












N. Hampshire 


. 






62 


















56 








50 












New Jersey . 


50 


25 


48 


60 












50 




64 




^ ^ 






, , 












New Mexico . 


. . 






. . 




. . 






















. . 












New York . . 


48 


25 


48 


60 








20 




48 


50 


60 










,50 








44 


30 


North Carolina 


• • 




48 


• • 








. . 




50 




60 




. . 






. . 


46 


48 


30 






North Dakota 


50 




48 


60 




60 


. . 


20 


30 


42 




60 




70 




56 














Ohio .... 


50 


24 


48 


60 




.56 








50 


50 


60 




68 




56 


. 












Oklahoma . . 


. . 




48 


60 




60 




20 


30 


42 




60 




70 




,56 














Oregon . . . 


45 


28 


46 






. 








42 




60 






















Pennsylvania. 


• • 




47 


• • 




• • 




. . 




48 




60 


58 






. . 














Rhode Island . 


48 


25 


48 


60 


46 


50 




9.0 




48 


50 


fiO 




70 




,56 


,50 








44 


30 


South Carolina 




, , 




, , 


























p4a 


46 


48 


.30 


(q) 




South Dakota. 






48 


60 




60 




?0 


30 


49 




60 




70 




56 














Tennessee . . 


"50 


24 


48 


"60 


46 


50 


14 


20 


42 


50 


50 


»60 




70 


'74 


56 


. . 


50 


48 


28 






Texas. . . . 


45 


28 


48 


'60 








20 




42 




60 




70 


72 


56 








32 






Utah .... 


. . 




. 








































Vermont . . 


46 




48 


62 




60 








48 


.50 


60 






















Virginia . . 


. . 


28 


48 


'60 






14 






52 




60 




70 




56 


50 






32 






Washington . 


"45 


28 


48 














42 




60 






















West Virginia 


. , 


25 


48 


60 












52 




60 


56 


















Wisconsin . . 


50 


25 


48 


60 




.50 




20 




50 


50 


60 










,50 






44 


30 


Wyoming . . 


• • 


























• • 




• • 






.... 







♦Not defined. 

a Small white beans, 60 lbs. 

^Green apples. 

<^ Sugar-beets and mangels. 

^Shelled beans, GO lbs.; velvet 

beans. 78 lbs. 
* While beaus. 



fWheat bran. 

S Corn in ear. 70 lbs. until Dec. 

1 next after grown; 68 lbs. 

thereafter. 
•^Tn the cob. 
'English bhiG-grass. 22 lbs.; 

native, 44 lbs. 



J Indian com in ear. 
1^ Corn in ear. Nov. 1 to May 1,70 
lbs.; 68 lbs.. May 1 to Nov. 1. 
I Soybeans. 58 lbs. 
'" Cracked corn. 
"GrPeii nnshelled beans, 3D lbs. 
o Indian corn meal. 



P Standard weight bushel com 
meal, bolted or unbolted, 
48 lbs. 

q Matured. 

^ Drifd beans. 

5 Ked iiiid white. 

t Green unshelled corn. 100 Ibi. 



160 



LEGAL WEIGHTS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS 









LEGAL WEIGHTS 


(IN POUNDS) 


PER 


BUSHEL 


continued. 
















1 


S 

B 

s 

1 

s 




s 

•c 

S 


a 
a 


1 


00 

m 

IS 

? 

B 

ll 
3 
W 


P* 

S- 

o 
v 

s 

••3« 

B 
M 


Lime | 


'3 

s 


i 


OS 

o 


Onions 


« 

cC 
t- 
U 

h 

o 


.a 

I 

a 

2 

O 

« 
o 

33 
32 

33 

36 
32 

33 
34 


p. 
'3 

1 
45 

55 

45 

42 

44 
50 

50 
50 

44 


a 



h 

.a S 

Q 

33 
33 

33 

33 

28 
33 

33 
33 
33 

32 


1 
22 

22 

23 
22 






% 

a 
3 


r3 

p 


B 

,o 

'p 

o 


S 

.i 

5 


1: 


United States 
Alabama . . 
Arizona. . . 
Arkansas . . 
California . . 

Colorado . . 
Connecticut . 
Delaware . . 
Dist. Col. . . 
Florida . . . 

Georgia . . . 




56 
56 

55 

56 

56 
56 

56 
56 
56 

55 
56 

56 
56 
56 
56 

55 

55 
55 

56 
56 
56 

56 

56 

56 

56 

56 

56 

56 
56 


40 
40 

48 


8 
*8 

8 

11 

' 8 

' 8 

' 8 
' 8 


44 

44 
44 

44 
44 
44 
44 

44 
50 

44 
44 

44 
44 

44 

44 

44 
44 

44 

44 


45 

45 
45 

45 

45 
12 


50 
50 
50 

50 

48 

50 
48 
50 
50 

. . 
50 

50 

48 
48 

48 
48 


52 

56 
56 
56 

56 
56 

%6 

'56 

56 

56 
56 

56 
56 

56 

56 
56 


80 
70 

80 

70 
70 
80 

70 

80 
70 
80 

70 

80 

(g) 

. . 

70 


80 
80 

80 
35 

80 

80 
80 

80 

W 
80 


34 

38 

^35 
32 

38 
38 
30 
30 

34 
38 

38 

34 


50 
50 

50 
50 
50 
50 

50 

48 

50 
50 

50 

50 
50 

50 

I'sd 

50 
50 

50 


32 
32 
32 
32 
32 

32 
32 

32 

32 
32 
36 
32 

32 
32 
32 
'32 

'32 
26 
32 
32 
32 

32 
32 
32 
32 

32 
30 

32 
32 

32 
32 
32 
32 
32 

32 

32 
32 

32 

32 
30 

32 
32 
32 


57 

57 
52 

56 

57 

57 

48 
57 
57 
57 

52 

52 
54 
52 

57 
57 
57 
57 

57 
57 

52 
55 
52 

50 
50 

52 
'56 

57 

52 

57 

57 


"'36 

'28 
25 

J28 
28 


14 

14 

14 
14 

14 

14 
14 


60 


Hawaii . . . 
Idaho .... 
Illinois . . . 




'45 


Indian Ter. . 
Indiana . . . 


33 


" 








Kentucky . . 
Louisiana . . 

Maine . . . 
Maryland . . 
Massachusetts 
Michigan . . 
Minnesota . . 

Mississippi . . 
Missouri. . . 
Montana . . 
Nebraska . . 
Nevada . . . 

N. Hampshire 
New Jersey . 
New Mexico . 
New York . . 
North Carolina 

North Dakota 
Ohio .... 


40 
36 


48 
45 


Oklahoma . . 
Oregon . . . 
Pennsylvania. 

Rhode Island . 
South Carolina 
South Dakota. 
Tennessee . . 

Texas .... 




45 

"56 


Utah .... 
Vermont . . 
Virginia . . 

Washington . 
West Virginia 
Wisconsin . . 
Wyoming . . 




■45 



*Not defined. 
'Malt rye. 

''Unwashed plastering hair, 
8 lbs.; washed, 4 lbs. 



'Shelled. 

"* Bottom onion sets. 
'Strike measure. 
'Top onion sets. 



E Slacked lime, 40 lbs. 
'' German Missouri and Ten- 
nessee millet seed. 
'Matured onions. 



> Button onion sets, 32 lbs. 
''Matured pears, 56 lbs.; 

dried pears, 26 lbs. 
' Green. 



LEGAL WEIGHTS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS 



151 









LEGAL 


WEIGHTS 


(IN 


POUNDS) PER 


BUSHEL, 


continued 
















Peas 


Potatoes 


o 

i 


•3 


a 

u 

8 

O 

s 


03 

1 


a 




Salt 


1 


1 

a 


73 


S 



•0 



S 


Turnips 






en 

a 


a e 

u 

O 




1 
1 


o 

i 
1 


s 
a 

o 


02 


1 

<D 

S 


"(3 

(0 

g 

§ 




* 

p. 

'p 
u 
3 

6h 


3.S 
wg 

ii 

E = 






1 


United States 
Alabama . . 
Arizona . . . 
Arkansas . . 
California . . 

Colorado . . 
Connecticut . 
Delaware . . 
Dist. Col. . . 
Florida . . . 

Georgia . . . 
Hawaii . . . 
Idaho .... 
Illinois . . . 
Indian Ter. . 

Indiana . . . 


25 




60 
60 

60 
60 

60 


60 
60 

60 
60 

60 

60 

60 

60 
60 
60 

60 
56 
60 

60 
60 

60 
56 

60 

60 
60 


55 
50 

54 

60 
55 

50 

55 
46 
50 
55 

54 
56 
55 

60 

56 

50 

54 
54 

46 

50 
46 

54 

46 
50 

55 
56 

54 


60 

eo 

60 
60 

'60 

60 

60 
60 

60 
60 

60 

60 
60 

60 
60 
60 

60 

'60 
60 

60 
'56 

60 


bi4 

bi4 
12 


45 
43 

45 

45 

44 

45 


'56 


60 

60 

52 
50 

56 


'50 

50 
'50 

50 
"50 

50 
'50 


56 
56 
56 
56 
54 

56 
56 

56 

56 
56 
56 
56 

56 
56 
56 
56 
56 

50 

56 
56 
56 

56 
56 
56 
56 

56 
56 

56 
56 

56 
56 
56 
56 
56 

56 

56 
56 

56 

56 
56 

56 
56 
56 


50 
80 

60 

50 
50 
50 
50 

56 

50 
50 
50 
50 

80 
80 

80 
50 

50 

TO 
50 


'50 

55 

'55 

60 
'50' 

"56 

f62 
50 

'50 


'70 
'50' 

70 
'70 

70 

'85 
70 

'70 


'20' 

'20 

"20 
20 

20" 


'50 
'56 

"'30 
56 

'57 

42 
42 

30 
'50 


. . 

'60 
'45 

'56 

56 

56 
55 


60 

45 

45 

45 

, , 

45 
45 

45 
45 

45 

45 
45 

45 
45 
45 
45 

45 

45 
45 
42 

45 

42 
45 

45 

45 
45 

45 
45 


55 

57 

54 
55 

55 

55 

55 
60 

58 

55 

50 
55 

60 
60 
60 

50 

60 
50 

55 

60 
55 

42 


'50 

50 

• • 

'42 


60 
60 
60 
60 
60 

60 
60 
60 

60 

60 
60 
60 
60 

60 
60 


Kansas . . . 
Kentucky . . 
Louisiana . . 


24 




60 

60 

60 
60 
60 

60 
=60 
60 
60 

60 
60 

60 
60 

60 
60 
60 

60 
60 

60 
•=60 

60 


60 
60 
60 

60 


Maryland . . 
Massachusetts 
Michigan . . 
Minnesota . . 

Mississippi . . 
Missouri. . . 
Montana . . 
Nebraska . . 
Nevada . . . 

N. Hampshire 
New Jersey . 
New Mexico . 
New York . . 
North Carolina 

North Dakota 
Ohio .... 


24 


56 


'eo 

60 
60 

60 
60 
60 
60 

60 
60 

'60 
60 

60 
60 


Oklahoma . . 
Oregon . . . 
Pennsylvania. 

Rhode Island . 
South Carolina 
South Dakota. 
Tennessee . . 

Texas. . . . 
Utah .... 
Vermont . . 
Virginia . . 

Washington . 
West Virginia 
Wisconsin . . 
Wyoming . . 




30 


60 
60 
60 

60 

'60 
60 

60 

''60 
60 

60 
60 
60 



* Sorghum saccharatum seed. 
''Seed. 



•= Including split peas. 
^Black-eyed peas. 



'Indian wheat, 46 lbs. 
' Ground salt, 70 lbs. 



152 



LEGAL WEIGHTS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS 



II. Canada. — Section 90 of the Inspection and Sale Act 
of the Department of Agriculture for the Dominion 
of Canada, dealing with the legal weights of farm 
products, reads as follows : 

" In contracts for the sale and delivery of any 
of the undermentioned articles a bushel shall be 
determined by weighing, unless a bushel by measure 
is specially agreed upon, and the weight equiv- 
alent to a bushel shall, except as hereinafter pro- 
vided, be as follows : 

Ponnds 

Barley 48 

Buckwheat 48 

Flaxseed 56 

Indian corn 56 

Oats 34 

Pease 60 

Rye 56 

Wheat 60 

Section 337 reads as follows : 

" In contracts for the sale and delivery of any 
of the undermentioned articles the bushel shall be 
determined by weighing, unless a bushel by meas- 
ure is specially agreed upon, and the weight 
""Xuivalent to a bushel shall be as follows : 

Pounds 

Beans 60 

Beets 60 

Blue-grass seed 14 

Carrots 60 

Castor-beans 40 

Clover seed 60 

Hemp .seed 44 

Malt 36 

Onions 50 

Parsnips 60 

Potatoes 60 

Timothy seed 48 

Turnips 60 

"In the province of Quebec when potatoes are 
sold or offered for sale by the bag, the bag shall 
contain at least 80 pounds." 

Fruit packages. 

Sub-section I, Section 325 : The minimum legal 
limit of apple barrel is a barrel having a dimension 
of not less than twenty-six inches and one-quarter 
between the heads, inside measure, and a head 
diameter of seventeen inches and a middle diameter 
of eighteen inches and one-half, representing as 
nearly as possible ninety-six quarts. 

Sub-section 3, Section 325 : " When apples are 
packed in Canada for export, for sale by the box, 
they shall be packed in good strong boxes, of 
seasoned wood, the inside dimensions of which 
shall not be less than ten inches in depth, eleven 
inches in width and twenty inches in length, repre- 
senting as nearly as possible two thousand two 
hundred cubic inches." 

Sub-section 2, Section 326, of the Inspection and 
Sale Act, dealing with fruit baskets, now (May, 
1907) reads as follows : 

"2. Every basket of fruit offered for sale in 
Canada unless stamped on the side plainly in black 
letters at least three-quarters of an inch deep and 
wide, with the word ' Quart ' in full, preceded with 



the minimum number of quarts, omitting tractions, 
which the basket will hold when level-full, shall 
contain, when level-full, one or other of the fol- 
lowing quantities : 

"(a) Fifteen quarts or more. 

"(h) Eleven quarts, and be five and three-fourths 
inches deep perpendicularly, eighteen and three- 
fourths inches in length and eight inches in wid h 
at the top of the basket, sixteen and three-fourth; 
inches in length and six and seven-eighths inches 
in width at the bottom of the basket, as nearly 
exactly as practicable, all measurements to be 
inside of the veneer proper, and not to include the 
top band. 

" (c) Six quarts, and be four and one-half inches 
deep perpendicularly, fifteen and three-eighths 
inches in length and seven inches in width at the 
top of the basket, thirteen and one-half inches in 
length and five and seven-eighths inches in width 
at the bottom of the basket, as nearly exactly as 
practicable, all measurements to be inside of the 
veneer proper, and not to include the top band : 
Provided that the Governor in Council may by 
proclamation exempt any province from the opera- 
tion of this section. 

"(d) Two and two-fifths quarts, as nearly exactly 
as practicable." 

YIELDS OF FARM CROPS. 

The yields of farm crops in any given locality 
are influenced by a multitude of factors, — seed, 
weather, soil preparation and management, care, 
harvesting, and the like. Any effort, therefore, to 
tabulate yields of widely grown crops must be 
considered as suggestive and provisional rather 
than definite and constant. Yet, when an exten- 
sive area is considered, as a continent, a fairly 
accurate determination can be arrived at, and the 
effort will be of value in measuring up the adapta- 
bilities and possibilities of any area for a given 
crop grown in that region. 

In the tables that follow, the average and best 
yields of the more important field crops of the 
United States and Canada, as reported by good 
observers in several parts of the continent, are 
recorded. In some cases census figures have been 
available ; in others, the reporter has had to deter- 
mine the yields for his state or province from such 
figures and estimates as he was able to secure. It 
is not improbable, therefore, that some error has 
been made in certain ca-ses, especially in reporting 
the best yields. If the best yields, as reported in 
these table.s, have any significance, it is to show 
what has been accomplished, and, therefore, what 
can be accomplished again, even though in 
special cases the best reported yields may seem 
to be very exceptional. Unfortunately, the aver- 
age yields of all crops are greatly lowered from 
the average yields attained by successful and 
painstaking growers by the small yields of the 
careless and indifferent growers, and the small 
figures of poor crop years. Hence, no progressive 
farmer will be satisfied to attain merely the 
average. 



YIELD OF FARM CROPS 



153 



YIELDS OF FARM CROPS 
As reported for this volume by observers in several parts of the continent. 





Quebec 


New York 


North Carolina 


Alabama 




Average 


Average 


Best 


Average 


Best 


Average 


Best 


Alfalfa 


3 tons 


2.3 tons 


7 tons 


1.7 tons 


5 tons 


3.5 tons 


7 tons 


Barley 


25 bushels 


23.9 bus. 


50 bushels 


10 bushels 


25 bushels 


12 bushels 


45 bushels 


Beans, field 


20 bushels 


10.5 bus. 


45 bushels 


10 bushels 


.... 


.... 




Broom-corn 




565 lbs. 


1,000 lbs. 


455 lbs. 


.... 


400 lbs. 


600 lbs. 


Buckwheat 


25 bushels 


16.9 bus. 


40 bushels 


10 bushels 


30 bushels 


.... 


.... 


Cabbage 


12 tons 


10 tons 


*40 tons 


100 crates 


200 crates 


5 tons 


10 tons 


Carrots 


12 tons 
2 tons 


10 tons 
1.1 tons 


20 tons 
4 tons 


1-2 tons 


3 tons 


2 tons 




Clover 


3 tons 


Cotton 

Cowpeas 


.... 


.... 


.... 


J bale 
10 bushels 
1.5 tons 
1-2 tons 


2 bales 

30 bushels 

5 tons 


t200 lbs. 
10 bushels 


1,000 lbs. 
30 bushels 


Field-pea 


25 bushels 


17.1 bus. 


45 bushels 




Flax 


15 bushels 


8.5 bus. 


15 bushels 


.... 


.... 


.... 




Kohlrabi 


.... 


Lespedeza 




.... 


.... 


1.25 tons 


2 tons 


.... 


2 tons 


Maize 


25 bushels 


32 bushels 


100 bus. 


13 bushels 


100 bus. 


14 bushels 


75 bushels 


Mangels 


20 tons 


24 tons 


40 tons 


.... 


.... 


.... 




Melilotus 


.... 


.... 




2 tons 


.... 


2 tons 


3.5 tons 


Millet 




1.7 tons 
32 bushels 


5 tons 
80 bushels 


1.5 tons 
10 bushels 


4 tons 
50 bushels 


1 ton 
15 bushels 


3 tons 


Oats 


35 bushels 


70 bushels 


Parsnips 




335 bus 


1,000 bus. 
500 bus. 










Potatoes 


150 bus. 


79 bushels 


70 bushels 


.... 


60 bushels 


300 bus. 


Pumpkin 


.... 


.... 


.... 


.... 




.... 


.... 


Rape 


20 tons 




. 






.... 


.... 


Rice 








360 lbs. 
100 bus. 




12 bushels 


30 bushels 


Rutabaga 


10 tons 


14 tons 


30 tons 




Rye 


15 bushels 


16 bushels 


35 bushels 


5.5 bus. 


20 bushels 


7 bushels 


20 bushels 


Sorghum 

Soybean 

Sugar-beets 


15 tons 


7.8 tons 


30 tons 


5-6 tons 
12 bushels 
1.7 tons 


10 tons 
40 bushels 
4 tons 


2.5 tons 
15 bushels 
1.7 tons 


7 tons 

25 bushels 

4 tons 


Sugar-cane 


.... 


.... 


.... 


7-8 tons 


12 tons 


t200 


teoo 


Sweet-potatoes 




119 bus. 


200 bus. 


85 bushels 


.... 


80 bushels 


400 bus. 


Timothy 


2 tons 


1.1 tons 


4 tons 


1-2 tons 


4 tons 




.... 


Tobacco 


1,000 lbs. 


1,155 lbs. 


.... 


650 lbs. 




500 lbs. 


1,000 lbs. 


Turnips 


10 tons 


12 tons 


28 tons 


100 bus. 


.... 


.... 


.... 


Vetch 


2 tons 




.... 


1-2 tons 


3 tons 


1.5 tons 


3 tons 


Wheat 


15 bushels 


18.9 bus. 


60 bushels 


7-8 bus. 


30 bushels 


8 bushels 


30 bushels 







* Including varieties grown for stock-feeding. 



tLint. 



X Gallons of syrup. 



154 



YIELD OF FARM CROPS 



YIELDS OF FARM CROPS, continued 
As reported for, this volume by observers in several parts of the continent. 





Indiana 


Wisconsin 


Mam 


toba 


Eastern Texas 




Average 


Best 


Average 


Best 


Average 


Best 


Average 


Best 


Alfalfa. . . . 


3-4 tons 


6 tons 


3 tons 


6 tons 


3 tons 


4 tons 


3 tons 


7 tons 


Barley .... 


25 bushels 


40 bushels 


30 bushels 


65 bushels 


30 bushels 


75 bushels 


.... 


.... 


Beans, field . . 


.... 


.... 


18 bushels 


30 bushels 


.... 


.... 


150 bus. 


200 bus. 


Broom-corn . . 


.... 


.... 


.... 




.... 


.... 


.... 


.... 


Buckwheat . . 


.... 


.... 


15 bushels 


35 bushels 


.... 


.... 


.... 




Cabbage . . . 


.... 


.... 


.... 


.... 




.... 


4,000 lbs. 


6,000 lbs. 


Carrots .... 
Clover .... 
Cotton .... 


1.5 tons 


2.5 tons 


10 tons 
3 bus. seed 
1.5 tons 


18 tons 
5 bus. seed 
4 tons 


300 bus. . 
2 tons 


800 bus. 
4 tons 


9,000 lbs. 
J bale 


12,000 lbs. 
2 bales 


Cowpeas . . . 


i8 bushels 


30 bushels 


8 bushels 


15 bushels 


.... 


.... 


1.5 tons 


3 tons 


Field-pea . . . 


.... 


.... 


10 bushels 


25 bushels 


40 bushels 


65 bushels 


40 bushels 


60 bushels 


Flax 


.... 


.... 


13 bushels 


25 bushels 


18 bushels 


.... 


.... 




Kohlrabi . . . 


.... 


.... 


.... 


.... 


. . . . 


.... 


1,200 lbs. 


2,000 lbs. 


Lespedeza . . 


.... 


.... 


.... 


.... 


.... 


.... 


.... 


.... 


Maize .... 


40 bushels 


100 bus. 


41 bushels 


100 bus. 


.... 


.... 


30 bushels 


90 bushels 


Mangels . . . 


18 tons 


25 tons 


25 tons 


60 tons 


800 bus. 


1,200 bus. 


5 tons 


6 tons 


Melilotus . . . 
Millet .... 


1.7 tons 


4 tons 


2.5 tons 
30 bus. seed 
2 tons 


4 tons 
65 bus. seed 
4 tons 


2 tons 


4 tons 


1 ton 


2 tons 


Oats 


30 bushels 


80 bushels 


36 bushels 


97 bushels 


40 bushels 


110 bus. 


35 bushels 


85 bushels 


Parsnips' . . . 




.... 


8 tons 


15 tons 


300 bus. 


600 bus. 


9,000 lbs. 


12,000 lbs. 


Potatoes . . . 


100 bus. 


200 bus. 


92 bushels 


400 bus. 


300 bus. 


800 bus. 


60 bushels 


150 bus. 


Pumpkin . . . 


.... 


.... 


.... 


.... 






6 tons 


8 tons 


Rape 


.... 


.... 


15 tons 


35 tons 


10 tons 


.... 


.... 


.... 


Rice 


.... 


.... 


.... 


.... 


. . . . 


.... 


50 bushels 


100 bus. 


Rutabaga . . . 




.... 


12 tons 


40 tons 


500 bus. 


1,000 bus. 


6 tons 


8 tons 


Rye 

Sorghum . . . 
Soybean . . . 


14 bushels 

9 tons 

20 bushels 


*50 bushels 
15 tons 
35 bushels 


16 bushels 
15 bus. seed 
8 tons 
15 bushels 


40 bushels 
25 bus. seed 
15 tons 
35 bushels 


20 bushels 


40 bushels 


2.5 tons 


6 tons 


Sugar-beets . . 


14 tons 


20 tons 


12 tons 


30 tons 


300 bus. 


800 bus. 


4 tons 


6 tons 


Sugar-cane . . 


.... 


.... 




.... 




.... 


25 tons 


40 tons 


Sweet-potatoes. 






.... 




.... 


.... 


100 bus. 


400 bus. 


Timothy . . . 


1.5 tons 


2 tons 


1.5 tons 


3.5 tons 


1.5 tons 


4 tons 


.... 




Tobacco . . . 


.... 


.... 


1,280 lbs. 


1,800 lbs. 


.... 


.... 


800 lbs. 


1,200 lbs. 


Turnips. . . . 


.... 


.... 


10 tons 


35 tons 


600 bus. 


1,100 bus. 


6 tons 


8 tons 


Vetch .... 




.... 


t8 tons 


tl2 tons 


2 tons 


3 tons 


.... 


.... 


Wheat .... 


14 bushels 


45 bushels 


12 bushels 


35 bushels 


27 bushels 


56 bushels 


12 bushels 


48 bushels 



• Winter rye. 



t Green feed. 



YIELD OF FARM CROPS 



155 



YIELDS OF FARM CROPS, continued 
As reported for this volume by observers in several parts of the continent. 





New Mexico 


Wyoming 


Washington 


British Colnmbia 




Average 


Best 


Average 


Best 


Average 


Best 


Range 


Alfalfa 


3 tons 

40 bushels 
600 lbs. 

22 bushels 
35 bushels 

11.5 tons 
10,000 lbs. 

30 bushels 


7 tons 
70 bushels 
1,000 lbs. 

60 bushels 
85 bushels 

19.5 tons 
18,000 lbs. 

63 bushels 


3 tons 
35 bushels 

12,000 lbs. 
18 bushels 

40 bushels 
75 bushels 

15 tons 
18 bushels 

10 tons 

1.5 tons 

25.5 bus. 


8.5 tons 

16,150 lbs. 
21,107 lbs. 

34.7 bus. 
16 bushels 
15,475 lbs. 

137 bus. 
8,200 lbs. 
972 bus. 

.... 

34 bushels 

28.7 tons 

40 tons 

*50 bushels 
t78 bushels 


|6 tons 
29.7 bus. 
13 bushels 
3,000 lbs. 
19.4 bus. 
2,855 heads 
476 bus. 

2.2 tons 

26 bushels 
5.7 bus. 

21 bushels 
600 bus. 

1.5 tons 

42 bushels 

377 bus. 

142 bus. 

1,384 

pumpkins 

14.6 bus. 

3.3 tons 
2.9 tons 

90 bushels 
3.7 tons 
1.5 tons 

236 lbs. 

3 tons 
25 bushels 


tlO tons 
80 bushels 

5 tons 

40 bushels 

150 bus. 
500 bus. 

* 
§ 18 tons 

irrigated 
dry land 

100 bus. 




Barley .... 
Beans, field . . 
Broom-corn . . 
Buckwheat . . 
Cabbage . . . 
Carrots .... 
Clover .... 
Cotton .... 
Cowpeas . . . 
Field-pea . . . 

Flax 

Kohlrabi . . . 
Lespedeza . . . 

Maize 

Mangels . . . 
Melilotus . . . 
Millet .... 

Oats 

Parsnips . . . 
Potatoes . . . 
Pumpkin . . . 

Rape 

Rice 

Rutabaga . . . 

Rye 

Sorghum . . . 
Soybean . . . 
Sugar-beets . . 
Sugar-cane . . 
Sweet-potatoes . 
Timothy . . . 
Tobacco . . . 
Turnip .... 
Vetch .... 
Wheat .... 


35 bushels to 105 bushels 
15 bushels to 25 bushels 

13 bushels to 41 bushels 

3 tons to 25 tons 

4 tons to 85 tons 
1.5 tons to 4.5 tons 

25 bushels to 106 bushels 

10 tons to 16 tons 

**10 tons to 45 tons 
13 tons to 50 tons 

1 ton to 6 tons 
35 bushels to 125 bushels 

8 tons to 28.5 tons 

20 tons to 63 tons 
15 bushels to 32 bushels 

4.5 tons 
6 tons to 23 tons 

2 tons to 5.5 tons 
11 bushels to 43 bushels 



* Field culture, 
t Garden culture. 



t Under irrigation. On dry land, 2.5 tons and 4 tons, respectively. 
§ Under irrigation. "For silage. 



PART II 

THE MANUFACTURE OF CROP PRODUCTS 

Every important crop affords material for one or more mannfuctured products. These products are 
of several classes or kinds, as: Preserved products for use as food for men or live-stock; construction 
products, as lumber, in which the plant material is merely put in shape or form for use, without change 
in its structure; extracted or expressed products, as wines; ground or pulverized products, as flour; 
transformed structural products, in which the identity of the original materials is lost, as in woven 
goods, paper. It would be interesting to make a list of the manufactured or manipulated products of 
the plants described in this book, beginning with the meal made from the alfalfa plant and ending with 
the flour and other products of the wheat grain. If the list were at all complete, the number would be 
astonishingly large and would impress the reader with his great dependence on the common crops of the 
fields. 

For the most part, the manufacturing of crop products is not agriculture. This manufacture is 
delegated to other persons who make it their exclusive business. The farmer, however, is closely 
governed in many cases by the necessities of the manufacturer. In fact, the need of manufactured 
goods has had a tremendous influence on agricultural practice, dictating the kinds of crops to grow in 
great regions, the varieties, the methods of growing them, the season at which they shall be delivered, 
the methods of harvesting and of marketing. It is clearly not the concern of a work of the nature of 
this Cyclopedia to discuss in any completeness the manufacture of crop products, for farming properly 
ends at the factory door. Certain manufacturing processes, however, are home industries, or they may 
be local and practically cooperative, and are therefore nearly or quite within the sphere of this book. 
Such processes are the various forms of preserving crop products for human consumption, and the 
making of juices and beverages. It is proposed, therefore, briefly to discuss some of these familiar 
subjects to aid the housekeeper and also to give information on some of the commercial relations of 
these industries. 

With the increase of population, the utilization of secondary or waste products in manufacture 
becomes more marked and important. In time, a use must be found for everything, and everything must 
be saved. This is well illustrated in wood products, paper now being made from kinds and sizes of trees 
that were passed by a few years ago, and lumber being sawn from small and crooked stufi^ that not 
long ago was left in the forest to be burned. A closer economy of materials will, of course, augment 
the influence of manufacture on crop production. 

In the old days, every good farm establishment conducted much of its own manufacture. It did its 
own weaving of cotton, flax or wool. It tanned its own hides. It "put down" its own meats. In many 
cases it made its own meal or flour. The manufacture moved to the village and finally to the city and 
remote from the farm. There is every reason to expect that manufacture is to return to the farm, 
perhaps not of the staple articles above mentioned, but of many secondary products that must be saved 
or that need to be added to the necessities of living. Every good farm will be equipped with light 
power, which will be utilized in the saving of labor and in manipulating crop products. Neighborhood 
manufacture is returning, particularly in dairy regions ; this introduces new methods of cooperation, 
and produces social as well as economic results. 

Unfortunately, there seem to have been few studies of these subjects in this country from the 
agricultural point of view. The literature is of two kinds,— the purely domestic writing, largely of the 
recipe-book order ; and the technical writing for the use of manufacturers or students of the scientific 
principles involved in the manufacture. We shall find, however, that these subjects have close relation 
to farm management and to crop-growing. It is impossible, for example, to find adequate advice on the 
growing of crops for canning factories. The field or farming phases of these subjects are in need of study. 

(156) 



CHAPTER VIII 

PRESERVED PRODUCTS 




fEW METHODS OF MANUFACTURE have greatly extended the importance of can- 
ning and of other methods of preserving, and have widened their influence on crop 
production. These methods have been largely in the way of perfecting machinery 
to take the place of hand-labor in preparing the products, making the cans or 
receptacles, and in cooking or sterilizing. The modern art and practice of canning 
are said to have begun with Nicholas Appert, in France, toward the cloee of the eigh- 
teenth century. It was about 1810, however, before the method became prominent, at 
least in England, whence Appert had received financial assistance for his work. Within 
ten years thereafter, Ezra Daggett and his son-in-law, Thomas Kensett, introduced into 
New York the method of hermetically sealing perishable products. Later thoy secured a 
patent for an improvement in the art of preserving. Nearly or quite contemporaneously, 
Charles Mitchell introduced the method into Boston, entering the employment of William 
Underwood, who established the firm of William Underwood and Company, in 1822. The 
canning of fruits, vegetables and meat products spread slowly for many years, but great impetus 
was given it by the gold-fever exodus, in 1849 (creating demand for compactly preserved food\ later 
by the Civil War, and thereafter by the rapid growth of cities and the dependence on the market. 
At first the scientific principles involved were not understood, but they have now been ex- 
plained by the studies of Tyndall, Pasteur and many others. The underlying principle is sterili- 
zation,— the killing of the germs that cause change and decay,— and the hermetical sealing to prevent 
contamination. 

The canning industry has experienced very great extension in this country, gradually moving west- 
ward with the development of diversified agriculture. The Central West has now become the principal 
packing section for certain leading goods. This is marked in the westward extension of corn packing. 
In 1906, Iowa held first place in the output of canned corn, with 1,.593,000 cases of two dozen cans 
each. Pumpkins, peas and other general field crops are heavily packed in the upper Mississippi valley 
states. The output in difi'erent years is likely to fluctuate greatly, however, as between localities or 
regions. 

The great importance of the various industries that preserve crop products, or extract their juices 
is shown by the following figures from the Twelfth Census (for 1900) : 





Number 
establishments 


Total capital 


Land 


Buildings 


Machinery, 

tools and 

implements 


Cash and 
sundries 


Fruits and vegetables, can- 
ning and preserving . . . 
Vinegar and ciJer .... 


1,808 
1,152 


$27,743,067 
6,187,728 


$2,702,470 
708,857 


$4,517,008 
1,410,215 


$4,797,719 
1,956,010 


$15,725,870 
2,112,646 



Later statistics, from the Statistical Abstract for 1906, give figures as follows for canning and pre- 
serving fruits and vegetables : 





Number 
establishments 


Capital 


Wage-earners 


Cost of material 


Value of product 


Census year 


Average number 


Total wages 


1880 .... 
1890. .. . 
1900 .... 
1905. . . . 


411 

886 

1,813 

2,261 


$8,247,488 
15,315,185 
27,795,621 
47,629,497 


31,905 
49,762 
37,189 
39,988 


$2,679,960 
4,651,317 
8,251,471 

10,428,521 


$12,051,293 
18.665,163 
37,382,541 
51,582,460 


$17,599,576 
29,862,416 
56,427,412 
78,142,022 



(157) 



158 



CANNING INDUSTRY IN CALIFORNIA 



This class of products figures heavily in the exports of the United States, as shown in the following 
exhibit. 

Domestic Exports. Years Ended June 30. (Statistical Abstract, 1906). 





Cider 


Canned 
fruit 


Malt 


Total 
wines 


Vegetables 
canned 


Vinegar 




Gallons 


DolKtrs 


Dollars 


Bushels 


Dollars 


Dollars 


Dollars 


Gallons 


Dollars 


1897 .... 


637,672 


77,695 


1,686,723 


289,543 


177,292 


698,714 


408,840 


93,969 


11,572 


1898 .... 


465,873 


60,063 


1,624,741 


406,702 


287,473 


728,749 


386,039 


108,657 


12,939 


1899 .... 


490,803 


64,500 


2,330,715 


453,038 


324,145 


676,330 


555,691 


107,317 


13,488 


1900 .... 


483,367 


64,283 


3,127,278 


296,742 


215,198 


625,592 


603,288 


115,372 


12,583 


1901 .... 


462,048 


61,132 


3,006,109 


357,947 


250,099 


504,573 


528,914 


83,780 


13,231 


1902 .... 


121,006 


21,869 


1,195,635 


401,375 


266,894 


450,325 


560,612 


95,675 


19,754 


1903 .... 


598,119 


84,084 


1,739,571 


347,147 


252,801 


31.5,176 


597,759 


103,417 


18,072 


1904 .... 


714,476 


103,314 


2,637,002 


438,580 


315,676 


436,693 


719,580 


132,450 


19,192 


1905 .... 


394,723 


61,204 


2,541,025 


487,158 


342,851 


383,457 


580,048 


111,994 


17,158 


1906 .... 


344,117 


53,577 


2,348,064 


881,523 


598,453 


351,550 


658,739 


92,027 


16,266 



The literature of canning and preserving is scattered in bulletins of a few agricultural colleges and 
stations, the national Department of Agriculture, the trade journals, proceedings of societies, in the agri- 
cultural press and a few books. The writers in this chapter suggest the following titles : H. W. Conn, 
Bacteria, Yeasts and Molds in the Home ; Mrs. Sarah T. Rorer, Canning and Preserving ; Hester M. Poole, 
Fruits : How to Use Them ; Fletcher Berry, Fruit Recipes ; Gesine Lemcke, Preserving and Pickling. 
Farmers' Bulletins : No. 93, Mary Hinman Abel, Sugar as Food ; No. 203, Maria Parloa, Canned Fruits, 
Preserves and Jellies ; No. 183, Andrew Boss, Meat on the Farm. Cornell Reading-Course for Farmers' 
Wives, Bulletin No. 20, Series IV, Canning and Pre.serving. 

Following are a few of the technical publications on this subject : Art and Science of Canning, 
published by Canner and Dried Fruit Packer, Chicago ; E. W. Duckwall, Canning and Preserving of Food 
Products, with Bacteriological Technique, Aspinwall, Pa.; C. A. Shinkle, American Commercial Methods 
of Manufacturing Pickles, Preserves and 
Canned Goods, Canyon City, Colo.; Sci- 
ence and Experiment as Applied to Can- 
ning, published by The Sprague Canning 
Machinery Company, Chicago (1902); pa- 
pers by W. Lyman Underwood and S. C. 
Prescott, entitled Microorganisms and Ster- 
ilization in the Canning Industries, Tech- 
nology Quarterly, Vol. X, No. 1, and Vol. 
XI, No. 1, Boston (1896, 1897). 

The mutual relations of canning fac- 
tories and farming are very intimate, one 
dictating to some extent the methods of 
the other. These relations have probably 
developed as far in California as elsewhere, 
and a brief account of them may serve to 
express the nature of the problems and 
progress involved, as well as to supply 
information of a certain region. 




Fig. 231. Cherry orchard, the fniit used largely for canning. 



CANNING INDUSTRY IN CALIFORNIA 

By a H. Bentky 

Owing to the wide variation in soil and climate, 
there is great divergence in the canning products 
and the canning industry in the states of the Pacific 
coast and Rocky mountains. 

California, having a climate favoring the widest 
range of products and a location best suited for 
marketing them, has shown the largest develop- 



ment in this industry. With the rapid increase in 
fruit crops throughout the state, large tracts of 
land have been set out without regard to any 
particular market. Nearly every fruit-growing 
community in turn has found it difficult, if not 
impossible, to market the crop in the fresh condi- 
tion. The local cannery, often started on a semi- 
cooperative plan by growers and other interested 
parties, has been a natural though rarely success- 
ful development. When operated on a strictly 
business-like basis, it has given reasonably good 
returns to the owners. In some cases, the canner 



CANNING INDUSTRY IN CALIFORNIA 



159 



has grown his own fruit, but he has usually bought 
from year to year according to the crop and mar- 
ket conditions, or has entered into a term contract 
with growers for a period of years to buy fruit of 
a size, quality and condition suitable for canning, 
at an agreed price or scale of prices. Through 
such term contracts the canner has exercised a 
beneficial influence. It has been to his interest to 
see that only the most improved varieties of fruit 
are grown ; that the orchard is properly pruned, 
plowed, cultivated and protected against pests of 
every kind ; that the crop is thinned when neces- 
sary and that it is harvested properly. Operating 
under such contracts, orchardists have been 
brought to see the benefit of intelligent and busi- 
ness-like farming. Information from the best 
authorities, relating to preferred varieties of fruits, 
methods of cultivation, pruning and fighting of 
. pests, harvesting and the like, has been distributed 
to the growers through the agency of the canners, 
and the latter have frequently pioneered some sug- 
gestion of the State College of Agriculture or of 
the United States Department of Agriculture, 
looking to improved conditions of horticulture. 




Fig. 232. 



Hauling peaches to the cannery. Penuryn, 
Placer county, California. 



In the growing of vegetables, canners have 
appeared even more prominently in bettering the 
conditions surrounding the growth of canning 
products. From the very limited acreage of aspara- 
gus grown for the local produce trade, has devel- 
oped a great industry, thousands of acres now 
being grown for the exclusive purpose of canning. 
When this industry was threatened by the para- 
sitic rust, canners were the first to propose and con- 
tribute to a fund handled by the College of Agri- 
culture of the University of California in making 
scientific investigation, which promises to be of 
lasting benefit. Similar conditions have arisen in 
connection with the growing of peas, tomatoes 
and string beans. Sweet corn has, not been grown 
to good advantage in California, and practically 
none has been canned. The worm which almost 
invariably appears in each ear of corn has made 
it impossible for canners to operate with any 
profit. The past season, through means provided by 
the canning interest, the College of Agriculture 
has had the opportunity of experimenting on sev- 
eral hundred acres of corn. While the results have 
not seemed to justify development in this business, 
a distinct advance has been made. 



The season begins in March with the canning of 
asparagus, the better packs being made in the 
peculiar peaty soil found in a few favored locali- 
ties. Fig. 233 shows a small part of an asparagus 



,<U 



■2'-\ 



^f •- 



—-' cC^j 





;*r§3rr?r}rrtT-Tr4X" -*?~ 






Fig. 233. Cutting aspaiagus for canning. 

field of 1,000 acres grown exclusively for canning 
purposes. The light loose soil is built up over the 
root crowns to a considerable depth, so that the 
shoots can grow without resistance during the 
time of harvesting. During the height of the sea- 
son the entire acreage must be cut daily, as the 
asparagus is not allowed to grow above the sur- 
face, and each spear is cut as rapidly as the point 
is exposed to the air. In this way, the white as- 
paragus, so much preferred, is secured. If exposed, 
the point turns first to a purple then to a green 
color. 

Sugar peas are handled extensively under what 
is known as the " viner system," the vines being 
mown at the harvest time and hauled in hayricks 
to the cannery, which is located close to the field 
whore the peas are grown. The vines are put into 
viners or threshers, as indicated in Fig. 234. This 
method is in general use throughout the country 
and is not peculiar to California. 

Tomatoes are contracted for delivery in early 




''x'^' 



^^'r*.* ^-»^~ 






Fig. 234. Pea-fleld, viner and cannery. 

September after the rush of the fruit season. They 
are usually safe from frost until the middle of 
November. Frequent crops of fifteen tons to the 
acre are secured. Fig. 235 shows tomato vines 



160 



CANNING INDUSTRY IN CALIFORNIA 



during the month of July. These vines were 
planted in May. Fig. 236 shows the tomato field at 
the time of harvesting, when the vines cover the 



apples, figs, lemons, logan-berries and oranges are 
also used in the preparation of jams, jellies and 
preserves. 

Duration of the California Canning Season— By Kinds or Varieties 
Showing Earliest and Latest Day's Packing for Period of 42 Consecutive Years in San Francisco 
Explanation: ^=^ entire sea.son. ■■ heavy period. 




Asparagus 

Strawberries 

Peas . . . 

Gooseberries 

Cherries, red 

Cherries, white 

Currants 

String Beans 

Blackberries 

Apricots 

Green Gages 

Egg Plums 

White Free Peaches 

Yellow Free Peaches 

Nectarines 

Pears . 

Yellow Cling Peaches 

Golden Drops 

White Cling Peaches 

Damson Plums 

Tomatoes 

Grapes 



Quinces 



All varieties, entire sea- 
son 



ground. As no rains are expected in California 
until the very end of September, there is no 
necessity for the use of trellises. 

The beginning of the canning industry in Cali- 
fornia was made in 1860. In 1863 the total pack 
was about 7,000 cases. It has increased as follows: 

1870 36,000 cases 

1875 61,000 cases 

1880 221,000 cases 

1885 615,000 cases 

1890 1,495,000 cases 

1895 1,639,000 cases 

1900 2,775,000 cases 

1905 3,800,000 cases 

By reason of the diversity of soil and climate, 
the canneries are scattered throughout the state, 
specializing more and more so as to handle prod- 
ucts where they are grown to the best advant- 
age. 

The above table gives the duration of the can- 
ning season by varieties. The heavy black line 
indicates when the season is at its height. This 
table also gives a list of the more important 
varieties used in canning, although it is to be 
noted that artichokes, baked beans, lima beans, 
beets, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, corn, 
onions, parsnips, potatoes, pumpkin, spinach, 
sprouts, squash and turnips are packed in consider- 
able quantities. In addition to the varieties of 
Jruits mentioned, it should be noted that crab- 



It is safe to say that the canneries in California 
are using the product of 15,000 acres bearing 
fruit and 10,000 acres bearing vegetables. The 
canned asparagus, apricots, peaches, pears and 
plums are shipped to all the open markets in the 
world and are regarded as superior. The cheaper 
staples, as peas and tomatoes, are marketed usually 
on the Pacific coast, as the cost of transportation 
limits the sale of such products as are generally 
produced throughout the country. With berries 



P^ 











Fig. 235. Tomato-fleia in July. At the time of harvestine 
the vines will have covered the ground. California. 

and apples, California enjoys no advantage over 
other localities, and for a like reason these products 
are, under normal conditions, sold in Pacific coast 
territory. Other vegetables, such as potatoes and 



HOME PRESERVING AND CANNING 



161 



cauliflower, are distributed largely in logging, 
mining and construction camps, and in cold and 
remote regions where fresh supplies cannot be 
secured. 

It is generally thought that the industry will 
not show the rapid growth in the future that it 
has in the past, for the reason that communities 
formerly dependent on canned goods for their 
supplies of fruits and vegetables, are now in many 

cases growing, 
and even can- 
ning, their own 
products. In 
other cases, 
with the im- 
proved s h i p - 
ping facilities 
and extension 
of railway 
lines, compara- 
tively remote 







Fig. 236. Harvesting tomatoes in Cali- 
fornia. The vines cover the ground. 

communities are now able to receive apples, citrous 
fruits and vegetables in safety throughout the 
winter. The constant improvement in the quality 
of dried fruits and their relative cheapness has 
had the tendency to reduce the volume of business 
on the cheaper grades of canned fruits. On the 
other hand, the demand for the better grades shows 
gratifying increase, and the development of new 
markets offsets the falling off of others. 



HOME PRESERVING AND CANNING 

By Anna Barrows 

Primitive man early discovered that dried foods 
are more easily transported from place to place 
and have better keeping qualities than when fi-esh; 
and that the salt of sea-water and the smoke of 
the camp-fire have further preservative influence. 
Generations ago housekeepers found out that dense 
substances would keep longer than those that were 
watery, so they packed cooked meat in its own fat, 
and made preserves rich with honey, or sugar, and 
savory with spices. The air-tight tin can and glass 
jar, sterilization and cold-storage, have done much 
in solving one of the most complicated problems of 
modern civilization, but all the possibilities have 
not yet been fully investigated. 

The efficiency of all ancient processes of food 
preservation is explained by the later knowledge 
of the habits of microorganisms. Failure in can- 
ning and preserving is usually due to lack of knowl- 
edge of these subjects. The essential points are 
these : Bacteria do not thrive in substances con- 
taining less than 2-5 per cent of water, such as 
preserves or jellies thick with sugar ; they are 
destroyed by heat ; they do not flourish in the 
presence of acids, alcohol, salt, spices, or the sub- 
stances deposited by smoke. Foods containing 
little nitrogenous matter are less liable to the 
attack of bacteria ; therefore bacteria are less 
troublesome in the preservation of fruits than of 
fish and meats. 

Molds and ferments or yeasts are the common 




Fig. 237. Forms of yeasts of 
different lands. 



enemies of preserves, jellies and the like. (Figs. 
237, 238.) These growths usually are killed in a 
few minutes at the temperature of boiling water, 
212° Fahr. A lower degree of heat continued for 
a longer period — half 
an hour or more — is 
often as effectual and 
less detrimental to the 
flavor and texture of 
the fruit. The spores, 
or undeveloped organ- 
isms, resist heat that 
would be fatal to those 
fully grown, so in lab- 
oratories or canning 
factories steam, under 
pressure, is used to 
secure a temperature 
much higher than 212° Fahr., and thus wholly to 
sterilize the food. Here the housekeeper cannot 
compete with the factories, and must practice 
intermittent sterilization as was done long before 
the existence and habits of the.se microorganisms 
were known. The material to be sterilized is 
heated to the boiling point and kept there for half 
an hour on three or more succe.ssive days. Between 
these scaldings it is left at an ordinary tempera- 
ture, that the spores may germinate and become 
active organisms. These are then killed by the next 
heating, and after the final boiling the exclusion 
of air prevents the entrance of others. 

It is essential that everything exposed to the 
air, filled as it is with "germs," should be sterilized 
before it comes in direct or indirect contact with 
the food to be preserved. Fruits are constantly 
exposed while growing, or in market, and their 
skins harbor vast numbers of microorganisms ; hence 
they must be thoroughly washed. The removal of 
skins from peaches, tomatoes and like products by 
scalding has more than one beneficial effect. If 
pared fruit must stand before cooking, it should be 
dropped into water with lemon juice or vinegar in 




Fig. 238, Molds. A, Mucor, showing sporangia bearing spores ; 
B, Pent'illiura, showing conidiophore bearing spores. 

it, to prevent the discoloration probably due to the 
action of a ferment. 

The room in which such work is to be done 
should be as clean as the operating-room of a 
hospital. All possible dust should be removed with 
a damp cloth. Every utensil should be boiled ten 
minutes or more, and kept in the water till it is to 
be used. The jars had better be filled over the 
stove where the air is sterilized by heat and steam, 
rather than by an open window, where dust-laden 
air can come in contact with them. 

We have become so accustomed to certain flavors 



162 



HOME PRESERVING AND CANNING 



in pickles and preserves that we forget that they 
are used primarily for their preservative effects 
and that they may retard digestion as much as the 
newer preservatives, the use of which is so justly 
condemned. 

In her " Frugal Housewife," published in 1830, 
Mrs. Lydia Maria Child says, " Economical people 
will seldom use preserves, except for sickness. 
They are unhealthy, expensive and useless to those 
who are well." To a modern student of dietetics it 
seems singular to give the sick anything unsuitable 
for the well, but certain pharmaceutical values 
were ascribed to " conserves " in the early days of 
their manufacture. Thomas Tusser, who died in 
1580, author of " Five Hundreth Pointes of Good 
Housekeeping " has this to say in their favor : 

"Good housewife provides, ere a sickness do come, 
Of sundry good things in her home to have some ; 
Conserves of barbary, quinces and such. 
With sirops, that easeth the sickly so much." 

The thorough sterilization of such articles is in 
their favor, and the value of sugar as a food is now 
recognized. 

Dr. Robert Hutchison makes this statement 
regarding homemade jam: "The acids of the fruit, 
aided by the high temperature employed in the 
course of preparation, bring about the conversion 
of a considerable proportion of the cane-.sugar into 
the invert form. Homemade jam is boiled for a 
longer time than the commercial article and con- 
sequently contains more invert and less cane-sugar 
than the latter. The larger the proportion of cane- 
sugar which has been inverted, the less likely is 
the jam to interfere with digestion." 

In a discussion of preserves and preserving, a 
number of preparations may be considered. It is 
but a step beyond the making of ordinary pre- 
serves to the preparation of candied, glace or 
crystallized fruits. Preserves also naturally merge 
into fruit butters, jams, jellies and marmalades, 
some fruits being better adapted to one form than 
to another. These terms are often used inter- 
changeably and vary in their application according 
to locality These several preparations will here 
be considered in order. 

Preserves. 

This type of sweet should not be served as freely 
as the ordinary canned fruits in which there is 
less sugar and more water, but there is no objec- 
tion to its use in moderation. The fruit is cooked 
in thick syrup, and more thoroughly than for can- 
ning. The denser the syrup the better the fruit will 
keep its shape, but when there is a tendency to 
jelly or caramelize, more water must be added. 
The proportion of sugar and water for the syrup 
must vary according to the juiciness of the fruit. 
For preserves, three-fourths to one pound of sugar 
is allowed for each pound of fruit. At the begin- 
ing the syrup may consist of twice as much sugar 
as water, for average fruits. A few pieces are put 
into the kettle at once, that each may be sur- 
rounded by the thick, hot syrup. As soon as these 
sections of fruit are cooked, in many cases becom- 



ing somewhat transparent, they are removed to 
the jars, and ' more are put into the syrup. More 
water or sugar is added as needed. At the end, the 
remaining syrup is used to fill the jars containing 
the fruit, and often forms a firm clear jelly in 
which the fruit is imbedded. 

Strawberrie.s, stoned cherries, and any fruit likely 
to lose form and flavor if cooked, are sometimes 
sprinkled with sugar and the syrup thus formed is 
scalded and poured hot over the uncooked fruit 
placed in the jars. If the syrup is then scalded two 
or three days in succession and poured over the 
fruit again, there is little danger of fermentation. 

Preserves will keep in jars that are not air-tight, 
but they should have much the same protection as 
jellies. The texture of each lot of fruit should be 
carefully observed, since varieties of the same 
fruit, and any one variety at different stages of 
growth, may produce a marked difference in the 
product. Hard fruits, as quinces, some pears and 
apples, may be improved by steaming until tender 
before cooking in the syrup. When any fruit is to 
be preserved whole, the center must be as thor- 
oughly sterilized as the outside, which must be 
accomplished by slow, gentle cooking, otherwise 
the surface will be broken and unsightly. There is 
a certain transparent appearance when the syrup 
has penetrated throughout. 

Candied J'ruit. 

This is to be classed with candies rather than 
with fruits, since the sugar predominates. Among 
the fruits most commonly subjected to this treat- 
ment are apricots, cherries, peaches and pineap- 
ples. The fruit is preserved in a thick syrup, then 
drained, cooled, dried and rolled in sugar. The 
time given to each process depends on the texture 
of the fruit and the size of the pieces. Experi- 
ments in this country have been hurried too much 
to produce as satisfactory results as ai-e obtained 
in France. One of our consuls has given this 
report on the methods pursued there: "Some of 
the denser fruits, as citron, are soaked first in sea- 
water. All are carefully sorted as to size and 
degree of ripeness, and stones and parings are 
removed. The fruit is then plunged into boiling 
water and drained, thus removing much of the 
juice. If this process is too long continued the 
fruit is overcooked or left too woody, but if the 
juices are not extracted sufficiently, less sugar is 
absorbed and there is more danger of fermentation 
later. Experience is the only guide." 

iSyrups of ditt'erent densities must be provided for 
different fruits, — the softer the fruit the denser 
the syrup required. The fruit, after thorough 
draining, is soaked in the syrup for a time before 
heating. When a cloudy appearance in the trans- 
parent syrup indicates the beginning of fermenta- 
tion, the vessel containing syrup and fruit is heated 
to 212° Fahr. The process of soaking in syrup takes 
about six weeks, and the mass is heated about 
three times during the period. After this, the fruit 
may be crystallized by cooling slowly to about 90° 
Fahr., which causes the thick syrup that covers it 
to granulate. Or it may be glazed by dipping in a 



1 



HOME PRESERVING AND CANNING 



163 



thick syrup and drying rapidly in the open air. 
The syrup remaining is worked up into various 
confections. Housekeepers frequently use up their 
orange and lemon skins in this way, and keep them 
in salt water until enough accumulate to make it 
worth while to prepare them. The salted skins are 
first boiled in fresh water to remove the salt and 
make them tender, then they are cooked in the 
syrup. Sweet flag and ginger roots should be 
cooked in several waters, to remove the too in- 
tense flavor before they are candied. The yellow 
plum tomatoes make a fair substitute for figs, if 
treated in this way. In all cases care must be 
taken not to cook the fruit at too high tempera- 
ture or to dry it too much. 

Fruit butter. 

Fruit butters seem to be of Dutch or German 
origin. They are smooth pastes made by long-con- 
tinued stirring. They are given their name from 
being used as or in place of butter. Sometimes 
several fruits are combined. Skins and seeds are 
removed, but the mass is not sifted. Sugar may or 
may not be used. The apple butter of Pennsylva- 
nia and Ohio is closely akin to the cider apple 
sauce of New England, but is usually a smoother 
paste. 

To make apple butter, sweet cider is boiled 
down one-half, then pared and cored apples are 
put in it. There should be rather more apple than 
cider, but if too thick add more cider ; if too thin 
add more apples. Stir with a wooden paddle till a 
rich, dark color and the desired consistency are 
secured. Further evaporation may be secured by 
putting the butter in stone jars in a slow oven. 
Spice may be added for variety, or when the apples 
are of inferior flavor. The better the apples and 
the more care given to every detail, the better 
will be the result. This product has had a market 
value, but is used mainly for home consumption, 
always ready as a relish for any meal. Apple-but- 
ter " frolics " once ranked with corn-huskings 
among the autumn festivities. (Fig. 239.) 

Jam. 

Jam is the general English term for any fruit 
conserve. The origin of the word seems evident, 
but it is also traced to words meaning t > congeal 
or thicken. Jams are usually made from the 
smaller fruits and berries, which may be jammed 
or mashed without previous cooking and which do 
not require the straining and longer process in- 
volved in jellies, marmalades or fruit butter. The 
fruit is cleaned, put into the kettle and jammed 
with a wooden masher as it heats, enough juice 
flowing out at once to prevent burning. Since no 
water is added, less time is required for evapora- 
tion, and in mcst cases cooking for half an hour 
is enough before the sugar is put in ; then cooking 
should continue five or ten minutes more. As com- 
monly known, jams are seldom as firm as jellies 
and marmalades. Similar compounds are some- 
times called fruit purees. 

Currants, if clean and thoroughly mashed, may 
be combined with an equal amount of sugar, and 



will keep without cooking if packed in sealed jars, 
their natural acid being enough to repel bacteria. 

Marmalade. 

" After a good dinner, left Mrs. Hunt and my 
wife making a marmalett of quinces," says Mr. 
Pepys in his Diary, November 2, 1663 ; so mar- 
malade is no new product. The derivation of the 
word shows that the quince was probably the first 
fruit used in this way. Its modern form is usually 
made from acid and semi-bitter fruits, and has a 
texture between the fruit butter or jam and jel- 
lies. The fleshy fruits with much pulp are desira- 
ble for this purpose, and those too ripe to keep 
their shape if preserved whole may be used. 

Some fruits may yield material for both jelly 
and marmalade. The cleaned fruit is cooked, with 
water enough to prevent burning, until soft. The 
clear juice is then drained ofl' for jelly, and the 
pulp while still warm is sifted through coarse 
cheese-cloth (or a hair sieve, a puree strainer, or 
potato ricer) for marmalade. To avoid burning, 
the fruit pulp may then be cooked until thick 
before adding sugar, which is generally used in a 
smaller proportion than for jelly. Fruit lacking 
flavor may be improved by moderate use of spice. 

Firm, solid marmalade, cut in strips and rolled 
in sugar, may form an agreeable addition to a 
box of homemade candy. In England, experiments 
have been tried of packing fruit pulp, cooked with 
sugar, in brick form, when it will keep indefinitely 




Fig. 239. Making apple butter. (Adapted from ' 
New-Yorlter.") 



Rural 



in a wrapping of waxed paper. For use, these 
fruit bricks may be reduced with water as desired. 

.Jelly. 

The ideal jolly is transparent, of uniform con- 
sistency throughout, firm enough to come from the 
glass in one mass and retain its shape, but with a 
quivering texture which divides readily and with- 
out any approach to gumminess. Some fruits are 
not adapted to jelly-making, though ambitious 
housewives, wishing to display a great variety, 
attempt to utilize all kinds of fruits. This effort 
is often the cause of failure to secure perfect 



164 



HOME PRESERVING AND CANNING 



jellies. Good results may be obtained from combi- 
nation of fruits, one giving consistency, another 
flavor. 

Just what the changes are that take place in the 
transformation of hard fruits into sparkling jellies 
does not appear to be fully settled by the chemists. 
Referring to the group of carbohydrates known as 
"pectin bodies," or "pectose," Dr. Robert Hutchi- 
son says, " These are the substances which give to 
fruits their power of forming jellies when boiled, 
and little is known of their e.xact chemical nature, 
but they appear to be converted into a special kind 
of sugar when digested (pentose), which is at least 
partly assimilable by the body." At present the 
general opinion seems to be that the pectose, 
insoluble in unripe fruits, under the influence of a 
ferment-like body called pectase, which is present 
in ripening fruits, or of acids and heat, becomes 
pectin, a soluble substance which stiffens the 
juices and produces the compound we know as 
jelly. As Miss Parloa says, " Pectin is at its best 
when the fruit is just ripe or a little before. If 
the juice ferments, or the cooking of the jelly is 
continued too long, the pectin undergoes a change, 
and loses its power of gelatinizing." 

By continued evaporation of certain fruit juices 
containing much pectin, jelly may be made without 
addition of sugar. Currant jelly may be made by 
combining the warm juice and warm sugar without 
further cooking, placing the glasses where sunlight 
will do the remainder. 

The eft'ect of a damp season may be seen in 
jellies. There appears to be less of the jellying 
property, more boiling is needed to evaporate 
moisture, and there will be more shrinkage of the 
jelly in the glass afterwards. 

The apple may be used to illustrate the general 
process of jelly-making, since that contains a 
large proportion of the pectosic principle, and 
having a less distinctive flavor of its own may be 
combined with more expensive fruits, as the pine- 
apple, to produce satisfactory results. A goo'^ 
supply of jellies may be secured from differe.it 
varieties of apples alone, the different kinds 
ranging from the pale color of the Porter to the 
deep red of some winter varieties, with flavors as 
unlike as the shades of color. The fruit is cleaned, 
quartered and cooked in water until soft, but no 
longer. The average proportion is one quart of 
w\ater to two quarts of apples, but this varies with 
the juiciness of the apples. The cooked fruit must 
drain without pressure. One simple old-fashioned 
way to accomplish this is to spread a square of 
cheese-cloth over a large agate or earthen pan, 
pour the hot fruit into this, tie the opposite cor- 
ners of the cloth together, and hang over a strong 
stick placed across two chairs so the juice will 
drip into the pan. Better than chairs and stick is 
a strong bird-cage hook in the wall over the 
kitchen table; or the cheese-cloth may be laid over 
a hair sieve which is set in a pan. The frame of 
the sieve will raise the fruit out of the juice. The 
cloth should always be moistened before the fruit 
is put in it. 

Jelly-making is seldom as successful in damp 



weather as on a clear, bright day, for evaporation 
is slower. Sugar is peculiarly affected by the 
weather and, though in less degree, some of the 
same difficulties attend jelly-making as the manu- 
facture of candy. On a clear, windy day evapora- 
tion is rapid and less boiling is required. In mid- 
summer, bacteria are so active on some of the hot, 
muggy days, that it is almost impossible to make 
everything sterile. 

The juice must be measured and boiled rapidly 
in a shallow kettle. It is often more satisfactory 
to boil lots of one or two quarts than in larger 
quantities. The process is hastened by heating in 
the oven for ten minutes the nearly equal weight 
of sugar, while the juice is boiling on the top of 
the stove. When the sugar will hiss as it meets 
the liquid, it is put in, stirred till blended, and the 
whole boiled for about ten minutes more. Careful 
skimming at intervals is essential to secure a clear 
jelly, for if the froth once boils in, the jelly, even 
if strained afterwards, will never be quite clear. 
The time and the general appearance of the jelly 
tell us when to stop. If uncertain, single drops on 
a cold surface will show the consistency. 

Strain the jelly quickly through a new wire 
strainer into a pitcher and pour from that into the 
final receptacle. Tumblers are generally preferred, 
giving a good form for the table, but tin covers 
are undesirable. When the jelly is cold and firm, 
melted paraffine may be poured over till one-fourth 
inch thick. One thinner layer may be allowed to 
cool, and then the remainder poured on will cover 
any cracks. Papers dipped in alcohol or brandy, 
laid directly on the jelly, will prevent mold, but a 
layer of absorbent cotton or batting is an addi- 
tional safeguard, and strong paper may be pasted 
over all. 

Jellies crystallize because of excess of sugar or 
too hard boiling. A temperature even 2° higher 
will make the color darker, and cause a loss of 
flavor in the jelly. 

Fruit syrup. 

Jellies that do not stiffen properly, and any sur- 
plus syrup from preserves, should be bottled for 
future use as the foundation of many desserts, 
such as gelatine or custard puddings, ice creams, 
and the like. Often several odd lots of fruit juice 
may be crmbined for a summer beverage. Occa- 
sionally it has been found more convenient to can 
the fruit juice and make jelly at another time. 

Fruit syrups seem to be slowly taking the place 
of the homemade wines by which our great-grand- 
mothers set such store. W. M. Williams, in his 
"Chemistry of Cookery" says, 

" We shamefully neglect the best of all food in 
.eating and drinking so little fruit. As regards 
cooked fruit, I say jam for the million, jelly for the 
luxurious, and juice for all. With these in abun- 
dance the abolition of alcoholic drinks will follow 
as a necessary result of natural nausea." Yet 
much of the fruit syrup which has been used in 
" temperance drinks " was composed of artificial 
colors and flavors, with hardly a trace of the fruits 
whose names they bore. Under the new pure food 



J 



HOME PRESERVING AND CANNING 



165 



laws these will not be allowed to pass for the real 
article. 

Homemade preserves for market. 

Notwithstanding the consolidation of industries, 
there is a constant demand for high-grade home- 
made preserves at prices as high as for other fine 
hand-work. Every detail must be looked after to 
secure perfection. The price-list of any first-class 
grocery in our large cities mentions certain " spe- 
cialties " of Miss ■ or Mrs. at fifty 

cents per quart-jar and upward. Even at the low- 
est figure, a woman may earn more money at home 
than she can save from city wages, but she must 
control her conditions to secure a regular income 
in this way. Much cheap jelly has been made from 
poor fruit sweetened with glucose and flavored 
artificially, while in some sections of the country 
fruit rotted on the ground. 

There are many combinations of fruits possible 
which would be more attractive to customers than 
some of the usual articles. Such are pears cooked 
in grape-juice, currants with raspberries, barber- 
ries with wild apples. Insipid fruits are improved 
by combination with raisins, lemon-peel or spices. 
Ground spices are easily added and are not objec- 
tionable in a dark marmalade or ketchup. Whole 
spices may be tied loosely in a bag, and cooked in 
water from which syrup is to be made, while, in 
some cases, oils and essences are preferred to either 
whole or ground spice. 

Economies of preserving. 

There are many women who would do better to 
employ some country friend to provide them with 
a supply of canned fruits, jellies and the like, than 
to do it for themselves if they must buy all the 
fruit. Whether for ourselves or for sale, much 
discretion is necessary to adapt the fruit at hand 
to the many varieties in preserves. We can sel- 
dom raise or buy perfect fruit, therefore it must 
be sorted carefully. To preserve whole, select that 
of uniform medium size and good shape. From 
abnormal sizes and imperfect shapes parts may be 
cut to preserve, and the remainder used for mar- 
malades and the like, with the fully ripe fruit 
which would not keep its shape to cook whole. 
Clean skins and cores, undersized fruit and inferior 
parts will yield ample material for jellies and fruit 
syrups. This is the method we follow when cooking 
meats : the large, tender, sections for roasts and 
steaks, the smaller pieces of clear muscle for stews, 
the bones and tough parts for soups. 

To keep its shape, fruit must be cooked slowly, 
a few pieces at a time in syrup ; for other prepara- 
tions it is better to add the sugar later. 

When a single variety of fruit must be the 
main dependence, it should appear in as many, 
forms as possible, and with different flavors. 
Peaches, for example, may be cooked whole, or in 
halves, or in slices, with little sugar or much, with 
cracked pits for the flavor, or in spiced vinegar, or 
made into marmalade. 

About one pound of fruit will be required for 
each pint-jar of preserve, and this pound will 



measure roughly, one quart before cooking. Thus, 
a woman may estimate the number of jars to be 
secured from a given quantity of fruit. In this 
way she can decide whether to buy fruit and pre- 
pare it for herself, to pay some one else for skilled 
hand labor, or to depend on the factories. 

Evaporating. 

[The home evaporating of fruits under eastern 
conditions is described on pages 174 to 177. A 
note may be inserted here on the sun-drying of 
fruit in dry regions. There is practically no evap- 
orating in California as it is understood at the 
East or in the moist-air sections of Oregon and 
Washington. Evaporating machines and houses are 
practically unknown as home devices, although 
they are used in connection with large canneries 
for the purpose of saving fruit which is a little too 
ripe for the canning process. Not less than nine- 
tenths of all the dried fruit produced in California 
is cured by sunshine in the open air ; and by wise 
use of sulfur fumes immediately after cutting dis- 
coloration is prevented, so that California sun-dried 
fruit sells as "evaporated." Thirty years ago many 
evaporators were erected to apply the Alden and 
other pioneer processes, but they were all abandoned 
as soon as the proper, sun-drying process was 
developed. Since then repeated attempts have been 
made to introduce various styles of evaporators, 
without success, because no artificial drying agency 
is so cheap as sunshine acting under the very dry 
summer air and practical absence of rains. Con- 
sult Chapter XXXV, Wickson "California Fruits," 
3d edition ; also bulletins of Oregon and Washing- 
ton Experiment Stations. — Editor.] 

Canning. 

Although in some respects a simpler process 
than those already described, the discussion of 
canning has been left until the last because it 
is a later discovery. 

When fruits and vegetables are freed from bac- 
teria and packed in air-tight cans, little or no 
preservative material need be combined with them. 
Hence, canned fruits, being in a more natural form 
and more dilute than jams and preserves, are con- 
sidered to be more digestible than such prepara- 
tions dense with sugar. 

Acid materials, as rhubarb or cranberries, may 
be canned without cooking. The cut pieces are put 
in glass jars, the spaces filled with fresh cold water, 
and the jars sealed. Thus the sour juices act some- 
thing like vinegar as a preservative. 

Usually, however, sterilization by heat is essen- 
tial. The fresher and cleaner the article to be 
canned, the more certain we are of securing com- 
plete sterilization. Overripe fruit, or that exposed 
in dusty markets, may harbor bacteria not easily 
destroyed at the boiling-point. Here the home 
canner cannot compete with the factory, as there 
it is possible through steam under pressure to 
secure a higher temperature. 

Firm fruits may be stewed or steamed and then 
packed in jars. The softer fruits may be steamed in 
thin syrup or, better still to preserve their form and 



166 



HOME PRESERVING AND CANNING 




Fig. 240. Common wash-boiler and 
slats for heating cans preparatory to 
sealing. 



flavor, put in jars and set in a pan of water in the 
oven or in a steamer to cook and then be filled with 
thin syrup. Before sealing, a spoon should be put 

down between jar 

~^ and fruit to let out 
' ■ ■ all air-bubbles. 

The pressure of 
the atmosphere on 
the surface of the 
preserving kettle 
causes some vari- 
ation in the dens- 
ity of syrup, how- 
ever the sugar and 
water were pro- 
portioned at first. 
When canning 
acid fruits, the 
syrup used to fill 
the jars may be 
made of equal 
measures of sugar 
and water, while, for sweet fruits, the sugar may 
be reduced. 

The canning of vegetables is usually considered 
a more difficult process under ordinary conditions 
than that of canning fruits. With due precautions 
as to cleanliness and a long period of cooking in 
the jars placed in a steam cooker or wash-boiler 
(Fig. 240), many housekeepers are as successful 
with vegetables as with fruits. 

Some vegetables are more subject to fermenta- 
tion than others. Where the skin is cut, as in 
sweet corn, there is greater opportunity for bac- 
terial action. String beans may well be parboiled 
in salted water before putting into the jars, where 
the cooking process nlust be continued two or 
three hours. Tomatoes are less 
liable to spoil if thoroughly 
skimmed while cooking. When 
they have proved most trouble- 
so m e to housekeepers, it ap- 
pears that they have not been 
cooked long enough for the 
center of the tomato to be 
raised to the boiling point. 

The country 
housekeeper who 
can bring perfect 

fruits and vegetables from her gar- 
den directly into the preserving 
kettle and air-tight can will have 
little trouble with "germs"; but the 
city woman who must secure raw 
materials through many middlemen 
would better depend on reliable 
canneries for her main supply. 

Utensils. 

While excellent results have been 
Fig 242. accomplished by many housekeepers 
Glass cylinder vvith very poor appliances, any one 
(A) and syrap u • i. i i • 

gage (B) who IS to make preserves as a busi- 
Pa'rm'ers'B*!- "®^^ needs the best utensils, not 
letin No. 203). the most expensive, but those best 





Fig. 241. 

Fruit pricker. 

Made liy tlirasting 

needles through 

cork. 




Fig. 243. 

Wire basket for scalding 

the fruits. 




adapted to the purpose. Everything should be of 
shape and substance easy to handle, not readily 
affected by acids, and afl;ording little hiding-place 
for molds and ferments. 
Scales give greater 
accuracy than measures. 
A silver-plated fruit- 
knife with sharp edge is 
best for paring and cor- 
ing, or steel knives, if 
used, should be kept 
bright. Wooden, enamel, 
or silver spoons should 
be used, never tin or 
iron. 

The old porcelain- 
lined iron kettles trans- 
mitted moderate boat 

with little danger of burning the con- 
tents. There are brown earthenware 
kettles, raised from the stove by short 
legs or a metal rim, that are useful 
when slow evaporation is essential, as 
for marmalades or ketchups. Agate- 
ware kettles are light, easy to lift, and 
clean, and with asbestos or a metal 
trivet underneath do not burn readily. 
There should be several of different 
sizes, and new ones are desirable since 
fruit acids often remove stains which 
cannot be scoured off, — and that does 
not improve the hue of a jelly. Broad 
rather than deep kettles should be 
A wooden chosen, since evaporation is thus hast- 
masher for ened, and whole fruits should be cooked 
in shallow layers. 
A wire basket is a great help in scalding fruit 
to remove skins. A wire spoon or bright skimmer 
is needed occasionally. Enamel strainers and col- 
anders are convenient. A wooden masher is best 
for jam. Fruit -presses, cherry-stoners, and the 
like are required when large quantities are to bo 
prepared. For accurate results, a thermometer and 
syrup gage are as essential as any other tools. 
Never try to fill many jars without a large- 
mouthed tin funnel. Strong linen cheese-cloth 
strainers and a flannel bag are necessary for 
jellies. To protect tables from stains and make it 
easy to clear up afterward, cover with several 
layers of paper, those on top being clean brown 
paper. 

Jars. 

To hold difl^erent quantities of fruit and, later, 
to serve a family of varying size, the jars should 
be of all sizes, half -pint, pint, quart and two- 
quart. Better pay a few cents more than to get 
jars with imperfect edge, sure to result in cut 
fingers, or with blisters of glass inside that will 
break and mingle with the contents of the jar, or 
with letters and trade-marks in the way of complete 
sterilization. The best covers are those of glass held 
in place by a metal spring fastened about the neck 
of the jar. When a glass top is fastened in a metal M 
rim it is impossible to keep it perfectly clean. f 



PRESERVING AND CANNING 



167 



New rubber rings should be provided each year, 
though a few of those left over may be usable. 
Sometimes two rings should be used, they are so 
thin. Wide-mouthed bottles may be tightly corked 
and covered v/ith a cement of rosin and beeswax. 
Bottles are suitable for the fruit syrups, but the 
self-sealing ones are best. For all purpo-sies, even 
for jellies, air-tight jars with glass covers have 
many advantages. Sterilization is as necessary for 
jelly tumblers as for jars. After jars are filled 
properly, they should be labeled and dated. Printed 
labels already gummed may be bought at low rates, 
so there is noe.\cuse for indistinct or untidy labels. 

The closet where filled jars are kept should be 
light, dry and easy to keep clean. For the first 




Fig. 245. Amanita muscaria. A poisonous white-spored 
agaric. 

month, watch all jars, and, if there is any indica- 
tion of fermentation, open, scald, and use at once. 

Summary. 

This is no place for detailed recipes, since those 
may be found in cook-books and bulletins. The 
essential points in all canning, jelly-making, pre- 
serving and pickling may be given in few words : 
The article to be preserved and everything to come 
in contact with it must be sterilized, and then the 
air must be kept from it. Constant watchfulness 
and absolute cleanliness are the only magic arts 
employed. The housekeeper of today must not for- 
get the traditions and experience of past genera- 
tions, but even in these e very-day processes she 
must apply also the results of the experiments of 
modern scientists. Though many of these processes 



have passed out from the home, there is still a 
place for the homemade preserves which have a 
distinct quality and with which no factory goods 
can compete. 

Preserving and preparing mushrooms. (By B. M. 
Duggar.) 

In the preservation of mushrooms the proces.ses 
may be either by drying or canning. By both 
processes some of the flavor of the mushroom is 
lost, but, nevertheless, the product is an impor- 
tant article of commerce, and commands a price 
averaging, perhaps, half that of the fresh mush- 
rooms. A discussion of edible native mushrooms 
will be found on page 474. Figs. 245-247 show 
some of the mushrooms to be avoided. 

Drying. — The simpler method is by drying, and 
this is commonly used by the peasantry of Europe 
for the preservation of such common forms as 
Boletus cdiilis {Steinpilz cepe), Agaricus campestris 
(the common mushroom), and, in addition, several 
species which are used primarily for soups and 
stews. The method is, however, applicable to a 
large number of fleshy species. The method which 
is recognized as giving the best results consists in 
thoroughly cleaning the fungi and then immersing 

them for a moment 
in boiling water 
which is slightly 
acidu la ted with 
vinegar or lemon 
juice. It is asserted 
that the acidulation 
prevents, to some 
extent, the darkening of the 
mushrooms, yet the addition 
of acid is not a universal 
custom. Taken from the 
boiling water, the mush- 
rooms, if small, are fre- 
quently strung on threads 
and hung in the sun or over 
the stove. Large specimens 
should be sliced. When dried 
in quantity, it is unquestion- 
ably desirable to desiccate 
more promptly by placing 
the material in a slow oven 
(a temperature of 90° to 
100° C, or 194° to 212° 
Fahr.) or it may be disposed 
over wire netting suspended 
over a stove or oven. When 
dry they are frequently hung 
in sacks, or merely as strung, 
in a dry room where pep- 
pers, dried apples, and other 
such products are preserved. 
For commercial purposes, 
however, they may be imme- 
diately placed in glasses or 
tins, well closed or sealed. 
In moist weather much mois- 
ture may be taken up, if 
exposed, and molding will 




Fig. 246. 
Amanita phaUoides. A 
deadly poisouous. 
whitp-spored agaric. 
Showing cap, stem, 
ring and cup -like 
volva with a free, 
prominent limb. 



168 



THE COMMERCIAL CANNING INDUSTRY 



more readily result. All mushroom growers will 
find the drying process of value in order to make 
use of portions of the stems and of mushrooms 
rather too far advanced for the demands of the 
best markets. They may then, moreover, be reduced 
to powder, by passing through an ordinary grinder, 
and this powder is in considerable demand for sauces 
and as seasoning. 

77(6 canning of mushrooms in liquid, according to 
many methods which have been published, involves 




Fig. 247. 



Boletus felleus, the bitter boletus of doubtful 
leputation. 



blanching by means of a solution containing alum 
and bisulphite of soda. An effective home method, 
preserving the flavor fairly well, is this : Peel and 
throw into boiling water, containing for each 
gallon three ounces of salt and the juice of two 
lemons. After five minutes, put into clean pint-jars 
and cover with a brine containing per gallon 
from one to two ounces of salt and a little lemon- 
juice. They are then brought gradually to the 
boiling-point and boiled for about fifteen minutes. 
Preserving in butler, an expensive but common 
process, is somewhat as follows: Clean and peel as 
usual and place for a few minutes in cold water, 
acidulated with vinegar or lemon-juice. Dry with 
a clean cloth, and use for each quart of mushrooms 
three ounces of butter, a small teaspoonful of salt, 
a little pepper and the juice of one lemon. Melt 
the butter in a stewpan, add the mushrooms and 
the seasonings; cook slowly until nearly dry, shak- 
ing to prevent sticking. Then put into jars and 
fill with melted butter. Heat in boiling water for 
ten minutes, close the top, cool gradually and 
seal. 



Mushroom ketchup is commonly made as follows: 
Clean, cut into slices and dispose in layers one- 
half inch thick in an earthen dish, sprinkle with 
salt, and repeat until the dish is full. Place in the 
refrigerator or a cool place for at least two days. 
Then crush and strain the product through a cloth. 
Boil the liquid in a porcelain-lined kettle, adding 
for each quart one-fourth ounce allspice, one-half 
ounce ginger root, one dozen cloves and several 
blades of mace. Boil fifteen minutes, strain through 
flannel into sterile bottles, cork and dip into sealing 
wa.x. Or, in the spring, omit the ginger, and add 
instead, at the time of maceration in refrigerator, 
to each two pounds of fresh mushrooms about three 
ounces of fresh walnut husks, finely chopped. 
Again, gelatine may be added prior to the last 
boiling, and the product may be used as a jelly, 
when it is not desired to keep it for a long period 
of time and to avoid bottling. 

Pickled mushrooms may be readily prepared, but 
they are not greatly esteemed. 

THE COMMERCIAL CANNING INDUSTRY 

By Samuel C. Prescott 

Canning is so called because the food material, 
either animal or vegetable, is " packed " in metal 
or glass containers, hermetically sealed and steril- 
ized or "cook.^d" by the application of heat. The 
containers, commonly spoken of as "cans," are 
generally made of tin plate, although, for certain 
kind of foods, glass jars are sometimes used. The 
process is capable of very wide application, as all 
kinds of foods, except those eaten only in the raw 
condition, may be preserved in this way, and thus 
the abundance of one season or one locality may 
be made available at another place or time. 

The general object of the process is apparent 
from the foregoing, but it may be stated that the 
main problem is to prevent decompo.sition or spoil- 
ing, changes induced in foods by the activity of 
various kinds of microorganisms which ferment 
or putrefy the foods, giving rise to products of 
harmful or undesirable character and rendering the 
food unfit for use. 

From a sanitary point of view, canned foods, if 
properly prepared, are of the highest value, as they 
are free from bacteria. This fact, combined with 
their convenience and the ease with which they 
may be transported, has led to an enormous manu- 
facture and consumption of these very satisfactory 
food products. In this article the canning of vege- 
table foods only will be considered. 

Methods of sterilization. 

Sterilization of the can and its contents is 
eifected by one of the following methods : (1) water 
bath, (2) chemical bath, (3) steam under pressure in 
strong chests or kettles frequently called "retorts." 
Figs. 248 and 249 show sterilizing or cooking 
apparatus. 

(1) The water bath. As its name implies, steri- 
lization by this means consists in boiling the cans 
or jars for a single period or discontinuously, a 



I 



THE COMMERCIAL CANNING INDUSTRY 



169 



temperature of 100° Centigrade (212° F.) being 
thereby obtained. 

(2) The chemical bath. This consists of a strong 
solutionof some salt, gen- 



erally calcium chlorid, 
because of its great sol- 
ubility. The boiling point 
of the solution being 
much higher than that 
of water, higher temper- 
atures may be reached by 
its use than with the 
ordinary water bath, and 
consequently a shorter 
time is required to bring 
about sterilization. This 
method was first em- 
ployed in this country 
about 1863, but was not 
a success because the 
cans of that time were 
not strong enough to 
withstand the pressure 
generated within. The 
method of use is the 
same as with the water 
are boiled for a certain 




Fig. 248. 
A commercial com cooker. 



bath, i. e., the filled cans 
definite period. 

(3) Steam under pressure. This method of steril- 
ization was introduced about 1870. The tempera- 
ture in this case may be varied by control of 
steam pressure. The steam being confined in the 
retorts, of course the pressure is equal within and 
without the cans ; thus, unless the outside pres- 
sure is removed suddenly, the strain on the cans 
is not great and loss from bursting is small. Most 
of the modern cans, however, are sutticiently 
strong to withstand sudden changes without injury. 

There are two modifications of the retort, known 
as the "wet retort" and the "dry retort." In the 
former, the kettle is filled with water and steam 
under pressure blown in, so that the boiling-point 
of the water is much raised owing to the increased 
pressure. These kettles are generally cylindrical 
and are placed in a vertical position, with a heavy 
lid on the upper end. When in use, this lid is fast- 
ened down by means of heavy bolts. The kettles are 
generally provided with three valves, — an intake 
valve for steam at the bottom, an outlet for water 
at the bottom and an exhaust valve for steam in 
the lid. Although spoken of as a " wet retort," it can 
be used without water in the same way as a "dry 
retort." In the " dry retort," the steam under pres- 
sure is blown in, directly replacing the air and 
coming directly into contact with the cans. 

The Portland type of retort consists of a heavy 
iron chest, about cubical in shape. One side of the 
cube is the door, which is hinged and fastens by 
bolts. With the exception of the door the retort 
is cast all in one piece, the door forming a separate 
casting. 

Both types of retorts are provided with ther- 
mometers and pressure gages. In the use of retorts 
of either kind it is es.sential that a current of 
steam under pressure be passed continuously, this 



"circulation" being effected by leaving the ex- 
haust valve slightly open. The temperature maybe 
kept constant by regulating the amount of steam 
entering the retort and the amount of the exhaust. 

As already mentioned, this method is most effi- 
cient in its action on the resistant spores of bac- 
teria, consequently is the safest method to employ 
in the preparation of canned goods. It is neces- 
sary, however, to avoid excessive heating, as dam- 
age to the foods may be done in this way. One 
result of over-cooking is to produce discoloration 
of the food substance, a defect which sometimes 
interferes with the commercial value of the article. 
Temperatures above 120° C. (248° F.) are rarely 
used, the best temperature for any material being 
determined directly by experiment. 

In sterilization of canned foods, it is necessary 
that the whole contents of the can be subjected to 
the required temperature for a period of time long 
enough to destroy all germs whether spore-produc- 
ing or not. This period of time can be determined 
accurately only by experimental tests. It is of 
equal importance to know the length of time 
necessary for the required heat to penetrate to 
the center of the cans, this time varying very much 
with different materials, owing to their different 
conductivity for heat. Liquids are, in general, good 
conductors, while solid or semi-solid substances 
conduct but poorly. Knowledge on this point is 
absolutely essential in order to prescribe a satis- 
factory process. 

TIic vacuum. 

It is customary in the preparation of canned 
foods to have a partial vacuum in each can, and 




Fig. 249. Improved steel process kettle, manufactured to 
hold 800, 1,000 and 1,200 two-pound cans. 

for many years it was thought that this vacuum 
was the principal factor in keeping the goods. 
While this is untrue, it is desirable to have the 
vacuum as it allows a means of inspection of the 
cans. The vacuum is indicated by the concavity of 



170 



THE COMMERCIAL CANNING INDUSTRY 



the ends of the cans and should always be present 
in sound cans. If, however, putrefaction or fer- 
mentative changes take place, in which gases are 
produced, the ends bulge out, owing to the pres- 
sure of the gas within, and so may be easily de- 
tected. Even in ca.se no swelling of the cans takes 
place, skilful in.spectors can distinguish between 
good and bad cans by the sound when the cans are 
struck on the ends. The vacuum is generally pro- 
duced by filling the cans with the material in a 
hot condition and sealing them immediately. When 
water-bath sterilization is employed, the cans are 
sometimes unsealed or punched while hot and the 
steam allowed to escape, the aperture being closed 
again at once. 

Principles involved in canning specific crops. 

In the canning of fresh vegetables, the raw 
materials are substances high in their percentage 
of water and relatively high in carbohydrates, but 
relatively low in proteid matter. Because of dif- 
ferences in texture and composition, no hard and 
fast rules of procedure can be laid down. The 
details of the processes for various kinds of canned 
goods cannot be given here, but the general prin- 
ciples involved in the different classes may be 
mentioned. 

In the preparation and preservation of all kinds 
of canned goods the necessity for cleanliness is 
evident, since the entire operation is one in which 
the aim is to prevent bacterial action. Although 
in the final process absolute sterilization is to be 
brought about, the length of time necessary to 
produce this end may be much shortened if care is 



added in sufficient amount to fill the cans. Unless 
the freshly cut plant is used, a poor product is 
obtained, as, on standing, it rapidly becomes with- 
ered and tough. If not sufficiently " processed " it 




Fig. 250. A steam apple-butter cooker. 

taken to exclude the organisms from external 
sources. Owing to the preponderance of carbohy- 
drates, fermentations taking place are most likely 
to give rise to acids, lactic acid, probably, being 
the one most frequently found. Putrefactive fer- 
mentations sometimes occur, especially in those 
vegetables having considerable nitrogenous sub- 
stances, as beans, peas and asparagus. 

Asparagus is packed in large quantities in Cali- 
fornia and the middle Atlantic states. After plac- 
ing the stems in the cans, a dilute salt solution is 




Fig. 251. Whirlpool blancher for use in canning factories. 

undergoes fermentation, losing color and assuming 
a rather bitter, acid taste. If too highly heated, it 
is darkened and has an overcooked taste. 

Peas. — In packing peas, the peas are first 
removed from the pods by a machine, either a 
" viner" or a '"podder." In construction the " viner " 
consists of a large hollow cylinder, enclosing a 
wire cylinder, within which a paddle wheel revolves 
rapidly. The vines are fed in at one end of the 
cylinder, and as they are struck by the paddles the 
pods are burst open and the peas dislodged, the 
bruised vines being delivered at the other end of the 
cylinder. The peas and fragments of leaves, pods 
and the like, fall on a broad endless rubber belt 
which travels up an inclined plane, where separa- 
tion by gravity takes place, the peas rolling down 
into a trough while the lighter impurities are 
carried away by the belt. 

In the "podder" the mechanism is still simpler. 
Instead of passing the whole vines into the 
machine, the pods are picked off by hand and the.se 
are fed into the machine through a hopper. The 
removal of the peas from the pods is effected in the 
same way as in the viner, and the peas and pods 
delivered by chutes. 

From a bacteriological point of view, the latter 
process is the more desirable, as it leaves the peas 
clean and dry, while in the case of the " viner " 
they become wet and sticky with the juice of the 
bruised vines, and consequently more or less con- 
taminated with dirt and dust. 

After grading, i. e., separation by sieves into 
peas of different sizes, and further removal of 
fragments and poor peas, washing and blanching 
or scalding takes place. In this process much of 
the adherent dust and other contamination is 
removed, and the peas pass to the " filler " where 
they are delivered into cans, then to the " briner," 
where a boiling hot solution of sugar and salt is 
added. The cans are then sealed and are ready for 
the final cooking process or sterilization. This is 
done by steam under pressure, the length of time 
being determined by the age and quality of the 
peas. The temperature and time given varies with 
different manufacturers, ranging from 230° to 240° 
for thirty to forty minutes. 

The fermentations which are likely to take 
place in case of insufficient sterilization are numer- 



THE COMMERCIAL CANNING INDUSTRY 



171 



ous. There may be the formation of acids — lactic, 
acetic, and but.vric particularly — with formation 
of gas; acid production (lactic) without gas forma- 
tion; or putrefactive fermentation. The fermenta- 
tions vary with the conditions and in many cases 
are due probably to mixed infection, thereby giving 
a large variety of products. These fermentations 
often take place rapidly, and are generally favored 
by a temperature of 35° to 40° C. (95° to 104° F.). 
These rapid actions are generally accompanied by 
evolution of gases, sometimes the pressure of the 
gases generated being sufficient to burst the cans. 
In other cases, the action is very slow and but a 
small amount of gas is produced. 

The sweating of green peas when allowed to 
stand in boxes has been studied to some extent by 
Underwood and the writer. Rapid fermentation 
takes place with the formation of acids and a 
slimy layer envelops the peas. Because of this 
action, peas should never be allowed to stand over 
night or for any length of time before being steri- 
lized. The bacteria causing these fermentations 
have been studied by Prescott and Underwood. 

Beans. — The canning of green beans or string 
beans is done in much the same way as the canning 
of peas. Baked beans, however, being somewhat 
denser and more resistant to the penetration of 
heat, require somewhat longer cooking in order 
thoroughly to sterilize. They are generally packed 
together with pork or with the addition of some 
sauce, as tomato. 

Sweet corn is canned in immense amount in the 
United States. The corn is cut from the cobs by a 
machine, mixed with water and a little "brine," 
and heated in a "cooker," in which it reaches a 
temperature of about 80° C. (176° F.). Sugar is 
added in small amount and the heated corn is filled 
into cans and sealed immediately. The sterilization 
is done by steam under pressure of thirteen to 
fifteen pounds, and the time required for steriliza- 
tion varies with the consistency, percentage of 




Fig. 252. Peach peelers for canning factory. 

water, starch and the like, variations of fifty to 
seventy-five minutes being found in different fac- 
tories. Sweet corn undergoes fermentative changes 
even more rapidly than do peas, because of its high 
percentage of sugar, and especially from the fact 
that the kernels are broken, thus allowing direct 



access of bacteria to the saccharine juices. Unless 
means were taken to prevent it, fermentation 
would take place in a short . time. An extended 
study of this fermentation has been made by W. L. 
Underwood and the writer. Several species of 
bacteria were discovered in cans of "sour" corn, 
some of these being able to resist five hours" 
boiling without being destroyed. Further investi- 
gation showed the source of these germs to be 




the ears of corn. Bacteriological examination of 
healthy ears of fresh corn revealed the presence 
of germs on the kernels beneath the husks. These 
bacteria give characteristic reactions with nutrient 
media, and produce rapid fermentation of sugars, 
giving rise mainly to lactic acid, but also to forms 
of butyric and acetic acid. Sterilized sweet corn 
was converted in a few hours to a mass with strong 
acid reaction and sour taste. The most favorable 
temperature is 36° to 40° C. 

The effect of the various steps in the canning 
process was also investigated. In the "cooker" 
many bacteria are destroyed, the more resistant 
ones, however, remaining uninjured. Two-pound 
cans which were given a heating' at 120° C. (248° 
F.) for thirty minutes were found to contain living 
bacteria, and cans so treated frequently become 
much disturbed within a few days. On the other 
hand, if the heating process is continued for a 
sufiiciently long time all bacteria are destroyed. 
The reason for the necessity of the long period of 
heating is the low conducting power for heat of 
the corn. Experiments made with maximum regis- 
tering thermometers showed the time necessary for 
the temperature applied to record at the center of 
two-pound cans, as follows: 

Temperature applied,— 



in. Time 


233° F. 


2-10° F. 


245° F. 


2.1(1° F. 


40 . . 


.226 


233 


234 


237 


45 . . 


. 227.8 


234.5 


236.5 


240.5 


50. . 


.229 


236 


239 


244 


55. . 


. 231 


237.4 


241 


247.5 


60 . . 


.233 


239 


243 


250 


65 . . 


. 235 


240 


245 


250 


70 . . 


. 235 


240 


245 


250 


75 . . 


. 235 


240 


245 


250 



This is strikingly confirmed in a practical way by 
the fact that souring, in many cases, is found only 
at the center of the cans, and in a majority of 
cases the fermentation probably begins at that point. 



172 



THE COMMERCIAL CANNING INDUSTRY 



The use of mild antiseptics has also been of 
frequent occurrence in the packing of corn, the 
object being not only to prevent development of 
bacteria, but primarily to render the corn white in 
color. Excessive heating gives a slightly brownish 
coloration to the corn, which has been counteracted 
to some extent by the use of sodium sulfite and 
similar compounds. The use of antiseptics or 
bleachers of any kind is not free from objection, 
as, even if the amount is so small as to be uninju- 
rious to health, the flavor of the article may be 
somewhat affected. 

Tomatoes. — In the canning of tomatoes, the fruit 
is first scalded to make easier the removal of the 
skins. The peeled and properly prepared pulp is 
then put into the cans by means of a machine 
which may serve both as a preliminary heater and 
as a filler. The preliminary heating is of advantage 
as it saves time in the final heating or steriliza- 
tion process. As with other vegetables, the cans 
are generally capped by use of a machine, when the 
canning operations are conducted on a large scale. 

As tomatoes are more watery than corn, they 
may be more readily heated through and hence do 




Fig. 254, Apple paiisg, coiisg and slicing machine. 



not require so long a sterilization process. They 
are, however, extremely liable to fermentative 
changes if the heating is not thoroughly done. 

Other kinds of vegetables are prepared in simi- 
lar ways. It is essential to take into considera- 
tion only the physical character of the food and 
the changes it undergoes on heating to modify the 
process to suit an individual case. 

Fruit-packing. 

The packing of fruits is in general accompanied 
by less danger of spoilage than with vegetables, 
owing to the presence of natural acids and to the 
greater water content and resulting higher con- 
ductivity. As in the case of vegetables, specialized 
machinery has been devised for the carrying out 
of certain processes. A good example of this is in 
the peach peelers and pitters. Small stone-fruits 
are packed whole, i. e., without removal of the 
pits. A syrup of cane-sugar and water is added to 
supply liquid. 



The sterilization may be carried out in retorts, 
or an open water bath may be employed, in which 
case the temperature does not get above 100° C. 
(212° P.). The spoiling of fruits is of a difl'erent 
character from that found in vegetables, as in the 
former case the sugar is most frequently fermented 
to alcohol and carbon dioxid. Trouble from this 
source is relatively rare, however. 

Extent of the canning industry. 

The canning of fruits and vegetables has shown 
an interesting tendency toward centralization in 
those localities especially adapted for the growth 
of special kinds of materials. Baltimore, the most 
eminent canning center, is perhaps an exception 
to this, as here are packed annually enormous 
amounts of pineapples as well as other southern 
fruits. 

New York state lead, in 1899, in canning corn, 
apples and pears, and also packs large amounts of 
beans and peas. A second corn-canning area is 
found in Maine, the only one of importance in New 
England, and a third of greater extent in the 
central states of Iowa, Illinois and Indiana. 

Tomato-packing is perhaps the most widely dis- 
tributed of these special branches of the industry, 
and in this line Maryland stands in first place, fol- 
lowed by New Jersey, and then by Indiana, California 
and Delaware. The tomato may perhaps be regarded 
as the most typical canned fruit. In 1906, there 
were 9,074,965 cases of this fruit packed, aggregat- 
ing over 200,000,000 cans of three pounds each. 

The industry, as has been said, is one which has 
had a rapid growth in this country, and with care 
and strict adherence to making quality a first con- 
sideration, is bound to increase to still greater pro- 
portions. This fact is made evident by a study of 
the Census figures showing the increase from 1889 
to 1899 in the five leading canning states for 
tomatoes and corn. The figures refer to the num- 
ber of cases of twenty-four cans each : 

Tomatoes. 

1899 1889 

United States .... 8,905,833 2,942,440 

Maryland 2,793,522 671,333 . 

New Jersey 1,080,059 516,701 

Indiana 878,791 194,150 

California 796,080 234,020 

Delaware 763,836 191,797 

Corn. 

1R99 1889 

United states .... 6,365,967 1,726,096 

New York 1,341,352 272,925 

Illinois 1,082,196 200,750 

Iowa 995,713 70,100 

Maryland 852,859 400,104* 

Maine 715,211 505,362t 

* lucluding Virginia. t Including Vermont. 

The pack (cases) of peas for 1899 was as follows 
in the five leading states : 

United States 2,738,251 

Maryland 758,431 

New York 751,535 

Wisconsin 490,296 

Indiana 209,154 

Delaware 101,038 



HOME-MADE PICKLES AND KETCHUP 



173 



In ] 899, fourteen states packed 94.6 per cent of 
the tomatoes and 92.3 per cent of the corn for the 
United States. Maryland alone packed 31.4 per 
cent of the total pack of tomatoes, and Maryland, 
New Jersey and Indiana, 53.4 per cent. New York 
alone produced 21.1 per cent of the total can of 
corn, while New York, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland and 
Maine produced 78.3 per cent. 

For further detailed statistics the reader is 
referred to the reports of the Bureau of the Census. 

For Canada, in 1891, there were sixty establish- 
ments engaged in fruit and vegetable canning, with 
a total capital of $571,520, employing 2,304 per- 
sons, paying $523,151 for materials, and turning 
out a product valued at $929,778. In 1901, there 
were fifty-eight establishments, with a total capital 
of $2,004,915, employing 4,640 persons, paying 
$1,571,681 for materials, and turning out a product 
valued at $2,831,742. 



HOME-MADE PICKLES AND KETCHUP 

By Anna Barrows 

There is but slight difference between acid 
fruits preserved with sugar and spice (spiced 
currants for e.xaraple), and the sweet pickles in 
which vinegar is added to supply lack of acid in 
the fruit, or to make a preserve more acceptable 
to serve with meats. 

The average proportion for sweet pickles is one- 
half pint of vinegar, one-half to one pound of 
sugar, one ounce of mixed spice, to tv/o pounds of 
fruit. Because of the uncertain quality of ingre- 
dients this is subject to variation; some vinegar is 
so strong that it should be diluted with water; 
brown sugar is often preferred and sweet fruits 
require less sugar. 

Vinegar is a product of bacterial action, but 
after the acetic acid, which is its most important 
principle, is formed, it protects anything placed in 
it from change. Thus it is used often for a tem- 
porary preservative of vegetables, such as pickled 
beets or turnips for salads. Cider vinegar is usu- 
ally preferred. Spices are a further protection 
against ferments and mold. Vinegar has also the 
power of softening the cellulose of green vegeta- 
bles, and thus renders some most unpromising sub- 
stances acceptable as condimental food; the hard 
green cucumber and tomato, melon rind, string 
beans and the like, are thus made usable. It is a 
question whether, now when we can bring fre.sh 
fruit from all the world, we are wiser to retain 
some of these, or to discard them as we have the 
rose-haws, which our fore-mothers used to pre- 
serve. 

Some of these materials keep better and lose 
objectionable flavor if they are first soaked in 
brine. Some are so hard that they should be stewed 
in weak vinegar before scalding in the syrup. 
Ripe fruits are oftener treated to intermittent 
sterilization. The ordinary sour pickles are pre- 
pared in the same general way, omitting the 
sugar. The green cucumbers, and the like, fre- 
quently are packed in salt as fast as they grow, 



and the final preparation with vinegar and spices 
is left until they are needed for use. Sauer kraut 
is cabbage prepared with salt, but not enough to 
prevent fermentation, so that there is some acid 
formed which softens the cellular tissues of the 
cabbage. 

It is diflicult to retain a fresh green color 
in pickles that have been long salted. It has 
been secured by scalding the pickles and vinegar 
in a brass kettle, but this is dangerous. Grape 
leaves, or others rich in chlorophyll, placed in 
the jar sometimes aid in producing the desired 
color. 

To make pickles more crisp, old recipes often 
recommend the addition of one tablespoonful of 
powdered alum to the gallon. This may not be 
seriously harmful, but it may well be omitted. The 
best way is to make the pickles more quickly, so 
that color and crispness are not lost, instead of 
packing in dry salt which extracts their juice and 
makes it necessary to soak them for a long time to 
remove salt and restore water. Soak small cucum- 
bers in salt water over night, then drain and 
pour hot spiced vinegar over them and leave for 
several weeks. The flavors of the different jars 
may be varied, onion in one, dill in another, 
and mixed spice in another. A horseradish leaf 
on top of a jar of pickles is thought to retard 
mold. 

Ketchup and like preparations. 

Ketchup, catchup, or catsup, is "a spiced condi- 
ment for meats" which is not mentioned in our 
earlier dictionaries. Yet it is probably of very 
ancient origin, — a form of the East Indian "kitjap" 
from which these names are evidently derived. 
Dr. William Kitchiner, in his "Cook's Oracle" 
published in 1838, gives recipes for mushroom, 
walnut and oyster "catchups." The cook-books 
give many formulas for appetizers of similar 
nature, many of them doubtless of similar origin : 
"India relish," "chowchow," "chutney," "picalilli," 
"chilli sauce," appear with many variations. These 
bear much the same relation to pickles that jams 
and marmalades bear to preserves; some are 
strained, others are not, but all are fluid. 

Almost any fruit or vegetable pulp may be used 
as the basis for these preparations, and this is 
supplemented by additions of salt, sugar, vinegar 
and spices. Tomato is perhaps more generally used 
than any other foundation, but apples, gooseberries, 
grapes and plums may be prepared in the same 
way. Imperfect tomatoes and those not fully ripe 
may be used in this way to advantage. After 
cooking and straining, the seasonings are added to 
the ketchup, and then it is cooked down to a con- 
sistency as thick as will pour easily. The brilliant 
color which has been seen in some tomato ketchups 
is plainly artificial. Small bottles are best, since 
after opening, anything of this nature is liable to 
mold, unless it contains strong preservatives. 
Olive oil is sometimes used on top of fruit syrups 
and ketchups to keep out air. When the bottle is 
opened, the oil may be removed by a swab of cotton 
or soft paper. 



174 



EVAPORATING AS A HOME INDUSTRY IN EASTERN UNITED STATES 



r 































EVAPORATING AS A HOME INDUSTRY IN 
EASTERN UNITED STATES 

By G. F. Warren 

In the past twenty-five years great progress has 
baen made in each of the three methods of preserving 
fruit: drying or evaporating, canning or preserving, 

and extracting the 
juice. Canning for 
market has largely 
passed into the 
hands of firms that 
operate expensive 
canneries and make 
this their business. 
Evaporation has 
also passed through 
a period of great 
development from 
the old methods of 
drying in the sun. 
But while it has 
progressed to so 
great an extent, it 
still remains as a 
home industry in 
the East. Perhaps 
it is because the 
equipment of a good 
evaporator lies within the means of a farmer, 
while the equipment of a canning factory is very 
expensive. The Twelfth Census report gives the 
total product of evaporated fruit in 1899 as 144,- 
804,638 pounds. A large part of this represents 
the product of the farmers' home evaporators. 

The evaporator furnishes a profitable outlet for 
fruit that is undesirable for market purposes. It 
not only makes such fruit a source of profit, but 
keeps it from the market where it would compete 
with good fruit and lower the price. In years 
of low prices, the entire crop can be evaporated 
and held for better prices. Not all of the fruit 
evaporated is of poor quality. In some regions, 
fruits are grown primarily for evaporation. In 
Wayne county. New York, nearly half of the apple- 
growers regularly evaporate all their crop or sell 
it to neighbors for that purpose. 

Extent of the industry. 

Apples, pears, raspberries, peaches, plums, cher- 
ries, quinces, huckleberries, currants, peas, corn, 
potatoes, pumpkins, and other crops are evaporated 
to some extent in the East. The apple-evaporating 
is by far the most important. The following table 
gives the average amounts of dried apples exported 
and shows the increase in these amounts : 



Fig. 255. A cabinet evaporator. 



Annaal average 


Pounds 


Value 


Price 


1864-1870 

1871-1880 

1881-1890 

1891-1900 

1901-1904 


1,067,920 

4,632,460 

13,305,098 

19,368,301 

32,980,363 


$114,681 

289,986 

773,.508 

1,088,104 

1,968,808 


$0,107 
.063 
.058 
.056 
.059 



The center of the apple-evaporating industry is 
Wayne county. New York. This county undoubt- 
edly produces more evaporated apples than any 
state outside of New York, except perhaps Cali- 
fornia. In 1902, this county evaporated over 
3,000,000 bushels of apples, producing about 
20,000,000 pounds of dried stock. The average 
for the past five years (1900-05) has been about 
15,000,000 pounds. Over 70 per cent of the total 
crop is evaporated. This evaporation is nearly all 
done by the farmers who grow the fruit or by 
their neighbors. The evaporators are almost as 
characteristic of the farms as are the barns in a 
dairy region. Evaporating is also done in the 
villages. The methods described in this article are 
founded on New York experience. (See page 165.) 

Sun drying. 

Until about 1870, sun drying, or drying over the 
kitchen stove, were the only methods used. Prob- 
ably, the beginning of the evaporating industry 
was with the invention of the Lippy fruit-drier, in 
1865. It was about fifteen years later before the 
evaporator largely replaced the sun-drying method. 
Many farmers still dry fruit in the sun, but in the 
East large quantities are not often so dried by one 
person. The sun-drying is ordinarily done on racks, 
made of lath placed about one-fourth inch apart 
and covered with cloth or paper, or made of thin 




Fig. 256. Fruit evaporator adapted to kitchen stove. 

lumber. Slices of apples are sometimes strung on 
strings and hung in the sun to dry. 

Evaporation gives a much better looking product, 
that is more palatable and more digestible, and 
that consequently brings a much higher price. At 
the date of this "writing (February 1906) the best 
quality of evaporated apples is quoted in New York 
City at eleven and one-half cents per pound, while 
the best sun-dried stock is quoted at seven cents. 



EVAPORATING AS A HOME INDUSTRY IN EASTERN UNITED STATES 



175 



The poorest grades are quoted at seven cents for 
evaporated and five cents for sun-dried. Other fruits 
show similar differences. Not only is the sun-dried 
product less valuable than the evaporated, but the 

process is slow and 
inconvenient. The 
fruit must be pro- 
tected from showers 
and dew. In rainy 
weather, it is almost 
impossible to get it 
dry without having 
it damaged. 

Artificial evapora- 
tion. 

In the process of 
evaporating, two dis- 
tinct methods are 
followed : one, by 
means of air heated 
by stoves or fur- 
naces and then made 
to circulate through 
the drying fruit; the 
other, an indirect 
system, by means of 
steam-pipes that pass through the evaporator. The 
latter system has not yet been generally employed, 
but it has many points in its favor and seems 
likely to replace the direct-heating system in large 
evaporators. 

There are three general types of construction of 
the direct-heating system : the cabinet, the kiln, 
and the tower or flue. 

Cabinet evaporators. — The cabinet evaporators 
usually consist of a series of drawers with screen 
bottoms, placed above a furnace or stove so that 
the hot air passes up through the fruit. Sometimes 
the floor under the lower screen is solid, with open- 
ings at the sides. The hot air strikes this floor, is 
divided into two currents that pass up on the sides, 
then over the fruit to the center of the evaporator 
and out at the top. Fig. 255 shows an evaporator of 
this type. In these evaporators, the fresh fruit is 




Fig. 257, A fruit drier set on an 
ordinarj' cook-stove. 




usually placed in the upper drawer. When that on 
the lower screen is sufficiently dried, it is removed 
and each screen is lowered one space, making room 
for a new screen in the top space. Usually there 
are two series of drawers carrying twenty to 
twenty-five screens, which are one to four feet 
square, according to the size of the evaporator. 

There are many sizes and styles of these cabinet 
evaporators. Some are small enough to stand on 
the kitchen stove (Figs. 256, 257), cost three to five 
dollars, and have a capacity of one to four pecks 
per day. Fig. 258 shows one of a larger size, made 
of galvanized iron and provided with its own fur- 
nace. This has twenty 12 x 24-inch screens, and 
has a capacity of four to five bushels per day. 




Fig. 256. Fruit evaporator and furnace. 



A simple portable evaporator, provided with 
its own heater. 

Larger evaporators constructed by farmers usually 
consist of a wooden building on a brick basement, 
in which the furnace or stove is placed. The stove 
pipe is carried around the basement so as to get 
the full benefit of the heat. These usually have two 
compartments, each of which has room for ten to 
twelve screens that are about four feet square. 

Another form of cabinet evaporator sometimes 
used is made with doors at the front and at the 
back, and is much larger, so that there is room for 
six to ten screens on one plane. Each newly filled 
screen is put in at the highest level, and as it goes 
in it pushes the preceding one toward the back. 
When the first one reaches the back, it is put in 
the next lower level and started toward the front 
again. The screens are thus run back and forth 
till they come out at the lowest level when the 
fruit is sufficiently dried. 

Because of their cheapness and simplicity, the 
cabinet evaporators are very popular with begin- 
ners and with small growers. The smaller ones are 
well adapted to evaporating for home use. 

Kiln evaporators. — The kiln evaporator is simply 
a room with a slatted floor, underneath which air- 
pipes or smoke-pipes from a stove or furnace are 
conducted. The buildings are usually constructed 
with double walls or with some other device for 
retaining the heat. The drying floor is placed 



176 



EVAPORATING AS A HOME INDUSTRY IN EASTERN UNITED STATES 




Fig. 260. A kiln of evaporating apples. 



about nine to twelve feet above the floor of the 
furnace room. It is made of slats of hard wood 
that are about one inch wide on top and one-half 
inch wide at the bottom, so that they have cracks 
one-eighth to one-fourth inch wide. The cracks 
are larger on the lower side, so as to prevent clog- 
ging. On such a floor, hops, apples, pears, rasp- 
berries, and the 
like are evapo- 
rated. Fig.260 
shows such a 
kiln filled with 
apples. This 
kiln is the com- 
mon size in 
New York, 20 
x20 feet, and 
will evaporate 
one hundred 
bushels of ap- 
ples per day, 
or more if run all night. In this evaporator, two 
men had charge of the furnace and of six kilns 
that were evaporating 400 bushels per day. Fig. 
261 gives the outside view of a five-kiln evaporator 
of this type. It shows the ventilator at the ridge, 
where the hot air escapes after passing over the 
fruit. 

This system is open to the objection that the 
fruit must be shoveled over from time to time to 
insure uniform drying. If not skillfully done, some 
will be too dry while other parts will not be dry 
enough. The handling itself is likely to damage 
some fruits. However, a skilled man overcomes 
these objections. The system has some very decided 
advantages over the tower system. Kilns are 
cheaper to build, are less likely to take fire, and 
require much less labor to operate. In some 
neighborhoods the tower evaporators are now 
being replaced by the kiln system for evaporating 
apples. 

Tower or flue evaporators. — The tower evaporators 
are the commonest ones in New Y'ork, where apple- 
evaporating has become such a great industry. 
They consist of a chimney-like structure of wood 
or brick extending from the basement of the 
building to a point higher than the roof. A stove 




Fig. 261. A five-kiln evaporator. 

or furnace in the basement furnishes hot air that 
pas.ses through the tower. 

The tower is usually three to four feet square 
and is provided with an endless chain or other lift- 
ing device on which the screens may be placed. 
The screens of fresh apples are placed in the tower 



at the first floor. By means of the lifting device, 
the entire charge can be lifted by one operation, 
so that the screens gradually rise as more are 
added at the bottom. The screens of evaporated 
fruit are removed on the second floor. In some 
forms there is a double shaft, .so arranged that the 
screens are carried up to the top and down again 
in the other side of the shaft, so that they may be 
removed on the first floor. It will be seen that in 
the former case the fresh fruit is placed directly in 
the hottest part of the shaft, so that the vapor and 
steam from this pass through the fruit that is 
partly dried, while in the cabinet evaporators it is 
placed in the coolest part and comes to the hottest 
part as the drying nears completion. There is 
some dispute as to which of these methods is the 
more desirable, but the latter seems to be so. 

In Fig. 2G2 is shown an evaporator with three 
brick towers. Each of these towers has a capacity 
of twenty-five tray.s, each forty-nine inches square. 
Such a plant will evaporate about fifty bushels of 
ajiples or 1,600 quarts of raspberries per day for 
each tower. 

Handling the crop. 

If the entire crop of an orchard is to be evapo- 
rated, the apples are shaken from the trees. They 

are cored, pared 

and sliced by 
machinery. Be- 
fore slicing,they 
are inspected by 
a " t r i m m e r ," 
who removes 
any remaining 
skin, core or de- 
cayed places. 
Before evapora- 
ting, the apples 
are placed in the 
fumes of burn- 
ing sulfur for a 
few minutes for 
the purpose of 
bleaching. 

With a one- 
tower evapora- 
tor, fifty to sixty bushels can be evaporated in one 
day by one parer, two trimmers, one slicer, and one 
man to tend the evaporator, — five persons, four of 
whom may be women and children. If kilns and 
self-feeding slicers are used, the labor may be much 
reduced. The average cost per bushel of evapora- 
ting is eleven to fifteen cents. A bushel (50 pounds) 
of apples produces five to eight pounds of dried 
stock. The early apples produce less than the 
winter varieties. There is also much difl'erence 
between different varieties of the same season. If 
properly dried, the average is six and one-fourth 
to seven pounds. 

Apples that are not suitable for drying are 
chopped and evaporated without paring or coring, 
and are sold as " chops." The cores and .skins are 
also dried, and are sold for the manufacture of 
jellies and wines. 



4 




Fig. 262. Three-Stack evaporator (coal- 
shed on left) in Wayne county. New 
York. 



JUICES AND LIQUORS 



177 



Raspberry evaporating. 

One of the other important evaporated fruits is 
the raspberry. Usually only the black varieties are 
dried. There is not much demand for red ones, 
and they are so tender as to require more careful 
handling and give less dried stock per quart. For 
evaporating, the berries are sometimes hand-picked 
and are sometimes "batted." In the latter method 
of harvesting, the picker carries a frame covered 
with cloth and so arranged that the berries that 
strike against it are caught at the bottom. The 
vines are pulled in with a hook and are hit with 
a bat, so that the berries fall into the box at the 
bottom. The process of evaporation is much like 
that for apples, except that no sulfur is needed, 
and that, if a kiln is used, the floor is usually 



covered with muslin cloth. It requires about three 
to four quarts (four to five pounds) of berries to 
give one pound of dried berries. 

Literature. 

Bulletin No. 100, Cornell Experiment Station, 
and Farmers' Bulletin No. 213, Department of 
Agriculture, discuss different types of evaporators 
in detail and describe the methods of raising and 
evaporating raspberries (Fig. 2.56 is adapted from 
the latter); Bulletins Nos. 226, 229 of the Cornell 
Station give statistics and .some discussion of apple- 
evaporating in New York; Yearbook, United States 
Department of Agriculture, 1898, p. 309; Farmers' 
Bulletin No. 291, Evaporation of Apples, H. P. 
Gould, from which Pig. 259 is taken. 







CHAPTER IX 

JUICES AND LIQUORS 



'ITH THE PERFECTING OF MECHANICAL METHODS, and the con- 
sequent cost of installing apparatus, the manufacture of beverages 
has practically ceased to be a home industry, although cider is still 
sometimes made on the farm. The business of making juices and 
liquors is still very closely associated with land culture, however, 
inasmuch as the products are made from fresh and perishable 
materials that cannot be transported great distances or kept for any length 
of time. From being an incidental business, using only the cull or inferior 
fruit, these industries have now developed to such an extent as to take the 
entire product of whole farms, the crops being grown for the express pur- 
pose of supplying the manufactories. It is probable that the making of fruit juices of many kinds will 
very largely increase, affording a staple means of finding a market for large areas of crop produce. 
The extent of this group of industries is already very large, as the following statistics indicate : 



United States Census Figures poe 1900. 






Pickles, preserves .ind sauces 


Vinegar and cider 




474 

$10,656,854 

1,845 

$1,652,051 

$12,422,432 

$21,507,046 


1,152 


Capital 

Number salaried officials, clerks, etc 


$6,187,728 

456 

$391,541 




$3,272,565 


Value of products 


$6,454,524 



Figures for Vinegar and Cider. (From Statistical Abstract.) 



Census year 


Number 
establishments 


Capital 


Wage-earners 


Cost of material 


Value of product 


Average number 


Total wages 


1880 .... 
1890 .... 
1900 .... 
1905 .... 


306 
694 
613 
568 


$2,151,766 
5,858,395 
5,629,930 
7,519,853 


1,257 
2,637 
1,557 
1,528 


$413,451 
720,681 
652,077 
725,148 


$1,888,173 
3,268,455 
3,134,313 
3,852,233 


$3,418,038 
6,649,300 
5,931,692 
7,265,469 



The total number of wine-making establishments in the United States in 1900 was 359, of which by 
far the larger part (236) -sre small establishments owned by individuals rather than firms or incorpo- 

B12 



178 



GRAPE AND OTHER FRUIT JUICES 



rated companies. The total value of the product for that year was $6,547,310, of which $3,937,871 was 
the value of the California product. New York was second with a product valued at $942,548, and Ohio 
third with $801,684 ; New Jersey, North Carolina and Missouri follow in the order given. The gallons of 
Domestic Wines consumed (not including exports) are as follows for a series of years : 



1900 26,242,492 

1901 24,008,380 

1902 44,743,815 

1903 32,634,293 



1904 37,5.38,799 

1905 29,369,408 

1906 39,847,044 



GRAPE AND OTHER FRUIT JUICES 

By A. M. Loomis 

Grape and other fruit juices have become, of 
recent years, articles of commercial importance; 
their manufacture is recognized as a noteworthy 
industry; and the sale of fruit for this purpose is 
of sufficient volume to be an influential factor in 
establishing the market price. Grape juice is 
now manufactured and sold as a beverage, for its 
nutritive and tonic value in sickness, and for its 




Fig. 263. Battery of presses and steam-heated aluminum kettles 
used in making grape juice. 

use for flavoring other foods and drinks. Other 
fruit juices are sold largely for their uses as 
flavors, particularly to the soda-fountain, baking 
and confectionary trades. The amount of grape 
juice made probably exceeds many times the amount 
of all other fruit juices, although of recent years 
there has appeared in the markets an unfermented 
apple juice and an unfermented orange juice in 
considerable quantities. 

Distribution and extent of the industry. 

The greatest manufacture of fruit juices in the 
East is in New York state, and in the West in 
California. The manufacture of apple juice, pro- 
perly so-called, being a diflierent product from 
cider, in that it contains no product of fermenta- 
tion and no alcoholic content, is being practiced 
in increasing measure in several sections, particu- 
larly in the western New York apple-belt and some 
other apple-growing sections. Orange juice is put 
up in California on a somewhat extensive scale. 

The manufacture of grape juice grew up as a 



commercial enterprise entirely apart from the 
wine industry, contrary to the general impression 
that the wine industry is the parent of the grape- 
juice business. It can be said to have had its 
beginning at Vineland, N. J., with Dr. Thomas B. 
Welch. In 1869, Dr. Welch put up a few bottles of 
grape juice for use at the communion table of the 
Vineland church of which he was a member, and 
each succeeding year found a larger demand for 
his product. It was made in the kitchen of his own 
home. Sugar was used for preservation; but even 
in the earliest days it was seen that much 
sugar destroyed the more delicate flavors of 
the juice, and its use was gradually lessened 
until later methods of perfect sterilization 
make its use unnecessary with grapes of 
ordinary quality. When the vineyard inter- 
ests of Vineland and the surrounding sec- 
tions of New Jersey began to fail, the Welch 
business, then grown to fair -sized propor- 
tions, was moved to Chautauqua county, 
N. Y., and the factory of the Welch Grape 
Juice Company was established at Westfield. 
Prior to the removal of Welch to West- 
field, in about 1890, other persons, in a more 
or less experimental way, had begun to make 
grape juice in that section, and today there 
are several large factories other than the 
Welch factory located there. Notable among 
these experimenters was M. B. Gleason, of 
Ripley, who evolved a secret process. W. H. 
Bigelow, of Dunkirk, N. Y., was another 
pioneer, producing a staple unfermented 
juice by a secret process as early as 1892. 

In other states, of recent years the industry has 
grown. In Ohio, there are two or three factories, 
notably the one at Sandusky, which gets its supply 
of fruit from the Kelley island group. In Michigan 
there are several factories, and in New Jersey the 
industry still exists on a small scale at Vineland. 
In Georgia there is a small grape-growing area, 
and the manufacture of unfermented juice is 
practiced. In California, since 1900, several fac- 
tories have started, and one or two companies 
have been in the business for over twenty years. 
The extreme sweetness of the California grapes, 
which are of the European varieties and much 
different in flavor from those grown in the more 
northern climates, makes the juice from them very 
unlike that made and sold in the eastern factories. 
The total production of unfermented grape juice 
for the vear ended December 31, 1906, for the 
United States, is estimated at 1,000,000 to 1,200,- 
000 gallons. Of this, the western New York sec- 
tion produced over 750,000 gallons. 



GRAPE AND OTHER FRUIT JUICES 



179 



Principles involved in making fruit 
juices. 

The making of fruit juices is an 
outgrowth of the preserving industry. 
Preserving, as commonly linown, is a 
process of saturating a fruit pulp 
during cooking, or a partial drying 
process, so thoroughly with common 
(cane) sugar that by the action of 
the sugar alone decay is prevented and 
the fruit held in palatable condition 
for months, even years. The art of 
canning is based on another principle, 
that of destroying by excessive heat 
the ferment-producing organisms, in 
which process sugar is often used to 
secure fi palatable product, its preser- 
vative effects being a secondary con- 
sideration. The fruit juices sold for 
soda-fountain and flavoring purposes 
are thickened and preserved, in large measure, by 
the liberal use of cane-sugar, and are more in the 
nature of syrups than of fruit juices. 

As might be inferred from the above, the first 
attempts to manufacture fruit juice products util- 
ized a considerable quantity of sugar ; so, today, 
many manufacturers are using sugar in larger or 
smaller quantities, and the home maker of grape 
juice usually finds it convenient and an insurance 
against " spoiling," which is but fermentation, also 
to use sugar in considerable quantity. Sugar does 
not destroy the basic flavor of the juice, and with 
some varieties of grapes, or even with the best 
grapes in cold wet seasons, when the sugar content 
of the juice is low, its use is essential to produce 
a palatable product ; but with perfect sterilization 
this is entirely unnecessary, and its use has an 
effect on the medicinal value of the juice, and 
covers up and obliterates the more delicate flavors 





Fig. 264. Press lor the manulacture of grape juioe. 



Fig. 265. Empty storage carboys for grape juice. 

and aroma which are preserved by the more scien- 
tific and careful methods of manufacture without 
sugar. 

The manufacture of grape juice, and also both 
apple juice and orange juice, as sold for beverages, 
is based on the principle of sterilization and per- 
fect cleanliness, not preservation by sugar or other- 
wise. Grape juice, as marketed today, is an undi- 
luted, unadulterated and unpreserved product. It 
is the pure juice of the grape, sterilized as it comes 
from the fruit, put up in sterile bottles, handled 
only in sterilized machinery, and sold to the 
consumer, still contained in sealed and sterilized 
smaller bottles. The ordinary housewife can dupli- 
cate this process in her own kitchen with very 
little trouble by the observance of the one rule, 
namely, perfect sterilization of everything that 
comes in contact with the juice, and the applica- 
tion of such a degree of heat to the fruit and the 
juice as will keep it perfectly sterilized 
at all stages of the process. The commer- 
cial product is allowed to stand in its first 
containing vessels, after being drawn from 
the presses, for at least three months to 
settle, and is then drawn away from the 
sediment, which formerly was thrown away 
but is now a valuable by-product. In the 
kitchen this settling must be provided for, 
if best results are to be secured. A second 
sterilization is necessary when the juice is 
changed from the settling vessel to the 
smaller bottles. 

Details of the pTocesses. 

Fruit juices, other than grape and apple 
juice, are made by cooking fresh fruit, 
pressing it and adding sugar to the juice, 
and cooking or evaporating it down to a 
consistency of thick cream, in which con- 
dition preservation is not difficult. This 
product is used for flavoring in the manu- 
facture of confectionary and baked goods, 
and as the flavoring part of the commonly 
sold soda-fountain beverages. Apple juice 
is made by pressing apples as for cider but 



180 



GRAPE AND OTHER FRUIT JUICES 



using a better grade of apples, and following by 
an immediate sterilization and bottling of the prod- 
uct. The sterilization prevents fermentation and 
the product is a pure apple juice. Orange juice is 
put up in the same way. 

The manufacture of grape juice begins with the 
picking of fully ripe grapes, of good quality. In 
vineyards that are free from rot, "run of vine- 
yard " grapes are used, but they are allowed to 
remain on the vines and mature some weeks after 
picking for commercial purposes has begun in 
other vineyards. The grapes are taken to the fac- 



pulp, seeds and skins is then placed in power 
presses, usually hydraulic, where it is subjected to 
great pressure. (Figs. 263, 264.) The juice again 
goes to the heating kettles, where it is heated to 
at least 180° Fahr., this being the lowest point of 
sterilization. Heating above this point spoils flavor, 
and it is the aim of the manufacturer to maintain 
a steady temperature at this point until the stor- 
age in the five-gallon carboys is completed and the 
juice sealed in these receptacles. (Figs. 265, 266.) 
Here it stands three months before being put into 
the smaller bottles for the wholesale and retail trade. 

It is generally 
figured that ele- 
ven to thirteen 
pounds of grapes 
are used in mak- 




Fig. 266. Storage of grape juice in five-gaUon carboys. 

tories in picking crates, holding forty to si.xty 
pounds each, and taken by an elevator to an upper 
story and passed through a stemmer. The stems 
contain a large proportion of tannin, and if kept 
with the grapes will affect the fiavor of the juice. 
After being stemmed, the grapes are jilaced in 
aluminum steam-heated kettles (Fig. 263), large 
enough to hold fifteen hundred to two thousand 
pounds each, and gently heated, not boiled. Care 
is taken at this point, as in every application of 
heat to the grape and its products, not to allow 
too high temperature. If the temperature at any 
time reaches the boiling point, a " burned taste " 
is caused. The color comes from the pigment cells 
of the skin, and can be varied by the amount of 
heat and pressure used. At the first heating, not 
more than 100° Fahr. is used. The seeds do not 
lose their vitality in this heating process. The 
minimum heat u.sed in most factories in this stage 
is 80° Fahr., although what is known as the " light 
juice" is made in some factories by pressing before 
any heat is applied, thus leaving the pigment cells 
in the skin undisturbed. The heated mass of juice. 



ing one gallon 
of unfermented 
grape juice. The 
amount varies 
with the season, 
the soil of the 
vineyard, the 
quality and ripe- 
ness of the grape 
and also with the 
variety. 

By-products. 

A sediment is 

deposited in the 

storage carboys. 

The juice is care- 

fully decanted 

and the sediment 

dried out and 

sold. It is largely 

cream of tartar 

and is used for 

the preparation 

of the purified or 

commercial cream of tartar. The juice is resteril- 

ized, and rebottled in the pint, quart, or gallon 

bottle of commerce ; it is then labeled, packed 

and shipped. 

Pomaci-. — Another by-product is pomace, which 
has a fertilizer value but is more largely sold to 
distilleries, where from it is made a grape brandy 
containing a high grade of alcohol. The use of 
the pomace from which to make denatured alcohol 
is anticipated as an enterprise which legislation 
may make possible. This pomace is composed of 
the skins, pulp and seeds left after the juice is 
expre.ssed. 

Uses of grape juice. 

The use of grape juice as a beverage is becoming 
very common, as the sale of 1,250,000 gallons during 
the current year will indicate. 'It has a very 
important use, also, in the hospital and sick room 
as a tonic and nutrient. There is every reason 
to expect greater popularity for it. The juice, 
subjected to chemical analysis, shows the following 
composition : 



WINE, CroER AND VINEGAR 



181 



Albuminoid and nitrogenous 

matters 

Sugar, gum, etc 

Mineral substances . . . 
Water 



In 100 parts, 
grape juice 



1.7 

18.05 

1.7 

75 to 80 



The food value of the grape is greater than that 
of any other fruit in popular consumption. This 
superior nutrient quality is due to a larger content 
of sugar, gluten, mineral salts and fruit acids, 
together with a lesser quantity of water, than so 
great a content of nutrients generally affords, 
especially in the fruits. Grape-sugar (of the grape) 
is the chief nutritive constituent. The particular 
advantage which grape-sugar possesess over all 
other types of sugar is the ease of its assimilation. 
Grape-sugar, unlike other sugars, is naturally in 
the state to which all other carbohydrates must 
be reduced by preliminary digestion before they are 
ready to be absorbed by the system. This physical 
property rests on the fact that its constituent 
elements are in looser chemical combination, and 
therefore the greater part of the sugar passes into 
the circulation unchanged. The grape is unusually 
rich in albuminoids. It also contains a very fair 
percentage of vegetable fats. 

Literature. 

Wm. T. Brannt, A Practical Treatise on the 
Manufacture of Vinegar, etc.. Part II (Manufacture 
of Cider, Fruit Wines, etc.); A. Hausner, The Manu- 
facture of Preserved Foods and Sweetened Meats ; 
Bioletti and del Piaz, Preservation of Unfermented 
Grape Juice, Bulletin No. 130, California Experi- 
ment Station ; Bioletti, A New Method of Making 
Dry Red Wine, Bulletin No. 177, and The Manufac- 
ture of Dry Wines in Hot Countries, Bulletin No. 
167, Calif. Exp. Sta.; Husmann, Home Manufacture 
and Use of Unfermented Grape Juice, Farmers' 
Bulletin No. 175, United States Dept. Agric. 



WINE, CIDER AND VINEGAR 

By Samuel C. Preseoit 

These beverages are prepared from the sugar- 
containing juices of fruits by means of the alco- 
holic fermentation produced by microorganisms 
known as yeasts. The fermented juice of grapes is 
known as "wine," while that produced from apples 
is "cider." Technically, they are very similar. 
Fermented pear juice is known as pear cider or 
" perry." The juices of certain fruits or vegetable 
bodies other than grapes may result in the forma- 
tion of special kinds of so-called "wines," as "elder- 
blow wine," "rhubarb wine," and the like. These 
are produced, however, only on a very small do- 
mestic scale, and have no importance commercially. 

The alcoholic fermentation. 

The alcoholic fermentation, which is the basic 
process on which the preparation of cider and 



wine depends, is a chemical change induced in 
sugar solutions by the activity of a group of 
microorganisms technically known as the Sacchar- 
omycetes, and commonly spoken of as "yeasts." 
Of these there are a large number of species, but 
the ones of industrial importance, so far as their 
utilization is concerned, fall, in general, into two 
more or less distinct types. One of these, the 
Saccharomyces cercvisim type, includes the yeasts 
employed technically in brewing, fermentation 
preceding distillation, as in the manufacture of 
spirits and of whisky, and in the preparation of 
compressed yeasts or other yeasts for bakery or 
domestic purposes. The second type, the Sacchar- 
omyces eUip.<ioideus, is used in the fermentation of 
wine and cider, champagne, and in the fermenta- 
tion for distillation of larandy. All these organ- 
isms are widespread in nature, the Saccharomyces 
eUipsoidcuf being found especially on the surfaces 
of ripe fruits and in the soil of orchards and vine- 
yards. 

The chemical change induced by these organisms 
consists in the breaking up of sugar into alcohol 
and carbon dioxid, the latter, a gaseous product, 
escaping for the most part, unless special effort is 
made to confine it or absorb it in the fermented 
liquid itself. Chemically, the change may be 
expressed by the equation 



C6H12OG 

Grape-sugnr 



2CL.H5OH 



2CO2 



Alcohol Carbon dioxid 



This equation, while expressing the change theo- 
retically, is not absolutely exact, as small quanti- 
ties of other products, generally called the by- 
products, are also formed. These include glycerin, 
succinic acid and traces of other acids and ethers. 

Since the fruit juices in general contain con- 
siderable amounts of sugar, these are especially 
su.sceptible to the alcoholic fermentation, and 
require only that the organisms resident on the 
surfaces of the fruits be brought in contact with 
the juice in order that the change may take place. 
This is generally accomplished by crushing or 
grinding the fruits, and in this way the yeasts, 
together with other organisms which may also be 
present on the fruits, come into intimate contact 
with the sugary juice. 

If the desired organisms are predominant, the 
fermentation is likely to proceed normally and give 
a good product. If, on the other hand, organisms 
of less desirable types gain the ascendency, the 
fermentation may result in a wine or cider which 
is bitter, turbid, or in other ways abnormal and 
unsatisfactory. This may be prevented in a great 
measure by introducing into the freshly expressed 
juice a pure culture of a desirable yeast, and 
thereby artificially making certain that the proper 
type of organism is in a suitable excess. The fer- 
mentation may thus be controlled in a way analo- 
gous to the control of brewing operations by the 
use of a pure culture of yeast. 

The course of the fermentation is somewhat as 
follows: After the crushing of the fruit, pressure 
is applied and a juice, more or less colored, accord- 
ing to the kind of fruit, is obtained. In wine- 



182 



WINE, CIDER AMP VINEGAR 



making, this is known as the must; in cider-making, 
it is sweet cider. This juice may be nearly clear, or 
it may be rather turbid, and contains, besides the 
sugar, some acid, the natural acid of the fruit, 
ethers, salts and other soluble matters. 

The alcoholic fermentation proceeds most rapidly 
at a temperature of about 25° to 26° C. (77-79° F.), 
or a few degrees above the ordinary temperature, 
and is retarded by cold and entirely prevented if 
the temperature is sufficiently high. With ordinary 
temperatures, the first twenty-four hours after the 
juice is e.xpressed sees but little apparent change. 
During this period, however, the yeast cells are 
multiplying rapidly and the turbidity of the 
solution increases. Then a change, beginning 
slowly but increasing rapidly, takes place; small 
bubbles of gas rise to the surface, and flecks of 
foam are formed. Finally the solution seems to be 
undergoing a mild "working" or ebullition (hence 
the name fermentation, from fervere, to boil), and 
the fermentation is at its height. 

The solution is now changed in taste as well as 
appearance. The sweetness largely gives place to a 
mild stinging taste as alcohol is formed. Gradually 
the " working " ceases, as the sugar is used up or 
the alcohol becomes sufiiciently large in amount to 
inhibit further action by the yeast. The yeast 
settles to the bottom of the liquid and the fermen- 
tation, except for a slow change, the after-fermen- 
tation, which persists for several days after the 
active period of change, comes to a stop. The 
solution thus acted on cannot be further changed 
by the same organism, but may be again fermented 
by the acetic bacteria. [See Vinegar, p. 183.] 
Generally, not over 10 per cent of alcohol may be 
produced by yeast, and the ordinary ciders and 
wines contain less than this amount. 

I. The Manufacture of Wine 

The preparation of wine on a small scale has 
been practiced in this country since its settlement. 
It is, however, only about one hundred years ago 
that the first systematic attempt at grape-culture 
for wine-making was made in North America 
(except in California, which was not then a part 
of the United States). The first really successful 
attempt was made at Cincinnati, in 182.5, by 
Nicholas Longworth, who planted a vineyard with 
cuttings of the Catawba grape, a native vine 
taking its name from the Catawba river in North 
Carolina. Owing to fungous diseases, the industry 
had to be abandoned at Cincinnati about 1865, 
but meantime it had been taken up in other parts 
of Ohio, and in New York and Missouri. 

In California, wine-making has been conducted 
successfully for more than a hundred years. The 
introduction of foreign vines, which were not suc- 
cessfully cultivated elsewhere, was here immedi- 
ately successful, and, from the first attempt to 
grow these vines at the Catholic missions in 1771, 
the industry has developed, until now California 
produces more than four times as much wine as all 
the remainder of the country combined. 

The making of wine is a process requiring very 
great care and watchfulness. From the moment 



the juice is expressed until the product is ready 
for the market the wine must be treated with 
scrupulous care. After the expressing of the juice 
the first fermentation proceeds in vats or barrels, 
after which the wine is " racked " into bottles, 
where the finishing and the after-fermentation 
take place. Deep-seated chemical changes, result- 
ing in the formation of ether.s, or substances giving 
the pleasant aroma and flavor to wines, are brought 
about during this period, which may be of long 
duration. In most instances these changes proceed 
very slowly, so that wine mu.st be several years old 
before it reaches the highest quality. Attempts 
have been made to imitate this aging, with its 
interaction of alcohol, acids and ethers, by the use 
of electricity and other agencies, but the naturally 
ripened product is unapproachable in real delicacy 
of flavor and aroma. 

While the principle underlying the manufacture 
of wine is very simple and easily comprehended, 
the actual process is one which requires years of 
detailed study to master, owing to "the effect which 
minute variations in the quality of the grapes, or 
in the environmental conditions, may exert. 

Classification of vines. 

Wines may be divided (1) according to color into 
red and white ; (2) according to the amount of 
unchanged sugar left in them at the end of the 
fermentation process, into "sweet" and "dry"; 
(.3) according to the presence or absence of carbon 
dioxid held in .solution under pressure, into 
"sparkling" or " effervescing," and "still" wines. 

Red wines are made from grapes with dark- 
colored skins. The skins are allowed to remain in 
the fermenting mass, and the alcohol as it is 
formed dissolves out the red coloring matter. 
White vines are usually made from light-colored 
grapes and the skins are carefully eliminated. 

Sweet wines are those still containing a consider- 
able amount of sugar after the fermentation is at 
an end, while on the other hand, those which are 
fermented out, or have the sugar exhausted in the 
final fermentation, are called "dry." It is thus 
possible to have red or white wines which may he 
either sweet or dry, still or sparkling, and the 
number of types or varieties is very large, includ- 
ing champagnes, clarets, Sauternes, Rhine wines. 
Burgundies, sherries. Madeiras and ports. Many 
of the kinds are named for the province or locality 
in which they originated. 

Champagnes are effervescing wines, so called 
from the province in France where they were first 
manufactured. In addition to being made from the 
finest grapes, and fermented and handled with the 
greatest care, champagnes usually have added to 
them a cuvee made from sugar, water, cordials and 
the like (generally each maker has his secret for- 
mula), and subjected, in strong bottles, to a final 
fermentation in which the gas formed is absorbed 
under great pressure, so that on opening the bottle 
a marked effervescence results. They are classed 
as sweet, dry and extra dry. 

Clarets are dry red wines, originating in the 
region of Bordeaux, while Sauternes are dry white 



WINE, CIDER AND VINEGAR 



183 



wines. The Rhine wines are dry and usually white, 
although sometimes red. Sherries, named from 
Xeres, Spain, are "fortified" wines ; that is, they 
have added to them some alcohol in excess of that 
produced by fermentation in order to prevent 
deterioration. This treatment is not uncommon 
with sweet wines. 

II. Cider 

The production of cider is fundamentally like 
that of wine, the fermentation being of the same 
character. Cider -making, however, is not so 
extensively a commercial enterprise as is wine- 
making. A certain amount of bottled cider, "cham- 
pagne cider," and the like, is to be found in the 
market, however. 

In cider-making, much depends on Ihe character 
of the fruit used. Not all kind.s of apples are 
equally well adapted to cider-making. Varieties 
like the russet and crab, which are apparently 
high in tannins, appear to be best adapted for this 
purpose. Many other varieties will produce excel- 
lent cider, however. 

For the preparation of good cider, the fruit 
should be mature, clean and free from bruises or 
decayed spots. These spots always contain cells of 
molds which may exert an unfavorable influence 
on the fermentation or by their own fermentative 
action give ri.se to undesirable products. Accord- 
ing to some authorities, the fruit should be allowed 
to remain on the trees as long as pos.sible, and then 
piled up for a sufficient time to allow a sweating 
process to take idace. This is supposed to cause 
uniformity and completeness of ripening. 

The fruit is next ground or crushed and the pulp 
reduced to a fine state of division, in order that 
the cells may give up their burdens of saccharine 
juice. Pressure is then applied to this mass of 
pomace, as it is called, and the more or less 
colored sweet cider or juice is thus secured. 
The color depends to a great extent on the 
time during which the pulp is exposed to the 
air before pressing, as certain components of 
the fruit become oxidized through the agency 
of oxidase enzymes in the cells, and turn 
brownish in color. 

The pressing was formerly, and in some 
parts of the country still is accomplished 
with alternating layers of pomace and straw to 
give firmness to the "cheese," and to allow a more 
ready exit for the juice. Racks for holding the 
pomace, and press cloths of a fairly coarse material 
are now more generally used, and are to be pre- 
ferred, as the straw is likely to impart a musty 
taste to the cider. 

After pressing out the sweet cider, it is gener- 
ally allowed to undergo a spontaneous fermentation 
in a moderately cool place. In domestic operations 
the fermentation is carried out in barrels. After 
the first violent fermentation is over, the barrels 
may be tightly bunged and the slight secondary 
fermentation allowed to take place without further 
attention, except to keep the temperature fairly 
low. If the cider is to be bottled, it should be 



done after the primary fermentation is at an 
end, but before the secondary fermentation is com- 
plete, so that some of the carbon dioxid may be 
retained by the cider. "Champagne cider" is pre- 
pared in this way, with the addition of some brandy 
and more sugar, so that the secondary fermentation 
may be considerable in amount. 

Apple juice generally contains 10 to 14 per cent 
of sugar. If less than 10 per cent is present, a 
cider with good keeping quality cannot generally 
be made, unless, of course, the cider be " fortified." 

The cider should be protected from direct con- 
tact with air, otherwise acetic fermentation will 
take place and vinegar will result. 

Sometimes for the preparation of specially fine 
cider, sugar and raisins are added, and the solution 
clarified by isinglass or catechu, in order that the 
color may not be changed on exposure to air. 

Cider, like wine, is subject to a number of 
troubles or "diseases" caused by invading or 
undesirable organisms, due oftentimes to poor 




. 267. Knuckle-joint cider press, with power attachments 
and reversible platform. 

fruit and uncleanly conditions. As in wine-making, 
to obtain a really excellent product requires good 
raw material and scrupulous care and attention to 
cleanliness. 

III. Vinegar 

Vinegar as used as an article of food is the pro 
duct of a proce.ss of fermentation in which a liquid 
of low alcoholic content is changed to a dilute 
solution of acetic acid, together with certain com- 
pounds which give a fruity ethereal odor or "bou- 
quet." This substance has been known for a very 
long time, as is not strange when it is noted that 
the change goes on in nature, entirely without 
man's intervention, if the juices of sweet fruits 
are exposed to the activity of numerous micro- 



184 



WINE, CroER AND VINEGAR 




Fig. 268. The cutting or 
grinding mectiaiiism of 
a cider mill. 



organisms which are abundant in the soil and on 
the surfaces of the fruits themselves. 

For certain uses, or when only the acidity char- 
acteristic of the acetic acid is desired, " vinegar 
essence," containing high percentages of acetic 
acid in a relatively pure 
state, may be made from 
certain kinds of wood by 
a process of di-stillation. 
Undoubtedly much of the 
cheaper grades of vinegar 
for table use has its origin 
in this way. It is cheaper 
than the production of the 
acetic acid by fermenta- 
tion. By a proper admix- 
ture of ethers and flavor- 
giving bodies a solution 
may be made which simu- 
lates the product of the 
fermentation process, but never has the "bouquet" 
and the fine quality which characterizes the latter 
kind. 

Fermentation vinegar. 

Fermentation vinegar, or that properly used as 
a condiment, may be prepared from numerous 
kinds of alcoholic solutions, but especially from 
cider, wine or beer, through the agency of a class 
of bacteria generally known as the acetic bacteria. 
These little organisms have the power, under 
proper conditions of temperature and aeration, of 
oxidizing the alcohol to acetic acid and water in 
accordance with the chemical equation 

C2H5OH + 02 = CH3.COOH + HoO 

Probably an intermediate substance, aldehyde, is 
formed sometimes, although it is not certain that 
this is always the case. 

In order to have this reaction proceed it is 
necessary to have (1) a lively and suitable micro- 
organism ; (2) solutions of relatively weak alcohol, 
as the organisms are poisoned by amounts much 
over 10 per cent, and, indeed, will not work rapidly 
in solutions approaching this concentration ; (3) 
an abundance of air ; and (4) a well-regulated and 
favorable temperature. 

The acetic group of bacteria comprises a number 
of species, perhaps twenty of which have been iso- 
lated and described, all characterized by their power 
of oxidizing alcohol to acetic acid almost in accor- 
dance with the chemical equation given above. 
They are also to be recognized by the fact that they 
require air for development and form large masses 
or scums of gelatinous character (zoogloea), the so- 
called " mother of vinegar." The formation of these 
masses is progre.ssive, and goes on so long as the 
food and other conditions remain suitable for the 
organisms. The cell wall of each individual swells 
to a large size and becomes practically fused with 
the cell wall of its neighbor, until huge masses of 
jelly-like consistency, and containing millions of 
bacterial cells, are produced. 

The upper temperature limit of growth of the 
organisms is about 42° C, the lower limit about 



5° to 6° C, while the action is manifested most 
strongly at about 34° C, a fact that is of great 
importance in the production of vinegar. 

Methods of making vinegar. 

Two distinct methods of vinegar manufacture 
have been developed. One of these is practically 
an imitation of what might be called the natural 
acetic fermentation, while the other is a fermenta- 
tion carried out under forced draught. The former 
is generally called the French or Orleans method 
because it was and still is used in making vinegar 
from wine ; while the latter is known as the 
" quick process " or the German process. 

The custom prevailing among farmers in this 
country is, in many respects, similar to the Orleans 
method. It is well known that if a barrel ot cider 
be freely opened so that air comes in intimate con- 
tact with the cider it " turns," especially if kept 
at a moderately warm temperature. The explana- 
tion of this is that the organisms, which were 
present in large numbers on the skins of the fruit, 
gain entrance to the cider, but so long as there is 
no free access of air they develop but slowly, if at 
all. Given access to air and a favorable tempera- 
ture, they immediately begin the oxidation of the 
alcohol to acetic acid, and the cider turns slowly 
to vinegar. 

In the Orleans method this process is varied 
somewhat. Vats or barrels having free access of 
air are filled about a quarter full of good vinegar. 
This supplies the "culture." An equal amount of 
wine is then added and the alcohol oxidized. At 
the end of a few days another quantity of wine is 
added and finally a third. The vat is now full, and 
after the oxidation of the alcohol has become essen- 
tially complete, three-quarters of the vinegar is 
removed and the process re- 
peated over and over. By this 
method ex- 
cellent vine- 
gar may be 
made, but with con- 
siderable expenditure 
of time. 

The " quick pro- 
cess" is based on the 
facts previously 
noted, — namely, the 
rapid oxidation at the 
optimum temperature 
of 34° C. and neces- 
sity for large amount 
of air. In the " quick 
process " large tanks, 
technically known as 
"generators," are em- 
ployed. These are in 
the form of truncated 




Fig. 269. Farm cider press. 



cones, six to twenty feet high, with a false bottom 
near the lower end and a perforated horizontal 
disk or false head near the upper end. The space 
between is filled with some substance which is 
without action on either solution or bacteria and 
which will supply a large amount of surface to the 



WINE, CIDER AND VINEGAR 



185 



air. This surface is usually supplied by use of 
shavings, blocks of wood, cobs, strips of rattan, 
coal and the like. 

The generator must first be charged or infected 
with the proper kind of bacteria. This is generally 
done by pouring through it a culture of some 
desirable species. The organisms are deposited 
on the surfaces of the substratum employed and 
devolpe their zoogkea masses, so that the whole 
is covered with a layer of the slimy mother. 

In the perforated disk or false head are a large 
number of small holes, each> generally provided 
with a piece of wicking or string, down 
which the alcoholic solution can trickle and 
thus be brought, in a thin layer, in con- 
tact with the bacteria. The alcoholic solu- 
tion is introduced into the space above the 
false head, either by a spout, tilting trough 
or "sparger," a set of revolving arms per- 
forated with holes from which the alco- 
holic solution is forced into the top of the 
generator. 

Below the false bottom is a row of holes 
through which air is admitted, and at the 
bottom a receptacle for the liquid which has 
passed through the generator. The o.xidation 
of the alcohol within produces heat, and there is a 
constant updraught of air inside the generator 
from the holes below. Thus the solution which has 
been added is constantly coming in contact with 
fresh organisms and fresh air and oxidation is 
rapid. It is found practically that it requires about 
1,000 liters of air to oxidize each 100 grams of 
alcohol. 

Great care has to be taken with the heating as 
well as the ventilation of a vinegar factory. 
Since so much heat of oxidation is produced within 
the generators where the action is taking place, it 
is necessary to regulate the surrounding tempera- 
ture so as not to get too high heat for the best 
bacterial activity. As the oxidation is usually 
not complete in a single generator, a vinegar 
factory is generally so arranged that the solution 
has to be pumped but once, and then flows by 
gravity from one generator to another until all 
the alcohol has been oxidized. 

It is manifest that any substance which can be 
fermented to alcohol may be used as a starting 
point in vinegar-making. Thus, sugar, starch, and 
the like, may be used, but in such cases a prelimi- 
nary alcoholic fermentation, by means of yeast, is 
necessary. 

The product of the fermentation by the acetic 
bacteria, while mainly acetic acid and water, also 
contains acetal, aldehyde, and acetic and formic 
ethers, all of which combine to give the typical 
fruity refreshing odor and the characteristic taste. 

The yield based on theory. 

Knowing the alcoholic strength of the solution 
fermented, the chemist can easily calculate what 
the theoretical yield should be from the equation 
given. In practice it is found that the yield is 
about 80 to 90 per cent of the amount theoretically 
possible, and may even fall to 70 per cent. 



The character of the organisms may be of 
importance here in addition to the other fac- 
tors which have been indirectly suggested above 
(evaporation and insufficient oxidation). Some 
forms of acetic bacteria are so powerful in their 
oxidizing abilities that they even attack the 
acetic acid itself, oxidizing it to carbon dioxid 
and water. 

Special vinegars. 

Special kinds of vinegars are sometimes pre- 
pared, having peculiar or characteristic tastes and 




Fig. 270. Evaporator. 
For continuous cider- and jelly-making and the like. 



odors. These are generally due to the addition of 
essential oils of certain plants, or maceration of 
the plants themselves with some of the vinegar. 
Tarragon, anise or herb vinegar may be cited as 
belonging to this class. 

Home-making of cider vinegar. 

The following instructions for making cider 
vinegar at home are from Bulletin No. 258 of 
the New York Agricultural Experiment Station 
(1904): 

"Among the conditions which may produce vine- 
gar below standard are these: (1) The juice may 
be poor to start with because made from varieties 
of apples low in sugar, from green apples or from 
overripe or decayed apples; or the juice may be 
watered either directly or by watering the pomace 
and pressing a second time. (2) The fermentation 
processes may be delayed or disturbed by using 
dirty fruit or unclean barrels, thus art^ording 
entrance to undesirable organisms and causing the 
wrong kind of fermentation; the temperature may 
be too low to insure the necessary activity of 
favorable organisms; or air may be excluded by 
filling the barrels too full or putting the bung in 
too tight so that the bacteria can not live and 
work. (3) The acetic acid may disappear after its 
formation, destructive fermentation being encour- 
aged by leaving the bung-hole of the barrel open 
or the barrel only partially full. 

" Briefly summarized, the method to be employed 
for the manufacture of good vinegar at home, 
without the use of generators, is this : Use sound, 
ripe apples, picked or picked up before they have 
become dirty, if possible, otherwise washed. Observe 
the ordinary precautions to secure cleanliness in 
grinding and pressing, and discard all juice from 
second pressings. If possible, let the juice stand 
in some large receptacle for a few days to settle, 



186 



INDUSTRIAL ALCOHOL — DENATURED ALCOHOL 



then draw off the clear portion into well-cleaned 
barrels which have been treated with steam or 
boiling water, filling them only two-thirds or three- 
fourths full. Leave the bung out, but put in a 
loose plug of cotton to decrease evaporation and 
to prevent the entrance of dirt. If these barrels 
are stored in ordinary cellars, where the tempera- 
ture does not go below 50° or 45° Fahr., the 
alcoholic fermentation will be complete in about 
six months; but by having the storage room at a 
temperature of 65° or 70° the time can be con- 
siderably shortened, and the addition of Fleisch- 
mann's compressed yeast or its equivalent at the 
rate of one cake to five gallons of juice may 
reduce the time to three months or less. Use 
a little water thoroughly to disintegrate the 
yeast cake before adding it to the juice. The 
temperature should not go above 70° for any 
length of time, to avoid loss of the alcohol by 
evaporation. 

"After the sugar has all disappeared from the 
juice, that is, when the cider has entirely ceased 
"working" as revealed by the absence of gas 
bubbles, draw off the clear portion of the cider, 
rinse out the barrel, replace the liquid and add two 
to four quarts of good vinegar containing some 
"mother" and place at a temperature of 65° to 75° 
Fahr. The acetic fermentation may be complete in 
three months or may take eighteen months, accord- 
ing to the conditions under which it is carried on; 
or if stored in cool cellars may take two years or 
more. If the alcoholic fermentation be carried on 
in the cool cellar and the barrel be then taken to 
a warmer place, as outdoors during the summer, 
the time of vinegar formation may be reduced from 
that given above to fifteen or eighteen months. 
Where the alcoholic fermentation is hastened by 
warm temperature, storage and the use of yeast 
and the acetic fermentation favored by warmth and 
a good vinegar "start," it is possible to produce 
good merchantable vinegar in casks in six to twelve 
months. When the acetic fermentation has gone 
far enough to produce 4.5 to 5 per cent of acetic 
acid, the barrels should be made as full as possible 
and tightly corked in order to prevent destructive 
changes and consequent deterioration of the 
vinegar." 

Literature on eider and vinegar. 

For cider, consult Bulletins Nos. 71 and 88, 
United States Department of Agriculture (Division 
of Chemistry); Bulletins Nos. 136, 143, 150, Vir- 
ginia Experiment Station; J. M. Trowbridge, The 
Cider-makers' Handbook, New York, 1890; C. W. 
Radcliffe Cooke, A Book about Cider and Perry, 
London, 1898. An early American book was J. S. 
Buell's, The Cider-makers' Manual, Buffalo, N. Y., 
1869. Brannt, Manufacture of Vinegar, etc., 
London. 

For vinegar, consult Bulletins No. 258, A Study 
of the Chemistry of Home-made Cider Vinegar, 
and No. 258, popular edition, Making Cider Vin- 
egar at Home, New York (State) Agricultural 
Experiment Station ; Bulletin No. 22, Pennsylvania 
Department of Agriculture. 



INDUSTRIAL ALCOHOL— DENATURED 
ALCOHOL 

By H. W. Wiley 

The term "denatured alcohol" is applied to 
alcohol intended to be used for industrial purposes, 
which is so treated as to render it unfit for use as 
a beverage. Pure alcohol is used extensively for 
mixing with other beverages, such as whisky, 
brandy and rum. It is much cheaper than any of 
these and can be used in large quantities without 
the consumer being aware of it. It is this par- 
ticular use of alcohol which denaturing is intended 
to prevent. 

In the manufacture of neutral spirits there is 
separated in the process of distillation 10 to 15 per 
cent of the total volume of the distillate which it 
is found impossible to purify so highly as to make 
it suitable for the mixing purposes above stated. 
It is, however, of a character which renders it 
easily prepared for drinking by those who are not 
particular respecting the kind of alcohol which 
they consume. In the trade this product is known 
as "alcohol," and is a lower grade of the more 
refined article known as neutral spirits. Heretofore 
this article has been sold for industrial purposes 
and for the preservation of specimens, subject to a 
tax of one dollar and ten cents on every proof 
gallon or about two dollars on every wine gallon 
of alcohol of 95 per cent strength. It is this pro- 
duct which it is proposed to use for industrial pur- 
poses under the existing law permitting its .sale free 
from tax when sufficiently denatured as to be un- 
suitable for consumption. 

Preparing denatured alcohol. 

Industrial alcohol is derived from a number of 
sources. In this country it has been made chiefly 
from corn, in Germany it is made principally from 
potatoes ; in France it is made chiefly from sugar- 
beets and beet-sugar and molasses. It may be 
made, however, from any material which contains 
sugar or starch, and nearly all plants contain both. 
Alcohol is also distilled from wood. Wood alcohol 
is an entirely diff'erent kind of alcohol, but is a real 
alcohol, the same in chemical classification as that 
derived from corn and sugar. For example, saw- 
dust is treated with an acid under pressure which 
converts it into dextrose, and this dextrose is 
subsequently fermented, producing with proper 
distillation a pure ethyl alcohol. 

The alcohol which is made for industrial purposes, 
after it is produced by fermentation of any of the 
substances mentioned, is separated by the processes 
of distillation and purifying and concentrated by 
the processes usually employed for making alcohol 
and neutral spirits. Under the Revenue Law, alcohol 
of this character may be denatured in bonded ware- 
houses by adding to it such substances as are 
approved by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue. 
For general purposes alcohol is denatured by means 
of wood alcohol, or wood spirits, and benzine, 
which is one of the varieties of coal-oil products. 
The wood alcohol is added at the rate of ten gallons 
per hundred, and the benzine at the rate of one- 



INDUSTRIAL ALCOHOL — DENATURED ALCOHOL 



187 



half gallon per hundred. Wood alcohol may be 
used with pyridin bases in the following propor- 
tions : To each 100 gallons of alcohol of not less 
than 180 proof, two gallons of wood alcohol and 
one-half gallon of pyridin bases. Alcohol thus 
treated is said to be denatured for general pur- 
poses, suitable for burning in lamps to produce 
illumination, in stoves for heating and baking, in 
engines for driving automobiles, and in certain in- 
dustries in the preparation of varnishes and veneers. 
There are many uses of an industrial character, 
however, to which alcohol treated in this way could 
not be put. The law, therefore, permits special 
denaturing agents for special purposes, and the 
Commissioner of Internal Revenue establishes, from 
time to time, special forms of denaturing. 

As an example of special denaturing the method 
of treating alcohol for the manufacture of tobacco 
may be cited. To- each one hundred gallons of 
alcohol there is added one gallon of the following 
solution : 12 gallons of an aqueous solution con- 
taining 40 per cent nicotine, tV pound acid yellow 
dye (fast yellow), ^^ pound tetrazo brilliant blue, 
and sufficient water to make 100 gallons. It is seen 
by the above regulation that alcohol to be used in 
the manufacture of tobacco is denatured principally 
with nicotine, which is a poisonous alkaloid natur- 
ally existing in tobacco. The addition of this nico- 
tine in connection with the coloring matters is 
sufficient warning to the intending drinker that 
the material is not fit for consumption. 

Alcohol can be denatured only in a Government 
bonded warehouse under the supervision of the 
Revenue officials, and when so denatured is marked 
under the supervision of the Revenue officials and 
can then be sent into commerce free of tax. 

Economic uses of denatured alcohol. 

Denatured alcohol, or industrial alcohol, is used 
extensively in the manufacture of coal-tar dyes, 
smokeless powder, varnishes, lacquers, ether, medi- 
cines and pharmaceutical preparations, imitation 
silk, artificial vinegar, flavoring extracts, and in 
many other industries. The present law does not 
permit the use of free alcohol, however, for making 
any medicinal preparations, and therefore it cannot 
be used free of tax in this country for making 
ether or any medicine or pharmaceutical prepara- 
tion except in cases in which it is entirely elimi- 
nated before the material goes into use. In other 
countries it is used for these purposes tax free. 

Many manufacturing industries in this country 
have been prevented from development because of 
the high tax on the industrial alcohol which they 
were compelled to use. For example, the manufac- 
ture of smokeless powder, except for Government 
use, has grown very slowly in the United States 
because such powder, made as it is usually with 
ether and alcohol, costs eighty cents to one dollar 
and twenty-five cents a pound when the tax on the 
alcohol must be paid. If tax-free alcohol could be 
used for making smokeless powder it probably 
could be made for thirty-five to forty cents a 
pound. At present prices of the material used in 
this country, viz., corn, the actual cost of a gallon 



of alcohol of 95 per cent strength is not much less 
than thirty cents. A gallon of such alcohol weighs, 
in round numbers, seven pounds, and requires four- 
teen pounds of starch or sugar for its pi'oduction. 
A bushel of corn will make not to exceed two and 
one-half gallons of such alcohol. At forty cents a 
bushel it is seen that the raw material for the 
making of a gallon of alcohol would ccst at least 
sixteen cents, that is, the starch in corn is worth 
a little over a cent a pound. The cost of manufac- 
turing and packing for market is not much less 
than fourteen cents, making the total cost of each 
gallon thirty cents. In order that fair profits may 
be secured, a gallon of denatured alcohol cannot be 
sold at retail at much less than forty cents. 

In order that the price be brought lower cheaper 
raw materials must be secured. Perhaps the most 
hopeful source is found in the refuse of the sugar 
factories and refineries. The molasses which comes 
from the manufacture of high-grade sugar usually 
contains so many impurities as not to be suitable for 
consumption. This alcohol can be had very cheap. 
About two and one-half gallons of it will make one 
gallon of industrial alcohol. At eight cents a gal- 
lon the materia! would cost just about as much as 
the quantity of corn necessary to make a galhm. 
As the sugar industry increases in this country 
and the processes of making sugar become more 
efficient, the molasses will be worth a less price 
and probably will furnish in the future a large 
part of the industrial alcohol required. The refuse 
of certain factories, such as those which can sweet 
corn, may also be utilized. The sandy fields of the 
south Atlantic coast may be made to produce large 
crops of sweet-potatoes and yams suitable for the 
manufacture of industrial alcohol. 

At present it is seen that industrial alcohol 
cannot be used for many purposes in competition 
with gasoline. There are, however, 'many pur- 
poses for which industrial alcohol can be u.sed, 
as in the manufacturing industries mentioned. The 
immediate future, therefore, will see a very large 
increase in the quantity of alcohol used in this 
country for certain manufacturing purposes, but 
will not see much of an increase of the use of 
alcohol for driving engines, automobiles and like 
purposes. One important use of denatured alcohol 
will be for illumination and for heating purposes 
in the household. For these purposes gasoline is 
altogether too dangerous and denatured alcohol will 
naturally take its place. 

The law authorizing the denaturing of alcohol 
did not make any changes in the law relating to 
the manufacture of alcohol. It follows, therefore, 
that alcohol which is manufactured for industrial 
purposes must be made under exactly the same 
supervision of the Internal Revenue as attends the 
manufacture of alcoholic compounds for beverage 
purposes. 

Literature. 

Farmers' Bulletins No. 268, Industrial Alcohol: 
Sources and Manufacture, and No. 269, Industrial 
Alcohol: Uses and Statistics, United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 



188 



SOME OF THE PRINCIPLES OF BREWING 



BREWING 

By Samuel C. Preseott 

By the term brewing is generally comprehended 
the processes by which ale or beer is prepared from 
its raw materials. These processes are somewhat 
diversified in character, and as a result the brew- 
ing industry is one of exceptional interest to the 
biologist and chemist. 

Briefly, we may define brewing as the series of 
chemical changes by which barley or other grain or 
saccharine materials are prepared, subjected to alco- 
holic fermentation by means of yeast, and made into 
a beverage of low or moderate alcoholic percentage. 
The brewing industry is dependent on two funda- 
mental chemical changes: First, the transformation 
of starch to sugar by enzyme action, and second, 
the fermentation of the sugar thus formed. 

The transformation of starch to sugar. 

It has long been known that starch may be hydro- 
lyzed or converted into sugar through the interven- 
tion of certain digestive or fermentative enzymes. 

In the germination of seeds, as barley, which 
have a large amount of stored-up starch, a similar 
action takes place, and the starch is changed by 
the action of enzymes secreted by the living cells 
of the seed into a sugar, maltose, which by the 
action of yeast is " fermented." 

Fermentation of sugars. 

The alcoholic fermentation of sugars has been 
known and practiced for hundreds of years. Its 
true nature, and the exciting cause, and the char- 
acter of the products were not thoroughly eluci- 
dated until within comparatively recent years. 
Many theories of alcoholic fermentation have been 
current, but it remained for Traube, in 1858, to 
suggest what appears to be the true explanation of 
fermentation. According to his theory, fermenta- 
tion is brought about by the action of substances 
secreted within the cells (ferments or enzymes) 
which act in a way analogous to that of digestive 
ferments, but in this case transfer oxygen from one 
group of atoms to another, thereby causing a 
breaking up of a complex sugar into simpler sub- 
stances. Strangely enough, this theory did nut 
gain general credence and support, and it was not 
until the discovery of zymase in yeast, by Buchner, 
in 1897, that the accuracy of Traube's theory 
became evident. 

Many species of yeast are known, but those of 
industrial importance belong especially to the two 
species, Saccharomyces ccrevisim and Saccharomyccs 
ellipsoideus. The former is the yeast employed in 
brewing, while the latter is the specific fermentation 
organism of wine. 

The action of yeast on sugar may be expressed 
chemically by the equation : 

CiiHi.Oe = 2CO2 + 2C1.H5OH. 

'SuKar. Carboa dioxid. Alcohol. 

Types of beer. 

While the fundamental chemical changes indi- 
cated above are basic for the brewing industry, we 



may neverthele.ss recognize a number of types of 
the finished product as, for example : 

(1) Tfie Munich or Bavarian type of lager beer 
with dark color, malt flavor, and sweetish taste, 
not with pronounced aroma and flavor of hops, usu- 
ally sparkling and lively, or bubbling with carbon 
dioxid gas. 

(2) The Pilsen or Bohemian type of lager beer 
with light color, pronounced hop aroma and bitter 
taste, not particularly sweet, and also usually 
lively and sparkling. 

(3) The American type of lager beer, brilliant, 
clear, lively and sparkling, light in color, pro- 
nounced hop aroma, but less bitter than Bohemian. 

(4) Ale, with light color, very marked bitter 
taste and aroma of hops, and with rather high per- 
centage of alcohol and tart taste in the aged pro- 
duct ; may be either lively or still, generally clear. 

(5) Stout, with very dark color, sweet taste and 
malt flavor, heavier than ale, but generally con- 
taining less alcohol ; usually lively and with tart 
taste in aged product. 

(6) Weis.? beer, very light in color, no marked 
hop or malt flavor ; pronouncedly tart and very 
lively, but generally turbid rather than brilliant. 

(7) Common or steam beer, light in color, hop 
aroma and bitter taste, not very pronounced ; very 
lively, but not necessarily brilliant. 

Beers may be further classified according to the 
kind of fermentation employed in their production. 
Certain types of yeast, known as " bottom yeast," 
and causing "bottom fermentation," are employed 
in the preparation of the German lager beers and 
the American lager and steam beers. Ale, porter, 
stout and Weiss beer, on the contrary, are fer- 
mented by "top yeasts." Bottom fermentation 
differs from top fermentation in the temperature 
at which action takes place, the amount of acid 
formed, the amount of alcohol formed (generally) 
and in the behavior of the organisms, the bottom 
ferment developing especially in the depths of the 
liquid, while with top fermentation abundant 
masses of yeast are found at the surface of the 
solution. Certain differences in chemical and bio- 
logical behavior have also been detected, but the 
organisms have been generally supposed to be of 
the same species {S. cerevisiee). Of late, however, 
the question of species of yeast has been regarded 
with less certainty than in earlier years. 

We may now follow through the actual processes 
comprehended in brewing. 

(1) Malting. 

This is the general name given to the process 
whereby the starch of barley or other grain is 
changed to maltose by the diastatic enzyme. The 
product is known as " malt." The grain is carefully 
selected and cleaned, and then is subjected to a 
steeping process in " steep tank.s," or big iron cylin- 
drical hoppers with conical bottoms. The object of 
steeping is to soften the outer coating and promote 
rapid germination. When the steeping has been 
sufficient, the grain is carried to the place where 
germination takes place. 

Until comparatively recently, the malting took 



I 

I 



SOME OF THE PRINCIPLES OF BREWING 



189 



place on what are known as the growing floors or 
malting floors, large cement floors in rooms kept 
at the proper temperature and light regulation. 
Of late years, mechanical devices have been intro- 
duced so that most of the malting of today is done 
by the "box" system, although some use of revolv- 
ing drums is made. In the box system, the malt 
after steeping is introduced into long box -like 
compartments with perforated floors, through 
which the properly warmed moist air passes. 
Traveling over and along these boxes are stirrer- 
like devices, which lift, stii-, and aerate the grain. 
As the grain is kept at favorable and constant 
humidity and temperature, germination takes place 
rapidly and in the course of a few days the acro- 
spire or germinating sprout of the grain is well 
developed, and the rootlets are apparent. 

In drum malting, a much smaller amount of air 
is used than with the mechanical floors or boxes, 
and there is also more uniformity in the treatment, 
as the aeration, moistening, and the like can be 
regulated nicely by mechanical means. The "drum" 
consists of two concentric perforated cylinders 
with the grain in the space between. The drums 
revolve, thus keeping the grain in motion, and 
causing more perfect aeration, as the grain in all 
parts of the cylinder receives uniform treatment. 
When the green malt has reached the desired stage 
of growth, further change is prevented by quick 
drying or "kilning." The green malt is carried by 
conveyors to perforated floors below which are 
furnaces, so that heat to any desired degree may 
be applied. By the control of the two processes 
of malting and kilning, the malt may be prepared 
for the different kinds of beers indicated above. 
Of all the ingredients used in brewing no other 
one has so much importance as the malt, for the 
character of the beer depends very largely on 
it, beers of totally different character being pos- 
sible because of the differences in chemical compo- 
sition due to the varied malting processes. The 
color of the beer is determined largely by the heat 
applied in kilning; the chemical character by both 
malting and kilning. The product now obtained is 
known as malt, and presents the same general 
appearance as the grain itself, except that it may 
be much darker in color, owing to the roasting. 

(2) Preparation of the %vort. 

The prepared malt is next to be made into a 
"mash," from which the "wort" is obtained. The 
malt is ground and mixed with warm water in the 
proper proportion, and then heated in a kettle or 
"mash tub," provided with a stirrer. This process 
not only dissolves the maltose and the soluble 
proteids already produced in the grain during the 
malting period, but it also brings about further 
conversion of starch to maltose, malto-dextrins, 
and dextrin and liberates some of the enzymes, 
which are developed in germination to a greater 
amount than the starch-content of the grain de- 
mands. It is therefore possible to introduce still 
more starchy material in the form of corn-flakes 
and the like, which the e.xcess of diastase may con- 
vert into fermentable sugar. 



The taps are then opened and the liquid part, now 
known as the "wort," is allowed to run oH^ ; the 
spent grain is washed or "sparged" by sprinkling 
with hot water several times. 

The wort is next boiled with the addition of hops. 
The hops give a bitter flavor to the beer and aid 
in its preservation ; moreover, the hop-oil and 
tannins seem to assist materially in the precipi- 
tation of some of the proteid matter. The whole 
process of boiling might be regarded as having 
several results, e. g., destruction of diastase, pre- 
cipitation of the proteids, concentration, extraction 
of hop-oil and hop resin, and sterilization. 

After settling, the wort is again drawn off and 
the residue sparged. The hot wort is then cooled 
by passing over a large Baudelot cooler, or "beer- 
fall," consisting of a series of copper pipes through 
which cold water or a solution from a refrigerating 
machine passes. The cooling is accompanied by 
aeration, which is very desirable ; but great care 
should be taken at this point to prevent infection 
by bacteria and otber microiirganisms from the air. 
Special devices to prevent this are in use in the 
most scientific breweries. 

(.3) Fermentation. 

After proper cooling and aerating, the fresh wort 
is ready to pass to the fermenting tuna, and is 
inoculated with yeast or " pitched." In case pure 
cultures of j'east are not maintained for ferment- 
ing, the yeast is frequently added to the wort in 
the pan at the base of the Baudelot cooler, and the 
whole mi.xed mass run through pipes to the fer- 
menting room. When special pure cultures are 
employed, a "pure culture apparatus" is nece.ssary. 
In this the yeast is developed, starting from a 
single cell, until suflicient has been prepared to 
"pitch" the whole volume of wort. 

As has already been stated, the top fermentation 
is employed for ale, stout, porter, and Weiss beer, 
and the bottom fernientation for lager and Ameri- 
can steam beer. Bottom fermentation proceeds at 
temperatures ranging from 42° to ■'51° Fahr., top 
fermentation at 57° to 73° Fahr. The control of 
temperatures in the fermenting cellar is therefore 
a matter of Importance. The bottom fermentation 
proceeds somewhat the more slowly, requiring 
eight to fifteen or sixteen days, while top fermen- 
tation is finished in a few days. 

Fermentation may be regarded as occurring in 
two distinct stages: 

(1) The "primary" or "principal" fermentation, 
in which the maltose is especially acted on at tem- 
peratures of 42° to 51° Fahr., for bottom yeasts, 
and 57° to 73° Fahr., for top yeasts. 

(2) The "secondary" or "after -fermentation," 
in which the malto-dextrin is transformed by bot- 
tom yeasts at 34° to 37° Fahr., and by top yeasts at 
about 55° Fahr. The yeasts used should in either 
case be freshly developed, free from contaminating 
organisms, and in actively growing condition. The 
amount added depends on a number of conditions, 
so that the experienced brewer uses his judgment 
rather than a definite rule. 

The fermenting tuns are generally large wooden 



190 



SOME OF THE PRINCIPLES OF BREWING 



tanks (50-barrel capacity) in the form of a truncated 
cone, open at the top, and provided with a coil of 
pipe in the bottom to regulate temperature. 

Bottom -fermentation beers. — In lager-beer mak- 
ing, after the tanks are filled with the freshly 
aerated, pitched wort, the fermentation sets in 
slowly at first. Within fifteen to twenty -four 
hours, small bubbles of gas appear around the 
the walls of the tank, and the whole surface is soon 
after covered with a fine white foam or froth. 
This gradually increases in amount, but remains 
thickest at the walls of the tank. When the foam 
becomes a certain depth, owing to the active fer- 
mentation, a breaking up into rounded masses is 
seen, and a general movement from the walls 
toward the middle of the tank. This is known as 
the "Kraiisen" or "cauliflower" stage, from the 
resemblance of the masses of foam to heads of 
cauliflower. Two stages of '' Kraiisen " are recog- 
nized — " young Kraiisen " and " high Kraiisen." 

As a large amount of heat is developed by fer- 
mentation, it is necessary to keep the solution dur- 
ing this period down to about 50° Fahr. by means 
of the attemperators, and, as soon as the fermenta- 
tion slackens in activity, the temperature is brought 
to 89" to 40° Fahr. 

The whole period of fermentation is of eight to 
sixteen days' duration. During this time, the color 
of the beer deepens, and the suspended yeast and 
other materials .should collect in little flecks, leav- 
ing the beer perfectly clear. A large amount of 
yeast is developed during fermentation, as the 
sugar is transformed to alcohol and carbon dioxid. 
The carbon dioxid escapes as gas, displacing the 
air over the fermenting liquid in the vats. About 
one-fifth of one per cent remains in solution. 

The amount of solids in solution is determined 
by an instrument known as a saccharometer. As 
fermentation proceeds the readings become less 
and less, showing the " attenuation " of the beer. 

When the principal fermentation is at an end, 
the beer is practically ready for the storage vats, 
where it undergoes the secondary fermentation. 
During the primary fermentation the sugar is not 
all destroyed, and this residue of maltose and some 
of the malto-dextrin are now slowly acted on by the 
yeast, and eventually become very clear. The dura- 
tion of storage depends on the destiny of the beer ; 
if for present use, a quick treatment with clarifica- 
tion is employed ; if for export, a storage period 
varying from six weeks to three months follows. 

(4) Finishing. 

The beer finally undergoes a finishing process in 
the "chip cellar." The objects here are : (1) to 
produce a lively, that is, well-carbonated beer, 
either by adding "Kraiisen" or by carborating or 
both, and (2) to produce brilliancy, which is done 
by clarifying with isinglass or "chips," or by fil- 
tration. "Chips" are small pieces of wood, which 
expose a large surface to the beer and to which 
suspended matters readily adhere. 

The process of clarification by the use of chips 
or isinglass is known as "fining." After fining, the 
casks containing the beer are tightly bunged so 



that the solution may become charged with carbon- 
dioxid and promote sedimentation of suspended 
material left in the beer. After the proper period 
for bringing about the desired results, the beer is 
"racked," that is, run olf into the barrels or kegs, 
in which it goes to the trade. 

Clarification by filtration is now much used. 
This process consists in forcing the beer under 
pressure through layers of wood-pulp, by which 
means the suspended matters are mechanically 
removed. The composition of a finished beer is 
obviously dependent on the amount of raw mate- 
rials used, and the method of treatment employed. 
The amount of alcohol in ordinary beers varies 
from about 3.2 to about 4.5 per cent. 

Top-fermentation beers. 

Top -fermentation beers or "ale" diff'er from 
those previously mentioned in the method of treat- 
ment, although in the main the equipment of the 
brewery is essentially the same. A carbonating 
room may take the place of the chip cellar. 

In the preparation of present-use ales, about 70 
per cent of malt and 30 per cent of unmalted grain 
is used (or 75 per cent malt and 25 per cent sugar). 
The mashing is carried out until conversion of the 
starch is complete, when the solution is bailed, the 
hops being added and run into the fermenting 
tanks. Here the phenomenon diff^erentiating ale 
fermentation from beer fermentation takes place 
After being pitched with the requisite amount o' 
yeast, — the temperature being not far from 60f 
Fahr., — bubbles of carbon dioxid begin to ri.ie to 
the surface in two to three hours. In two or three 
hours more the froth appears on the surface around 
the sides of the tank, and soon covers the whole 
surface. The "cauliflower stage" is reached and is 
followed by the " rocky head stage." Great masses 
or heads of foam are developed until they may 
attain a height of three or four feet above the 
surface of the wort, owing to the violent ebullition. 
The frothy appearance gives place to the more 
compact " yeasty head," which consists of masses of 
yeast carried up by the gas and accumulating at 
the surface. 

About forty-eight hours after pitching, the 
yeast is in such amount that it is skimmed off, or 
removed, and this process is repeated from time to 
time, until the practical judgment of the brewer 
determines when to stop. After the active fermenta- 
tion is over, the ale is allowed to settle for two 
days, when it is filled into the trade barrels, and 
to it is added 10 per cent of Kraiisen, taken thirty- 
six hours after pitching. 

For brilliant ales the treatment is nearly the 
same, but, in general, great care is taken in fining 
and the solution is carbonated. 

Ales contain more alcohol than lager beers, 
while the amount of extract may be variable. The 
average of several samples of stock ale analyzed 
by Wahl and Henius gave 55 per cent. Cream and 
sparkling ales contain less alcohol, ranging from 
4.0 to 4.90 per cent. Analyses of many samples 
show that American ales are less alcoholic than 
the English products. 



PART III 

NORTH AMERICAN FIELD CROPS 

Having now obtained a general view of some of the primary considerations involved in the 
growing and handling of all crops, we may proceed to specific discussions of the different kinds of 
crops. In this work we are to confine ourselves to field crops, or those that are considered to be 
a part of general farm practice. In doing so, we distinguish these crops from the horticultural crops. 
This distinction is customary rather than logical ; but it has special justification in this instance 
because the horticultural crops are treated in the Editor's Cyclopedia of American Horticulture. 
Certain of the horticultural crop groups are grown under general field conditions, however ; and in 
order to give the present work some further degree of completeness, particularly with reference to 
farm management questions, comprehensive articles are inserted on Fruit-growing, Nurseries and 
Truck-growing. 

Agronomy. 

The classification of agricultural ideas has gone farther in the colleges of agriculture than 
elsewhere. The curriculum of the modern college presents such a dividing of the subject as would 
have been considered impossible a quarter-century ago. This dividing of the field and rearranging 
of the groups will proceed. The old professorship of agriculture is breaking up into component or 
separable parts, each part in charge of a specialist. One of these parts is agronomy. This is a 
new word to common speech. Its literal equivalent is "the law of the fields." The group of subjects 
comprised in agronomy is not yet clearly defined, nor is the group homogeneous. Animal husbandry, 
dairy industry, agricultural engineering and machinery are distinguished from it. It signifies, prac- 
tically, field crops and their management. Horticulture and forestry are also distinguished, for 
practical rather than for rational reasons. It comprises all such questions as crop management, 
rotations and the cultivation of field crops. This Volume II is practically a treatise on agronomy, 
together with some questions of technology (in Part II) that properly lie outside its scope. 

Phytoteekny. 

All knowledge, practice and industries concerned in the raising of animals have been included, 
in recent discussions, under the one word zootechny (from two Greek words meaning animal and 
art or handicraft). Similarly, the knowledge, practice and industries concerned in the growing of 
plants have very recently been designated by the new word phytotechny (phyton, Greek for plant). 
This word is practically equivalent to the phrase "Plant Industry," as applied to a bureau in the 
United States Department of Agriculture. It includes agronomy, horticulture, forestry, and any 
other knowledge directly associated with the rearing of plants. 

Crop-growing advice. 

Perhaps no agricultural writing needs to be more carefully read than that giving advice on the 
growing of the different crops. In the first place, the reader must recognize the fact that bits of 
advice which are so small and apparently unimportant as to be overlooked may be the very ones that 
determine success or failure in a given crop. Yet, in the second place, too much blind reliance on 
these very points may be disastrous in certain years or under peculiar conditions. The reader, if 
he intends practicing what he reads, must have some groundwork or background of e.xperience or 
reason, whereby he is to test all things. Again, allowance must always be made for the local color of 
the writing. Farming is a local business. One's experience is usually acquired in one locality, or in 
localities that are similar : he is likely to have this locality chiefly in mind in his writing. Still 

(191) 



192 NORTH AMERICAN FIELD CROPS 

again, it makes a difference whether the writer or the reader is thinking of small-area or large- 
area enterprises. There is a tendency for the large-area man, or the man who lives in one of the 
great homogeneous agricultural regions, to think that his farming establishes the norm by which 
all other farming shall be judged. The best individual farming is not necessarily to be found in 
the so-called best farming regions ; but it is easier and safer to generalize from the large-area regions. 

These remarks suggest the proper purpose or value of a book on agriculture : such a book is 
valuable for its suggestion and its guidance rather than for its dictum. The failure of the old-time 
"book farming" was quite as much the fault of the reader as of the book. The reader who has called 
himself the "practical farmer" has usually wanted recipes. If one were writing a book for a single 
township, he probably could give something like positive directions. The writers in these volumes have 
given their best information and advice ; but beyond that point they cannot assume responsibility. 

In this volume the special crop articles state the Latin name of the species of plants involved, with 
synonymous or equivalent names immediately following in parentheses. The name of the natural family 
follows : this indicates the plant's relationships. The abbreviated words following the Latin binomials 
indicate the author of the binomial : Linn., signifies Linnseus; Willd., Willdenow; Trin., Trinius; DC, De 
Candolle, the elder; ADC, Alphonse De Candolle. These and others are authors who originally described 
the plants or who gave them their proper places and standing in the classification of human knowledge. 
The botanical history of many of the plants is traced more fully in the other Cyclopedia. These tech- 
nical records suggest to the student sources of information and means of tracing records and origins ; 
and for the general reader they will not lessen the value of the advice that follows them. 

So far as practicable, the subjects are arranged here in alphabetical order. In some cases whole 
crop groups are treated together, and in other cases only single species are so handled. This may 
lead to some confusion as to the place in which a given plant is discussed, but the index will set 
the reader right. As much space has been given to each subject as seemed to be necessary to 
present it adequately ; therefore, the lengths of the articles may bear little relation to the economic 
importance of the crops they discuss. 

Literature. 

References to the literature of agronomical knowledge will be found in many tippropriate places 
in the first two volumes of this Cyclopedia. The writings on special crops or crop groups are 
mentioned under those crops in the pages that follow. Some of the general American crop literature in 
book form may be recorded here : Johnson, How Crops Grow and How Crops Feed, two notable and 
standard works (the former went to a revised edition in 1890); Morrow and Hunt, Soils and Crops 
of the Farm ; Hunt, The Cereals in America ; Saunders, The Leading Cereal Crops in Canada 
(Report Experimental Farms, 1903); Brooks, Agriculture (Vol. II); Wilcox and Smith, Farmer's 
Cyclopedia of Agriculture. Several recent text-books of agriculture give brief discussions on the 
growing of various crops. The reader should keep himself in touch with current discussions and 
progress by means of the agricultural press and the various kinds of government publications. 

ALFALFA or LUCERNE. Medicago sativa, Linn. Asia, and was in use centuries before the Christian 

LegumirioscB. Figs. 271-282. era. It spread successively from Media (Persia) to 

'; ^ , . „^ , Greece (Persian War, about 480 B.C.), Italy (first 

By J. M. Westgate. century A.D.), Spain (Saracean Invasion, eighth 

A deep-rooted, long-lived, perennial forage plant, century A. D.), Mexico and South America (Spanish 

Stems 1 to 4 feet high, numerous from a crown ; Invasion, sixteenth century). 

'eaves numerous, pinnate; leaflets 3, obovate-oblong. Alfalfa was introduced into California from 

prominently toothed near apex ; flowers purple, Chile (1854) and has spread over the irrigated 

rarely white, clover-shaped, in oblong, compact regions of the West. It came from Mexico to Texas 

racemes (Fig. 271); stamens 10, united into a tube in the early part of the nineteenth century. Its 

around the single pistil, one of them on the upper production has been extended more recently to the 

side partly free ; pods slightly pubescent, coiled in non-irrigated parts of the Great Plains region. It 

2 or 3 spirals (Fig. 273) ; seeds several, kidney- was introduced into New York from Europe as 

shaped, one-twelfth inch long. Alfalfa is a staple early as 1791. Its culture in the East has been 

forage plant of the agricultural districts of southern confined to comparatively limited areas. Several 

Europe, southwestern Asia, South America and sections of the South are proving to be adapted 

western United States. It is native to southwestern to its growth. It has been grown, experimentally 




Plate V. Alfalfa at the blooming stage. 



ALFALFA 



ALFALFA 



198 



at least, in all parts of the United States, and is 
competing with red clover in certain sections of 
the East, especially on well-drained calcareous 
soils. It is the principal forage plant of the United 
States west of Iowa and Missouri. In 1899 the 
acreage in the United States was 2,094,011, and 
the tonnage 5,220,671. 

Varieties. 

The varieties are largely adaptive (drought-, 
cold-, disease- or alkali-resistant) and little struc- 
tural difference is to be noted between them and the 
ordinary variety, which 
includes the great 
bulk of European- and 
American -grown seed. 
There is no apparent 
difference between the 
California seed intro- 
duced originally from 
Chile and the European 
importations into the 
eastern United States. 

Turkestan. — The orig- 
inal importation was 
secured from Turkestan 
by N. E. Hansen, under 
the auspices of the 
United States Depart- 
ment f Agriculture. 
Seed from the drier, 
colder parts of Turkes- 





Fig. 271. Alfalfa. 



Fig. 272. Alfalfa flowers. 
Enlarged. 



tan has produced a hardier and more drought- 
resistant crop than ordinary alfalfa, though appar- 
ently no hardier than Grimm and northern Montana 
seed. The forage is sweeter and has finer stalks 
than ordinary alfalfa. As seed production in the 
United States is difficult, the commercial seed is 
largely imported. E.xperiments indicate that it is 
slightly superior in the semi-arid West, where the 
moisture is sufficient for but one or two crops a 
season of ordinary alfalfa. 

Grimm. — This was first noted in Carver county, 
Minnesota, where it is hardy. It was introduced 
by the Minnesota Experiment Station. It is 
apparently slightly hardier than Turkestan alfalfa. 
Perhaps identical with Sand lucerne. 

Dry-land. — This is the name giren throughout 
the West to seed (especially Utah-grown) pro- 

£13 



duced without irrigation in areas of light rain« 
fall. 

Arabian. — Arabian alfalfa was introduced 
through the United States Department of Agricul- 
ture. It is of apparent value in the Southwest, 




Fig. 273. Diagrammatic cross-section through alfalfa flower, 
showing relation of parts. Dotted lines show position 
taken by stameu-tube, resulting from the disarticulation 
of parts by insects. The upper filaments contract and 
forcibly bend the anthers and stigma upward against the 
body of the insect. C, calyx; D. standard: W, wing: K. 
keel: T. stamen-tube: F. filament of free stamen; X. 
stigma: Y, style; O, ovary: E, erect position of stamen- 
tube after release. 

and is a prolific yielder. The stems and leaves are 
pubescent. 

Sand lucern. — This is thought to be a cross 
between Medicago saiiva and M. falcata. It has 
been grown successfully by the Michigan and 
Wisconsin Experiment Stations. Its production is 
still in the experimental stage, but it is proving 
hardy and a heavy yielder on light, sandy soils 
in Michigan. The flowers vary from yellow to 
purple. The seed came originally 
from Germany. 

Propagation and production. 

A deep, well-drained, non-acid, 
fertile soil reasonably free from 
weeds is required. Excessive alka- 
linity (in the West) is overcome 
by flooding and draining ; acidity 
(East) is corrected by liming. 
Well-rotted manure is a satisfac- 
tory fertilizer. A deep, permeable 
subsoil is necessary, as the roots 
normally extend to depths of six 
to twelve feet, and sometimes to 
considerably greater depths. (Fig. 
275.) Inoculation of the seed or 
soil with root nodule bacteria is 
generally advisable in the humid 
regions. Repe ated harrowings 
after plowing produce the fine 
well -settled seed-bed required. 
For seeding in the West, twelve to 
twenty pounds, and in the East, 
twenty to thirty pounds of seed 
per acre are used, broadcasted and harrowed or 
drilled in one and one-half inches deep, or less in 
clay soils, generally without a nurse crop. Choking 
out by weeds the first summer and winter-killing 
the first winter are to be especially guarded 
against. 




Fig. 274. 
Alfalfa seed-pods. 

Enlarged. 



194 



ALPALFA 



ALFALFA 




Fig. 275. 

Alfalfa plant; roots 

well established. 



Late summer seeding, which permits consider- 
able growth before winter and reduces danger 
from weeds to a minimum, is to 
be recommended if the moisture 
conditions are favorable, unless 
danger from winter -killing 
(North) makes spring seeding 
necessary. In the North the plants 
should go into the winter with a 
considerable growth to hold snow 
to check freezing and heaving. 
Occasional mowings the first year, 
with the cutter-bar set high, hold 
the weeds in check and induce 
heavier stooling. It is not pas- 
tured until after the first year and 
then but sparingly. In the West 
the stand lasts indefinitely, but in 
the Ea-st it is often run out by 
June-grass or Kentucky blue- 
grass (Poa pratensis) and in the 
middle South by crab-grass. Disk- 
ing with the disks set nearly 
straight is destructive to weeds 
and beneficial to alfalfa plants 
over two years old. The number 
of cuttings (one ton or more 
each) varies from two or three, 
where the summers are short, 
to six or seven where they are 
long. A normal yield is four to five tons per acre. 
It is cut when the first blooms appear, as later cut- 
ting reduces the protein content and decreases 
the feeding value. Great care is necessary to pre- 
vent the loss of leaves, which 
constitute as high as 63 per 
cent of the total protein of 
the plant. In the West it is 
usually raked into windrows a 
few hours after cutting, and 
as soon as cured sufficiently 
to prevent heating is hauled 
to the stack, or baler, on racks 
or hay sweeps, "go-devils" or 
" bullrakes." Hayforks (capa- 
city 300 to 600 pounds) facil- 
itate stacking and reduce the 
loss of leaves. In humid re- 
gions the hay is cocked some- 
what green from the wind- 
rows, and when sufficiently 
cured is hauled on racks to 
the stack or barn. 

Uses. 

The feeding value of alfalfa 
depends on its high protein 
content and palatability. 
Alone it constitutes a main- 
tenance ration, but it is gen- 
erally fed in connection with 
starchy feeds. It is superior 
to clover hay in feeding value 
and may be substituted in part 
for bran 'in a dairy ration in 




Fig. 277, Allalfa leaf-spot. 




Fig. 276. Dodder on alfalfa (after first cutting). 



the proportion of one and one-half pounds of 
alfalfa to one pound of bran. 

It affords excellent pasture tut must be grazed 
with caution, as cattle are likely to bloat, espe- 
cially if turned on when hungry or when the 
alfalfa is wet. 

It is Well adapt- 
ed for soiling pur- 
poses, but is little 
used for silage 
unless continued 
rains prevent field 
curing. 

In common 
with other leg- 
umes it is a val- 
uable soil-renova- 
tor, although in 
the West it is 
rarely turned un- 
der, the fields 
sometimes re- 
maining in alfalfa 
fifty years. 

The hay is sometimes ground and sold as alfalfa 
meal, either pure or mixed with prepared concen- 
trates such as bran, corn chop and molasses. A 
considerable saving in freight rates is effected by 
this process, as the ordinary bales are too bulky to 
be shipped to the best advantage. 

For ordinary shipment the hay is baled 110 
cubic feet to the ton. For transoceanic shipment 
double compressed bales are used (fifty-five to 
eighty-five cubic feet to the ton). 

Causes of failure. 

The causes of failure may 
be stated under three heads, 
as follows : 

(1) General. — Lack of at- 
tention to soil requirements, 
preparation of ground and 
care the first year. 

(2) Weeds. — Fox -tail and 
crab-grass in the Middle West, 
June-grass (Poa pratensis) in 
the North, Johnson grass and 
crab-grass in the South. The 
remedies for these are the use 
of clean land, frequent mow- 
ings and occasional diskings. 

(3) Inoculation. — Lack of 
inoculation (humid sections) is 
often a cause of failure. Har- 
rowing in soil from an old 
alfalfa field at seeding time is 
the natural method and gener- 
ally successful. The disadvan- 
tages of this method lie in 
the difficulty of transporta- 
tion (100 to 400 pounds per 
acre) and the danger of intro- 
ducing weeds and plant dis- 
eases. The commercial cul- 
tures formerly on the market 



ALFALFA 



ALFALFA 



195 



did not prove generally successful With the 
imiirovement in methods of preparation and appli- 
cation now being made by the United States De- 
partment of Agriculture, the effectiveness of the 
artificial cultures promises to equal that of the 
soil transfer method without its disadvantages. 

Enemies. 

Dodder, or love-vine. — (Fig. 276.) This is a para- 
sitic weed with golden thread-like stems and no 




Fig. 278. First cutting of alfalfa in New Jersey 

leaves. It is especially troublesome in New York 
and Utah, being carried with the seed as an impu- 
rity. The remedy is close cutting and careful removal 
of the stalks from the field. Burning the infested 
area and clo.se pasturing frequently are successful. 

Leaf-spot {Pseudopcziza medicaginis.) — (Fig. 277.) 
This is the most common disea.se and is especially 
noticeable when the plants are allowed to stand 
for seed. It is held in check by mowing, as the 
spore production is reduced and the growth of the 
plants made more vigorous. 

Antliracnose (Coltetotrichum trifolii, Bain). — This 
is a new disease, reported only from the humid 
.states. It attacks the stems, producing well-defined 
purple patches. The plants turn yellow at the top 
and sometimes are killed over a considerable part 
of the field. Mowing the infested area and the 
application of a nitrate fertilizer probably are the 
best procedures. It is sometimes nece.ssary to plow 
the infested area to prevent further spreading. 

Roof-rot {Ozonium sp.). — This disease is confined 
to the South and is the same as the cotton root-rot. 
It spreads in circular patches in the field. The 
only remedy is plowing under and keeping the 
land out of alfalfa until the spores are destroyed. 

Animals. — Gophers {Geotnys spp. and Thomomys 
spp.) and prairie dogs (Cynomys .ipp.) do considerable 
damage in the West, especially where it is impos- 
sible to irrigate. Traps, carbon bisulfid, arsenic 
and strychnine are effective remedies. 

luMcts. — The web-worm, army-worm and grass- 
hoppers are destructive at times in the West. 
Mowing the field promptly checks the increase by 
reducing the food-supply. Fall disking is destruc- 
tive to grasshopper eggs. 



Literature. 

Practically all of the experiment stations have 
issued bulletins on alfalfa-growing in their respec- 
tive states. The following list includes only a few 
of the more important. Discussions will also be 
found in most of the more recent general works on 
agriculture and throughout the agricultural press : 
Alfalfa, F. D. Coburn, 1901; The Book of Alfalfa, 
Coburn, 1906 ; Lucerne Grass, B. Rosque, London, 
1765; Compt. Rend. Acad. Sci. (Paris) 134 (1902), 
No. 2, pp. 75-80 ; Agricultural 
Gazette, N. S. W., 7, 1896 ; United 
States Department of Agriculture, 
Farmers' Bulletins No. 194, "Al- 
falfa Seed," and No. 215, "Alfalfa 
Growing"; Canada, Central Ex- 
perimental Farm, Bulletin No. 46 ; 
Penn.sylvania Bulletin No. 129 ; 
Kansas Board of Agriculture Quar- 
terly, March, 1900. The following 
bulletins of state experiment sta- 
tions : Alabama, Bulletin No. 127; 
Colorado, Bulletin No. 35; Kansas, 
Bulletins Nos. 85, 114 ; Michigan, 
Bulletin No. 225 ; Minnesota, Bul- 
letin No. 80 ; Mississippi, Circular 
No. 18; Maryland, Bulletin No. 85 ; 
Nebraska, Bulletin No. 35 ; New 
Jersey, Bulletin No. 190; New 
York, State Station, Bulletins Nos. 
16, 80, 118, N. S.; New York, Cornell Station, Bul- 
letins Nos. 221, 237; North Carolina, Bulletin No. 
60 ; Oregon, Bulletin No. 76 ; Texas, Bulletins Nos. 
22, 66 ; Utah, Bulletins Nos. 48, 58, 91 ; Wiscon- 
sin, Bulletins No.s. 112, 121. 

Alfalfa in the Central West. 
By F. D. Coburn. 
The appreciation and increased sowings of al- 
falfa, within recent years, in the states and terri- 
tories west of the Missouri river, and e.specially in 
the plains region eastward from the Rocky moun- 
tains, have constituted one of the phenomena of 
American agriculture. Typical of this has been 
its advancement in Kansas, where, prior to 1891, 
no official cognizance had been given it as one of 




- j«ii' 



fc-'-: 






-S"-'^ 




Fig. 279. Practical way of protecting alfalfa from rain 
while curing. 



the state's products, and where, in that year, the 
official enumerators discovered a total of but 34,384 
acres. In 1906, there were 614,813 acres, and two 
counties (which in 1891 had together but 800 
acres) had, combined, an acreage of more than 



196 



ALFALFA 



ALFALFA 



69,200, and twenty-five counties had more than 
10,000 acres each. 

The aforetime theory that alfalfa would not 
thrive without irrigation, or unless planted on 
soils that were proved to be adapted to the growth 
of corn or cottonwood trees, has been found to be 
entirely fallacious, and, instead, alfalfa is growing 
with more or less prosperity on much of the wide 
diversity of soils the western half of the continent 
affords, however unpromising their appearance, 
whether river " bottom " land or the high plateaus 
60 to 100 feet above available water, gravel, desert 
sand or richest mold. In fact, in many places sup- 
posedly least encouraging, and even on rough lands 
far removed from any accessible water-supply, it 
grows with a persistence that almost tempts one 
to class it as a weed. Owing to its yields of sev- 
eral profitable cuttings in a season, its unusual 
protein content, extreme palatability to live-stock 
of nearly every class, and its longevity, aside from 
its nitrogen -gathering qualities, the extent and 
penetration of its root-system and the soil-improv- 



many parts of the Central West, by seeding to 
alfalfa, lands have been doubled and trebled in 
value, and in numerous instances its being planted 











^.^*^A 



h I I 



ji".^^^ 



Fig. 281. stacking alfalfa in tlie West with the alfalfa-stacker. 

ing effect as fertilizer and renovator, it is rated as either the hand 
by far the most desirable forage plant in cultiva- 
tion. In California and elsewhere it has produced 
in a season, under the most favorable conditions, 
when irrigated, six to nine cuttings, and in Okla- 
homa, without irrigation, has yielded nine cuttings, 
averaging one and one-half tons per acre of cured 
hay. The hay is a large factor in live-stock-rais- 
ing, and it is coming to be shipped extensively in 
bales to distant 
markets, even so 
remote as Hawaii, 
Alaska, and vari- 
ous transoceanic 
points. Mills are 
established in vari- 
ous parts of the 
country for grind- 
ing the hay into 
meal, which is eco- 
nomically trans- 
ported and affords 
convenient mate- 
rial, used with most 
wholesome results, 
for balancing prop- 
erly the rations of 
milch cows, horses 
and poultry. In 



Fig. 280. stacking alfalfa in the West by the derrick stacker. 

on them has converted lands before regarded as 
practically worthless into highly profitable invest- 
ments. 

The method of seeding found most satisfactory 
is with horse-drills, which deposit the seed at a 
depth of an inch or less, in 
rows six to eight inches 
apart, fifteen to twenty 
pounds per acre, on land in 
fine tilth, harrowed smooth, 
and somewhat compacted 
rather than light and po- 
rous. By some growers, half 
of the seed is drilled in one 
direction and the other half 
crosswise of this, to facili- 
tate its more equable distri- 
bution. Other growers sow 
the seed broadcast from 
I machine. Sowing in August 
is more popular than spring seeding, and without 
a nurse crop. A disk-harrow, which stirs the soil 
surface, destroys weeds, and splits and spreads 
the root crowns, causing an increased number and 
finer growth of stems, is the approved cultivator, 
and on many fields it is used immediately after 
each mowing, always adding vigor to the suc- 
ceeding growth. 




Fig. 282. Alfalfa in Nebraska. 



ALFALFA 



ALFILARIA 



197 



Alfalfa in the East. 

By F. E. Dawley. 

It should be known that alfalfa was independently 
introduced in the East, although its present vogue 
has been quickened by the interest arising in the 
West. An earnest attempt was made to introduce 
it into New York state (under its French name, 
lucerne), in 1790 to 1800. In 1793, Robert Living- 
ston had fifteen acres growing in Jefferson county, 
divided into seven plots, each given different 
treatment. It is reported as " growing luxuriantly " 
during the first season, then turning yellow and 
" pining away." In 1812, it was tried in Central 
New York by Sterling Lamson and Moses Dewitt 
with about the same result, although straggling 
plants from this parentage, it is thought, are still 
growing. In 1852, Henry Meigs exhibited a few 
plants loefore the American Institute in New York. 

All of these attempts seem to have proved un- 
satisfactory, and alfalfa-growing on a successful 
basis can be traced to a shipment of seed in the 
chaff, which was hand-gathered on the Pacific coast 
and sent to Onondaga county. New York, in 1867. 
With this came the inoculation which seemed nec- 
essary to prevent the plants dying the second year 
because of the lack of root nodules. 

In 1894, the New York State Experiment Station 
at Geneva issued a bulletin on " Alfalfa Forage for 
Milch Cows," and the agitation of the subject at 
farmers' institutes, together with the reports of 
successful fields in Onondaga county. New York, 
seemed to awaken new interest in the crop ; and a 
little later, when it was learned definitely that old 
fields where it was growing successfully contained 
bacteria which could be transplanted to other fields 
and cause the plant to grow there, its spread be- 
came more rapid and today marks one of the great 
achievements of science as applied to agriculture. 
Where drainage and physical conditions are favor- 
able in the East, alfalfa will flourish, if seeded prop- 
erly and the soil inoculated when necessary. 

It is usually advised, in the East, to sow alfalfa 
in .spring (between oat and corn planting) unless 
the land is very foul, in which case the land may be 
cleaned and the seed sown in July or August. 

In the East, where dairy farming in the future 
must occupy the attention of a large proportion of 
land-owners, the advent of alfalfa marks a new era. 
Home-grown protein in alfalfa will solve the ques- 
tion of economical milk production, whether the 
silo can be made available or not. 

The first and last cuttings of alfalfa can be 
ensiled if the weather conditions are not favorable 
for curing it for hay. The writer put the first 
alfalfa into the silo in 1891, and has stored more 
or less of it in that way each year since with satis- 
factory results. This method solves the curing of 
the first crop, which is the greatest difficulty to be 
overcome in the East. Alfalfa is now being ground 
into meal, and if the last crop, cut before it is in 
blossom, is used for this purpose, it makes a very 
satisfactory product. The first alfalfa meal was 
ground in Fayetteville, New York, in 1891, the 
machines being made by Samuel Jackson. 



ALFILARIA. Erodium cicutarium, L'Her. Gera- 
niaceije. P^ilaree ; heron's-bill ; pin-grass and pin- 
clover (whence the name alfilaria, from Span- 
ish for pin, in allusion to the pin-like carpels 
or "seeds"); name spelled also alfileria and 
alfilerilla. By the Spanish, it is called alfilerilla, 
the double "1" being pronounced as "y,"with 
accent on the last syllable. Western farmers 
usually call it " filaree," with accent on the 
first syllable. Fig. 283. 

By /. ./. Tkornber. 

Alfilaria is a small, annual, hairy, slightly viscid, 
erect or ascending herb, attaining a height of six 
to eighteen inches, utilized as wild range pasture, 
and now sometimes grown for hay. The leaves are 
opposite or alternate, and pinnate, 
the divisions being finely dissected 
nearly to the mid-vein. It forms a 
compact, many- 
leaved rosette 
which frequently 
attains a diameter 
of ten to twelve 
inches. The flower 
parts are in fives, 
and are produced 
in axillary, stalked, 
several- flowered 
clusters or umbels. 
The flowers are 
purple. In fruit, the 
five styles of the 
flower elongate 
conspicuously, be- 
come hairy on the 
inside, and at ma- 
turity are dehis- 
cent (that is, are 
separated into defi- 
nite part s), and 
t wis ted spirally, 
the seeds at the 
lower ends of the styles becoming in the mean- 
time sharp-pointed at their bases. The plant gen- 
erally has a slight musky odor. 

Seven other species of Erodium are found in this 
country. Two species, introduced from the Medi- 
terranean region — E. m.oschatum, known as musk 
filaree or musk clover, and E. Botrys — are grown 
in the Pacific coast country. The' Texan alfilaria, 
E. Tcxanum, is a native species occurring in the 
southwest. 

History. 

Alfilaria is a native of the Mediterranean region, 
where it is regarded, commonly, as a weed. From 
there it has spread over parts of Europe, Asia and 
Africa, and North and South America. It was 
probably introduced by the Spanish into the west- 
ern hemisphere in the sixteenth century, in parts 
of Me.xico and South America, and later in Cal- 
ifornia. From these centers it has gradually 
spread over large areas. It is probably not a native 
of the Pacific coast country. 




Fig. 283. Alfilaria, affording range 
pasture in the southwest. 



198 



ALFILARIA 



ALFILARIA 



Distribuiion. 

The region of the greatest production of alfilaria 
is confined to California, Nevada, Arizona, New 
Mexico and Utah. It also extends into Mexico and 
Central America and parts of South America. The 
distribution is affected and to a large extent deter- 
mined by a few climatic features, namely, mild win- 
ter temperatures, fall and winter precipitation, and 
altitude as influencing precipitation and tempera- 
ture. Soil conditions are of minor importance, 
although, in general, alkalinity should be avoided. 
A rainfall in winter and spring of five to seven 
inches will serve to produce a good growth of the 
crop. Two or three inches of rainfall in December, 
January and February are needed to start the 
plants. If the moisture conditions are right, growth 
will take place through the winter, subject to occa- 
sional checks due to unusually low temperatures. 

Elevation as related to rainfall and temperature 
is important. Alfilaria does best between 1,500 
and 4,500 feet altitude. Above this height the 
winter temperatures are generally too severe for 
growth, and below it there is likely to be deficient 
rainfall. 

The fact that alfilaria begins its growth in the 
late fall or early winter adapts it especially to 
southwestern United States. At that time the 
moisture conditions are most satisfactory. The 
plant rapidly develops the low, spreading rosette, 
which gets the maximum amount of heat and light. 
The formation of a deep taproot enables it to 
withstand drought and to start a rapid growth 
when the warm days come. In Washington and 
similar latitudes, alfilaria is usually a spring or 
summer plant. 

Growth. 

The seed and seeding. — Heretofore seeding has 
been accomplished largely by sheep, and the 
method has been sufficiently successful to be con- 
sidered an effective and reliable system. The seeds 
are furnished with twisted awns and an abundance 
of hairs so disposed as to aid them to fasten to and 
penetrate the furry coats of animals. Sheep, on 
passing through a field of alfilaria, get more or less 
covered with the seeds, besides carrying away 
many between their toes. The incessant trampling 
serves to plant the seed to the proper depth. The 
same is true of other stock. 

When planting is to be done over a considerable 
area, the seed should be gathered and sown as 
soon thereafter as convenient. If the seed is 
stored through the summer and sown in the fall, a 
large percentage of it will lie in the ground for 
a year ; whereas, if it is sown soon after maturity, 
the summer weather seems to fit it for quick 
growth when fall rains come. The seeds mature 
in spring and are gathered in May and June. If 
ungathered, they will remain on or in the ground 
in a dormant .state until fall, no matter how 
favorable the conditions for growth. A southern 
exposure is preferable. If the .seeding can he done 
among shrubs, the seedling plants will be protected 
against animals until they are established. The par- 
tial shade afl'orded bv the shrubs also seems to have 



a beneficial effect, making the temperature and mois- 
ture conditions more uniform. The seed is harrowed 
in to a depth of about a half inch. 

Development. — The fall rains induce rapid ger- 
mination and growth, and the seedlings soon develop 
compact, many-leaved rosettes, which lie close to 
the ground. The rosettes grow slowly during the 
winter by increasing the leaf surface. Flower- 
buds are formed at their centers. At the same 
time a deep heavy taproot is formed. The fiowers 
begin to show with the first warm days of late 
winter. Several vigorous stems soon spring up 
from each plant, which continue to grow until April 
or May. Six to eight weeks elapse between the 
flowers and the formation of much seed. 

Uses. 

As a forage crop. — Wherever alfilaria has become 
abundant it has doubled the spring forage supply, 
without interfering with the later growth of 
summer species, principally grasses. Once estab- 
lished it is permanent unless grazed to the detri- 
ment of seed production, which is unlikely. It is 
relished by all range stock, at all stages of its 
growth. It is especially relished by sheep, which 
are able to nibble its flattened rosettes some time 
before the larger animals. The only objection is 
that the seeds in the wool reduce the value of the 
latter as much as a cent and a half a pound. 
Shearing twice a year — in March and September — 
has been found to reduce this objection to a min- 
imum. As a forage crop, alfilaria is both nutri- 
tious and succulent. 

As a hay crop. — The use of alfilaria as a hay 
plant is yet limited. If cut when in blo.ssom and 
cured as is alfalfa it is very palatable. But, in 
order to attain a growth sufficient for this pur- 
pose, it should be grown under favorable con- 
ditions on the richer soils of valleys, swales, 
mesas and similar areas. Under ordinary con- 
ditions, a fair yield is a ton and a half of hay per 
acre. Unfortunately, the common method of hand- 
ling the crop for hay is exceedingly wasteful, the 
long weathering causing the loss of the most 
valuable constituents. 

Composition of alfilaria hay. — Analyses made at 
the Arizona Experiment Station by Vinson showed 
alfilaria to contain a high percentage of ash. The 
fat is present in larger proportion than in alfalfa, 
but slightly less than in most varieties of hay. 
The protein content is high, comparing favorably 
with hay from legumes. The crude fiber is moder- 
ate, being about the same as in good timothy hay. 
The carbohydrates are abundant. 

Literature. 

Comparatively little has been written on 
alfilaria in this country. The most comprehensive 
discussion is found in Bulletin No. 52, of the 
Agricultural Experiment Station of the Univer- 
sity of Arizona, from which this article is largely 
adapted. A few of the experiment stations have 
bulletins on the subject, and the 1901 Yearl)Ook 
of the United States Department of Agriculture 
gives a few notes. 



ARROW-ROOT 



BANANA 



199 



ARROW-ROOT. Fig. 284. 
By S. M. Tracy. 

Arrow-root starch is a product manufactured 
from the underground parts of a number of differ- 
ent plants grown in tropical and subtropical coun- 
tries. It is valued principally as a food for invalids, 
especially in cases of persistent diarrhea and 
dysentery. In South Africa and the East Indies, 
Maranta arundinacea (Fig. 284) is the plant most 
commonly cultivated for this purpose. This is much 
grown in the Bermuda islands, and therefore is 
commonly known as Bermuda arrow-root. In Aus- 
tralia. Maranta nobilis, Manihot utilissima (cassava) 
and several species of Canna, — C. Achiras, C. 
glaaea, C. edulis, and others, — are used for the 
same purpose, and C flaccida, a native of the south- 
ern part of the United States, is one of the 
most profitable .species. Recent experiments show 
that the common canna used in this country for 
decorative purposes (C. Indica, Indian shot) can 
be made a profitable source of arrow-root in all the 
southern states. In the Pacific i-slands, especially 
in Guam, the Hawaiian islands and the Philippines, 
Tacca pinnatifida, a plant belonging to the Taccacese 
and closely related to the yams, is more commonly 
used, and to a considerable extent also in India. 
Both the marantas and the cannas have fleshy rhi- 
zomes, while the cassava and the tacca have fleshy 
roots resembling sweet-potatoes. Cassava starch is 
considered the best for laundry purposes and is 
much used by manufacturers of linen goods. Some 
varieties of this plant received recently from 
Colombia, South America, yield as much as 39 per 
cent of their weight as starch. 

Manufacture. — From whatever source the arrow- 
root may be derived, the process of manufacture is 
practically the sam.e. The fresh roots are washed 
and are then grated to a fine pulp. This pulp is 
diluted with water and repeatedly strained, diluted 
and settled to remove all fibrous material, and also 
to extract the coloring matter and a bitter principle 
which is more or less prominent in all the roots 
used in the manufacture of the starch. The com- 
mercial value of the arrowroot is largely depen- 
dent on the number of washings, as each successive 
washing renders the starch whiter, more palatable 
and more easily digested, though it is said that the 
darker-colored product which has been given fewer 
washings is more effective when used for the cura- 
tive treatment of dysentery. 

Arrow-root starch is not now produced in the 
United States, but a starch made from cassava 
(Manihut utilissima) is used very largely as a 
substitute, and appears to be more valuable. 
Cassava is grown extensively in Florida, and its 
cultivation is extending westward along the gulf 
coast to Texas. 

The following notes on Bermuda arrow-root are 
by T. J. Harris, Superintendent of Public Gardens, 
Hamilton, Bermuda : 

"The commercial value of the arrow-root de- 
pends largely on the soil and climate in which it is 
grown and the care bestowed on its manufacture. 
The St. Vincent product is sold for 2Jd. per pound, 




Fig. 284. Bermuda arrow - root 
shoots {Maranta arundinacea). 



while Bermuda arrow-root brings Is. 9d. per pound 
in the open market. It is of special value as food 
for invalids, as it contains nothing whatever of & 
deleterious nature. Dissolved and injected with 
laudanum, it is a specific for 
extreme cases of dysentery. In 
Bermuda, every care is taken to 
ensure absolute cleanliness, the 
natural conditions aiding in this 
respect: the soil in 
which the rhizomes ^ 
are grown is a red, 
sandy loam derived 
from coral rock, and 
is quite devoid of 
volcanic mineral 
substances; the per- 
petually damp at- 
mosphere ensures 
the gradual and 
even deposition of 
each successive 
layer on the starch 
granule ; the water 
used in the washing 
is distilled in a dust- 
less atmosphere and 
caught on immacu- 
late lime - washed 
roofs. 

"There is but one 
factory in Bermuda, 
working on a capital of £3,000 and paying about 
10 per cent per annum. 

" An acre of arrow-root in Bermuda will yield in 
a fair season about 14,000 pounds of rhizomes, 15 
per cent of which is recovered as dried' starch." 

BANANA-GROWING IN AMERICAN 
TROPICS. Figs. 285, 286. 

By G. N. Collins. 

The rapidly attained popularity of the banana 
in the United States offers a striking example 
of a recent addition to our traditional list of 
foods. Thirty years ago the banana was practi- 
cally unknown outside the tropics, yet to-day it 
must be classed as one of our staple articles of 
diet. This rapid growth in favor is doubtless 
due to the peculiar character of the fruit, which 
is entirely unlike any of the temperate and sub- 
tropical products in use previously. It is, perhaps, 
the best adapted of fruits for handling in large 
quantities. One stroke of the machete gathers 75 
to 150 individual bananas, compactly united into 
a cluster convenient for handling, comparable to an 
entire crate of any of our northern fruits. The 
structure of the individual fruits is equally con- 
venient, since they are protected perfectly by a 
tough skin which is removed readily without the 
use of any instrument, while the pulp is luscious 
without being juicy. 

Throughout tropical America the banana is con- 
sidered a vegetable rather than a fruit. Indeed, as 
a fruit the banana is taking a relatively more im- 



200 



BANANA 



BANANA 



portant place in the United States than in the 
regions in which it is grown. Thus, in Porto Rico, 
it would be classed fourth or fifth in a list of the 
most popular fruits, while as a vegetable it would 
rank second or perhaps first. 

Botanical discussion. 

The banana plant, or tree, as it is often called, is 
a large herb with a perennial rootstock. The part 
above the base, which reaches a height of ten to 
thirty feet, consists entirely of the leaves and their 
clasping, sheath-like petioles. The inflorescence 
forces its way through this stem-like growth and 
appears as a large raceme, which soon becomes 
pendent. The flowers are borne in clusters of eight 
to fifteen, which when mature are known as "hands." 
Each cluster is enclosed in a large subtending 




Fig. 28S. I/Oading bananas on a plantation in Costa Rica. 

bract, purple in most species, that rolls back and 
drops as the flowers open. The basal flowers, which 
open first, are pistillate, with only aborted stamens. 
Toward the apex the stamens become larger and 
more perfect, while the pistil is gradually reduced, 
until at the apex the flowers are entirely staminate. 
Usually less than half of the flower-clusters de- 
velop as fruit, though the opening of the staminate 
flowers toward the apex continues until the fruit 
at the base is mature. The closely packed clusters 
of unopened flowers at the end of the fruit-stalk 
are known as the "navel." (For accounts of the 
botanical characters, see Cyclopedia of American 
Horticulture, under Banana and Musa.) 

Varieties. 

The almost countless varieties of bananas and 
plantains are all classified under species of the 
genus Musa, which, with five other genera, com- 
prises the family Musaceje. In the latest revision 
by Schumann the genus is divided into forty-two 
species. The various varieties of edible bananas 
are usually all included under the two species 
M. paradisiaca and M. Cavendishii. The latter is 
the dwarf banana, grown in the Canary islands for 
the English market and also in Hawaii. M. para- 
disiaca has two sub-species : normalis, comprising 



the plantains or cooking bananas, which are of 
coarse texture and only slightly sweet, and sapien- 
tum, comprising the majority of the varieties of 
sweet -fruited bananas that may be eaten raw. 
By many writers the plantain {normalis) and the 
common banana {sapicntum) are regarded as dis- 
tinct botanical species. Practically the only va- 
riety that appears in the northern markets is the 
Martinique or Jamaica, also known as Gros Michel 
and Bluefields. The chief advantage of this va- 
riety is the superior shipping quality of the fruit. 
It is to be regretted that this one desirable char- 
acter has been allowed to exclude all the other 
varieties, many of which are decidedly superior as 
table fruit. 

The plantains or cooking bananas are worthy of 
greater consideration than they receive in this 
country. Throughout all tropical countries they 
are preferred for cooking, and it would seem only 
a question of time until they will be added to our 
list of vegetables. In New Orleans the population 
is sufliciently in touch with the tropics to aff'ord 
a limited market for plantains, and about 6,000,000 
individual plantains are annually shipped to that 
city from British Honduras. 

Propagation and growth. 

The banana is entirely seedless, and propagation 
is accomplished by planting the suckers or sprouts 
that arise from the base of old plants. These are 
of two kinds, known as " broad leaf " and " sword " 
suckers. The former arise from short, thick, 
sessile bulbs borne at the surface of the ground 
around the parent plant, the latter from stalked 
bulbs that arise lower down. Sword suckers are 
usually considered the more desirable. For plant- 
ing, these are removed when about six feet high 
and the bulbs four or five inches in diameter. As 
soon as they are taken up they are cut back to 
about one foot in length, and in this condition they 
can be kept for a month or more before planting. 

The banana is very exacting with respect to 
soil. To do well the land must be very rich in 
humus, moist, but very well drained. In poor 
situations the plants may do well at first, but will 
run out in a few years and need to be replanted, 
whereas on good land they will continue to produce 
fine crops for fifteen or twenty years. 

The plants are usually spaced fourteen to twenty 
feet each way, except in parts of Costa Rica, where 
a system of block planting, originated by Mr. John 
Keith, is practiced. This system, which has shown 
an increased yield wherever tried, is to plant in 
blocks of four plants each, the individual plants 
being about four feet apart, in the form of a 
square ; the blocks are 25 x 25 feet. This pro- 
vides a better shade for the base of the plant 
during the early stages of its growth, and thus 
prevents excessive suckering. 

The plants usually require about twelve months 
to produce a mature bunch. Before the bunch 
appears, suckers will start from the base which 
will take the place of the old plant or trunk, when 
it is cut down in harvesting the bunch. Only enough 
suckers are allowed to develop to keep up the sue- 



BANANA 



BANANA 



201 



cession of plants, and it requires some experience to 
judge of the proper time to allow suckers to grow 
so that there will be large cuttings in the season 
when the highest prices prevail. Until the plants 
are large enough to shade the ground, it is neces- 
sary to keep down the growth of grass and weeds. 
Some planters have found it profitable to sow 
cowpeas at the time of planting, which occupy 
the ground and reduce the number of cleanings 
that it is necessary to make. One of the worst 
enemies of the banana-grower is grass. Its appear- 
ance in a plantation may be taken as a sign that 
the plantation will soon cease to be productive. It 
is not clear whether the grass is merely an indi- 
cation that the soil is in some way depleted, or 
whether it is itself the real cause of the dete- 
rioration. 

Diseases. 

The banana is attacked by comparatively few 
diseases. The only one causing serious damage in 
any of the centers of production here considered 
appeared in the Bocas del Toro region of Panama. 
This disease has been made the subject of a special 
investigation and found to be of bacterial origin. 
The same disease has been reported in Costa Rica, 
but it seldom attacks vigorous plants growing in 
suitable situations. 

Frodudion. 

The chief centers of banana production in America 
are Costa Rica and Jamaica. The imports for the 
year 1905, by countries, were as follows : 

Jamaica $.3,245,536 

Costa Rica 1,888,939 

Cuba .- 1,437,952 

Honduras 1,430,580 

Colombia 585,489 

Panama 415,495 

Nicaragua 391,142 

Santo Domingo 283,950 

British Honduras 112,605 

Guatemala 97,688 

Other countries 8,445 

There are marked differences between the cul- 
tures of Costa Rica and Jamaica, and also in the 
methods of handling the fruit. In Costa Rica the 
plants grow to a much larger size and produce, on 
the average, larger bunches. In Jamaica the mini- 
mum bunch that is accepted is that of five hands, 
while in Costa Rica nothing smaller than seven 
hands will be received. In Costa Rica the culture is 
less intensive than in Jamaica. In the latter place, 
especially on the south side of the island where the 
plantations are irrigated, they present a very 
regular appearance. The ground is kept clean and 
the rows in good alignment. In Costa Rica, many 
of the large plantations receive little attention 
aside from the removing of superfluous suckers. 

Transportation. 

As bananas are all grown in the tropics and 
all sold in temperate countries, the industry is to a 
large e.xtent a question of transportation. This 
phase of the subject has received much more care- 



ful attention than has the more strictly agricul- 
tural side. The business is chiefly in the hands of 
large companies, which are interested primarily 
in transportation. These are now consolidated, so 
that nearly all the fruit received in the northern 
markets is handled by the United Fruit Company. 

When locating plantations in Costa Rica, land is 
usually selected through which it is possible to 
construct railroads, this consideration bearing 
quite as much weight as the nature of the land. 
Every efliort is made to handle the fruit promptly. 
In many cases it is possible to leave the fruit on 
the plant until the steamer that is to transport 
it is sighted. Telephonic orders are then sent to 
the difl^erent plantation managers and the fruit 
is rushed in by train-loads, so that it not 
infrequently happens that a steamer leaves the 
wharf at Port Limon with 30,000 bunches of 




Fig. 286. Loading into cars that run to the wharf. Costa Rica. 

bananas that were growing in the plantations 
twenty-four hours before. The service calls for 
steamers especially constructed to carry this fruit. 
The holds are especially well ventilated, and in 
many of the more recent steamers the air is arti- 
ficially cooled before it passes over the fruit. Cold 
storage in the ordinary sense can not be applied to 
the banana. If the green fruit is subjected to a 
temperature much below 50°, it is injured, so 
that, although it may keep almost indefinitely, it 
will never ripen. To avoid this, the wharves and 
the cars into which the bananas are loaded are 
heated in bringing the fruit into northern ports in 
the winter months. 

The distribution of bananas to the various cities 
is handled with the same expedition as the ship- 
ping. Before a cargo arrives it is apportioned to 
the different centers of consumption, so that in a 
few hours after the arrival of a ship the fruit is 
on its way to distant parts of the country. 

Literature. 

The Banana in Hawaii, J. E. Higgins (1904), 
Hawaii Agric. Exp. Sta., Bull. No. 7 ; The Banana 
Industry in Jamaica, \Vm. Fawcett (1903), Bull. 
Botanical Dept., Jamaica, Vol. IX, part 9; Text-Book 
of Tropical Agriculture, H. A. A. Nicholls (1892). 



202 



BARLEY 



BARLEY 



BARLEY. Hordeum sativum, Jessen. Graminem. 
Figs. 287-94. 

By R. A. Moore. 

An annual cereal grain, supposed to be native of 
western Asia, and cultivated from the earliest 
times. It is grown for the grain and herbage, the 
grain being used as food for live-stock, but 
chiefly in the making of malt for beer. 
Flowers perfect, the stamens 3, styles 2, 
arranged in spikelets that are borne 2 to 6 
on notches or nodes of the rachis and form- 
ing a long head or spike; flowering glumes 
5-nerved, one of them usually long-awned, 
usually persisting about the grain as a hull; 
empty glumes very narrow and surrounding 
the spikelet. 

Barley was very widely grown before 
the Christian era and was used largely as 
food for human consumption. Its use as a 
bread plant was universal throughout the 
civilized countries of Europe, Asia and 
Africa, down to the close of the fifteenth 
century. It gradually gave way to the bet- 
ter grains for bread-making, and is now, 
and will henceforth probably be used mostly 
as an animal food and for brewing 
purposes. The inhabitants of the 
European and Asiatic countries 
used barley rather generally as a 
food for horses, and the practice 
is common at present in several 
of those regions. 

According to the Twelfth Cen- 
sus there were in the United States 
272,913 farms reported as pro- 
ducing barley in 1899. They de- 
voted to the crop 4,470,196 acres, 
and secured a production of 119,- 
634,877 bushels, valued at $41,631,762. The four 
states giving the highest production are, in order, 
California, Minnesota, North Dakota and Wiscon- 
sin. According to the Fourth Census of Canada 
(1901), there were in the Dominion, 871,800 acres 
in barley, which produced 22,224,366 bushels. 

Varieties. 

For all practical purposes, barley may be classi- 
fied as six-rowed, four-rowed, and two-rowed. 
There are also beardless, bearded and hulless varie- 
ties of the above groups. The four-rowed barley 
does not seem to be a distinct variety, but a vari- 
ation of the six-rowed, as often the six-rowed bar- 
ley drops two rows midway up the spike, the upper 
part being nearly four-rowed. 

Linnaius and the earlier botanists recognized 
six species : 

Six-rowed barleys . ] "j" 

Two-rowed barleys 




Fig. 287. 
Flower of barley. 






Hordeum hexastichum 
Hordeum vulgare 
Hordeum distichum 
Hordeum Zeocriton 



Naked barleys 



( e. Hordeum cceleste 
( /. Hordeum nudum 



vum, which is taken in the sense of a group-species. 
All the cultivated barleys are supposed to be de- 
rived from the wild West Asian Hordeum spon- 
taneum, C. Koch. 

The term " variety " is used by seedsmen, plant- 
breeders and farmers in a wider and not so rigid 
sense as that applied by the botanist. Races of 
barley, the type of which has been materially 
changed by careful selection or cross-breeding for 
a period of years, are in common practice desig- 
nated as "varieties." 

The Manshury or Manchuria, Oderbrucker, Golden 
Queen, Hanna, Silver King, and the like, are terms 
that have been given to various strains of barley, 
and each is often used as applying to a distinct 
variety. In common practice the name of the 
country from which a grain is received is often 
applied to the variety and may become known over 
a great extent of territory. The Manshury barley 
is known throughout the United States and Canada, 
and is more generally grown in parts of the middle 
West than any other type. 

Culture. 

Adaptability. — Barley is grown under a wider 
range of soil and climatic conditions than any 
other cereal, and readily adjusts itself to the 
natural environments under which it is placed. 
In Europe, barley is grown from the Mediterra- 
nean sea to Lapland, 70° north latitude, and in 




Botanists now generally group all these as sub- 
types under the botanical name of Hordeum sati- 



Fig. 288. Heads of Manshury 
(or Manchuria) barley, for 
comparison with Oderbrucker. 



Fig. 289. Characteristic heads 
of Oderbrucker barley, with 
lower beards clipped to 
show arrangement of ker- 
nels from side and edge. 



BARLEY 



BARLEY 



203 




Fig. 290. Three 
spikelets a t 
joint of rachis, 
a characteris- 
tic common to 
the six-rowed 
barleys. 



America from southern California and eastward to 

tlie Copper River Experiment Station farm in .Alaska. 

Wliile barley can be raised on a wide range of 

soils, it grows best and yields the 

most marketable grain when grown 

on old, well-subdued lands, where 

the plant -food is readily obtain- 
able. Barley is an early-maturing 

cereal, and the root growth is 

shorter and less abundant than 

that of oats or wheat; consequently, 

it is necessary to sow it on land 

that is in a high state of fertility 

and cultivation. A rich clay loam 

seems to be preferable. It is easily 

injured while the plants are young 

by an overabundance of moisture, 

and, therefore, should not be sown 

on land that is soggy, or where the 

water-line is too near the surface. 
Rotation. — Barley should be 

grown in rotation, and not con- 
tinuously on the same 
land. When corn is 
one of the crops, a 
good rotation is corn 
on land that the previ- 
ous year had been in 
hay or pasture, and 
barley to follow corn, 
at which time the 
land should be seeded 
to clover and timothy, 
or clover and blue- 
grass. One or two 
crops of clover can be 
cut the year following 
barley, and the land 
can be used for pas- 
ture or hay-land the 
year following clover. 
The land may be ma- 
nured to advantage at 
any time after the 
clover is secured, pref- 
erably the following 
fall and winter. By 
running a tine -tooth 
harrow over the grass- 
land in the spring, the 
manure will be dis- 
tributed evenly, and 
the fine roots of the 
various grasses will 
hold the fertility near 
the surface, where it 
can be utilized to a 
certain e.xtent by the 
grasses and subse- 
quently by the follow- 
ing corn and barley 

Fig. 291. French Chevalier bar- "°P«- T^'' /''°7'' '^ 
ley. astandard two-rowed va- recommended when a 
riety. Lower i.tards clipped regular four years' ro- 

to show .irr;ingement nr ker- . i- . i . j y^ 

neis from side and edges. tation IS desired. Bar- 




ley does well on land that has grown potatoes, 
beets and garden-truck the previous year. 

Seed-bed. — Much care should be given to the 
preparation of the seed-bed to get the best yields. 
Fall-plowing is preferable to spring-plowing. 
When the land is fall-plowed, it should be disked 
thoroughly in the spring and put in good tilth 
as early as the ground will admit of working 
to advantage. After disking, if the ground is 
inclined to be lumpy, it should have a planker 
or roller run over it to crush the lumps; then 
the preparation is finished by going over the 
ground with a fine-tooth harrow. 

Sowing the seed. — Barley is sown with either 
the drill or the broadcast seeder at the rate of 
one and one-half to two and one-half bushels of 
seed per acre ; when the seeder is used, about one 
peck more seed per acre should be used than when 
it is sown with the drill. The time of seeding 
varies in different localities, but in general follows 
the wheat-seeding, and precedes oat-sowing. In 
Wi!5consin, barley is sown April 10 to May 10, 
depending on the earliness or lateness of the 
season. In the southern states, barley is sown 
with success in the fall, but spring-seeding is the 
general custom throughout the bar- 
ley-growing states of the North. 
In Wisconsin, at the Experiment 
Station farm, all e.xcept one of the 
tests made with fall-sown barley 
have resulted in a complete failure. 

After the barley is sown, it is 
well to run over the surface of the 
ground with a fine-tooth harrow. 
Lumps of dirt, clots of manure or 
any coarse litter should not be left 
on the land. 

No cereal crop can be used to 
better advantage as a nurse crop ^-Syv?^'-*' 
with alfalfa, clover or hay grasses \^^{^' 
in general, than barley, as it sel- 
dom lodges and is not so tall and 
leafy as to prevent the entrance of 
air and sunlight. It does not draw 
so heavily on the moisture of the 
soil as the other cereals, which is a 
decided advantage to the clover 
and grasses. When used as a nurse 
crop with alfalfa or common clo- 
vers, it should be seeded at the rate 
of three pecks or one bushel of 
seed per acre. When it is desira- 
ble to sow barley on very rich, mellow soil, it is 
well not to sow more than five pecks per acre, as 
the tendency is to lodge, if sown more thickly. 
Barley fills better than most cereals after lodging, 
but is fully as difficult to harvest, and therefore an 
efl^ort should be made at the time of seeding to 
prevent lodging, when the soil is of doubtful 
character. 

If land is very rich, and the cereal crops gener- 
ally lodge, the over-abundance of fertility can be 
reduced readily by growing corn, wheat or millet. 
Often a crop of millet can be secured after a 
cutting of oat-hay has been taken from the land, 




Fig. 292. 
Beardless hulless 
six-rowed barley. 



204 



BARLEY 



BARLEY 



which will usually put the land in proper condition 
for barley the following year. As a rule, the far- 
mer will have more difficulty in supplying his land 
with the proper food elements as a preparation for 
I a barley crop than in re- 

ducing them. 

Harvesting. — One of the 
chief arguments used against 
barley-culture, in the past 
has been the many annoy- 
ances experienced because of 
the beards while binding, 
threshing and 
other handling. 
This attitude dis- 
played by farm- 
ers led to the in- 
troduction of 
beardless barleys, 
which have not 
as yet proceeded 
beyond the ex- 
perimental stage. 
At the Wisconsin 
Station, through 
a several years' 
test, the beard- 
less barleys were 
found to be weak 
in straw and poor 
ylelders compared 
with the bearded 
barleys. The ker- 
nels were much 
more shrunken, 
and did not look 
so healthy and 
vigorous. The 
grain of the 
beardless barleys 
weighed two to 
ten pounds less 
per measured 
bushel than that 
of the bearded 
barleys grown 
under the same 
conditions. The 
yield was fifteen 
bushels less per 
acre than that of 
the Manshury or 
Oderbrucker barleys on the Station farm. The ob- 
jection to the beards by barley-growers is consid- 
erably lessened since the advent of the harvester 
and self-feeder. 

Barley is more easily injured by rain, dew or 
sunshine than the other cereal crops, and is often 
reduced in value from the maltster's standpoint 
one-half because of discoloration of the grain. 
The discoloration of the grain does not cause the 
feeding elements to deteriorate, to any great ex- 
tent, and the farmer should feed such grain rather 
than try to force it on the market. To prevent 
discoloration, the grain should be harvested before 



Fig. 293. McEvans bearded hulless 
barley, with lower beards clipped 
to show arrangement of kernels 
from side and edge. Kernel 
joined to rachis, with beitrd es- 
tended, at right. 



the ripening has advanced too far. If put in round 
shocks, using about ten bundles in a shock and 
covering with two bundles as a cap, barley will 
cure nicely without discoloring unless heavy rains 
occur. The bundles used for capping can be drawn 
in and threshed separately from the bulk of the 
crop, and retained for feed or seed. 

Barley diseases. 

Barley is affected by rust, mildew and smut. 
No effective remedy has been found for rust and 
mildew. Smut can be reduced by the formaldehyde 
method of treatment. Smut is a fungous disease 
caused by minute spores lodging underneath the 
hull of the barley grains previous to the ripening 
period. These little spores remain inactive until 
the barley is planted,' when they germinate with 
the seed and send hair-like threads up through the 
stem of the plant. Practically all heads growing 
from a seed which contains the smut spores are 
smutted and the grain is destroyed. As soon as 
the smut is matured fully, it is blown by the wind 
to unafl'ected heads of barley and finds lodging 
beneath the hulls of the unripened kernels. The 
hulls close over the spores at the time of ripening 
and hold them securely until germination begins 
when the spores begin their deadly work. 

Two kinds of smut affect barley, the closed or 
covered smut (Ustilago hordei), and the loose smut 
{Ustilago nuda). The formaldehyde treatment is 
satisfactory against the closed smut, but not 
against the loose or open smut. Hot water is now 
recommended for both kinds. The barley crop of 
Wisconsin was affected with smut to the extent of 
5 per cent in the season of 190.5. When barley 
had been sown on test with and without treatment, 
a reduction of 4 per cent was reported in favor of 
the treated seed. 

Treatment. — Make a solution by pouring one 
pint of formaldehyde into twenty gallons of water, 
the solution to be placed in barrels or a trough. 
Sacks of barley should be submerged in the solu- 
tion for ten minutes, then emptied on a threshing 
floor or platform to dry. After the treatment, if 
the seed barley is covered for about two hours with 
oilcloth or blankets so that the fumes of the 
formaldehyde can act on the spores, the treatment 
will be much more effective. 

Extensive experiments have been made at the 
Wisconsin Station with the hot-water treatment of 
seed for smut. The hot-water treatment was found 
thoroughly effective against both kinds of smut, 
and it is a very simple operation. The grain is 
placed in gunny sacks and submerged for twelve 
hours in cold water to soften the hull and berry. It 
is then removed and allowed to drain for an hour. 
The sacks are then submerged in hot water at a 
constant temperature of 130° F., for a period of not 
over six minutes. Provision must be made to add 
hot water to keep the temperature constant, as it 
will be lowered when the grain is put in. It is 
well to put the grain in another tank of hot water 
that has a temperature a little below 130° F., in 
order to heat the grain before putting it in the 
tank with the constant temperature. The seed 



Plate VI. Barley. A twD-rowed variety of the Chevalier type 



BARLEY 



BARLEY 



205 




should be sown the same day or the day following, 
as it will sprout. The experiments made at Wis- 
consin are reported in the Twenty-third Annual 
Report of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment 
Station, 1906. 

Uses in America. 

In the United States 
and Canada, barley is 
used almost exclusively 
for malting purposes and 
as a food for domestic 
animals. Its use as a 
human diet is limited, be- 
ing confined to a few 
preparations commonly 
known as pearl barley. In 
the Pacific states barley is 
grown generally as hay 
and grain for horses. As a hay it is cut and cured 
when in the early milk stage. The grain is fed whole, 
or milled by passing between rollers which merely 
crush it. If ground like mill feeds, the abundance 
of gluten therein makes a sticky mass when brought 
in contact with moisture. Horses are fed barley 
only to a limited extent in the oat-growing states. 
In Canada and the United States, swine and poultry 
are fed rather generally on barley, and all feeders 
attest to its high value as a producer of pork and 
bacon of the finest grade. The use of barley as a 



feed for dairy animals. Horses and other farm 
animals are fed to a limited extent on brewers' 
grains, and are said to relish them. The brewers' 
grains, which may be secured either wet or dry, 






i 










Fig. 294. Barley ready for shipment. Gallatin county, Montana. 



are the barley grains after the soluble dextrin and 
sugar have been extracted for the purpose of 
making beer. These by-products accumulate at 
breweries in great quantities, and often can be 
purchased for less than the actual fertilizing value 
contained therein. By judicious feeding and a 
proper regard to the saving of the manure a farmer 
may secure the feeding value practically free. 

The digestible nutrients, fertilizing constituents 
and composition as given in Henry's " Feeds and 
Feeding" are as follows : 



Digestible Nutrients and Fertilizing Constituents of Barley, Malt-sprouts and Brewers' Grains. 



Name of Feid 



Barley 

Malt-sprouts 

Brewers' grains (wet) , 
Brewers' grains (dried) 



Dry 
matter 
in 100 
pounds 



Pounds 

89.1 
89.8 
24.3 
91.8 



Digestible nutrients in 100 pounds 



Pounds 

8.7 
18.6 

3.9 
15.7 



Carbo- 
hydrates 



Pounds 

G5.6 

. 37.1 

9.3 

36.3 



Ether 
extract 



Pounds 

1.6 
1.7 
1.4 
5.1 



Fertilizer constituents in 1,000 pounds 



Nitrogen 



Pounds 

15.1 

35.5 

8.9 

36.2 



Phosphoric 
acid 



Pounds 

7.9 
14.3 

3.1 
10.3 



Potash 



Pounds 

4.8 

16.3 

0.5 

0.9 



Average Composition op Barley and its By-Products. 



Barley 

Barley meal .... 
Barley .screenings . . . 
Brewers' grains (wet) 
Brewers' grains (dried) 

Malt-sprouts 

Straw 



Water 



10.9 
11.9 
12.2 

75.7 
8.2 

10.2 
8.3 



Ash 



2.4 
2.6 
3.6 
1.0 
3.6 
5.7 
3.8 



Percentage composition 



Protein 



12.4 
10.5 
12.3 

5.4 
19.9 
23.2 

3.7 



Crude fiber 



2.7 

6.5 

7.3 

3.8 

11.0 

10.7 

42.0 



Nitrogen- 


Ether 


free extract 


extract 


69.8 


1.8 


66.3 


2.2 


61.8 


2.8 


12.5 


1.6 


51.7 


5.6 


48.5 


1.7 


39.5 


2.7 



Nuni>)er of 
analyses 



10 
3 
2 

15 
3 
4 



food for domestic animals is becoming more popu- 
lar as the farmers learn its feeding value. 

By-products. 

The principal by-products of barley when used 
for brewing, are malt -sprouts and brewers' 
gfrains, the latter of which are used extensively as 



Literature. 

The reader is referred to the bulletins issued by 
several of the experiment stations, and by the 
United States Department of Agriculture. More 
or less extended treatment of barley is given 
in the following publications : American Brewers' 
Review ; Fream, Elements of Agriculture ; Henry, 



206 



BEANS 



BEANS 



Feeds and Feeding ; Hunt, Cereals in America ; 
Wilcox and Smith, Farmers' Cyclopedia of Agri- 
culture ; Wisconsin Experiment Association, 3d 
and 4th reports ; Wisconsin Experiment Station 
reports, 20, 21, 22, 23 ; Yearbooks of the United 
States department of Agriculture. 



, Phaseolus vulgaris, Linn. 
295-302. 



Legu- 



BEAN, FIELD 

miiioscB. Figs, 

By J. L. Stone: 

Annual plants of bush or twining habit, of un- 
known habitat but probably native to the New 
World, grown for the edible seeds. 
Leaves 3-foliolate, the leaflets stalked 
and stipellate, entire ; flowers papilion- 
aceous, greenish, whitish or tinted with 
blue or blush, few at the apex of a 
short axillary peduncle, the stamens 9 
and 1, pistil 1 and contained within the 
stamen tube, which is enclosed in the 
spiralled or twisted keel (a, Fig. 29.5); 
fruit a long, 2-valved pod containing 
many oblong or sometimes oval seeds of 
many colors. The common garden snap 
beans are of the same species. The bush 
beans are often separated as a distinct 
species, P. nanus, but both bush and pole 
varieties are undoubtedly domestic de- 
rivatives of one species. 

History. 

While beans have been grown ana 
used for human food in various forms 
from a very early date, the production of 
commercial dried beans is of recent origin. 
It is stated that in 1836 Stephen Coe brought 
from the eastern part of New York into the 
town of Yates, Orleans county, a single pint 
of beans. He planted them, and from the 
successive products of three years, his son, 
Tunis H. Coe, in 1839 raised a small crop of 
beans and sold a load of thirty-three bushels 
to H. V. Prentiss, of Albion, the only man in 
the county who could be induced to buy so 
many. This is supposed to be the first load 
of beans sold in western New York, and it 
is probable that up to that time there had 
not existed anywhere in the world an organ- 
ized industry for producing and distributing 
commercial dried beans. 

From this humble beginning sprang an industry 
that has produced in the state of New York alone 
for the last thirty years one to two million bushels 
of beans per year. For many years the production 
of commercial beans was confined to Orleans 
county, but it gradually spread to other counties 
and later was taken up in other states. This devel- 
opment has occurred in about sixty years, but 
during the first twenty-five years of this period 
the production did not rise to 2 per cent of its 
present volume. The early settlers of western New 
York depended principally on the sale of wheat 
for their cash income, and eastern markets were 
largely dependent on the wheat grown in western 



New York. The advent of the weevil in 1846, 
which proved very destructive in the wheat-fields, 
offered to farmers the first inducement to experi- 
ment in raising beans. However, the industry 
made little growth down to 1861. At this time 
the government began to buy beans for use in the 
army and during the years of the civil war pro- 
duction increased very rapidly. At the close of the 
war the government demand ceased, but the soldiers 
had learned to eat beans and they carried the 
habit back with them into home life and induced 
others to eat beans also. Thus arose the consump- 
tive demand for beans that has made possible the 
great development of the indus- 
try. Other causes have influ- 
enced the extension of the con- 
sumption of beans in certain 
localities, but none were of so 
widespread influence as the civil 
war. At the present time the 
practice of canning beans in 
convenient and attractive forms 
is doing much to extend their 
use. 
According to the Twelfth Cen- 
sus of the United States (crop 
of 1899), Michigan is the larg- 
est producer of commercial dried 




Fig. 295. Flowers of the common 
heaniPhuK'-i'lus riiltinri!i},with 
one flower opened («) to show 
the structure. 




beans of any of the 
states. In the previous 
census reports of the 
crops of 1879 and 1889, New 
York ranked first in bean 
production. In 1879, New 
York produced 42.4 per cent 
and in 1889, 3.5.1 per cent of 
the total crop of the United 
States. The weather condi- 
tions in New York in 1899 
were more unfavorable and 
the bean crop was numerically small, falling to 
26.9 per cent of the total crop of the United 
States, while Michigan produced 35.7 per cent of 
the same. It is as.serted by dealers in beans in 
New York that the state still leads in production 
in normal seasons, but owing to the fact that no 



Fig. 296. 
The common bean 
iPhascotus vul- 
garis). 



BEANS 



BEANS 



207 



Atatiatics relating to beans are taken except in 
eensus years, it is difficult to confirm or refute the 
assertion. 

The following table, from the Report of the 
Twelfth Census, gives the statistics of bean pro- 
duction for the season 1899 as compared with 
1889: 



Climate.^As to the climatic limitations of com- 
mercial bean-growing, we are uncertain. As a mat- 
ter of fact, the industry is at present confined to 
the northern border of the United States, a part of 
California and to southern Canada. The garden 
beans are extensively grown in more southern and 
warmer localities, and no doubt the field crop 



States Cultivating 1,000 Acres or More or Beans in 1899. Arranged in Descending 
Order of Production ; Also the Production in 1S89. 







Number of 




Average 


Average 




■ -» 


States 


Aerea 


bushels 
produced 


Value 


bushels 
per acre 


price per 
bushel 


in 1889 


of increase 


Michigan 


167,025 


1,806,413 


$2,361,020 


10.8 


$1.31 


434,014 


316.2 


New York 


129,298 


1,360,445 


2,472,668 


10.5 


1.82 


1,111,510 


22.4 


California 


45,861 


658,515 


1,022,586 


14.4 


1.55 


713,480 


7.7* 


Florida . 


9,189 


176,304 


139,349 


19.2 


0.79 


6,613 


2,566.0 


Maine 


10,252 


137,290 


290,885 


13.4 


2.12 


149,710 


8.3» 


Virginia 


6,411 


56,189 


66,066 


8.8 


1.18 


24,048 


133.7 


North Carolina 


5,381 


49,518 


50,703 


9.2 


1.02 


36,909 


34.2 


Tennessee 


5,563 


48,736 


57,660 


8.8 


1.18 


29,780 


63.7 


Missouri 


4,376 


45,647 


73,850 


10.4 


1.62 


29,632 


54.0 


Minnesota 


3,290 


36,317 


49,685 


11.0 


1.37 


61,009 


40.5* 


New Mexico 


3,349 


36,022 


73,001 


10.8 


2.03 


7,843 


359.3 


Indiana 


2,999 


30,171 


46,281 


10.1 


1.53 


34,988 


13.8* 


Illinois 


3,451 


30,122 


46,084 


8.7 


1.53 


21,308 


41.4 


New Hampshire 


2,892 


29,990 


62,799 


10.4 


2.09 


44,.589 


32.7* 


Colorado 


2,634 


28,570 


49,169 


10.8 


1.72 


7,265 


293.3 


Vermont 


2,404 


27,172 


51,629 


11.3 


1.90 


31,880 


14.8* 


Iowa 


2,427 


24,903 


38,296 


10.3 


1..54 


33,769 


26.3* 


Pennsylvania 


2,182 


23,957 


38,719 


11.0 


1.62 


11,356 


110.0 


Ohio 


1,828 


19,042 


33,307 


10.4 


1.75 


30,213 


37.0* 


Alabama 


1,765 


17,865 


15,507 


10.1 


0.87 


4,841 


269.0 


Georgia 


1,927 


17,489 


17,982 


9.1 


1.03 


19.619 


10.9* 


Arkansas 


1,490 


15,582 


17,046 


10.5 


1.09 


8,570 


81.8 


South Carolina 


1,657 


14,925 


13,936 


9.0 


.93 


8,018 


86.1 



* Decrease. 



The Dominion of Canada had 46,634 acres of 
beans in 1901, with a yield of 861,327 bushels. 

Oulture. 

Soil. — "Too poor to grow white beans" is a. com- 
mon expression with some farmers in describing 
soils in a low state of fertility. This would seem 
to indicate that beans will thrive on poor land bet- 
ter than most crops. Beans will grow on a variety 
of soils and perhaps give fair yields on soils not 
strong enough for satisfactory results with corn 
or potatoes ; nevertheless, profitable bean-growing 
requires soils well adapted to the crop and in a 
good or even high state of fertility. Like most 
leguminous crops, beans reach their highest de- 
velopment on limestone soils. Clay loams, if well 
drained, and sandy or gravelly loams if well sup- 
plied with humus and properly fertilized, will grow 
profitable crops of beans. Heavy clay and sandy 
soils are less suitable. Peaty soils are not desirable, 
as they produce a rank growth of vine that is sub- 
ject to diseases and the ripening of the seeds is 
uneven. Land that will produce both good corn 
and good wheat will grow beans successfully, 
although the beans will not thrive on such heavy 
soils as will wheat nor on such light soils as will 
eom. 



would grow there satisfactorily. Insects and other 
pests are more abundant, however, in the warmer 
localities and they interfere with the ripening of 
sound seed, and probably would render results with 
the field crop uncertain. The market-gareners of 
the South resort to northern-grown beans for seed 
becau.se of the prevalence of the weevil in seed of 
their own production. It is probable that the effect 
of climate on the pests of the bean crop has more 
influence in limiting the area of production than 
has either soil or climate on the crop itself. Even 
within the limits of New York there are great 
differences in the destructivene.ss of the weevil. 
Beans grown in the northern counties are rarely 
affected by weevil, while those grown in the south- 
ern counties as rarely escape. 

Place in rotation. — Beans do best on an inverted 
clover sod and usually are given this place in 
the rotation. A three-year rotation of clover, beans 
and wheat is practiced in a considerable part of 
the bean-growing section. Corn and potatoes are 
u.sually secondary to beans in the.se localities. 
When grown, they get a par\ of the clover sod and 
are often followed by beans, so that the rotatioE 
becomes one of four years. When beans are to be 
followed by winter wheat, the early-maturing 
varieties are preferred, as they are off the land 



208 



BEANS 



BEANS 



early enongh to permit thorough fitting of the soil 
for wheat. Late-maturing varieties are more fre- 
quently followed by some spring-sown crop, as oats. 
Seed-bed. — Early plowing is essential to best 
results with beans. As the planting is not done 
till late spring at earliest, there is a tendency, 
owing to pressure of other work or to slackness, to 
delay plowing till near the time of planting, much 
to the disadvantage of the crop. As in the case of 
wheat and buckwheat, the land should be plowed 
five or six weeks before the time of planting and 
should receive frequent harrowings to bring it into 
the best possible condition. By this treatment a 




Fig. 297. Types of beans. Left, Yellow-eye; center, Black 
Turtle-soup: right, Boston Small Pea. (Reduced.) 

larger quantity of moisture is held in the subsoil 
and becomes available for the crop later in the 
season. The weed seeds are also given a chance to 
germinate and to be killed before planting, so the 
after-tillage of the crop is less expensive. More fre- 
quently than otherwise the crop suffers for want 
of moisture at some period in its growth, and early 
plowing and thorough fitting are the best means 
of guarding against this contingency. Probably no 
one thing results in so much loss to bean-growers 
as late and hasty fitting of the land. 

When grown on poor land, beans respond well to 
dressings of barnyard manure or of commercial fer- 
tilizer, though it is not a general practice to manure 
or fertilize the crop. In experiments conducted by 
the Cornell Experiment Station, it is indicated that 
applications of phosphoric acid are especially likely 
to prove profitable. 

Seed. — The quantity of seed required per acre 
varies with the variety. Of the small varieties 
(Marrow Pea and Boston Small Pea), many growers 
plant one-half bushel per acre, although some 
secure better results with three pecks or even one 
bushel. Five or six pecks of Kidney beans are 
recommended, and intermediate amounts of other 
sorts, according to size. 



Planting. — Beans are usually grown in drills. 
The distance between rows varies from twenty- 
four to thirty-two inches ; it is usually twenty- 
eight inches. The ordinary grain drill is used 
almost exclusively for planting, by stopping the 
tubes that are not needed. Special bean planters 
are sometimes used in planting large-.seeded varie- 
ties, as some of the grain drills will not handle 
these successfully. 

The time of planting varies somewhat with the 
locality, but more especially with the variety of 
bean. The Kidney and Black Turtle-soup varieties 
require more time for development than the .smaller 
beans and should be planted somewhat earlier. In 
New York, the Kidneys are usually planted in the 
last half of May, while the Pea and Medium varie- 
ties should be planted June 5 to 20. The Marrows 
and Yellow-eyes come intermediate. 

Very early planting of beans is not to be rec- 
ommended. If placed in soil too cold or too wet 
for quick germination the seeds rot quickly, and 
even if a fair stand is secured the young plants do 
not get an even start. The strongest and best 
seeds start first under these unfavorable conditions 
and a little later some of the weaker seeds grow, 
re.sulting in a stand of plants of unequal size and 
vigor. This uneven start results in uneven ripening 
at harvest time, — one of the troubles of the bean- 
grower. This trouble is not so likely to be met if 
the planting be deferred till the soil becomes warm 
and in a condition to favor rapid germination and 
vigorous growth. 

Cultivation. — Beans come up quickly under 
favorable conditions, and cultivation may begin 
early. The young plants are tender and break 
easily at first, hence care is required in working 
among them. Some farmers use the weeder on the 
crop after the plants have formed several leaves, 
but this practice is of doubtful propriety, as any 
mutilation of the plants increases the liability to 
disease. Cultivators of various designs are used 
in the bean-fields ; the ordinary one-hor.se hand-cul- 
tivator has been used chiefly in the past; but wheel 
tools cultivating two or more rows at a time 
are now in much favor. Tillage should be frequent 
enough to prevent weeds getting a foothold or 
a crust forming at the surface of the soil. Culti- 
vation should not be given while the leaves are 
wet from dew or rain, as under these conditions 
disease spores are readily transferred from dis- 
eased to healthy plants. 

Varieties of field beans. 

There are grown in the states seven or eight 
di.stinct varieties of commercial beans and some of 
these have several sub-varieties. The.se varieties 
are quite distinct from the vegetable or garden 
sorts that are grown for the canning factories or 
for sale in the green state. They may be named 
as follows: the Pea varieties, including Marrow Pea 
bean, Boston Small Pea bean ; Medium bean (with 
sub-varieties of Day Leafless Medium, Blue-pod 
Medium, Burlingame Medium and White Wonder) ; 
White Marrow (with sub-variety Vineless Marrow); 
Red Marrow (which is probaoly a sub-variety of 



BEANS 



BEANS 



209 



Red Kidney); Improved Yellow-eye, White Kidney, 
Red Kidney and Black Turtle-soup. The four 
varieties constituting the bulk of the beans pro- 
duced in New York are the Pea beans, the Mediums, 
the Red Kidney and the White Marrows, and 
in the order named. The others are grown 
in limited quantities. The White Marrow, 
Yellow-eye, and Red and White Kidney va- 
rieties seem to require a stronger and more 
fertile soil to produce a satisfactory crop 
than do the Pea or Medium varieties. Data 
secured by the Cornell Station indicate 
that in their present state of fertility most 
New York soils will produce larger yields 
of the smaller white varieties than of the 
larger ones. 

Harvesting. 

Formerly beans were harvested by hand- 
labor, but now this work is done chiefly by 
machinery. The bean harvester or cutter 
(Fig. 302) is a two-wheeled machine, hav- 
ing two steel blades so adjusted that as the 
machine passes over the ground they sweep 
along just at or below the surface and cut 
the bean-stalks or pull them up. The blades 
are set obliquely, sloping backward and to- 
ward one another, so that the two rows of beans 
which are pulled at one time are moved toward one 
another and left in a single row. Soon a'fter the 
beans are pulled, men pass along with forks, throw- 
ing them into small bunches ; or they are made into 
bunches by the use of a horse-rake. After drying, 
perhaps for one day, the bunches are turned and so 



weather is unfavorable, the ounches must be 
turned frequently to prevent the beans in those 
pods resting on the ground becoming damaged. 
Wet weather does not injure the crop seriously 





Fig. 298. Types of beans. Left, Red Kidney; center, 
Medium Bean; right, Wliite Marrow. (Reduced.) 



moved that three rows, as left by the puller, are 
made into one, leaving space between rows to drive 
through with wagons. If drying weather prevails, 
they will become fit for drawing and storing in 
the barns without further turning ; but if the 

B 14 



Fig. 299. A garden bean at various stages of development. A, first 
picking (for "striug" beans); B, about half grown; C, about three- 
fourths grown; D, fully-grown pods. 

providing the beans are not allowed to rest on the 
wet ground long at a time ; but the frequent 
turning necessary to prevent their taking harm 
involves considerable labor. When dry, they are 
stored in barns like hay and may be threshed 
at convenience. The threshing is done by specially 
constructed machines much like the ordinary 
grain-thresher. Some growers prefer to thresh 
with the old-fashioned flail, maintaining that the 
saving in beans that otherwise would be split, 
compensates for the slower work. 

Cleaning. — As the beans come from the threshers, 
there are among them more or less that are discol- 
ored and damaged, and also gravel and dirt of vari- 
ous sorts. This refuse must be removed before the 
beans are ready for market. Much of this work 
can be done by machinery, but some of it must be 
accomplished by hand - picking. U.sually, 
beans going into market are "hand-picked," 
which means that practically every bean is 
perfect. The work of preparing the crop 
for market is now almost exclusively in the 
hands of the bean dealers. At many of the 
railway stations in the bean-growing sec- 
tions are " bean-houses," usually the prop- 
erty of a local produce dealer who buys the 
crops of the locality. The farmer delivers 
his crop at the bean-house. It is sampled. 
The sample is weighed, picked and weighed 
again to determine the loss by picking. The 
farmer is usually paid for the estimated 
amount of picked beans which he de- 
livers. 
At the bean-houses the beans are run through 
special machines that remove much of the refuse 
and sometimes grade the beans according to size. 
The hand-picking is usually performed by women 
and girls. The work is much facilitated by a 



210 



BEANS 



BEANS 



mechanical device which causes the beans, thinly- 
spread on a movable canvas apron, to pass slowly 
in front of the picker, who has opportunity to see 
each bean and time to pick out the gravel and 
damaged beans. By means of a foot-lever the 
operator controls the movement of the apron and 
the rapidity of the flow of the beans, which are 
led by means of spouts from the storage room 
above. Some dealers arrange the work so as to 
keep ten to twenty persons employed throughout 
the year. 

By-products. 

Cull beans. — A by-product of the bean-houses 
are the damaged beans removed from the crop. 
These are mixed with more or less of gravel which 
the machines could not separate from the beans. 
These cull beans have a high feeding value, although 
the admixture of gravel interferes somewhat with 
their use. Sheep are fond of beans and will sort 
them out, leaving the gravel. Swine eat the cooked 
beans, and by stirring in water while cooking, the 
gravel falls to the bottom of the vessel and leaves 
the food practically free from it. Ground and 
mixed with other grains, the beans may be fed to 
cattle, and when the animals become accustomed to 
them they are apparently relished, although at first 
they are usually rejected. The presence of the 
gravel is especially objectionable when it is desired 
to grind the beans. Probably the best use of cull 
beans is for sheep and swine food, and for this pur- 
pose they have a higher value than farmers have 
usually assigned to them. It is important, however, 
that they be fed in connection with other more 
carbonaceous foods, as corn, instead of being 
made the e.xclusive diet, or the health of the ani- 
mals may be impaired. Samples of cull beans from 
the bean-houses of New York have been analyzed 
by Cavanaugh and reported on as follows : 



Diseases. 

There are a number of diseases affecting the 
bean plant, each of which assumes considerable 
economic importance at times. The most destruc- 
tive of these is the bean anthracnose {CoUetiitrichum 
Liiidemuthianum, Fig. 58), though bean-blight (Bac- 
terium phaseoli) also often causes considerable 
loss. In 1904 and 1905, these diseases, especially 




Fig. 300. A garden bean with full crop. 

the former, were very abundant and destructive in 
New York. The bean anthracnose occurs in almost 
every case as the result of planting diseased seed. 
If conditions are favorable it may develop rapidly, 
resulting in the destruction of the plant while still 
small ; or under other conditions its progress may 



Composition of Cull Beans. 





Water 


Protein 


Fiber 


Nitrogen- 
tree extract 


Fat 


Ash 


Refuse mostly 
gravel 




Per cent 

10.00 


Per cent 
21.60 


Per cent 
3.70 


Per cent 
47.50 


Per cent 
1.20 


Per cent 

3.20 


Per cent 
12.80 







Bean-straw is also a by-product of considerable 
economic importance as forage. Sheep are fond of 
the pods and thrive on them. When fed to dairy 
cows they are productive of good results. Al- 
though if used freely there is a tendency to pro- 
duce looseness of the bowels, a danger that should 
be guarded against. The digestible nutrients con- 
tained by bean-straw, as computed by Cavanaugh, 
are as follows : 



be so slow as to attract little attention till the 
pods are well formed, when it may appear as "pod- 
spot." The diseased seedlings may be recognized 
by the brown or black sunken spots or pits on the 
stems and cotyledons. The stem may become so 
diseased and weakened at the base as to fall 
over of its own weight. When the beans are 
affected after the leaves are well developed, these 
will show the disease chiefly on the under side 





Digestible Nutrients in Bean Straw. 








Total dry matter 


Protein 


Carbohydrates + 
(tatx2J<) 


Total 


Nutritive ratio 


Bean straw 


Per cent 
95.00 


Per cent 

3.60 


Per cent 

39.70 


Per cent 
43.40 


Per cent 
1:11.0 



BEANS 



BEANS 



211 



along the veins, which become brownish and dead. 
The blade itself may often become affected. If 
the attack develops late in the season, it is on the 
pods that it becomes most characteristic and 
destructive. Here it forms large, dark brown 
sunken spots in the tissue of the pods. The spores 
of the fungus may often be seen as a tiny pink 
mass at the center of these spots or pits. The dis- 
ease gradually works through the pods, and, at- 
tacking the seeds, forms pits or discolored places 
in them. When the seeds are dried the fungus 
becomes dormant, only to become active again the 
next season, when the diseased cotyledons are lifted 
above the soil on the growing stalks. Di.seased seed 
usually may be recognized by the discolored areas 
on the coat and by the shriveled condition. 

Weather conditions do not cause or originate 
bean anthracnose, but they have very much to 
do with its development and destructiveness. The 
spores are held together by a gummy substance 
which is easily dis.solved in water, permitting them 
to be disseminated to healthy plants by means of 
insects, tools of tillage and in other ways. It is for 
this reason that tilling beans while wet with dew 
or rain almost always results in marked increase 
of anthracnose. 

The treatment for anthracnose must be pre- 
ventive rather than curative. Below are given 
what are now considered to be the best means 
of controlling this trouble : 

(1) Plant clean seed. If possible, secure seed 
from fields known to be free from the anthracnose. 
If seed from diseased fields must be planted, it 
should be hand-sorted carefully, and all .seeds not 
perfect and bright should be rejected. 

(2) Go over the field just after the beans are up, 
and carefully remove and burn all diseased seed- 
lings. If left on the ground they will serve as 
centers of infection for the growing plants. 



r 




-^N 



S>4 






\. 



C3r 






Fig. 301. Bean plant in crop. 

(3) Spray thoroughly with Bordeaux mixture. 
The normal .strength should be used : 6 lbs. vitriol, 
4 pounds lime, .50 to 60 gallons water. The addition 
of resin soap will add to the effectiveness of the 
mixture by making it .spread more evenly, and 
it will be less easily washed off by rains (resin 
soap : 2 pounds resin, 1 pound crystallized sal.soda, 2 



quarts water ; boil until a clear brown solution is 
secured). Add this to one barrel of the Bordeaux. 
Apply thoroughly with a nozzle giving a fine 
spray. The first application should be made just 
about the time the third leaf is expanding, or 




;*<'C. 



Fig. 302. Bean harvester. 

earlier if the disease appears to any considerable 
extent. Repeat the application three or four times 
at intervals of ten to fourteen days or whenever 
the rains wash the Bordeaux off. 

(4) Do not hoe or cultivate diseased beans when 
they are wet, as this will tend to spread the dis- 
ease to healthy plants. 

Insect enemies. 

The most troublesome insect pest of the bean 
industry in localities where it abounds is the bean- 
weevil {Bruchus oUectus). The adult is a brown- 
gray beetle about an eighth of an inch in length. 
In the field, the eggs are deposited on or inserted 
in the pod through a hole made by the jaws of the 
female and through openings cau.sed by the drying 
and splitting of the pods. In dried beans the eggs 
are dropped loosely among the beans or placed in 
the holes made by the beetles in their exit from 
the seed. The eggs hatch in five to twenty days, 
being much influenced by temperature. The young 
larvcB burrow into the beans and there undergo 
their transformations, emerging as mature beetles. 
The larval stage lasts eleven to forty-two days, 
and the pupal stage five to eighteen days, so that 
the life-cycle covers a period twenty-one to eighty 
days according to season and locality. Hence a 
number of generations are produced annually. In 
localities where these beetles abound the damage 
done to the mature beans is often such as to render 
them valueless for human food or for seed and of 
but little value for stock-feeding. 

No effective means are known for the prevention 
of the attacks of the bean-weevil in the field ; 
hence, we must place our chief reliance on the 
thorough de.struction of the insects in the dried 
seed and perhaps not attempt the production of 
culinary dried beans in localities infested with the 
weevil. Fortunately the weevil seems not to have 
established itself in those parts of the United 
States where the dried-bean industry is most 
developed, which is the region bordering on the 
Saint Lawrence river and the Great Lakes. The 
northern counties of New York seem to be free 



212 



BEAN, BROAD 



BEAN, BROAD 



from this pest, while in the southern counties 
the bean industry is practically excluded because 
of it. 

The weevil in beans may be destroyed by the 
same methods employed in the gase of pea-weevil, 
which see. If the infestation is but partial and 
treatment is resorted to immediately after harvest 
the seed may be preserved in satisfactory condition 
for planting. 

Literature. 

The following publications will be found helpful. 
The first three are concerned with the culture of 
beans and the remainder with bean enemies : — 
Transactions of New York Agricultural Society, 
1895, p. 323; 1897, p. 323; Cornell University 
Experiment Station Bulletin No. 210 ; Report of 
New York State Department of Agriculture, Vol. 
3, 1890, p. 49; Transactions New York State 
Agricultural Society, 1892, p. 238 ; Tenth Annual 
Report of New York State Experiment Station, 
Geneva, p. 23 ; Yearbook, United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, 1898, p. 233 ; Connecticut 
(New Haven) Experiment Station, 20th and 21st 
Reports, Part 111, p. 189; Cornell University 
Experiment Station Bulletin No. 239. 

BEAN, BROAD. Vieia Faba, Linn. (Faba vul- 
garis, Moench.) Leguminosce (Windsor, Horse, 
English Dwarf or Scotch Bean). Figs. 303, 304. 

By John Fixter. 

The broad bean is grown for its grain or seed, 
which is used as food for man and for live-stock, 
and also for its herbage, which is used as fodder. 
It is a strong, erect annual, 2 to 4 feet tall, glabrous 
or nearly so, and very leafy ; leaflets 2 to 6, the 
terminal one wanting or represented by a rudi- 
mentary tendril, oval to elliptic and obtuse or 




Fig. 303. Flowers and leaf of the broad bean. 

mucronate-pointed ; flowers axillary, dull white and 
with a large blue-black spot ; pods numerous, large 
and thick, two or three inches up to eighteen inches 
long ; the seeds large and often flat. 

This bean has been in cultivation since prehistoric 
times, and its nativity is in doubt. It is probably 
native to northern Africa and southwestern Asia. 
It is much grown in the Old World. In America its 
oultivation is restricted by our hot, dry summers 



and it is little grown outside of Canada. It is 
adapted in a measure to the northern Pacific coast 
country and to similar regions where the summer 
temperatures do not run high. It is particularly 
successful in the maritime provinces of Canada. 
The plant is hardy. Its culture has been spreading 
since the introduction of the silo. 

Varieties. 

The varieties of broad beans are numerous. It is 
of no value to recommend any special varieties, as 
local conditions largely determine which is profit- 
able, and experience alone can direct the grower 
in his choice. 

Culture. 

Soils. — Broad beans will thrive on a wide range 
of soils, as long as they are rich, deep and well 
drained. It does best on clay loams. Immediately 
after the preceding crop is removed the land should 
be gang-plowed. In order to destroy all weeds, late 
summer and autumn cultivation should be given, 
if possible. Late in the fall the land is plowed 
deeply ; and if there is a stiff subsoil, the subsoil 
plow should be employed. Just before planting in 
the spring, the land is given a thorough surface 
cultivation to destroy any weeds that may have 
started, and to make the seed-bed fine. 

Manuring. — In the fall or spring, a dressing of 
barnyard manure is given, at the rate of twelve 
tons per acre. If the manuring is not performed 
until winter or early spring it will be necessary to 
plow ihe land again. 

Seeding. — When grown for seed broad beans are 
commonly sown with a grain drill in rows twenty- 
eight to thirty-five inches apart. They may be hand 
planted. The plants should stand about two inches 
apart in the row. Forty to fifty pounds of seed per 
acre are required. When grown for silage, fodder 
or green-manure, it is best to sow in rows 21 
inches apart. The plants will grow thicker but not 
mature so early, giving a heavier yield per acre. 
It will then be necessary to sow 50 to 60 pounds of 
seed per acre. The best time for planting in eastern 
Canada is May 15 to June 1. 

Place in the rotation. — Broad beans usually come 
between two grain crops, but as they can make 
use of a liberal supply of humus they may profita- 
bly follow meadow or pasture. For the bean crop 
a field should generally be used that is in need of 
cleaning ; and poor soils may be greatly benefited 
because of the nitrogen-gathering habit of the 
broad beans. 

Subsequent care. — Just before the plants appear 
above the surface, a thorough harrowing should be 
given to destroy weeds. Care must be taken not to 
tear up the small bean plants. It is advisable to 
use a harrow that has short teeth, or teeth that 
slope backward. After the plants are up, frequent 
cultivations should be given until the plants meet 
in the rows. 

Harvesting. — If the crop is to be used for silage, 
it should be cut when the grain is in the late 
dough stage, that is, just before it is ripe. Whon 
ensiled, one part of beans should be mixed with 



BEAN, BROAD 



BEAN, BROAD 



213 



ten parts of corn. If the plants are grown for 
their seeds, the seeds or grain should be allowed 
thoroughly to ripen, when the plants may be cut 
with an ordinary corn harvester. A fair yield of 
beans is about thirty bushels to the acre. After 
threshing, care should be taken to see that the 
grain is thoroughly dry, otherwise it may heat in 
the storehouse. 

Uses. 

The broad bean has a diversity of uses, — the 
grain as food for man and stock, the fodder for 
silage and soiling, and the plant as a cover-crop 
and soil-renovator ; and "coffee" may be made from 
the beans. The plant has been largely tested at 
some of the Canadian experimental farms, and is 
frequently mentioned in the reports of these exper- 
imental farms. In the report for 1904 (pp. 125, 
126) is the following discussion of its use as a 
cover-crop : 

"In the report for 1903, experiments on the use 
of the English horse bean and hairy vetch were 
described. It was shown that horse beans and hairy 
vetch sown in rows twenty-eight inches apart had 
given very satisfactory results. These were sown 
in this way because it is sometimes difficult to get 
a good 'stand' for a cover-crop in the autumn, by 
sowing about the middle of July and later, owing 
to the dry weather which often occurs after seed- 
ing, delaying the germination of the seed ; and in 
the North it is very desirable to have the cover- 
crop tall, so that it will hold the snow. By sowing 
the seed in row.s, it can be sown comparatively 
early, and the soil cultivated between the rows 
when the plants come up, thus conserving moisture 
and making sure of a good cover-crop. Cultivation 
may be discontinued about the middle of July or 
a little later. The horse beans sown on June 18, 
1903, were three feet six inches to four feet in 
height on September 21, and it was estimated that 
the green crop per acre was 7 tons 733 pounds 
above ground and 2 tons 8.52 pounds of roots, or a 
total of 9 tons 1,585 pounds per acre, containing, 
according to the figures given by Mr. Frank T. 
Shutt, Chemist of the Experimental Farms, in his 
report for 1903, 78 pounds of nitrogen as compared 
with 130 pounds from mammoth red clover, and 
147 pounds from hairy vetch. These beans stood 
up well all winter, holding the snow admirably, and 
by spring were still two to two and one-half feet 
in height. A land roller was put on as soon as the 
soil was in condition to work, and the beans were 
rolled down. The disk-harrow was then used and it 
was found that they broke up readily ; they were 
then cultivated in with a spring-tooth cultivator. 
Owing to the coarse nature of the stems, they vere 
noticed in the soil longer than clover or vetch, 
but in a comparatively short time they decayed 
and gave practically no trouble. Horse beans were 
again sown in drills, this year on June 16, and 
were three feet five inches in height when frozen. 
The advantage of horse beans is that they winter- 
kill and are easily worked under in the spring, 
while hairy vetch and clover are more difficult to 
deal with, and if left until late in the spring will 



take considerable moisture from the soil. The dis- 
advantage of the horse bean is that there is no mat 
of vegetation close to the soil, and if there should 
be a winter without snow, it might not prove so 
effective as red clover or hairy vetch. In order to 
ensure a mat of vegetation which would cover the 











^^jla^^g 



a-^ssj'irti*; 



Fig. 304. Broad beans in the field. 

ground in winter, and which would be dead in the 
spring, rape was used in one part of the orchard, 
and it is thought that English horse beans and 
rape grown together will prove one of the most 
satisfactory cover-crops where they will succeed. 
The horse beans will furni.sh nitrogen and humus, 
and will hold the snow well ; the rape will cover 
the ground, thus protecting the roots, and will also 
add humus. At Ottawa, horse beans sown in the 
last week of June, at the rate of one bushel per 
acre, in drills twenty-eight inches apart, and culti- 
vated two or three times, and rape sown broadcast 
between the rows in the latter half of August, 
should furnish a very satisfactory combination. 
Both English horse beans and rape are moisture- 
loving plants, and will not succeed so well in dry 
soils as they will where there is a fair amount of 
moisture. When the hairy vetch is grown for seed, 
horse beans sown in drills at the same time as the 
vetch should prove very useful the following sea- 
son in holding up the vines, thus insuring a larger 
crop of seed." 

In Canadian experiments with oats and barley 
after different crops, it was found that the broad 
bean is an excellent crop to use in the rotation. 
Many farms undoubtedly would be greatly benefited 
by growing this crop as a soil-restorer. Following 
is the yield per acre of oats grown after various 
crops, in comparison with the broad bean : 



214 



BEAN, BROAD 



BEGGARWBED 



After flax oats gave . . . 
After grain oats gave . . 
After broad bean oats gave 
After soybean oats gave . 
After corn oats gave . . 
After millet oats gave . . 



Bus. 

. 49 
. 58 
.69 
.49 
. 52 
.43 



lbs. 
14 

28 
14 
14 
32 
18 



Length of 
Btraw 
40 to 45 in. 
43 to 48 in. 
46 to 50 in. 
40 to 45 in. 
40 to 45 in. 
36 to 40 in. 



The next year barley was grown on the same 
plots as the above, with the following results : 



After flax, 2 years previous, barley 
After grain, 2 years previous, barley 
After broad bean, 2 years previous, 

barley 

After soybean, 2 years previous, 

barley 



Bus. lbs. 

35 
.39 



40 



Length of 
straw 

37 to 39 in. 
36 to 38 in. 

38 to 40 in. 



31 32 33 to 35 in. 



BEGGARWEED. Desmodium tortuosum, D. C. 
LcguminoscB. (The name Meibomia is now often 
substituted for Desmodium.) Giant Beggarweed, 
Florida Clover. Figs. 305, 306, 307. 

By H. Harold Hume. 

A strong, upright, branched annual, grown far 
South for hay, forage and cover-crop, reaching a 
height of six to eight feet, with broad, trifol- 
ioliate leaves and small inconspicuous flowers in 
panicled racemes. The seeds are small, yellow- 
ish, ilattened, and resemble red clover 
weight, and in size, shape and color ; 
they are borne in hispid. Jointed pods, 
which break apart at maturity and 
cling to the coats of animals or cloth- 
ing of persons. It is closely related 
to the beggar-lice of the North. Beg- 
garweed is a leguminous plant, in its 
general value and characteristics re- 
sembling the clovers. Most plants of 
this genus are weeds, this particular 
one being the only species grown as 
a cultivated crop. It is found as a 
native plant in the West 
Indies, and throughout 
northern Florida and south- 
ern Georgia, while in culti- 
vation it is found all over 
Florida and elsewhere in 
the southern states. 



Culture. 

The seed is slow in 
starting, u.sually not 
germinating until 
June, and unless the 
land is cultivated early in the sea- 
son to destroy weeds of different 
kinds, it may be crowded out. The 
seeding should not be done till the 
ground is warm and moist. When 
seeding is resorted to on new land, 
seed with the hulls still attached 
is preferable, as the pods, because 
of the adhering dust, carry the nec- 
essary bacterial inoculation with 



them ; otherwise, the clean seed is preferable to 
the pods, because of the more uniform germina- 
tion. Ten to twelve pounds of seed, sown broad- 
cast, are required per acre. When grown for 
seed, five or six pounds of clean seed per acre 
is sufficient. When the stand is thick, the plants 
produce single stems. When growing apart from 
each other, they are much branched, stout and 
coarse. Hence, to produce the best quality of hay, 
a liberal amount of seed should be used. The 
seed must not be buried deeply, and need not 
be covered at all if planted at the beginning of 
the summer rains. 

As a hay crop, it succeeds best on land contain- 
ing a considerable amount of moisture. On high, 
dry lands it may also be grown, but the yield is 
not so heavy as on the lower lands. When once 
well established, but little care is needed to secure 
a crop from year to year. It re-seeds itself with- 
out fail, and will continue to occupy a piece of 
ground unless destroyed by cultivation, or close 
cutting, whereby seed development is prevented. 
When, for any reason, it is desired to remove the 
crop from a piece of land, this may be easily ac- 
complished by cutting sufficiently late to prevent 
seed formation, and by cultivating during the time 
the young plants are coming up. 

Place in the rotation. 

Beggarweed fits well into the rotation with 

farm crops. In corn lands it 

may be allowed to grow after 

the corn is laid by, the early 

cultivation of the corn crop 

interfering in no way with the 

after crop of beggarweed. An 

excellent rotation in 

many sections is : 

First year, corn and 

beggarweed ; second 

year, cotton ; third 

year, beggarweed. 

Harvesting. 

The beggarweed 
crop may be 
cut twice 
^ during the 
summer. The 
cuttingsshould 
be made ju.st 
as the plants 
begin to bloom, 
when they 
should be three 
or four feet 
high. The sec- 
ond crop is 
produced from 
buds on the 
stubble left 
after the first 
cutting, and 
should be cut 
Fig. 305. Beggarweed spray at the nowering stage. ^t ^-he same 




BEGGARWEED 



BERSEEM 



215 



stage. After this, the crop should not be molested, 
but should be allowed to grow at will, bloom, and 
produce seed for the next season. The second 




Fig. 306. Beggarweed. 

cutting should not be made too late, else the third 
growth may not have sufficient time to mature 
seed before the November frosts destroy the 
plants ; and if it is cut after full bloom, there will 
be considerable loss, due to the falling of the 
lower leaves. Pair yields are one ton per acre for 
each cutting, though not uncommonly the two 
cuttings will make four to six tons. The hay is 
easily cured by the ordinary methods of handling. 

Uses. 

As a cover-crop. 
— As a cover- 
crop for orchards 
in sections where 
it will succeed, 
beggarweed has 
no superior. It 
is a vigorous 
grower, a good 
nitrogen- gather- 
er and is free 
from the nema- 
tode worms 
which produce 
root -knot. For 
the last reason 
it is particularly 
desirable as a 
cover- crop 



for peaches, figs and other fruits susceptible to in- 
jury from nematodes, and its self-sowing habit 
makes it cheap. 

As a forage. — Beggarweed is rich in protein and 
makes a good quality of forage, relished by farm 
stock. Its nutritive ratio is about the same as 
that of red clover. It is most effectual when 
fed with a coarse forage rather strong in car- 
bohydrates. 

BERSEEM. Trifolium Alexandrinum, Linn. Legu- 
miiioscB. Known also as Egyptian clover. Fig. 
308. 

By V. A. Clark. 

An annual, clover-like forage plant recently in- 
troduced from Egypt and now being grown experi- 
mentally in the United 
States, especially in the 
irrigated Southwest. Its 
particular recommendations 
are rapid growth, adapta- 
bility to alkali lands and 
usefulness i n reclaiming 
them, high rank as a nitro- 
gen-gatherer, unusual food 
value and conditioning prop- 
erties, exceptional succu- 
lence, palatability and 
heavy yield. Berseem is the 
basis of Egyptian agricul- 
ture, both by reason of its 
instrumentality in the re- 
clamation of alkali land and 
of its almost universal use 
as forage. The plant is two 
to five feet tall, according 
to variety, heads whitish, 
intermediate in size and 
shape between common red 
and white clovers. Muscowi, Fachl and Saida are 
the principal varieties, distinct in form and cultural 
adaptations. Muscowi is the rankest grower. 
There is not yet experience enough with berseem 

in the United 
States to war- 
rant definite cul- 
tural directions. 
Naturally wet 
land, even that 
on which water 
stands a part of 
the time, is best. 
The seed is 
broadcasted a t 
fifteen to twenty 
pounds per acre 
and harrowed in 
lightly, as for 
alfalfa or clover. 
November plant- 
ings have been 
most successful 
in avoiding win- 
ter-killing in 




Fig. 308. 

Berseem beads ( Trifolium 

Alexatidrinuni). 




Fig. 307. Field of beggarweed. 



216 



BERSEEM 



BROOM-CORN 



southern Arizona, the plants being one-half to one 
inch high when the first frost comes. One cutting 
is secured in April and one in May, after which the 
plant succumbs to increasing heat. Frequent irri- 
gation is required. Harvesting is the same as for 
alfalfa or clover. 

The principal American literature to date is the 
United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau 
of Plant Industry Bulletin, No. 23. (See also Tri- 
folium Alexandrinum, under Clover ; also, page 79.) 

BROOM-CORN. Andropogon Sorghum., Brot. van 
technicus (Sorghum vulgare, Pers. var.) Graminece. 
Fig. 309. 

By (7. W. Warburton. 

Broom-corn belongs to the grass family and 
to the same species as sorghum, kafir corn and 
Jerusalem corn. It differs from other varieties of 







^i&^Mt' 






Fig. 309. Standard or tall broom-com. 

the species in having the seeds borne in panicles with 
long, straight branches. The seed-head or panicle, 
known to growers and manufacturers as "brush," 
is the valuable part of the plant and is used for 
the manufacture of brooms of all kinds. There are 
two groups of broom-corn, the standard and the 
dwarf, varying only in height of plant and char- 
acter of brush. The standard grows ten to fifteen 
feet in height, with a brush eighteen to thirty 
inches long; the dwarf grows but four to six feet 
tall, with a brush one to two feet long. The dwarf 
broom-corn is used most largely in the production 
of whisk and other small brooms, while the stronger 
brush of the standard type is used in carpet brooms. 
Many varietal names are given both dwarf and 
standard types; they differ but little, however, and 
in reality but the two types are grown. 

Area of cultivation. 

One essential in the production of broom-corn of 
good quality is dry, clear weather when the brush 
is maturing and during the harvest season. Rain 
at this time causes discoloration of the brush 
and a consequent deterioration in value. For this 
reason, the central Mississippi valley and the 



plains of Kansas, Oklahoma and the Panhandle 
of Texas are best adapted to the growing of 
this crop. The regions of greatest production are 
central Illinois, central Kansas and western 
Oklahoma, Illinois growing the standard sorts and 
Kansas and Oklahoma the dwarf varieties. 

Culture. 

With proper climatic conditions, any soil which 
will produce good corn is adapted to broom-corn. 
To secure a crop of uniform quality, it is essential 
that the land should be uniform. As the plants 
grow slowly at first, the field should be in good 
tilth and as free from weeds as possible. 

The land should be prepared as for corn, but 
planting should be delayed until the soil is 
thoroughly warmed. In the sections where broom- 
corn is largely grown, the planting season includes 
May and the first half of June. The rows of 
standard broom-corn should be three and 
one-half feet apart, and of the dwarf sorts 
three feet, with the plants three or four 
inches apart in the drill. About two quarts 
of seed are required to sow an acre. 
Planting may be done with an ordinary 
corn-planter, using sorghum plates, or with 
a grain drill having part of the holes cov- 
ered. Cultivation should be frequent and 
shallow, using the harrow or weeder early 
in the season and any of the shallow-run- 
ning cultivators later. 

Harvesting and handling. 

To secure the best quality of brush, the 
harvesting should be done about the close 
of the blooming period. The brush becomes 
stiff and brittle if the seed is allowed to 
ripen, and is greatly reduced in value. 
Dwarf broom-corn is usually harvested by 
pulling the heads by hand, leaving a foot or 
more of the stalk attached. Standard broom-corn, 
because of its height, must be " tabled " before 
harvesting. This "tabling" consists in bending the 
stalks of adjacent rows at a height of about three 
feet diagonally across the space between the rows, 
so that the seed-heads of each row extend about 
two feet beyond the adjoining one, and are in 
position for cutting. The stalks are then cut a 
few inches below the head and the heads laid on 
the tables thus formed, in position for hauling. 

After the brush has been cut or pulled, it is 
hauled to the drying sheds where it is sorted and 
thre.shed. Sorting is simply the separation of 
coarse or knotty brush from the uniform straight 
heads ; when the crop is grown on a small scale, 
the seed may be removed by "scraping" by hand; 
when largely grown, the brush should be cleaned 
with a broom-corn thresher. After threshing, ' 
the brush should be dried so as to maintain its 
uniform green color. Rapid drying without direct 
sunlight is necessary to accomplish this result, 
open sheds usually being used for the purpose. 
After the brush is thoroughly dried it should 
be baled, the bales weighing 300 to 400 pounds. 
The crop is then ready for the market. In sections 



BROOM-CORN 



BUCKWHEAT 



217 



•where the crop is largely produced, buyers are 
usually on hand to purchase it ; elsewhere, commu- 
nications should be addressed to large users of the 
crop for quotations. The price varies with the 
quality of the crop and the production, usually 
running from $50 to $100 per ton. An acre of 
dwarf broom-corn should produce at least 400 
pounds of brush ; an acre of standard 600 to 700 
pounds. 

As special equipment for the handling of this 
crop is needed in the matter of drying sheds, 
thresher and baler, as well as a considerable force 
at harvest-time, the business of growing it should 
be a fairly permanent one, and farmers are not 
justified in growing broom-corn for a single year 
only. 

Literature. 

Farmers' Bulletin No. 174 of the United States 
Department of Agriculture, "Broom-Corn," by C. 
P. Hartley, gives very concise treatment of this 
crop. Several experiment station publications 
have also been devoted to it. For further account 
of broom-corn in its botanical relations, see the 
article on Sorghum. 

BUCKWHEAT. Fagopyrum esculentwn, Mcench 
and F. Tataricum, Gsertn. Polygonacece. Figs. 
310-314. 

By J. L. Stone. 

The true or common buckwheat is of one species, 
Fagopyrum escukntum, Figs. 310, 311 (F. emargi- 
natum is a variant form characterized by a notched 
akene), but the India-wheat {F. Tataricum), Fig. 
31.3, is sometimes known as buckwheat. The buck- 
wheat is an annual, grown for the flour that is 
made from the contents of the 3-cornered akene, 
native of Europe and northern Asia. Leaves tri- 
angular or hastate in outline ; flowers white, fra- 
grant, in dense terminal panicles or clustered 
racemes. 

Buckwheat is of erect habit, under ordinary con- 
ditions attaining about three feet in height. The 
root system consists of one primary root and sev- 
eral branches, the former extending well downward 
to reach moist earth ; but the total development of 
roots is not large. The stem varies from one-fourth 
to five-eighths of an inch in diameter and from 
green to purplish red in color while fresh, chang- 
ing to brown at maturity. 

Only one stem is produced from each seed ; the 
plant, instead of tillering or producing suckers, 
branches more or less freely, depending on the 
thickness of seeding. It thus adapts itself to its 
environment even more completely than the cereals 
which tiller freely. The leaves are alternate, tri- 
angular-heart-shaped, slightly longer than broad, 
varying from two to four inches in length, and 
borne on a petiole varying from very short to 
four inches in length. The flowers are white, tinged 
with red or pink, and are borne on the end of the 
stem or on a slender peduncle springing from the 
axil of the leaves. They are without petals, but 
the parts of the calyx have the appearance of 



petals and the bloom is so abundant that fields of 
buckwheat make a beautiful appearance. There 
are eight stamens and one three-parted pistil. On 
threshing the ripened grain, the calyx remains 
attached at the base of the seed. Two forms of 
flowers are produced : one with long stamens and 
short styles, and the other with short stamens and 
long styles. Though each plant boars but ene f erm 
of flower, the seeds from either form will produce 
plants bearing both forms. This arrangement is 
thought to facilitate crossing by means of insect 
visitation. The grain of buckwheat consists of a 
single seed enclosed in a pericarp which in botany 
is known as an akene. The pericarp or hull is 
thick, hard, smooth and shining, and varies in color 
from a silver gray to a brown or black. It sepa- 
rates readily from its contents. In form the grain 
is a triangular pyramid with a rounded base. The 
usual length of the grain is three-sixteenths to 
three-eighths of an inch, and the width one-eighth 
to three-sixteenths of an inch. In states of chief 
production the legal weight of buckwheat is forty- 
eight pounds per bushel. In some others it varies 
from forty to fifty-six pounds. 

The name " buckwheat " seems to be a corruption 
of the German buchweisen, meaning beech-wheat, a 
name given to the plant because of the shape of 
the seeds, being similar to that of the beech-nut, 
while their food constituents are similar to those 
of wheat grains. Botanically, buckwheat is not a 
cereal, but since its seeds serve the same purposes 
as the cereal grains it is usually classed in market 
reports among the cereals. The family to which 
buckwheat belongs (PolygonaceEe) includes several 
well - known trouble- 
some weeds, as sorrel 
and dock (Rumex) and 
smartweed, knotweed 
and bindweed (Poly- 
gonum). 

The notch - seeded 
buckwheat (Fagopy- 
rum emarginatum, no 
doubt only a form of 
F. esculentuin) is not 
known to have been 
grown in this country 
but is reported as cul- 
tivated in India and China. It is distinguished by 
having the angles of the hull extended into wide 
margins or wings. 

The Tartary buckwheat or India-wheat (Fagopy- 
rum Tataricum, Figs. 312, 313) is cultivated in the 
cooler and more mountainous regions of Asia 
and to some extent in Canada and Maine. It is 
recommended for superior hardiness. It has been 
tried in Pennsylvania but without satisfactory 
results. The grain is smaller than the common 
buckwheat, the plants are more slender and the 
leaves arrow-shaped. The flowers are small and 
greenish and are borne in axillary mostly simple 
racemes along the stem, so that a field of it does 
not have the white and floriferous appearance that 
a field of buckwheat does. It is earlier than com- 
mon buckwheat. It has been sold as duckwheat. 




Fig. 310. Plan of buckwheat 
blossom {Fngr<pyrinn escu- 
lentum). Eulareed. 



218 



BUCKWHEAT 



BUCKWHEAT 



The common buckwheat is the most valuable 
and the most widely grown form. It is met with 
wild in China and Siberia and enters into the agri- 
culture of every country where grain crops are 
cultivated. In China it has been grown and used 
for food from time immemorial. In Japan it is held 
in general esteem and in Russia it is also largely 



French chef. In some persons, buckwheat tends to 
produce irritation of the skin when freely eaten. 

Composition. 

The following table, compiled by Hunt, shows 
the composition of the grain, straw, flour, middlings 
and hulls of buckwheat : 






Grain 


Straw 


Flour 


Middlings 


Hulls 


Number of analyses . . . 


8.0 


3.0 


4.0 


6.0 


3.0 


Water 


12.6 


9.9 


14.6 


12.7 


10.1 


Ash 


2.0 


5.5 


1.0 


5.1 


2.0 


Protein (N x 6.25) . . . 


10.0 


5.2 


6.9 


28.1 


4.8 


Crude fiber 


8.7 


43.0 


.3 


4.2 


44.7 


Nitrogen-free extract . . 


64.5 


35.1 


75.8 


42.4 


37.7 


Fat 


2.2 


1.3 


1.4 


7.6 


.9 



Fie. 311. Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum). 



consumed. It has been cultivated for centuries. in 
England, France, Spain, Italy and Germany. In all 
the European countries it is consumed chiefly by 
the poorer classes, but it has remained for the 
American hou.sewife to learn how to prepare it so 
as to please the palate of the epicure. The buck- 
wheat pancake is a peculiarly American preparation. 
Formerly, buckwheat constituted the major part 
of the bread diet of the greater part of the rural 
population of the New England and Middle States 
in the winter season. It has now won its way to 
the breakfast-table of the city resident as well, 
and when served hot with maple syrup it is con- 
sidered the peer of the finest productions of the 



Owing to its thick, heavy hull, buckwheat con- 
tains a larger percentage of crude fiber than the 
cereal grains. The percentage of protein and 
nitrogen-free extract is somewhat lower than in 
the case of wheat. Buckwheat flour contains only 
about two-thirds as much protein as wheat flour. 
The straw of buckwheat contains a somewhat 
higher percentage of protein and crude fiber and a 
lower percentage of nitrogen-free extract than 
wheat straw. Buckwheat middlings, because of 
its high percentage of protein and fat, is in great 
demand as a food for dairy cows. The hulls are so 
hard and indige-stible that they are not often used 
for animal food, although the analysis would sug- 
gest that they have some feeding value. 

Production. 

The high-water mark in the production of buck- 
wheat in the United States seems to have been 
reached in 1866, when the crop, as reported by the 
United States Department of Agriculture, was 22,- 
791,839 bushels. The average crop for the five 
years, 1866 to 1870, was 18,257,428 bushels. The 
average yield for the five years, 1901 to 1905, was 
14,898,361 bushels. While the total production in 
the United States has not 
equaled in recent years that 
of the sixties, the crop in the 
states of chief production has 
increased in volume. New 
York and Pennsylvania now 
produce more than two-thirds 
of the total crop of the United 
States. Maine, Michigan, Wis- 
consin, West Virginia, North 
Carolina, New Jersey and 
Mas.sachusetts, ranking in 
the order named, produce the 
major part of the other third. The acreage of 
buckwheat in the Dominion of Canada in 1901 was 
261,726 ; the bushels, 4,547,159. 

Culture. 

Climate. — A moist, cool climate is most favor- 
able for buckwheat, although seeds will germinate 




Fig. 312. 
Seeds of buckwheat and 
India-wheat. Left. 
Fagopitrttm escitlni- 
turn: rie^t.F. Tatar- 
ician. Seed of F. Ta- 
taricinn is smaller 
and has a wrinkled 
surface and wavy 
edges. 



BUCKWHEAT 



BUCKWHEAT 



219 



.r 



in a very dry soil, and considerable heat during 
the early stages of growth is an advantage. High 
temperatures during the period of seed formation, 
especially hot sunshine following showers, is usu- 
ally disastrous to the yield, caus- 
ing blasting of the flowers. The 
same effect is attributed to 
strong east winds. The yield is 
much reduced by drought dur- 
ing this period. Buckwheat will 
mature in a shorter period than 
any other grain crop, eight or 
ten weeks being sufficient under 
favorable conditions. It is thus 
well adapted to high altitudes 
and short seasons, but its period 
of growth must be free from 
frosts, as the plants are very 
sensitive to them. 

Soils. — Buckwheat 
.. will grow on a wide 

range of soils, but those 
of a rather light, well- 
drained character are 
best suited. It will give 
fair yields on soils too 
poor or too badly tilled 
to produce most other 
crops, and seems to be 
less afl^ected by soil than 
by season. It is not 
yo\ ( desirable, however, to 

I N) t attempt to grow buck- 

wheat on very rich 
land, as under such con- 
^, ditions the crop fre- 
■J*/ quently lodges badly 

with results even more 
serious than occur when 
other grain crops go 
down, as the plant has 
no method of rising 
again. This ability to 
produce fair crops on 
poor soils and under in- 
different cultivation has 
led to buckwheat being 
often considered the 
poor farmer's crop and 
to poor and unskilled 
farmers being dubbed 
" buckwheaters." The 
crop lends itself well to 
the farmer who lacks 
' capital to secure timely 

labor or to wait for returns on investments in till- 
age and fertilizer. It may be planted after the rush 
of spring work is over; it may be resorted to as a 
substitute for spring crops or meadows that have 
failed, and it brings quick return for investment 
in fertilizer. Buckwheat responds to more gener- 
ous and intelligent treatment and deserves to be 
held in higher esteem than it usually enjoys. 

Fertilizing. — Stable manure is not usually 
applied to land intended for buckwheat, but is 



Fig. 313. 

India-wheat 

or duckwbeat 

(Fagopi/niiii 
Tataricum) , 



\l 



reserved for more exacting crops. Moderate ap- 
plications of manure, however, on poor soils result 
in largely increased yields. When grown on poor 
land, buckwheat responds well to moderate dress- 
ings of even low-grade fertilizers, and many 
farmers who do not use fertilizers on other crops 
find it profitable to buy for this. In experiments 
conducted at the Cornell Experiment Station on 
rather heavy soil, but in a state of fertility to 
produce a fair crop without fertilizing, applica- 
tions of acid rock, dried blood and muriate of 
potash produced uncertain and somewhat contra- 
dictory results. 

Seed-bed. — Since buckwheat is not usually 
planted till the last of June, owing to pressure of 
other work or to shiftlessness, the land too often 
is not plowed till just before seeding and then 
receives hasty and indifferent fitting. This allows 
little time for sods and other organic matter to 
decay and become incorporated with the soil, and 
capillarity is not reestablished between the sub- 
soil and the seed-bed. Under these conditions the 
development of the crop is slow, and if drought 
ensues disaster is the result. Early plowing of the 
land, so as to allow of several harrowings at inter- 
vals of two weeks and a thorough settling of the 
soil, nearly insures the maximum crop the land is 
capable of producing. If early plowing is im- 
practicable, then greater attention should be given 
to thorough fitting of the seed-bed. 

Seed and seeding. — The amount of seed used per 
acre varies from three to five pecks, but is usually 
four pecks. It may be sown with the ordinary 
grain drill or broadcasted and harrowed in. 

The time of seeding varies in different localities; 
in New York and Pennsylvania it is the last week 
in June or the first week in July. To avoid hot 
weather while the grain is forming, it is desirable 
to sow as late as possible and have the crop well 
developed before severe frosts occur. Buckwheat 
begins to bloom before the plants have nearly 
reached full growth and continues to bloom till 
stopped by frost or the harvest. Hence there will 
be at harvest time on the same plants mature and 
immature grain and flowers. It is sought to cut 
the crop just before the first hard frost. Much 
of the immature grain will ripen while lying in the 
swath or gavel. 

Harvesting. — Buckwheat is rarely harvested 
with the self-binder, but may be cut with the hand 
cradle or the dropper-reaper. To avoid the shelling 
and loss of the more mature grains, it is preferably 
cut early in the morning, while damp from dew or 
during damp, cloudy weather. It is usually allowed 
to lie a few days in swath or gavel, when it is set 
up in small independent shocks or stooks. It is not 
bound tightly by bands like most cereal grains, but 
the tops of the shocks are held together by a few 
stems being twisted around in a way peculiar to 
the crop. This setting up is also usually done when 
the crop is damp, to avoid shelling of the grain. 
The unthreshed crop is not often stored in barns 
or stacked but is threshed direct from the field. 
Formerly much of the threshing was done with 
the hand flail, in which case it was necessary that 



220 



BUCKWHEAT 



BUCKWHEAT 



the work be done on a dry, airy day, so that the 
grain would shell easily. If threshed by machinery 
neither crop nor day need be so dry, and it is 
usual to remove from the thresher the spiked con- 
cave and put in its place a smooth one, or a suit- 
able piece of hardwood plank. This is to avoid 
cracking the grain and unnecessarily breaking the 
straw. The pedicels bearing the seeds are slender, 
and these as well as the straw, when dry, are 







iFig. 314. Buckwheat in the shock. 

brittle, so that buckwheat threshes much easier 
than the cereals. 

Place ill the rotation. — Buckwheat generally has 
no definite place assigned it in the rotation of 
crops. This is chiefly due to its being resorted to 
as a substitute for meadow or spring-planted crops 
that have failed. The poorer lands and the left- 
over fields are usually sown to buckwheat. While 
buckwheat seems not to be materially afl'ected by 
the crop that precedes it, on the other hand it is 
reported unfavorably to affect certain crops when 
they follow it. Oats and corn are said by many to 
be less successful after buckwheat than after 
other crops. That this is so has not been estab- 
lished by any experiment station. Buckwheat 
leaves the soil in a peculiarly mellow, ashy con- 
dition. In the case of rather heavy soils on which 
it is desired to grow potatoes this is a decided 
benefit, and in some localities the practice of pre- 
ceding potatoes by buckwheat, for the purpose of 
securing this efl^ect, has become common. The 
following rotation is sometimes recommended for 
such soils : clover, buckwheat, potatoes, oats or 
wheat with clover-seeding. The first crop of clover 
is harvested early and the land immediately plowed 
and sown to buckwheat as a preparation for 
potatoes. 

Varieties. 

There are three principal varieties of buckwheat 
grown in America : the common Gray, Silver-hull 
and Japanese. The Silver-hull is slightly smaller 
than the common Gray ; the color is lighter and of 



a glossy, silvery appearance. The Japanese is 
larger than the Gray and of somewhat darker 
color, and there is a tendency for the angles or 
edges of the hull to e.xtend into a wing, making the 
faces of the grain more concave. The plant of 
the Japanese variety is a somewhat larger grower 
than the others and the flowers seem not to be so 
subject_ to blasting from hot sunshine. For this 
reason it is recommended in some localities to sow 
the Silver-hull and Japanese va- 
rieties mixed, it being asserted 
that the hardier Japanese variety 
will shade and protect the other 
from the hot sunshine, thus avoid- 
ing blasting and securing a larger 
zone of seed-bearing straw than 
is furnished by either sort alone, 
a larger yield resulting. 

Each of these varieties has 
produced largest yield in certain 
tests. It seems that there is an 
adaptation of variety to soil or 
climate, or, perhaps, to weather 
conditions, that has not yet been 
worked out, which produces these 
contradictory results. However, 
the yielding quality of the Japan- 
ese variety is usually conceded 
to be superior to the others. 
Formerly, the flouring qualities 
of this variety were pronounced 
by many millers to be inferior to 
the other sorts, and not infrequently the price of 
Japanese buckwheat was five or ten cents per 
bushel less than the others. In some localities this 
condition still prevails ; in others the reverse is 
true. In parts of Seneca county, N. Y., in recent 
seasons the millers have offered an advance of five 
cents per bushel for the Japanese variety. Whether 
this results from change in the quality of the grain 
due to acclimatization or to better adaptation of 
the milling methods to the variety has not been 
ascertained. 

Uses. 

Formerly a considerable part of the buckwheat 
was used for animal food, only enough flour being 
manufactured to meet the requirements of the 
rural districts during the winter season. Of late, 
the demand for the flour in the cities has been 
such that most of the grain is ground for flour 
and less of the flour is consumed in the rural 
districts. 

Buckwheat flour is whiter than that made from 
wheat and has a peculiar mealy feel to the hand 
that enables one readily to distinguish it from 
wheat flour. The first flour on the market after 
harvest brings a high price, but the price rapidly 
declines as the supply increases. The grain must 
be well dried and the grinding done in cool, dry 
weather to get best results in milling. The yield 
of flour per bushel of buckwheat is usually about 
twenty-five pounds, though twenty-eight or more 
may be secured if the grain is plump and very 
dry. The middlings, a by-product of the flouring 



BUCKWHEAT 



CABBAGE 



221 



process, is much sought by dairymen as food for 
dairy cows because of its high content of protein. 
The hulls have little or no value. Sometimes they are 
ground and used as an adulterant for black pepper. 

Buckwheat grain is much relished by poultry 
and has the reputation of being of special value in 
egg production. In recent feeding experiments 
this reputation is scarcely sustained. 

Buckwheat is also a well-known honey plant 
(see Vol. III). 

Enemies. 

The buckwheat crop is unusually free from 
interference from weeds or plant diseases. It 
starts so quickly and grows so rapidly that most 
weeds get no chance to make headway against 
it. In fact, buckwheat is one of the best crops for 
cleaning land by smothering out weed growths. 
Wild birds as well as domestic are fond of the grain, 
and, when abundant, sometimes cause considerable 
loss. No insect or fungous troubles have been suf- 
ficiently destructive to attract much attention. 

Literature. 

The literature on buckwheat is meager. A few 
of the experiment stations have bulletins on the 
subject, and discussions have been published in the 
Yearbooks of the United States Department of 
Agriculture, and in the agricultural press, notably, 
the Country Gentleman. The three publications fol- 
lowing devote some space to buckwheat : Hunt, 
Cereals in America, pp. 400-410 ; Wilson, Our 
Farm Crops, London, Vol. 1, pp. 188-196 ; Cornell 
Bulletin, No. 238. 



such plants our common headed cabbage (Brassica 
oleracea, var. capitata, DC.) has been derived; others 
bear small cabbages in the axils of leaves and 
from such the Brussels sprout (Brassica oleracea, 
var. gemmifcra, Hort.) has arisen. The leaves of 
the wild plant are bluish green, fleshy and hair- 
less like those of the cultivated cabbage, and either 
entire or indented in outline. The latter character 
apparently has been developed to a marked de- 
gree in our kale (Brassica oleracea, var. acephala, 
DC), of which there are so many forms ; other 
wild plants show the blistered leaf which is seen 
in such an exaggerated form in the Savoy cabbage 
(Brassica oleracea, var. bullala, DC.) and also in the 
Brussels sprout. The leaves of the wild plant are 
normally green, but they become red or purple by 
exposure to the sun or when old and diseased ; by 
selection we have developed the reddish or purple 
color as a permanent character in all the forms. 
Finally, the flower has been modified. In the wild 
plant the flowers are borne on stalks much like a 
large wild carrot, some of the stalks being long 
and others short. By selection of plants in which 
the flower-stalks had a tendency to become thick- 
ened and shortened, the cauliflower and broccoli 
(Brassica oleracea, var. botrytis, DC.) probably were 
produced, the former from a thick-ribbed smooth- 
leaved form, and the latter from a thin-ribbed form. 
The wild cabbage has been used as food from 
time immemorial. The head cabbage was developed 
in northern Europe, where it has long been grown. 
The headless forms were early grown in southern 
Europe. Climatic conditions seem to have contrib- 
uted in deciding this division of types. The bulk of 







Fig. 315. Cabbage shapes. Loft, flat; left center, rounder ball; center, egg-shaped; right center, oval; right, conical. 



CABBAGE FOR STOCK - FEEDING. Brassica 

oleracea, Linn. Cruciferce. Figs. 315-317. 

By Samuel Eraser. 

Cabbage is a name at present applied to a large 
group of plants. The wild cabbage (Brassica olera- 
cea, var. sylvestris) is looked on as the prototype of 
these species. It occurs wild in Europe, on the 
coast of England. It has a crooked, half-ligneous, 
branching stalk, is perennial and bears seed when 
two, three or four years old. The stalks may be 
three to four inches in diameter and may bear green, 
herbaceous, cylindrical branches. Looking at this 
plant and at kohlrabi (Brassica caulorapa) it is 
easy to see that the latter is not distantly removed 
from the cabbage. Some of the wild plants bear 
small heads at the summit of the stem, and from 



the crop in the United States is grown in the North; 
although early cabbages for spring consumption 
are grown in large quantities, in the winter, in the 
southern states, as also the collard, a headless type. 
De Candolle (Trans. Hort. Soc. London, Vol. 5, 
1-43 ; Prodr. 1.21.3) grouped the descendants of 
the wild cabbage under six heads : 

Brassica oleracea acephala, the kales, thousand- 
headed cabbage, etc. 
Brassica oleracea capitata, the headed cabbage 

or common cabbage. 
Brassica oleracea bullata, the Savoy cabbage. 
Brassica caulorapa, kohlrabi. 
Brassica oleracea gemmifera, the Brussels 

sprouts. 
Brassica oleracea botrytis, the cauliflower and 
broccoli. 



222 



CABBAGE 



CABBAGE 



The first four groups are grown for stock-feed- 
ing as well as for human consumption. The last 
two are grown exclusively for table use. 

Cabbages have been cultivated from time imme- 
morial for human food. The Greek writers do not 
mention the head cabbage, but Columella and 
Pliny do, although it is believed that they 
referred to some soft-headed form. The hard- 
headed form was in use in England in the four- 
teenth century, and is mentioned as a New 
England product in the poem attributed to Gov- 
ernor Bradford, written in 1656. 

Coviposition. 

The average composition usually given for cab- 
bages is water 90.5 per cent and dry matter 9.5 
per cent. In twenty-two analyses of five varieties 
made at Cornell University during 1904-1906, the 
average dry matter content varied between 5.74 and 
8.42 per cent, an average considerably below that 
usually given. The content of protein is high, the 
9.5 per cent of dry matter being made up of a.sh 
1.4 per cent, protein 2.4 per cent, crude fiber 1.5 
per cent, nitrogen-free e.xtract 3.9 per cent, ether 
extract 0.4 per cent. 

Propagation and cultivation. 

The plant may be grown successfully on any soil 
that is in good condition. It is a gross feeder, 
and care must be taken to supply it with an abun- 
dant but not exce.ssive supply of moisture and to 
keep the land well stirred. Rich, heavy loams are 
to be preferred for the production of heavy yields 




Fig. 316. Types of cabbage heads. Left, compact head; 
right, loose head. 

for cattle-feeding. Deep fall-plowing is advisable, 
and the land should be loose, friable and moist ; an 
application of ten to twenty tons of manure per acre 
may be made in the fall before plowing, and this 
may be supplemented by fertilizers, and, if the land 
has not been limed recently, by an application at 
the rate of 1,000 pounds of quicklime per acre, 
to be applied in the spring and harrowed in. 
Manure, lime and fertilizers should be uniformly 
applied. Frequently, fertilizers are applied at the 
rate of 400 to 800 pounds of acid phosphate (16 
per cent available) or its equivalent, i. e., 60 to 
130 pounds of phosphoric acid ; 100 to 1.50 pounds 
of muriate of potash ; fifty pounds of nitrate of soda 
per acre, in spring and harrowed in ; and about 150 
pounds of nitrate of soda per acre, applied to the 
plants when they are growing, in three applications 
of about fifty pounds each at intervals of ten day.s, 
beginning as soon as they are about four inches 



tall. This pushes them through the critical period 
when their leaf surface is small and when a single 
green worm is able to eat a plant in a day. 

The seed is sometimes treated by dipping it in a 
solution of formalin of the strength of 1 to 240 in 
order to destroy the spores of black-rot. It is then 
dried and sown. The seeds may be sown in a "bed 
and transplanted with a transplanting machine ; 
or they may be sown where the plants are to stand. 
Both methods are successful. In the latter case, 
one to one and a half pounds of seed is required 
per acre ; in the former, less seed is used, say one- 
fourth to three-fourths pound. A drill, which will 
drop four or five seeds twenty-seven or thirty 
inches apart in rows is needed. In this case the 
plants will be thinned to one plant as soon as three 
inches tall. For New York, sowing early in May is 
advisable, although later sowing may give smaller 
heads which will keep better in storage ; but there 
will be a correspondingly diminished yield. 

No crop responds better to good tillage, and if 
this be given every seven or ten days and the small 
applications of nitrate of soda, already mentioned, 
be harrowed in, the plants will soon meet in the 
rows ; then tillage ceases. For success, it is essen- 
tial that there be a good plant in every place ; 
7,500 to 9,000 plants should be grown per acre. 
Rows thirty inches apart seem to be convenient, 
the plants being twenty-four to thirty inches apart 
in the row. Cabbages may be grown in the place 
of corn or any other intertilled crop in the rotation. 

Varieties. 

Some of the best varieties for stock-feeding pur- 
poses are : Surehead and Autumn King (both of 
which mature in September when sown in May, and 
must then be u.sed); Volga, a new Russian variety of 
merit ; Drumhead or Flat Dutch, a .standard variety. 
Danish Ballhead and Hollander give rather lower 
yields but are considered better for storage. 

The varieties may be classified according to 
shape (Fig. 315), as 

Flat, — as Drumhead, Surehead, Flat Dutch. 

Round, — as Danish Ballhead. 

Obovate or egg-shaped, — as Early York, Lata 

York. 
Elliptical or oval, — as Sugar Loaf. 
Conical, tapering to apex, — as Early Jersey 
Wakefield, Winnigstadt, Pomeranian and 
Oxhearts. 
Varieties are spoken of as early, medium or late 
in maturing ; and as having green, purple or varie- 
gated leaves. 

The cabbage is a good illustration of a plant 
which has reached that stage in which it is much 
influenced by its environment. Not only has it 
been in a variable state for some time, but man has 
been interested in the plant and prepared to pick 
out and preserve some of the variations which are 
of value to him. These two factors are necessary 
for the improvement of plants. . 

Harvesting. 

In stock-feeding, the cabbages are hauled Irom 
the fields as required. The aim is to have some- 



CABBAGE 



CABBAGE 



223 



thing to feed from the first of September until 
November, and during this time the plants are cut 
as required, or sheep are folded on them. Cab- 
bages are stored in regular storage houses or in 
pits six or eight feet wide which are dug out about 
two feet below ground and roofed in with boards 
and straw, the apex of the roof being about six 
feet above ground. The heads are stored upside 
down and kept cool, moist, and yet well ventilated, 
until used or sold. 

Plants saved for seed production may be laid on 
their side, with the roots in the ground and a fur- 
row plowed over them. In spring they should be 







'"^mL 






Fig. 317. Savoy cabbage. 

taken up and planted about four feet apart each 
way in rich, well-prepared land. The plants cross- 
pollinate, and two varieties should not be grown 
near together. 

Obstructions to growth. 

Clubroot or anbury (Plasmodiophora brassicce) is 
a fungous disease which attacks many cruciferous 
plants ; it is common among turnips, causing them 
to rot badly. It can be combated readily by lim- 
ing the land at intervals of four or five years, as 
suggested, and applying the lime with the crucif- 
erous crop ; by destroying all cruciferous weeds 
and by arranging the rotation so that such crops 
will not be taken too frequently. 

Black-rot, or stem-rot (Pseiidomotias camprsiris), 
is a bacterial disease and is one of the must dis- 
astrous troubles of the cabbage. It is often found 
on wild mustard and other cruciferous weeds, which 
act as hosts in spreading it. There is no cure. 
Prevention by disinfection of seed, destruction of 
diseased specimens, a good rotation, the control of 
insects which may carry the germs, is suggested. 
A diseased crop should not be stored. It is better 
to sell the plants while they are good. 

The flea-beetle ( Phyllotreta vittata ), a small, 
black, quick-moving insect, sometimes destroys the 
seedlings while they are in their first leaves. The 
best means of combating is to sow plenty of seed 
and to thin the crop if all come through. 

The green cabbage-worm {Pieris rapce) may be 
combated in the case of young plants by spraying 
with resin-lime mixture containing Paris green, 
arsenate of lead in water as for potatoes, or, if 
not abundant, by hand-picking. If the first 



brood, which is usually small, be controlled, little 
trouble need be feared for the remainder of the 
season. 

The cabbage-looper (Plusia brassicw) frequently 
does considerable damage and is dealt with in the 
same way as the green worm. The cabbage root- 
maggot {Phorbia brassicce) sometimes injures the 
roots. In the southern states the harlequin cab- 
bage-bug does considerable injury ; it is checked 
by sowing mustard and radishes in the cabbage- 
fields for the bugs to congregate on and then de- 
stroying these by spraying with kerosene or burn- 
ing. The blow-torch passed slowly over the crop 
will also destroy these insects. The cabbage-aphis 
is sometimes combated by spraying with kerosene 
emulsion or tobacco powder. 

Marketing. 

Cabbage is a crop which may be sold for human 
consumption if the price is high enough, or it may 
be fed to stock. In the former case it is fre- 
quently sold by the car-lot. When grown for the 
retail trade it may be advisable to crowd the 
plants, by putting more on the acre, in order to 
keep the size down, so that the heads may be 
retailed for five cents each. This would require 
heads weighing four to six pounds each, instead 
of eight or ten pounds, as might be expected 
ordinarily. 

Exhibiting. 

The important points are uniformity in size , a 
minimum of outside leaves to head ; a small per- 
centage of stump to leaf when the head is cut 
open ; a firm head, the leaves being closely packed 
together and lapping over each other in the center; 
freedom from evidence of disease or insect injury ; 
true to name and type. 

Literature. 

Cabbages, Cauliflower, and Allied Vegetables, 

C. L. Allen (1902), Orange Judd Co., New York; 
Cabbages, How to Grow Them, J. J. H. Gregory 
(1881), Marblehead, Mass.; How to Grow Cab- 
bages, Pedersen and Howard (1888), W. A. 
Burpee & Co., Philadelphia, Pa. ; Cabbage and 
Cauliflower for Profit, J. M. Lupton (1898), W. A. 
Burpee & Co., Philadelphia, Pa.; Forage Crops, 
pp. 145-169, Thomas Shaw (1900), Orange Judd 
Co., New York; Cyclopedia of American Horticul- 
ture, Article on Cabbage, L. H. Bailey (1900), 
Macmillan Co.; Black Rot, United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, Farmers' 
Bulletin No. 68; same, Wisconsin Experiment 
Station, Madison, Wis., Bulletin No. 65; same, 
New York State Experiment Station, Geneva, N. 
Y., Bulletin Nos. 251, 232; Cornell Experiment 
Station, Bulletin No. 242 ; Vermont Experiment 
Station, Burlington, Vt., Bulletin No. 66. For crop 
management in the southern states, consult Texas 
Experiment Station Bulletins, Nos. 57, 69, and for 
other agricultural experiment station literature, 
consult Experiment Station Record, published 
by the Office of Experiment Stations, Washington, 

D. C. 



224 



CACAO 



CACAO 










rSS'^'*'""^»~ 



' ' Criollo ' ' 
manner of bearing fruit. 



Kg. 318. Cacao tree of the " Criollo " type, showing 



[JACAO. Theohroma spp. Sterculiacea. Pigs. 318- 
320; Fig. 119, Vol. I. 

By G. N. Collins. 

Chocolate and cocoa, the manufactured forms of 
cacao, are the product of the seeds of several spe- 
cies of Theobroma, a strictly American genus. 
Theobroma Cacao is the species producing the 
greater part of the cacao of commerce, though T. 
angustifolia and T. pentagona also contribute. The 
discoverers of the New World found these plants 
in cultivation by the natives of southern Mexico 
and Central America, and the methods then in 
vogue have been but slightly improved, although 
the culture has been extended to practically all 
parts of the tropics. 

As with most cultivated plants, the natural dis- 
tribution of the species is a matter of some con- 
jecture, but there seems little doubt that cacao is 
truly indigenous in parts of Central and South 
America. In fact, it is rather unusual that a plant 
cultivated from such a remote period should 
resemble so closely the wild forms as is the case 
with cacao, wild plants found in the forests of 
western Costa Rica being sometimes used to stock 
small plantations at the present time. 

It appears probable that in the cultivation of 
this plant the principle of the fixing of atmospheric 
nitrogen by means of leguminous plants was first 
utilized by man, although of course without reali- 
zation of the true meaning of the method. The 
superiority of leguminous trees for shade in cacao 
plantations was well known to the early cultiva- 
tors, and it was only after many costly experiments 
that European planters reached the same con- 
clusion. 



Cacao is a small tree usually about ten to thirty 
feet in height, bearing its flowers and fruits on the 
old wood of the trunk and larger branches. The 
flowers are perfect and five-parted, the anthers 
inclosed in pockets of the petals. The means by 
which the.se are released and pollination accom- 
plished is not definitely known. The way in which 
the flowers are borne, as well as their structure, 
would seem to point to some crawling insect as 
the most probable means. 

Propagation. 

The plant is propagated e.xclusively by seed. 
These will not retain their vitality when dried. 
They are usually planted in seed-beds or small bam- 
boo pots. They germinate very promptly, the seed 
consisting almost entirely of the crumpled cotyle- 
dons, which need only to unfold. As soon as the 
plants are one to two feet high, they are trans- 
planted to their permanent place. It is the loss 
attendant on this operation that has led many to 
adopt the method of planting the seeds directly 
where the plants are to remain. The distance for 
planting is usually ten to fifteen feet each way. 
The difficulty in transplanting cacao is probably 
the reason why the culture is largely confined to 
very moist regions, as under such conditions the 
loss is less, although the plants, when once estab- 
lished, are more healthy and productive in regions 
where there is sufficient dry season to hold fungous 
diseases in check. 

Harvesting and handling. 

The plants require about four years to mature 
sufficiently to bear, and they continue to be pro- 
ductive for twenty or 
thirty years and more. 
The pods, as the fruits 
are called, are six 
inches to nearly a foot 
in length and contain 
twenty to thirty- five 
seeds. They are gath- 
ered by hand, in most 
cases, or by the aid of 
a specially constructed 
knife mounted on a 
long pole. Great care 
should be exercised in 
removing the fruit, as 
the point of attachment 
is surrounded by dor- 
mant buds that are to 
produce future crops, 
and these are destroyed 
if the fruit is torn from 
the tree. 

Fermentation . — After 
the crop is gathered, the 
pods are sometimes 
opened immediately, or 
they may be allowed to lie one to eight days before 
opening ; when the latter practice is followed, it 
takes the place, to some extent, of the fermentation 
to which the beans are usually subjected after 




Fig. 319. 



'Criollo" cacao pod. 

J;imait':L. 



CACAO 



CACAO 



225 



they are removed from the pods. The extent 
to which the seeds are fermented varies in differ- 
ent countries and with different varieties. The 
strong, bitter varieties are usually allowed to 
ferment for five to eight days, while for the 
milder, white-seeded forms, one to four days is 
considered sufficient. When the cacao is washed, 
it is important that the seeds be fermented first, 
as otherwise it is extremely difficult to remove the 
sweet mucilaginous substance with which the 
seeds are surrounded, and which, if not removed, 
will leave the dried beans dark-colored and of 
a dirty appearance. On small plantations, the 
fermentation is accomplished by simply covering 
the beans in a box or other receptacle and allow- 
ing them to remain one to eight days. A better 
arrangement, when there are larger quantities, is 
to place them in revolving boxes, so arranged as 
to stir the beans without loss of heat, and thus to 
insure uniform action. During the process the 
temperature should not exceed 135° Fahrenheit. 

Washing and drying. — With fermented beans 
the washing is a comparatively simple operation, 
and is usually accomplished by agitating the seeds 
in running water for a few minutes. The drying 
is a much more difficult operation and one concern- 
ing which there is great difference of opinion. 
Sun-drying is still popular with many progressive 
planters. Originally, the seeds were simply spread 
in an open place and gathered before every 
shower; a more expeditious arrangement is to 
place the seeds on trays arranged to roll under a 
roof at one end of the "patio" or "barbecue," as 
the open space is called. Many plantations are 
equipped with machines for artifically drying the 
beans. The ordinary drying machines used for grain 
and other seeds are not well adapted to drying 
cacao, for the reason that in these machines the 
seeds are agitated. This injures the delicate outer 
covering of cacao. Future handling of the seeds 
will then cause the cotyledons or "nibs" to break 
up, thus entailing a loss in weight and making the 
cacao more susceptible to molds and other 
fungous attacks. 

Varieties. 

Although the greatest diversity exists in cacao, 
there are few well-marked varieties. There is 
little uniformity in the application of varietal 
names in different countries, and the trade classi- 
fication is on a geographical basis. In general, 
cacao may be divided into the mild white-seeded 
forms, and those with purple seeds, which are 
much more bitter. The former are usually known 
as "Criollo" cacao and have been further divided 
into a number of varieties. Among the purple- 
seeded cacaos, the best known and most distinct 
form is "Calabacillo," characterized by a short, 
blunt-pointed pod with a slight constriction at 
the stem end. The walls of the pod are thick 
and the seeds small and very bitter. In spite 
of the lower price which this variety commands, 
it is one of the roost widely cultivated, and its 
popularity with planters probably is increasing. 
It is prolific and very hardy, an important consid- 

?15 



eration, as there are a number of serious diseases 
for which remedies are not known. 

Uniformity of product. 

A serious obstacle in the way of cacao-culture 
is the difficulty of producing a uniform product. 
Even when the most rigid seed selection is prac- 
ticed, great diversity appears in the product. It 




Fig. 320. " Calabacillo " cacao pod and leaf . Costa Rica. 

has been thought to overcome this by asexual 
propagation, a method not likely to be successful. 
Cacao in a seed product, and the seed is composed 
of the embryo of the new plant, which means, 
of course, that if a fiower is cross-pollinated the 
eft'ect of this cross-pollination will be immediately 
apparent in the seed and not postponed until the 
next generation, as with fruit products or those 
seeds which are composed largely of endosperm. 
If, therefore, the diversity of cacao is due to 
cross-breeding, it will not be possible to prevent 
this diversity by budding except in isolated cases 
where whole plantations are stocked from the 
buds of a single plant, and sufficiently removed 
from all other cacao plants to guard against 
pollination from other forms. 

Production. 

The growth of the use of cacao in the United 
States has been unusually rapid. In 1898, only 
$3,9.33,000 worth were imported, while in 1905 
this had increased to $9,484,000. The greater part 
of the cacao used in this country is imported from 
Trinidad. The milder cacaos, more especially 



226 



CACAO 



CACTI 



adapted to drinking, are imported from Ceylon and 
Ecuador. The highest-priced cacao on the market 
is that grown in a small region in the interior of 
Ecuador. In the trade this is known as "arriba." 

The following table, taken from the Monthly 
Summary of Commerce and Finance of July, 1905, 
gives the cacao production of the world in 1897: 

Cacao Production of the World, 1897. 

Countries Quantity 

Tons 

Ecuador 22,000 

Trinidad 10,000 

Other British West Indies 9,000 

Portuguese Africa 7,700 

Brazil 7,500 

Venezuela 6,000 

Dutch Guiana 4,500 

Haiti 4,000 

Colombia 3,000 

Ceylon 1,650 

Java 1,000 

Guadeloupe and Martinique .... 800 

Santo Domingo 150 

Niger Coast 55 

French Guiana 30 

Congo 5 

Total 77,390 

Although there are regions in Hawaii, Porto Rico 
and the Philippines well adapted to the growing of 
cacao, these islands produce only an infinitesimal 
part of the seventy million pounds annually con- 
sumed in this country. With a knowledge of the 
necessary conditions of growth and an apprecia- 
tion of the value of a uniform product, the grow- 
ing of cacao in our tropical islands should be a 
pleasant and remunerative occupation. 

Literature. 

For fuller information the following references 
are given: Cacao, J. H. Hart (1900), second edi- 




Fig. 321. Cacti after having been visited by stoclc. A spiny form; spineless 
plants would have received still worse usage. 



tion ; Uebersicht der bis jetzt bekannten Arten 
von Theobroma, G. Bernoulli (1871); Cacao Cul- 
ture in the Philippines, \V. S. Lyon (1902), Philip- 
pine Bureau of Agriculture, Farmers' Bulletin 
No. 2; Expedition nach Central- und Siidamerika, 
Paul Preuss (1901); Les Plantes Tropicales de 
Grande Culture, E. de Wildeman (1902); Cacao: 
All About It, "Historicus" (1896); A Treatise on 
Cacao, F. Emmanuel Olivieri (1903), Trinidad. 

CACTI AS FORAGE. Figs. 321, 322. 

Stock in the southern part of the range country 
feed more or less on prickly pear, and under pres- 
sure of hard circumstances will forage on many 
kinds of cacti. Fat cattle often eat the fruits of 
certain cacti, apparently from preference. Inas- 
much as great areas of the southern range country 
produce cacti of many kinds and in abundance, it 
becomes an important question as to how far the 
plants can be profitably utilized for forage. The 
interest in the subject is naturally increasing, with 
the settlement of the country; and this interest has 
been hastened of late by the discussions regarding 
the breeding of spineless cacti. 

So far as present investigations show; spineless 
cacti are of little economic importance under ex- 
isting range conditions in the West unless grown 
to maturity in enclosures. The only reason why 
cacti can remain on the range and attain full 
growth is because of the protection the spines 
give them. On an overstocked range, spineless 
cacti would be consumed before they had fairly 
started growth. Fig. 321 shows what occurs when 
cattle have access to more or less spineless forms. 
In many sections, jack-rabbits are destructive to 
the spineless cacti. 

The spineless cactus is not a recent development. 
The following flat-jointed Opuntias are spineless in 
large part: 0. dccumhens; 0. tonientosa ; 0. Pes- 
eorvi; 0. vulgaris; 0. Eafinesquii ; 
0. erassa; 0. Ficus-Indica ; 0. fili- 
pendula ; forms of 0. robusta ; 0. 
ruheseens. 

The following Opuntias are spine- 
less but have objectionable spicules: 
0. basUaris; 0. inamcEna; 0. iner- 
fLf "lis; 0. microdasyg; 0. microcarpa ; 
y 0. rufida; 0. Treleasii. 

il ^n Many spineless forms are grown in 

Mexico that might easily be propa- 
gated if that kind were thought to 
be of any practical value. Present 
knowledge is not sufiicient to state 
whether the spineless forms will grow 
as well as the native spiny forms in 
the same region. 

TTie use of spine-bearing cacti. 

The spines are of course objection- 
able to the feeding of cacti. Whether 
spineless cacti will some day be regu- 
larly bred and planted it is not neces- 
sary now to enquire: the spines are 
easily and cheaply burned otf. 

With a gasoline blow-torch, or 



CACTI 



CASSAVA 



227 



prickly-pear burner, as it is called, the spines have 
been singed from a number of species of cactus 
common to the Southwest. The Arizona Experiment 
Station tested several species in this way. (Fig. 
322.) Previous to the experiment, it had been 




Fig. 322. 



Singeing the cholla (Opuniia fulgida) with a 
prickly pear burner. 



noticed that the stock was browsing; on the cactus 
shrubs, especially on the less spiny fruits. The first 
fifty plants that were singed were literally devoured 
by "the stock, the prickly pears being eaten nearly 
to the ground, while only the trunks and woody 
branches of the chollas remained. It was soon 
evident that the animals were feeding entirely on 
the singed cacti, which they readily distinguished 
from the unsinged. The amount that should be fed 
from a plant at one time varies with species and 
condition of growth. 

The machine used costs eighteen dollars. It con- 
sumes eight to ten gallons of gasoline per day. 
One man with a machine can feed 400 head of 
cattle all the spiny cacti they will eat. It is esti- 
mated that 7,000 to 11,000 pounds of cactus for- 
age can be prepared daily in this way, at a cost of 
about two dollars and forty cents, not including 
the hire of the man. The work and the cost are 
justified if cattle can thereby be carried over 
periods of shortage. The amount of water in this 
forage, as estimated at the Arizona Experiment 
Station, is approximately 75 to 80 per cent, leav- 
ing 20 to 2.5 per cent, or 1,600 to 2,.500 pounds of 
solid matter for the day's work. This large amount 
of water is of considerable value to the thirsty cattle 
as it no doubt enables them to browse much farther 
from their watering places than they otherwise 
could. 

At the New Mexico Experiment Station, experi- 
ments were made to test the value of one kind of 
cactus forage for dairy cows. The spines were 
singed off in the way mentoned above. The cactus 
was then run through a root-cutter. When the 
cows became accustomed to it they ate forty to 
fifty pounds per day, in connection with a grain 
ration and a little hay. It seemed to be about 
equal in value to sugar-beets, pound for pound. 



Composition of caetus forage. 

Analysis of cactus stems and fruit were made at 
the Arizona Experiment Station, and are reported 
in Bulletin No. 51 of that station. The ash content 
of the kinds analyzed was found to be high ; the 
fiber is low ; nitrogen-free extract is present in 
high average amount ; protein is more than half 
that contained in alfalfa hay and about the same 
as that in grama grass ; ether extract is high in 
the seeds, but the seeds are not digested by the 
animal ; the fiber content of the seeds is also 
high. 

Literature. 

For fuller information, the reader .should consult 
Bull. 74 of the Bureau of Plant Industry, United 
States Department of Agriculture, and Bull. 91 of 
the Bureau of Animal Industry ; also publications 
of the Arizona and New Mexico Experiment Sta- 
tions. Bull. 60, New Mexico, gives results of many 
analyses of leading species. 

CASSAVA. Manihot utilissivia, Pohl. (.latropha 
Manihot, Linn. Janipha Manihot, H. B. K.). 
Euphorbiaccm. Cassava (U. S.), manioc, mandioca, 
aypi, yuca, and others (S. Amer. ), tunglu-bok, 
simul-alu, tan-u, and others (India). Figs. 323, 
324. 

By S. M. Tracy. 

A shrubby plant, perennial in the tropics but 
annual in temperate regions, cultivated for its 
fleshy roots which are used for the manufacture 
of starch, Brazilian arrow-root and tapioca, for 
feeding domestic animals, and for the table. The 
■cultivated forms are not known in a wild condi- 
tion, but are undoubtedly natives of the American 
tropics. 

The cultivated form is a shrub three to ten feet 
in height, the stem and branches forking regu- 
larly in threes, with long-petioled, palmately- 
parted leaves having usually five to nine divisions 
reaching nearly to the ba.se, the sections being 
entire and elliptical or spatulate in outline. The 
growing plant bears a strong resemblance to 
the castor-bean (ricinus), to which it is closely 
related. The valuable part of the plant is its 
cluster of fleshy roots, which have a resemblance 
to the sweet-potato, though often reaching six 
or eight feet in length. 

While two species have been described as the 
original types of the cultivated form of cassava — 
the "bitter," Manihot ntilissima, Pohl., containing 
a considerable quantity of hydi'ocyanic acid, and 
the "sweet," Manihot Aipi, Pohl, containing little 
of the poisonous acid, — recent investigations indi- 
cate that all the cultivated forms have been 
developed from a single stock, probably the ,1/. 
Aipi. Careful structural and chemical examina- 
tions of a very large number of cultivated forms 
from Ecuador, Colombia and the West Indies, includ- 
ing both sweet and bitter sorts, show no constant 
dilferences. In difl^erent varieties the color of the 
root may vary from dark red to light yellow or 
almost white, while the stems and petioles show 



228 



CASSAVA 



CASSAVA 



equal variations, but eitlier of these characters 
may change in the first generation when plants 
are grown from seeds. The roots of all varieties 
contain some hydrocyanic (prussic) acid, the 




Fig. 323. Cassava roots. 

quantity varying from a mere trace in some of the 
sweet varieties to as much as .03 per cent in 
some of the so-called "bitter" sorts; but the quan- 
tity in any variety, even when grown from cut- 
tings, varies greatly with seasons, soils and 
climates. So far as is known, all varieties grown 
in the United States contain so little of the acid 
as to be harmless, and the same is said to be true 
of the sorts grown in India. The most poisonous 
varieties often cause death a few minutes after 
being eaten raw, but become perfectly harmless 
when cooked or dried, and even when pulped and 
exposed a few hours to the heat of the sun. 

History. 

Cassava was in common use in tropical America 
when the country was first e.xplored by the 
Spaniards, and was introduced into western Africa 
in the sixteenth century, and into southern Asia 
a little later. There is no record of its introduc- 
tion into the United States, but it was abundant 
in Florida as early as 1860, and was in common 
use there during the civil war as a source of starch. 
It gradually came into use for the feeding of live- 
stock, and, between 1895 and 1900, establishments 
for the manufacture of starch on a commercial 
basis were opened in that state. The area of its 
cultivation for feeding purposes has been extended 
gradually westward, and it is now becoming com- 
mon as far west as Texas. 

Culture. 

The plant requires a light, sandy and fairly 
fertile soil for its best success. While it produces 
abundantly on heavy soils, the digging of the roots 
is too expensive for profit. Some varieties make a 
vigorous growth where the annual rainfall does 
not exceed twenty inches, while others endure 
as much as 200 inches without injury. Some 
varieties mature within six months from planting, 



while others require two years before they are 
ready for gathering. The sweet varieties are 
usually more hardy, mature more quickly and 
yield less abundantly than the bitter sorts. 

Propagation. — It is usually propagated by cut- 
tings made from the stems, although a few of the 
early-maturing varieties may be propagated by 
seeds. In tropical countries these cuttings may be 
made at any time, but in temperate regions con- 
siderable care is needed to preserve the seed-canes 
through the winter. Late in the fall, just before 
frost, the matured canes are cut above the surface 
of the ground, the immature tops are removed and 
the canes are buried in windrows, much as sugar- 
cane is preserved. Early in the spring, about 
corn-planting time, these seed-canes are cut into 
pieces four to six inches in length and 
planted in checks about four feet apart. 
The cultivation of the crop is similar to 
that given to corn. 

Harvesting. — The roots are ready for use as 
early as October, but may be left in the ground 
until the following March. As they begin to decay 
only a few days after being disturbed, it is the 
common practice to dig them only as they are 
wanted for use. Under ordinary conditions in the 
United States, the yield of merchantable roots 
is about six tons per acre, though yields of ten 
to tw-enty tons are often secured. In more trop- 
ical regions much heavier yields are common. 

Uses. 

Average roots, grown in the United States, con- 
tain 2.5 to SOpercentof starch, about 80 percent 
of which is secured in the process of manufacture. 
The factory residue, containing about 25 per cent 
of starch, is in good demand for the feeding of 
horses and cattle, being valued about with corn 
meal. The roots, either boiled or roasted, form 
a staple article of human food in all tropical 
countries. 

Literature. 

If further information is desired, the reader 
should consult the following: Farmers' Bulletin 




Fig. 324. A field of cassava in Flonda. 

No. 167, United States Department of Agriculture; 
Sweet Ca.ssava, Bulletin No. 44, Division of Chem- 
istry, United States Department of Agriculture; 
Manufacture of Starch from Potatoes and Cassava, 



CASTOR-BEAN 



CASTOR-BEAN 



229 




Fig. 325. 
Flowers of castor-bean. 
A. ?St;imiuate; B. pis- 
tillate. 



Bulletin No. 58, Division of Chemistry, United 
States Department of Agriculture; Agricultural 
Ledger, 1904, No. 10, Calcutta, India; Bulletin of 
Botanical Department, Jamaica, Vol. IX, Part G. 

CASTOR-BEAN. Ricbius communis, Linn. Euphoi-- 
biacciB. Figs. 325-330. 

By E. Mead Wilcox. 

Castor-oil is derived from the seeds or beans of 
ricinus, a coarse perennial plant (treated as annual 
in temperate climates), bear- 
ing large alternate palmately 
lobed leaves, flowers in large 
terminal clusters, and vari- 
colored seeds in prickly three- 
membered pods or burs. The 
flowers are unisexual and are 
gathered on a frequently much 
elongated axis, the staminate 
flowers generally being along 
the lower, the pistillate along 
the upper part of the inflores- 
cence; flowers without petals; 
stamens many; pistils three, 
two-parted, red. 

The castor-oil plant belongs 
to a family that 
has over four 
thousand species 
and is developed 

most highly in the tropics. It furnishes 
a great variety of useful products, 
/»^ among which may be named cassava 
or tapioca, caoutchouc and shellac. In 
the tropics, the castor-bean grows to a 
tree thirty to forty feet high, but in 
temperate regions it is a large annual. 
The original home of the castor-oil 
plant was in Africa or India, but it is 
now cultivated in all the warmer parts 
of the world, either for its oil or as an 
,jrvj^ ornamental plant. The highest yield 
*Si!r of oil is secured in the tropics, and it 
is grown only for ornamental purposes 
in the northern part of the corn-belt, 
where it would be a failure if grown 
for oil. It is said, however, that the 
oil secured from beans grown in the 
temperate climate of the United States 
is superior for medicinal purposes to 
that grown in the tropics. 

In the United States the plant is 
now cultivated commercially in Okla- 
-V^I ^^ homa, Illinois, Mi-ssouri and Kansas, 
?^*Wwf^ Oklahoma producing probably over 
half the total product. The product of 
the beans in the United States has 
fallen ofl^ very much in recent years, 
jHt and we are becoming more and more 

jm' dependent on the supply from India. 

^ Culture. 

Soil. — The plant prefers a rich, 
well-drained sandy or clay loam and 



will not do well on either a stiff clay or a light 
sand. In this respect it may be said to do well on 
soil suited to corn or wheat. If virgin soil is not 
employed, one must apply either manure or com- 
mercial fertilizers to keep up the supply of avail- 
able nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid. 

Planting. — The seeds are planted either in rows 
four to five feet apart each way, or else in rows 
about four feet apart and only eighteen inches 
apart in the row. When the plants are about six 
to eight inches high they are thinned to a stand of 
one plant per hill. It may be found desirable to 
pour water, nearly boiling hot, over the seeds and 
allow them to stand, without further heating, for 
twenty-four hours. This treatment seems to ensure 
a more uniform and prompt germination. The 
plants are cultivated level to keep down the 
weeds, as is corn, until they are about two feet 
high, from which time they should be able to take 
care of themselves. 

From four to six seeds are planted in a hill, to 
allow for all accidents. At the greater distances 
(4x5 feet) about one and one-half quarts of seed 
are required for an acre ; at the lesser distances 
(4x IJ feet), about four quarts are required. 

Varieties. 

Numerous varieties are known, the types most 
used for ornamental purposes generally being larger 
than those found among the cultivated oil-yielding 
plants. The oil-bearing varieties are distinguished 
by the color, shape and size of the seeds and leaves 










Fig. 327. Castor-bean fruits. 

and the color of the stem. They differ considerably 
among themselves as to their oil-producing powers, 
but they cannot be characterized so readily botan- 
ically. The writer seems to have been the first to 
undertake the systematic breeding of the castor-oil 
bean for the express purpose of increasing its oil- 
producing quality. This work was started in Okla- 



230 



CASTOR-BEAN 



CASTOR-BEAN 



homa and was continued there by Shaw and Nichol- 
son, and is now being continued in Alabama by the 
writer. 

Harvesting. 

If the beans are planted from the middle of 
April to the first of May, one may expect to see the 
first ripe fruits in July ; and from this date to the 
first frost the pods will continue to ripen and the 
harvest must be continued. The pods are so con- 
structed as to throw the seeds to a considerable 
distance when the wall of the pod breaks, and 
hence the necessity of collecting .the entire fruit- 
cluster as soon as it turns dark brown. These 
clusters are cut off with a sharp instrument and 
hauled away in a tight wagon-box. They are then 

spread on a tight 
floor in the barn 
and left to dry 
and crack open. 
When all the seeds 
are out of the pods 
they may be swept 
together and 
passed through a 




— ^K^ hand fanning mill 

^O^r 'yi''^K/ " '^ ^'id stored in some 

"s^Sl^^K--^- ^7. 2lace until 

^K' 1? f J iT^isfe;^^^ sold. 




i v57^ should 



Fig. 328. 
Castor-bean. Mature plant. 



Frosted beans 
never be 
mi.xed with the 
good ones, as they 
will reduce the 
value of the whole 
lot. If gathered at 
the proper time 
and handled as 
indicat ed, the 
labor item may be 
reduced to a min- 



One of the points to be kept in mind in the 
breeding work is to develop a type in which the 
fruits in any one cluster will ripen at the same 
time to prevent loss. The work of gathering the 
crop is tedious and could be much reduced in this 
way. 

Enemies. 

Fortunately the castor-oil plant has no serious 
pests as yet among either fungi or insects. 

Manufacture. 

The manufacture of castor-oil is largely concen- 
trated at present in Jersey City and St. Louis. The 
former place presses much of the imported ma- 
terial, while the St. Louis mills handle largely the 
production of the western states. The hydraulic 
press is the essential feature of these mills, as 
the common method is to crush by hydraulic 
pressure without any further treatment than the 
mere removal of foreign matter. The seeds are 
not decorticated, as is practiced with cotton seed 
in making cottonseed-oil. In some cases the seeds 
are steamed before pressing, but though this 



~-'i^^^ 




'!m. 



„y 



Fig. 329. Castor-bean seedling. 



permits of more rapid extraction, it yields an oil of 
inferior quality for medicinal and other purposes. 
Most of the mills leave in the residue 10 per cent 
or more of oil. 

The residue, ^t-a.A A 

called castor pom- . , ,/ , 

ace, is a very good 
fertilizer material, 
but is poisonous to 
stock and cannot 
be employed as 
cottonseed meal. In 
some places it is 
prized as a fertil- 
izer for tobacco 
and other plants. 

Uses. 

Castor-oil is 
used largely in the 
dyeing of cotton 
goods, and for that purpose is converted by means 
of concentrated acids into a sort of soluble oil, 
which, because of the ready solubility of the 
alizarine dye in it, is often called alizarine -assis- 
tant or Turkey-red oil. It is not employed so 
e.xtensively in medicine as formerly, although 
among the rural population in the southern United 
States, and among the negroes particularly, it is 
still largely used. It is employed also in various 
other ways, such as in the manufacture of "sticky" 
fly-paper and " glycerine " soap. 

Literature. 

A few references are here given : — The Castor- 
Oil Plant, Miscellaneous Circular, United States 
Department of Agriculture, No. 1, pp. 1-4; F. 
C. Burtis : Castor Beans (1899), Oklahoma Ex- 
periment Station, Bulletin No. 44, pp. 7-9 ; Crop 
and Forage Notes (1900), Oklahoma Experiment 
Station, Bulletin No. 48, p. 11 ; C. M. Daugherty: 
The Industry . in Oil Seeds, Yearbook, United 
States Department of Agriculture (1903), pp. 
411-426; The Castor-Oil Industry, Yearbook, 
United States Department of Agriculture (1904), 




Fig. 330. Castor-bean seeds. 

287-298 ; G. E. Hicks, Oil-producing Seeds, Year- 
book, United States Department of Agricul- 
ture (189.5), pp. 185-204; G. L. Holter and J. 
Fields: Fertilizer Analyses of Castor Bean Plants 
(1897), Oklahoma Experiment Station, Bulletin 
No. 2.5, pp. 7, 8 ; A Study of the Castor-Oil Plant 
(1898), Oklahoma Experiment Station, Bulletin 
No. 32, pp. 11-14 ; Determination of Oil in Castor 
Beans (1898), Oklahoma Experiment Station, 



CHICORY ROOT 



CHICORY ROOT 



231 



Bulletin No. 32, pp. 14, 15 ; P. MacOwan, The 
Castor-Oil Plant, and Its Growth to Produce 
Machine Oil (1897), Agricultural Miscellanea, 
Cape of Good Hope, 13, pp. 483-487; G. E. 
Morrow and J. H. Bone, Castor Beans (1898), 
Oklahoma Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 33, 
pp. 13, 14 ; W. R. Shaw, The Improvement of the 
Castor Plant (1902), Oklahoma E.xperiment Station, 
Bulletin No. 54, pp. 1 -10 ; J. G. Smith, Castor 
Bean, Hawaii Experiment Station, Press Bulletin 
No. 2, pp. 1, 2; A. Zimmermann, Die Ricinus-Kul- 
tur, Der Pflanzer (1905), 1, pp. 76-88. 

CHICORY ROOT. Cichorium Intybus, Linn. Com- 
posita:. Figs. 331, 332. 

By T. Lytfleton Lyon. 

The cultivated chicory or succory has an 
enlarged taproot resembling, in some varieties, the 
root of the parsnip, and in others, that of the 
forage beet, but it does not attain the size of the 
latter. The taproots range from eight inches to 
two feet or more in length and one to three inches 




Fig. 331. Flowers and leaves of the chicory plant. 



in diameter. The plant is perennial. The seed- 
stalks bear clusters of brilliant blue or occasion- 
ally pink or white flowers (closing about noon), 
and are nearly destitute of leaves except near the 
base. The florets are all perfect, and all ligulate 
or rayed ; pappus a short chaffy corona. The 
leaves and roots have a milk-white juice. When 



escaped from cultivation, chicory becomes a pestif- 
erous weed. 

Culture. 

Chicory may be raised on almost any good land 
north of the fortieth parallel of latitude. Local- 
ities and soils that have demonstrated their suit- 
ability to the production of sugar-beets are also 
well adapted to the growth of chicory. 

Chicory grows best on a well-drained loam soil, 
and it is important that it be free from large 
stones and from hard-pan, because of their inter- 
ference with the development of the long, straight 
root that chicory should possess. The plant is 
strongly drought-resistant. The methods of cul- 
ture are very similar to those used in raising 
sugar-beets, and instructions given for that crop 
may be followed by the chicory-raiser. The only 
essential difference is in the planting. One to one 
and one-half pounds of seed per acre are used, and 
'should be drilled in not deeper than one-half to 
three-fourths of an inch. The culture requires 
very careful attention and much hand-labor. 

Uses. 

The principal use to which chicory is put, and 
for which it is most largely grown, is that of 
an adulterant or substitute for coffee. For this 
purpose the taproot is dried, roasted and ground, 
and either mixed with ground coffee or used alone. 
In Europe its use in this way is very common. 
Many of the European countries have laws to 
prevent the adulteration of chicory, as it is con- 
sidered that no other adulterant for coffee is so 
desirable. The flavor that pure chicory imparts 
when roasted, ground and boiled, does not resemble 
that of colt'ee, but is rather bitter. However, when 
it is mixed with a good quality of coffee in the 
proportion of one part of chicory to three or four 
parts of coffee, the result is very pleasing, and by 
many persons such a mixture is considered superior 
in flavor to pure coffee. In si)ite of the fact that 
pure chicory does not resemble coffee in flavor, 
it is used in this condition as a table beverage 
both in Europe and in the United States, although 
the consumption in the latter country is compar- 
atively small. The chicory root is also used 
medicinally and the leaves as a salad, but the 
consumption for these purposes is small. 

Importations. 

Most of the chicory used in the United States is 
imported from European countries. The larger 
part of this comes from Belgium and the 
remainder from Germany, Great Britain, Nether- 
lands and France. The annual importation of raw 
and prepared roots increased gradually to a max- 
imum of 17,329,170 pounds, valued at $246,393, 
in 1897, but dropped in 1899 to 494,616 pounds, 
valued at $13,414. The decreas;e was practically 
all in the raw product, the importation of prepared 
roots amounting to 399,009 pounds in 1897, and to 
335,347 pounds in 1899. By 1904, the total impor- 
tation had reached the figure of 4,672,515 pounds, 
valued at $88,487. The Twelfth Census reports a 



2C2 



CHICORY ROOT 



CLOVER 



production of 21,495,870 pounds of chicory root 
in the United States in 1899. Of this, 19,876970 
pounds were raised in Michigan. 

Importance as an industry. 

The fact that this commodity is imported into 
America has led to the establishment of the indus- 
try here, although the marlcet for the product has 
never permitted an extensive development. Mich- 
igan, Nebraska, Illinois and Wisconsin have been 
most active in its prosecution. The industry 
naturally centers around a factory for preparing 




Mil i 





Fie. 332. Various types of chicory roots. 



the roots, as the raw product is too bulky to 
permit of long shipments. The business of man- 
ufacturing chicory roots into a finished product 
has been a somewhat uncertain one, owing to 
the ease with which the market is glutted by 
a large crop in this country or in Europe. The 
farmer usually raises chicory on contract with a 
manufacturer, the former agreeing to plant a stip- 
ulated number of acres and to deliver the roots 
to the factory, the latter guaranteeing to pay a 
certain price per ton for all roots delivered. 
Unless such a contract can be made, it would be 
unwise under ordinary circumstances, for a fanner 
to plant chicory. 

Profits from atlture. 

The price paid for chicory roots ranges from 
six to eight dollars per ton. Six to ten tons per 
acre may be expected under ordinary conditions. 
The cost of raising an acre of chicory will vary 
from thirty to forty dollars. 

Literature. 

Bulletin No. 19 of the Division of Botany, of the 
United States Department of Agriculture, is a 
monograph on the subject. Bulletin No. 49 of the 
Nebraska Experiment Station contains directions 
for the culture of chicory. The Cyclopedia of 
American Horticulture contains an article on chic- 
ory as a medicinal and salad-making plant. [See 
also article on chicory in Farmers' Cyclopedia, 
Orange Judd Co., New York city.] 



CLOVER. Figs. 333-343. 

The word clover is popularly used to designate 
herbaceous forage plants of several genera of the 
family Leguminosse, but by botanists it is re- 
stricted to species of the genus Trifolium. In this 
article, the clovers are considered to be Trifo- 
liums. The Florida clover will be found under the 
article Beggarweed, the Japan clover under Les- 
pedeza, the bur and hop clovers under Medicago, 
the Sweet, Bokhara or tree clover under Melilotus. 
Related plants are alfalfa, serradella, suUa, sain- 
foin, vetch, lupine. 

The genus Trifolium comprises probably two hun- 
dred or more species and marked natural varieties, 
most frequent in the temperate parts of the north- 
ern hemisphere, but occuring also on mountains in 
tropical countries, and to some extent in South 
Africa. They are annual, biennial or perennial, 
usually with compound leaves of three leaflets 
(whence the name trifolium), but in some species 
of five or seven leaflets, and papilionaceous (pea- 
like) small flowers u.sually in dense heads ; stamens 
ten, nine of them united by their filaments ; fruit 
a very small and usually indehiscent pod contain- 
ing few nearly spherical seeds. The flowers are 
white or in shades of red, red-purple or yellow. 
Several of the clovers are sometimes grown for 
ornament [see Cyclopedia of American Horticul- 
ture], but the great value of the plants lies in their 
usefulness for green-manuring [see Vol. I, page 
504] and for forage [see, also. Forage, Meadows and 
Pastures, in this volume]. The important agricul- 
tural clovers are Trifolium pratense, T. hyhridum, 
T. repens, T. incarnatum and T. Alexandri7iuin; sev- 
eral other species are more or less weedy plants 
along roadsides and in waste places. The impor- 
tant forage clovers and also most of the weedy 
kinds are native of the Old World. 

The ability to grow clover successfully and 
uniformly is one of the marks of a good farmer in 
the northern states and Canada. Clover of some 
kind is almo.st a necessary part of self-sustaining 
rotations in these regions. In the very short rota- 
tions in which clover occurs, the land is likely 
to refuse to produce clover after a few cour.ses. 
In that case, other crops may be substituted for 
a time. It is not known just why clover will not 
grow in certain cases. In Europe much is said 
about "clover sickness," but it is doubtful whether 
the same cause or condition is present in this 
country, at least to any great extent. Experi- 
ments at Rothamsted, as reported in 1901, "seem 
to exclude the supposition that the primary cause 
of failure ('clover sickness') is either destruction 
by parasitic plants or insects, injury from excreted 
matter, or shade of a corn crop, and to indicate 
that it must be looked for in exhaustion of some 
kind within the range of the roots." It has been 
asserted by others that lack of available pota.sh in 
the subsoil is the cause. Giissow, reporting to the 
Royal Agricultural Society of England in 1903, 
considers the fungus Sclerotinia ciborioides to be the 
real cause of clover sickness. The refusal of lands 
in America to produce clover is probably due to 
various causes. It is frequently attributed to soil 




Plate VII. Red Clover 



CLOVER 



CLO\^R 



233 







acidity. Lack of the nitrogen-gathering bacteria 
may sometimes be a cause. Inoculation of soils 
with artificial cultures has been tried, but not with 
uniform or very important results, although the 
nitragin culture has given promising returns in 
Europe. Inoculation with soil from an inoculated 
field has given good results in this country, and its 
value seems to be fully demonstrated. 

Group I. The forage clovers. 

(1) Red clover, medium red 
clover {Trifolium pratense, 
Linn.) Fig. 333, is one of the 
most important of hay plants. 
It is variable in size, 
habit and other charac- 
teristics, suggesting 
that it offers a promis- 
ing field for the plant- 
breeder. It is usually perennial, 
although tending to run out 
after the third year, and some- 
times even after the second 
year. It is a spreading, hairy 
plant, bearing purplish (or 
sometimes rarely white) heads 
on the summits of branching, 
leafy stems, the upper leaf be- 
ing nearly or quite sessile and 
borne close under the head ; 
leaflets oval or oblong -ovate, 
sometimes notched at the end, 
very short - stalked, marked 
with a prominent whitish spot. 

The perennial, mammoth, or 
pea - vine red clover (var. 
perenne) has less tendency to die 
out after the second year, is of 
taller and stouter growth than 
the common red, the flower-head somewhat stalked, 
the plant bearing mostly larger and darker heads 
and maturing later. This is the most valuable 
of the cultivated red clovers. It is the plant com- 
monly known as Trifolium medium, and is des- 
ignated by Thomas Shaw as T. magnum. By some 
it has been considered to be the result of crossing 
between T. pratense and the true T. medium. The 
botanical or descriptive characters that are usually 
employed to separate the mammoth clover (var. 
perenne) from the common or medium red {T. pra- 
tense) are of small diagnostic value. The chief dis- 
tinction seems to lie in the perennial character, 
the larger size and the later maturity. 

The zigzag or cow clover (the true Trifolium 
medium, Linn.) seems not to be in cultivation in 
this country. Stems usually flexuose or zigzag ; 
leaflets and stipules narrow, usually elliptical, not 
spotted, the edges entire or slightly toothed toward 
the base ; heads standing one or two inches above 
the upper leaf, globular to oblong. There are no 
important and constant botanical differences be- 
tween T. medium and the forms of T. pratense. The 
chief distinguishing marks of T. medium are the 
always more or less peduncled heads (only infre- 
quently peduncled in T. pratense), more oblong 




Fig. 333. Red clover. 



heads with brighter-colored flowers, the narrower 

stipules and leaflets. The perennial form of T. pra- 
tense, or mammoth clover, is apparently a difi'erent 
plant ; the name perenne has been applied to it in 
popular writings, but the name has no technical 
botanical standing. 

The Orel clover {T. pratense var. foliosum, Brsmd) 
is a hairless form introduced from Russia. It 
" is distinguished by the dustlessness of its hay, 
due to almost complete absence of hairiness from 
all parts of the plant, by its heavy yields for the 
first crop, by its leafiness and the persistence of 
the basal leaves, by the succulence of the stems, 
which improves greatly the quality of the hay and 
reduces the waste due to woody uneatable por- 
tions, by greater palatability than hay from domes- 
tic seed, and by the fact that it comes to proper 
maturity for harvesting from ten days to two 
weeks later than the ordinary American red clover " 
[Charles J. Brand, Bulletin No. 95, Bureau of Plant 
Industry, United States Department of Agriculture, 
1906]. The plants are more upright than those of 
the common red clover and branch more freely ; 
the spots are sometimes absent from the leaves ; 
the flower-heads are smaller and less 
compact and tend to be more elongated. 
It seems to be perennial. This new clover 
has been tested in a number of places in 
the United States and 
Canada with promising 
results. It is recom- 
mended as a supplement 
to common red clover. It 
is thought that it may 
profitably supplant com- 
mon red clover "where 
the best methods of man- 
agement indicate that 
only one crop, either of 
hay or seed and a light 
aftermath, or some good 
pasturage can be advan- 
tageously expected from 
clover - fields " because 
of its "extraordinarily 
heavy first crop and the 
free seeding capacity." 

The succeeding arti- 
cles on Clover, by Smith 
and Wing, together with 
the discussion under 
Meadows and under 
Green-manures in Vol. I, 
will sufficiently explain 
the uses and culture of 
the red clovers. 
Alsike or Swedish clover (T. hijbridum, Linn.) 
(Fig. 335) is a tali-growing, slender-stemmed per- 
ennial clover with small whitish or rose-colored 
heads ; the leaves are long-stalked, the leaflets 
obovate and serrulate. The alsike is readily dis- 
tinguished from the white clover by its forking 
stalks (the flower-stems not rising "directly from 
the ground) and the pinkish heads (which are 
usually white toward the top). One of the best 




Fig. 334. Mammoth or per- 
ennial clover {Trifolium 
pratense, xax. perenne). 



234 



CLOVER 



CLOVER 



of the clovers, particularly on moist and cool 
lands, both for pasture and hay ; also an excellent 
bee plant. Alsike is the name of a parish in 
Sweden. 

Alsike clover is especially valuable for hay, 
either grown alone or in combination with grasses 
or with mammoth clover. It 
produces a very f 
that is likely 
all consumed 
by live-stock. 
On well-pre- 
pared and 
adaptable 
land and 
heavily seed- 
ed (about fif- 
teen pounds 




Fig. 335. 
Alsike clover 



to the acre), it makes a 
dense and heavy cover two 
feet deep. It is very hardy 
and may be sown early in 
spring, but as the seed is 
small it should not be cov- 
ered very deep. Usually, 
only one cutting is secured in the northern regions, 
where it thrives best. A good yield of seed per 
acre is four bushels. 

White clover (T. repens, Linn.) (Figs. 336, 337) 
is a low creeping perennial, bearing its small 
fragrant white heads on slender peduncles that 
spring directly from the stem that roots along the 
surface of the ground ; leaves long-stalked, the 
leaflets obcordate and more or less small-toothed. 
Useful for pasture, and for bees, and prized by 
many on lawns. 

White clover thrives in cool climates, or the 
cool part of the year, and on lands that are 
retentive of moisture. It is very hardy, and it 
spreads rapidly when once established. It with- 
stands grazing well, and Is prized for pastures 
in those regions and on those lands that are 
adapted to it. It is rarely sown as a meadow 
plant for hay, but it often works into moist mead- 
ows, making excellent "bottom." It is often sown 
in pastures. It should be sown very early, so that 
it may become established before warm weather. 
About ten to twelve pounds of seed is sown to 
the acre. On lawns, twice or more than this 
quantity may be sown if one is fond of the plant. 
For seed purposes, as much as four pounds may be 
sown ; the yield of seed will range from two and 
one-half to six bushels per acre. 

The Ladino clover, mentioned on page 75, is 
a variety of white clover (var. latu^) much grown 
in mountain valleys of Italy, especially under irri- 



gation. It is distinguished from the ordinary 
white clover by having much larger leaflets and 
taller stems, yielding about twice as much at each 
cutting. It is said to be the chief forage and hay 
crop of a large part of the irrigated regions of the 
Po valley, in which region it is reputed to out- 
yield alfalfa and to make a better crop of hay. 
Owing to the prostrate stem, the hay con.sists 
entirely of leaves and flowers. From the fact that 
the tips of the stems are not cut off it revives 
very quickly after being mown, blossoms usually 
appearing within ten days. Four or five cuttings 
are made each season at intervals of thirty-five to 
forty days. Owing to the fact that the roots are 
comparatively shallow, it will succeed on thin land 
under irrigation where alfalfa fails. This clover has 
been tested to a very limited extent in the United 
States, but with promising results. The seed is four 
times as expen.sive as that of common white clover. 
This is called "giant broad-leaved white clover," 
"an improved variety of the common white clover" 
from northern Italy, in Bulletin No. 98 of the North 
Carolina Experiment Station. "The plant is much 
more robust and has larger leaves than the common 
species, but produces very little seed." 

Crimson clover (T. incarnatuvi, Linn.) (Fig. 338) 
is an annual, erect, soft-hairy plant, strong-grow- 
ing and standing erect, two to three feet high, 
with oblong, dense heads (becoming two to three 
inches long) of brilliant crimson flowers ; leaves 
long-stalked, the leaflets broadly obovate and 
obtuse, and small-toothed. Now much u.sed for 
cover-cropping [see Cover-crops and Fruit-growintj] 
and also for forage. 

Although annual, it survives the winter if sown 
in late summer or early fall. It should become 
well rooted before winter sets in. Crimson clover 
requires considerable heat in its early stages, and 
therefore, it usually does not thrive in Canada 





Fig. 337. 
White clover seeHTri- 
folium repens , 
Linn.). Greatly 
rnlarged. For pic- 
tiire.s of red. alsike 
and crimson clo- 
verseeds. see Chap- 
ter VII (page 140). 
See Figs. 333, 335, 



Fig. 336. White clover. 

and the northern states. About fifteen to twenty 
pounds of seed is used to the acre if the crop 
is sown alone. When well established, crimson 
clover may be pastured in the fall and again in 
spring. Cut before it arrives at full bloom it 



CLOVER 



CLOVER 



235 



makes fairly good hay, although the very hairy 
character of the plant tends to the formation 
of hair-balls in the stomachs of the animals. An 

acre should yield five to ten 

bushels of seed. 

Berseem or Egyptian clover 

(T. Alexandrinum, Linn.) (Figs. 

91, 308) is annual, with yellowish 

white flowers in oblong heads, 

erect and tall, somewhat hairy. 

[See Berseem, page 215.] 





Fig. 339. 
Trifolium agrarium. 



Fig. 338. Crimson clover. 

Group II. Less important 
or weed clovers. 

The small, introduced 
clovers of this group, 
occurring about culti- 
vated lands or along roadsides, are of two kinds, — 
the yellow-flowered and the silky-headed. They are 
all low, more or less trailing or weak-spreading 
annual plants, producing little herbage and of 
small value where other clovers will succeed. One 
of the black medics (Medicago lupulina, the bur 
or hop clover) is often confused with the true 
clovers. 

The commonest yellow-headed clovers are Tri- 
folium affrarium, Linn., sometimes called yellow or 
hop clover (Fig. .339), with ovate-oblong leaflets 
that are all sessile and narrow stipules attached 
prominently to the petiole, the plant about a 
foot high ; T. procumbcns, Linn., the low or creep- 
ing hop clover (Fig. .340), with wedge-shaped leaf- 
flets, the terminal one of which is short-stalked, 
and short stipules, the heads smaller (one-half inch, 
or less, long), and the plant more spreading and 
about six inches tall. T. agrarhun (sometimes 
called T. aureum) is very abundant on sandy lands 
in some parts of the country, and is considered 
to be of some value as pasture. 

The other group comprises only one common 
species, the rabbit-foot or stone clover {T. arirnse, 
Linn.) (Fig. 341). The plant grows a foot high, 
silky-gray all over, the leaflets linear or oblanceo- 
late, the whitish-flowered heads becoming silky 
and soft. This clover is often so abundant on 
light lands as to form the principal growth after 



harvest. It might be utilized in some places as an 
early mulch or a catch-crop. 

Group III. Wild or little-known clovers. 

There are a good number of native clovers, but 
they have not come into prominence agriculturally 
and" they need not be discussed here. Descriptions 
of them may be found in the standard floras. 
Some of these clovers have been cultivated to a 
limited extent, or in an experimental way, in this 
country or abroad. Feeding-value analyses have 
been made of some of them at the Oregon Experi- 
ment Station (Bulletin No. 62), of T. Wormskioldii, 
at the California Station (Report of 1895-7). The 
wild T. Beckwithii is mentioned as worthy of culti- 
vation by J. G. Smith in Bulletin No. 2, Division of 
Agrostology, United States Department of Agri- 
culture. 

Literature. 

Thomas Shaw, " Clovers and How to Grow 
Them," 1906; chapters and ref- 
erences in various crop books, 
as the books on forage crops 
by Hunt, Voorhees and others ; 





Fig. 340. 

TrifitUum pro- 

citmbens. 

scattered bulletins of 
Experiment Stations 
and the United States 
Department of Agri- 
culture. 

Red Clover Seed- 
Growing. 

By C. B. Smith. 

The clover-seed crop 
of the United States, 
in 1900, was placed 
by the census of 
that year at 1,349,209 
bushels. Over 85 per 
cent of the crop 
was produced in the 
group of states in- 
cluding Indiana, Ohio, 
Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan, — mentioned in 
the decreasing order of their importance. The 
yield varies from nothing to eight bushels per 
acre, the average being not far from two to three 



Fig. 341. Rabbit-foot clover 
[TrifoUum arrense). 



236 



CLOVER 



CLOVER 



bushels. Six bushels per acre is a good yield, and 
eight bushels a large yield. The price for the 
past five years has varied from four to thirteen 
dollars per hundred pounds. Good seed can seldom 
be bought for le.ss than five dollars per bu.shel. 
Chicago, Cincinnati, Toledo and Detroit are the 
large market centers for this crop. The price is 
usually higher in Chicago than in the other cities 
mentioned. 

Color. 

Fresh red clover seed of good quality has a 
bright plump appearance. The seeds vary in color 
from dark violet to yellow, with all intermediate 
shades. Sometimes green and brown or black seeds 
are found in greater or less abundance. The vio- 
let and yellow seeds are produced in about equal 
abundance and are generally considered equally 
valuable for planting. The dark seeds are heaviest, 
followed by the variegated, and the average of 
these is still heavier than the lighter-colored seed. 
The predominating color of the seed sown usually 
predominates also in the resulting seed-crop. Euro- 
pean investigations show a higher yield of leaf and 
stem from yellow than from violet seed. 

Size. 

In size, red clover seed varies from twelve mil- 
lion to twenty -five million seeds per bu.shel, the 
average for American seed being sixteen to eigh- 
teen million per bushel. M'Alpine points out, as a 
result of English experiments, that small seed may 
produce more forage than a like weight of large 
seed, because more plants are produced. The rank 
early growth produced by large seed sown with 
grain is of no importance, since a hay crop is not 
cut until the following year, when the weaker 
plants from small seed may compete in size with 
plants from large seed. 

Grades. 

Several grades of clover seed are usually on the 
market. The value of a sample of seed depends on 
its cleanness, the percentage and vigor of germi- 
nation, size and origin. Generally speaking, north- 
ern - grown seed is superior to southern seed. 
American seed gives much better results in the 
United States than European seed, which is some- 
times imported. 

Clover seed is seldom clean. Besides dirt, weed 
seeds are found in greater or less abundance ; the 
cheaper grades of clover seed frequently contain 
enormous quantities, amounting to 80 or 90 per 
cent. Old seed or weathered seed does not germi- 
nate well. Green-colored seeds make weak plants. 
The vigor of germination of brown seeds decreases 
rather regularly from light brown to dark brown 
or black. The presence of any large quantity of 
brown or black seeds indicates low grade. Alsike 
and timothy seed are rather generally found in red 
clover seed, and, while not injurious, lower the 
grade. Farmers should buy their clover seed con- 
siderably in advance of the time it is needed for 
sowing, and examine it for purity and germinating 
power. The United States Department of Agricul- 



ture and many of the state experiment stations will 
also examine the seed free of charge if requested. 
Adulterated clover seed is the chief source of new 
weeds on the farm. 

Seeding. 

In growing clover for seed, sow clean seed on 
clean land. Upland soil of only medium fertility 
gives the best results. The crop is seeded either 
alone or with grain, as is u.sual for hay, but must 
not be mi.xed with other grass seed. Eight to fifteen 
pounds of clean seed per acre should be used, de- 
pending on the size of the seed and its percentage 
germination. 

Harvesting. 

The first crop is usually cut for hay in most 
clover-growing sections, and the second crop of the 
same season cut for seed. If the first crop is left 
for seed, new growth springs up before the first 
plants mature. The plants which mature first fall 
down, producing a tangled mass, the field remains 
in bloom six to eight weeks instead of twenty or 
thirty days, and the results are generally very un- 
satisfactory. These remarks apply particularly to 
the first year. They do not apply when the field is 
grazed or cut back about the middle of June. In 
a few sections, as northern Michigan, which has 
lately become an important clover seed section, 
the first crop of each season is the one used for 
seed. The second crop there matures too late for 
seed. The yield secured from the first crop averages 
close to six bushels per acre, and one instance of 
twelve bushels per acre from mammoth red clover 
has been reported. A. D. Hopkins states that in 
West Virginia the first crop is as well filled with 
seed as the second. 

Another reason in most sections for using the 
second crop of the season for seed is that if it 
does not fill well with seed, the first hay crop has 
paid for the use of the land. 

Again, bumble-bees and other insects which are 
believed to be essential for the cross-fertilization 
of clover flowers and the production of seed, are 
more abundant late in the summer than during the 
period when the first crop is in bloom. Darwin first 
pointed out the relationship between bees and 
clover seed. He covered 100 heads with matting. 
These produced no seed, while 100 heads exposed 
to insect visits produced 2,700 seed. A very large 
number of pollen-collecting insects work on red 
clover and eff'ect cross-fertilization, but bumble- 
bees are the most frequent visitors. It is still an 
open que.stion whether or not red clover is self- 
fertile. Experiments in England by Garton and in 
the United States by W. J. Beal and by the writer 
seem to indicate that it is in part at least .self-fertile. 

It is often a question whether to cut the crop 
for hay or to save it for seed. The hay is certain ; 
the seed-crop speculative. If left for seed the crop 
is spoiled for hay. As a rule, if the heads selected 
at random contain twenty-five to thirty seeds each, 
it will pay to save the crop for seed. In a test by 
the writer, twenty- five heads gathered from a 
twenty -acre field of first -crop clover averaged 



CLOVER 



CLOVER 



237 



twenty-three seeds per head. This field yielded two 
bushels of seed per acre. Twenty-five heads from a 
seven-acre field of first-crop clover alongside aver- 
aged fifty-three seeds per head and the yield was 
eight bushels per acre. With mammoth red clover, 
seed-growers generally pasture off or clip black the 
first crop about the middle of June. This retards 
the crop and gives a more uniform bloom, the straw 
is reduced and the yield of seed generally increased. 
In most cases, this practice gives the best results 
with June clover when the first crop is saved for 
seed. 

Clover is ready to cut when the heads are brown 
and the seeds shell out plump and hard. Alsilve 
clover should be cut even before all the heads are 
fully ripe, as it shells out much more readily than 
red clover. Either a mower or reaper may be used 
for cutting. In tangled clover the mower is best, 
while with the reaper less raking is required. 
When possible, clover is hulled directly from the 
field. This is particularly desirable with red clover, 
which is bulky to handle. The danger of a long 
wet period at hulling time makes leaving in the 
field precarious ; the wise farmer will provide some 
shelter for his crop rather than run this risk. 
Clover should be hauled in a rack with a tight 
bottom, particularly alsike. As the seed comes 
from the huller it is mixed with more or less dirt 
and foreign seeds and should he recleaned before 
marketing. It is usually sold by sample. 

Insect enemies. — There are two very important 
insect enemies of clover seed, the clover flower 
midge {Dasyneura leguminicola) and the clover- 
seed fly (Bruchophagusfunebris). These insects are 
found all over the United States and Canada. The 
entire clover seed crop is sometimes destro3'ed by 
the flower midge alone. The remedy is to feed off 
or mow the first crop ju.st before timothy heads out. 
Pasturing or clipping back in spring to delay bloom- 
ing ten days is useful. The clover-seed fly is seldom 
noticed, though it causes enormous injury. It 
eats out the seed, leaving only the light shell, 
which in threshing is blown away, leaving no 
trace of the insect's work. No practicable remedy 
is known. 

Literature. 

The subject of red clover seed-production has 
not as yet been studied exhaustively, and the litera- 
ture on the subject is very fragmentary and 
scattering. Consult Darwin, Cross- and Self-fer- 
tilization in the Vegetable Kingdom ; A. D. Hop- 
kins, The Flowering Habits and Fertilization of 
the Flowers of Red Clover, Proceedings Society 
Promotion of Agi-icultural Science, 1896 ; A. N. 
M'Alpine, Production of New Types of Clovers and 
Grasses, Transactions Highland Agricultural So- 
ciety, Vol. 10, 1898, p. 13.5; Clover Farming, 
Henry Wallace, 1898 ; Clovers and How to Grow 
Them, T. Shaw, 1906; Clover Seed and Methods of 
Testing for Percentage Germination, United States 
Department Agriculture, Farmers' Bulletin No. 
123 ; Michigan Board of Agriculture Reports, 
1879, 1881, 1886; United States Bureau Ento- 
mology, Circular No. 69. 



Clover : Its culture and uses. Figs. 342, 343. 
By Joseph E. Wing. 

For centuries, good farm practice has been based 
on the regular use of clovers in the rotation. Long 
before the scientist had found how clovers enriched 
soils the farmer had observed the fact and had 
founded his practice on it. There is no other means 
of so surely and cheaply enriching the soil for suc- 
ceeding crops as the growing of leguminous crops, 
chief among which are the clovers. 

The requirements of clovers are simjile, and much 
alike for each kind. They feed actively on the 
mineral elements of the soil and revel in soils rich 
in potassium and phosphorus. They send their roots 
deep into the subsoil and find there much mineral 
wealth. On their rootlets develop tubercles filled 
with myriads of bacteria, which gather nitrogen 
from the soil-air and make it available to other 
plants on their death. 

Soil requirements and preparation. 

Clover thrives on sweet soils, that is, soils con- 
taining much carbonate of lime. Good farming is 
much dependent on limestone. Where soils are 
acid, agriculture and the growth of clovers decay. 
Where there is abundant lime in the soil, acidity 
does not occur. Many regions that once grew good 
clover will not grow it now, and when the soils are 
studied they are found to be acid, and yet these 
soils may overlie the solid limestone rock, only a 
few feet down. Whenever fragments of this rock 
are mixed through the soil, clovers will thrive. 

There are other soils that never contained much 
lime, and that within recent years have become too 
acid to permit the growth of clovers. Liming is the 
first requisite to restore clovers to these lands. The 
safest form is the crushed or ground and unburned 
limestone. This is neutral, and it does not attack 
the humus nor set free nitrogen. Acids will attack 
it and be destroyed, and any residue will remain 
for future years. Carbonate of lime in ground 
form, unburned, may be applied in large quantities 
and at small expense ; it is a permanent invest- 
ment that should yield dividends for a long time. 
It is quite safe to use as much as three to eight 
tons of carbonate of lime to an acre of land, and 
much more has been applied without harm. Next 
in importance to lime for clovers is the supply of 
phosphorus. Clover demands an abundance of 
phosphorus. This may be applied in any form, 
either by the use of acidulated rock, by "floats" 
used in connection with stable manures, or by the 
use of bone-meal. If there is then present a normal 
amount of potash, the clover will thrive. For best 
results, however, there should be a certain amount 
of vegetable matter in the soil. Humus puts " life " 
into the soil, adds plant-food and enlivens the soil 
by letting in the air and by encouraging the earth- 
worms ; it also introduces bacteria in great abun- 
dance, and these may help the growth of the clover 
and add to the wealth of the soil. 

The writer has in mind an old field from which 
clover had been long banished because of its poor 
condition. It was divided into two parts, both alike 



238 



CLOVER 



CLOVER 



enriched with suitable mineral fertilizers. One-half 
was given no manure, the other half was given 
a very light covering of yard manure. Both were 
sown to red clover. The result was striking. The 
growth of clover on the part given the little 
manure was several times as heavy as that on the 
unmanured part ; and the enrichment of the land 
by the aid of the clovers was proportionately 
greater where the heavy clover grew. 

Red clover. 

Common red clover, the most useful and widely 
spread of the clover family, is, fortunately, of very 
easy propagation. The common practice is to sow it 
on winter wheat in the late winter or early spring. 
It is commonly sown directly on the soil without 
any preparation whatever. Thus sown, it fre- 
quently succeeds, though there are failures enough 
to indicate the need of a better practice. In sow- 
ing red clover with wheat it is wise to wait until 
settled weather has come, in late March or early 
April, and the land has become dry enough to har- 
row; then thoroughly stir the ground with a har- 
row, sow the seed and again harrow to cover it. 
Thus treated, if the soil is reasonably fertile, and 
if it is sweet, failure can come only from very 
unusually bad weather, or from the lodging and 
smothering effect of the wheat crop. If care is 
used in making the seed-bed, ten pounds of red 
clover seed to the acre is enough. There should be 
mixed with the seed a small percentage of alfalfa 
seed when there is a likelihood that at some near 
time the land may be seeded to alfalfa, since the 
scattered plants of alfalfa will in time become in- 
oculated with the proper alfalfa bacteria and the 
later growth of the alfalfa thus be assured. 

Seeding with oaU. — Clover sown with oats is not 
usually so successful as when sown with wheat, for 
the reason that the oats are very leafy and their 
shade hurts the clover. The oats often lodge on 
good ground, and if they escape this they draw 
much more heavily on the land for moisture than 
either wheat or barley, so that they may exhaust 



T 






. -y-^^WB^sSfelrfsf*.^.- ,■ 



''S^i&iiii^ 




Fig. 342. Clover in cocks. 

the moisture to such an extent that the young 
clover will die when the oats are taken away. 

There are, however, two ways of sowing with 
oats that give uniformly good results. The one is 
thoroughly to prepare the land, sow a less quantity 
o" oats than usual, say a bushel to the acre, and 
the clover seed, covering the latter lightly, then 
leaving the ground smooth by the use of a plank 
drag. When the oats are in bloom and before they 
have formed seed they are mown for hay. They 
will then have damaged the clover very little, and 



often there will be a crop of clover hay in the fall 
of the same year. 

The other system, which is the better, is to sow 
the oats as heavy as two bushels to the acre, with 
the clover seed, and when the oats are sixteen 
inches high to turn in sheep to eat the crop down 
quickly ; then take the sheep away and let the oats 
and clover come again. This pasturing may be 
repeated two or three times in the summer, care 
being taken not to let the animals remain too long 
at a time. Remarkably strong, vigorous stands of 
clover are secured in this way. 

Seeding iirith barley. — Spring barley makes an 
ideal nurse crop for young red clover. The beard- 
less barley is best, since it comes off the ground 
early. It does not shade the clover much and suffi- 
ciently subdues the annual grasses. Barley may 
be cut for hay or allowed to ripen its grain, 
although if it should lodge it should be cut for hay 
at once. 

Care of young clover. — No animals should be pas- 
tured on the clover long enough to eat it close to 
the ground, and it should always go into winter 
with a good growth to hold snow and protect the 
roots. However, it should not be permitted to 
bloom the first summer, since red clover is an 
uncertain biennial, and when it has bloomed and 
made seed it is so much weakened that it easily 
dies. Should it show much bloom the first summer, 
it may be mown, and either made into hay or 
allowed to lie for mulch and protection. No ani- 
mals should ever be permitted to tread on clover 
meadows in the winter time. 

Making clover hay. — Red clover makes a most 
useful hay, but it is seldom secured in its best 
condition. It should be mown when in full bloom 
and before any of the heads have turned brown, 
tedded or turned once or twice, raked and put up 
in small cocks, piled as high as convenient. In the 
cocks it will lose a part of its moisture. After a 
few days, depending on the weather, the cocks 
should be opened in several large flakes, while the 
sun is hot. These may be turned again, and -drawn 
to the mow. In putting a large quantity of clover 
hay in the mow it need not be so dry as though 
only a few loads were gathered together, since the 
large quantity accumulates enough heat to kill 
germs of mould and to dry out the entire mass. 
This makes a sweet, palatable hay of brown color, 
free from much dust or mould. Hay caps are useful 
in making clover hay. It should not be too much 
sun-dried or many of the leaves will be lost. 

The practical test of whether clover hay is in 
condition to put in the mow is to take a wisp of it 
and twist it violently. If no moisture can be seen 
to exude from the stems, it may be stored. It 
should never be put in while there is any dew or 
rain on it. The old practice of putting up clover 
hay by means of alternate layers of clover, partly 
cured, and dry straw, is a good one, and results in 
first-rate hay, and causes a part of the straw to be 
eaten. 

Clover as pasture. — Clover pasture is admirably 
adapted to hog-raising, and cattle thrive on it if 
restricted so that they do not bloat. For pasture, 



CLOVER 



CLOVER 



239 



red clover should be mixed with some sort of grass, 
since it is too nitrogenous to be relished alone. 
Much better results are secured when the animals 
grazing on it can find grasses with which to vary 
their diet. For this purpose, timothy is often sown 
with clover, and awnless brome-grass {Bromus 
inermis) is excellent for the purpose; or the animals 
may be given access to a field of grasses. There 
will be very much less bloating when the pastures 
are mixed. 

If a mixture of salt and air-slaked lime is kept 
where the animals may find it, there will be less 
bloating. When animals become accustom.ed to 
grazing on clover they should be permitted to re- 
main constantly there, as the risk is less than if 
they are taken ofi" and put back at intervals. 

Clover for soiling. — Very much better results are 
secured in soiling clovers than in pasturing them. 
They may be cut when in bloom, or before, and 
hauled to the animals. Several times as much for- 
age will then be secured from a given area as 
though the animals ran on the ground and wasted 
and trod down a large part. Here, also, the pre- 
caution of feeding complementary feeds with the 
clovers, to counterbalance the excess protein, must 
be observed. 

Bringing clover in old pastures. — If on old pas- 
tures, fertilizers rich in lime and phosphorus, such 
as basic slag, with potash if the soil needs it, are 
used, and no clover seed sown, there will frequently 
come a decided sprinkling of clovers of the sort 
that have become natural to the field, and they will 
grow with extraordinary vigor. On an adjoining 
field, should one sow nitrate of soda, he will observe 
the disappearance of the clovers and the rioting of 
grasses. 

Clover for silage. — For silage, clovers should be 
cut when full of sap and be put in the silo with no 
waste of time. They should be in full bloom. In 
general, corn pays best in the silo, the clover in 
hay being held to feed with it. 

Mammoth clover. 

This is a form of red clover. It is rather more 
persistent, much coarser, more productive and 
makes a coarser hay not so much relished by stock. 
It is better than common red clover for enriching 
soils, but is inferior to it as a hay plant. 

Alsike clover. 

On certain soils, rather inclined to wetness, alsike 
clover thrives better than the red clover, and is an 
excellent forage and bee pasture. It may be seeded 
and treated as has been directed for red clover. 

Crimson clover. 

This is the " trifolium " of Great Britain. It is 
an annual, sown in the fall, which blooms, makes 
seed and dies the following summer. It is most 
often employed as a catch-crop, after maize or 
vegetables. Crimson clover thrives in a warm, 
sandy soil and in regions south of the Ohio river, 
though it is used to some extent north of that line. 
It makes good pasturage and fair hay, though it is 
gaid to be dangerous to horses owing to the hairs 



on the seed-stems. It is often used as a soiling 
crop. It enriches soils remarkably, and when 
adapted to the soil and climate is of great value. 
It well repays fertilizing with phosphorus and 
potassium. Crimson clover is especially well adapted 
to the south Atlantic seaboard. 

]mte clover. 

This is a small perennial plant, with creeping 
stems rooting at the joints. It comes naturally in 
pastures and along roadsides, especially where 




.^^""-v 

'^"^^i>^^;^ 




F^;S£::g:^pi^^i|^^ 



Fig. 343. Loading crimson clover in the Soutb. 

there is lime in the soil. It makes good bee pas- 
ture, and is liked by all animals. When in seed it 
sometimes salivates horses, making them to "slob- 
ber." It is exceedingly nutritious. It should be 
sown in all mixtures for permanent pastures. The 
seed being very small, no more than two to four 
pounds per acre need be sown. It does well with 
most grasses, enriching the soil, giving place to 
them when they are vigorous, but reappearing 
again when they are subdued. It is usually too 
short for hay. All animals relish it, and it is very 
fattening except in unusually cold, wet seasons. 

COFFEE AND COFFEE-GROWING, with Special 
Reference to Porto Rico and Hawaii (Coffea Ara- 

. bica, Linn., and C. Libcrica, Hiern). Ruhiaccx. 
Figs. 344-353. 

By J. IF. Van Leenhoff. 

Coffee-growing is essentially a tropical industry. 
It is of vast proportions. The annual production 
in the world exceeds 1,500,000,000 pounds. Within 
recent years there has been over-planting and over- 
production, with a consequent falling in price that 
has practically stamped out the industry in parts 
of the Hawaiian islands and elsewhere. Africa, 
Arabia, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Central Amer- 
ica, Ceylon, Hawaiian islands, Java, Mexico, Porto 
Rico, all grow considerable coff'ee, Brazil alone 
producing nearly three-fourths of the world's sup- 
ply. The two species, Coffea Arabica and C. Liherica, 
furnish most of the commercial product. [For a 
botanical discussion of species, see Coffea, Cyclo- 
pedia of American Horticulture.] 

In order to show the extent to which the industry 
has grown, the following table of production and 
consumption is given. It was prepared by Stein- 
wender, Stoffregen & Co., New York City, on Janu- 
ary, 1, 1907. 



240 



COFFEE 



COFFEE 



Production and Consumption in Bags* of All Kinds op Coffee for the Last Fifteen Years. 



Production (Crops) 


Consumption 
















Production 


Consump- 


"Worias 
Visible Supply 


Crop Year 


Rio & Santos 


All Others 


Total 


Total 


Over Con- 
sumption 


tion Over 
Production 


on 


July 1 


1890-1 


5,358,000 


3,965,000 


9,323,000 


8,718,661 


604,339 




1891 


1,909,120 


1891-2 


7,397,000 


4,582,000 


11,979,000 


10,804,551 


1,174,449 




1892 


2,955,023 


1892-3 


6,202,000 


5,082,000 


11,284,000 


10,946,228 


337,772 




1893 


3,100,618 


1893-4 


4,309,000 


5,092,000 


9,401,000 


10,571,533 


. > . . 


l',170,*533 


1894 


2,146,423 


1894-5 


6,695,000 


5,069,000 


11,764,000 


11,212,851 


551,149 


.... 


1895 


3,115,680 


1895-6 


5,476,000 


4,901,000 


10,377,000 


11,142,813 




765,813 


1896 


2,588,193 


1896-7 


8,680,000 


5,238,000 


13,918,000 


12,244,204 


l',673,796 


.... 


1897 


3,975,880 


1897-8 


10,462,000 


5,596,000 


16,058,000 


14,571,902 


1,486,098 


.... 


1898 


5,435,974 


1898-9 


8,771,000 


4,985,000 


13,756,000 


13,480,904 


275,096 


. . . . 


1899 


6,200,013 


1899-1900 


8,959,000 


4,842,000 


13,801,000 


14,972,699 


. . . . 


1,171,699 


1900 


5,840,561 


1900-1 


10,927,000 


4,173,000 


15,100,000 


14,329,925 


770,075 




1901 


6,867,627 


1901-2 


15,439,000 


4,296,000 


19,735,000 


15,516,663 


4,218,337 




1902 


11,261,331 


1902-3 


12,324,000 


4,340,000 


16,664,000 


15,966,498 


697,502 


. . . . 


1903 


11,900,173 


1903-4 


10,408,000 


5,575,000 


15,983,000 


16,133,707 


. . . . 


150,707 


1904 


12,361,454 


1904-5 


9,968,000 


4,480,000 


14,448,000 


16,163,353 




1,715,353 


1905 


11,265,510 


1905-6 


10,227,000 


4,565,000 


14,792,000 


16,741,215 




1,949,215 


1906 


9,636,563 



*A bag is 132 pounds. 



History. 

Nicholas Witsen, a Hollander, was the first to 
transfer the coffee plant from its native soil in 
Arabia, thus laying the foundation on which grad- 
ually the world's present enormous coffee industry 
has developed. The plant prospered which he 
took from Mocha in 1690, and planted in Batavia, 
capital of the Dutch East Indies. It is probable 
that seed from this tree and its descendants were 
in the course of time transported to the different 
coffee zones of the world, where its descendants 
now cover vast areas and are the means of suste- 
nance for millions of people, while its products 
have become almost a necessity of life for millions 
more. 

A seedling was sent from Batavia to the Botan- 
ical Gardens in Amsterdam, from which in 1712 
the French artillery officer, Ressous, secured a seed- 
ling. He gave it to King Louis XIV, who had it 
planted in the Jardin des Plantes, where it 
soon died. In 1714, the Burgomaster of Am- 
sterdam sent another seedling to Louis XIV 
which was planted in the Jardin des Plantes, 
lived and produced seeds, of which, after an 
unsuccessful attempt by Dr. Isambert, a seedling 
was brought in 1720 to Martinque by a French 
officer, de Clieux, and planted with success. Seeds 
from this plant were distributed to the colonists in 
Martinique and other French possessions in the 
Antilles. Not many years later, French refugees 
form Hayti brought seeds to Porto Rico. 

General culture. 

Climate. — Coffee reaches its best development 
at altitudes of 1,000 to 2,500 feet above sea-level, 
2,000 feet being perhaps the optimum elevation. 
Other conditions being favorable, very good crops 
are grown frequently at lesser altitudes. Gener- 
ally, the higher elevations are a.ssociated with 
greater rainfall and a lower temperature, making 
less shade necessary. The higher altitudes seem to 
produce a larger bean. A rainfall of 50 to 200 



inches annually, evenly distributed, gives best re- 
sults. Freedom from severe winds is essential. An 
equable temperature, having an average minimum 
of not less than 60° is required. 

Soil. — Coffee will thrive on a variety of soils, 
but a deep, rich soil is desirable, a large content of 
humus being especially favorable. Volcanic de- 
posits are well adapted. In Porto Rico, the Adjun- 
tas clay and Alonzo clay give the best results. The 
former is a pink-red or dark brown clay, three to 
eight inches deep, underlaid by a pink or red 
subsoil twenty inches or more in depth. The 
latter is a dark, purplish clay loam, eight to thirty- 
six inches deep, containing more or less pebbles 
and boulders. These clay soils are subject to less 




Fig. 344. Coffee flowers {Cuffea AraUea). 

erosion, as a rule, than sandy ones, retain moisture 
better and wear much longer. Very sandy or 
gravelly soils, especially if closely underlaid by 
coarse gravel or broken rock, should be avoided. 
If such soils are virgin, the coffee trees will grow 
well for a few years but will soon fall into a de- 
cline, owing to the rapidity with which such soils 
deteriorate under the washing of heavy tropical 
rains. After the humus and surface fertility of 
such soils are depleted they withstand drought 



COFFEE 



COFFEE 



241 



poorly, because of their porous nature and the steep 
topography of most of the country which so quickly 
and completely drains away the water. The clay 
soils are more retentive of moisture and retain 
their fertility longer. 

As a rule, the coffee lands are naturally well 




Fig. 345. 

CoSee, showing the way in which 

the berries are borne. 



r'C6) 



drained, but occasional small and comparatively 
level areas occur, which need artificial drainage. 
In constructing drains, care should be exercised so 
to place them as to cause the minimum amount of 
erosion. 

Other things equal, virgin forest land will give 
best results, because of its greater fertility. Its 
fertility and freeness from no.xious weeds, thus 
reducing the subsequent cost of weeding the plan- 
tation, will often more than counterbalance the 
extra cost of clearing the land and the disadvan- 
tages of poor location, with reference to transpor- 
tation, frequently attendant on the taking up of 
new land. 

Preparing the land. — If time permits, the land 
should be cleared as thoroughly as possible, and 
all the waste material burned. Some persons rec- 
ommend not burning over the land, in order to 
save ferns which are invariably found in forest 
lands. It is presumed that the ferns keep the ground 
moist, prevent weedf from growing, protect the 
young coffee trees from insects and do not interfere 
with the growth of the coffee. Frequently the trees 
that are cut are allowed to rot on the land, the 
branches being trimmed so as not to interfere with 
the planting ; or the underbrush may be cleared 
away and the trees girdled. The latter practice, 
however, is not to be commended, as it later is 
dangerous to the workers and to the coffee trees. 
Still another practice is to clear the underbrush 
and allow the trees to stand, planting the coffee 
directly under the forest trees, the trees being 
removed only after the artificial shade has grown. 
Trees should be left standing on ridges and on the 
side from which the prevailing wind blows, to serve 
as windbreaks. If the winds are strong, it may be 
necessary to plant some quick-growing tree as a 
windbreak where the forest trees will not serve. 

B 16 



If roads and drainage-ditches are necessary, they 
should be constructed as soon as the land is cleared. 
Seedling plants. — Volunteer seedlings, which 
occur in large numbers in all coffee groves, are 
usually procured. They are generally drawn from 
the ground by main force, though occasionally a 
spade or other instrument is 
employed. They vary from one 
to three years old, according 
1 the preference of the 
planter. Frequently, however, 
seedlings are raised in seed- 
beds, which is the more ra- 
tional practice, as the volun- 
teer seedlings cannot be relied 
on fully. For this, the best-de- 
veloped berriesshould bechosen 
and carefully pulped by hand. 
The seed-beds are best located 
near the permanent planting, 
and should be of such a size as 
to facilitate planting, weeding 
and watering. Ordinarily it is safe to raise 25 per 
cent more seedlings than will be needed for the 
first planting. The seed-beds must be shaded and 
carefully protected from heavy downpours of rain. 
The hot sun should not strike the plants. (Fig. 34S.) 
The soil for the bed must be fined and leveled, 
and free from extraneous matter. It should be 
moistened thoroughly the evening previous to 
planting the seeds, the seeds are pressed lightly 
into the soil, about two inches apart each way. 
The bed is covered with a layer of wood-ashes and 
again moistened. As soon as the first round leaves 
are formed the plants may be transplanted into 
the nursery-beds. This will generally occur in 
about ten or twelve weeks after the seeds have 
been planted. 

The nursery-beds are similar to the seed-beds. 
The young plants are set in rows about six inches 
apart each way. Only those are reset that have 




Fig. 346. Coffee-tree branches loaded with berries. 
Guatemala coffee. 

straight, well-developed taproots. The taproots are 
cut back to a length of about four inches. Much 
care is required in the planting to see that the 
plants are set straight, and that they are buried just 



242 



COFFEE 



COFFEE 



to the same height on the stock that they were in 
the seed-bed. The nursery-bed is watered after 
planting, and from time to time if the weather 
is dry. As the plants develop the shade is gen- 
erally removed until they are exposed to full sun- 
light. It should be planned to expose them to the 
full light and air when they have developed four 
pairs of leaves. After being exposed for some time 
they are ready to be planted in the field. It is pre- 
ferable that five pairs of true leaves be developed 
before transplanting. (Fig. 349.) 

Planting. — The planting distances should be 
marked carefully before any of the trees are set. 
The best distance between the rows is still un- 
settled. Seven to nine feet is common practice. 
Where coffee can be grown on somewhat flat land, 
as in Brazil, and machines used between the rows, 
a greater distance is desirable. The coffee lands in 
Porto Rico are generally very steep and irregular. 

Holes about two feet deep and as wide as neces- 
sary are made at the points determined for the 
planting. In Porto Rico a good practice is to place 
the subsoil on the lower side of the hole, and fill 
the hole only with surface-soil scraped from the 
vicinity. This makes a small table or flat, which 
can be gradually enlarged, which expedites hoeing 
about the young trees and reduces soil - washing 
during heavy rains. 

Planting is done usually at the beginning of the 
rainy season, as it is necessary that the soil be 
moist and the sky at least partly cloudy. The 
seedlings to be planted should be thrifty and well 
developed. If branches have been formed and the 
stem thickened, the seedlings should be pruned 
back to about six inches from the collar. Planting 
is an important process and should be done with 
great care. It is important that the taproot be 
planted straight, and that it be not injured. The 
safest way is to lift the seedling on a spade, with 
the earth attached. The roots must not be exposed 



set bare, that is, without the clod, the plant hole 
should be filled and a hole of sufficient size made in 
the center by means of a rounded stick or dibber. 
The space about the root must be completely 







Fig. 347. The beginning of a coflee plantation, cleanng the 
forest. Dwellint; honsp and workman's house are sliown, 
constructed from the felled forest trees, sawn by hand. 

to the sun, and any that extend beyond the clod 
should be removed by sharp scissors. The seedling 
is placed in the center of the hole, and the soil 
pressed firmly about it. The collar should be 
slightly below the surface. If the seedlings are 




Fig. 348. Coffee seed and nurseiy beds under artificial 
shade. Porto Rico Experiment Station. 

filled. Only seedlings that have not yet developed 
branches may be planted bare. The taproots are 
cut with sharp scissors at the point where they 
bend easily, and the side roots are pruned. The tap- 
root should not touch the bottom of the plant hole, 
and the side roots should be placed as nearly nor- 
mally as possible. 

Sometimes the fields are not ready to receive 
the seedlings when the latter are ready, and the 
seedlings develop too far. They should be cut back 
to about six inches, as above mentioned, and 
planted as " stumps." Stumps are more vigorous 
and may be planted when the sun is shining, pro- 
viding the roots are not exposed to the sun. Many 
shoots or suckers will soon appear. When the.se 
become about two inches long, all but one should 
be removed with a sharp pruning knife. The re- 
maining shoot should develop into a strong plant 
more quickly than the seedlings. 

A certain percentage of the total number of 
trees set out will fail, and this number must be 
provided for resetting. An allowance of 10 per cent 
for this should be an abundance ; and, with proper 
care, it would be excessive. 

Cultivation and subsequent care. — After the trees 
are set and the plantation started, the further care 
is very slight. The work consists almost entirely 
of weeding and replanting. One man can look 
after ten to fifteen acres. The weeding is done 
twice a year generally. It is essential that the 
land be kept clean, and that no weeds be allowed 
to run to seed. When the land becomes hard, sur- 
face tillage will be required. A practical method 
is to cultivate in a circle around the tree, gradually 
enlarging the area as the tree branches. The first 
cultivation .should always be made outside the 
original plant hole. Good crops demand that the 
soil be kept loose. The frequency of cultivations 
will be determined by the frequency with which 
the soil becomes sun-dried or packed by heavy 
rains. The extent of erosion or washing must also 
be considered, as in the steeper plantations it may 
make much surface tillage inadvisable. 



COFFEE 



COFFEE 



243 



Suckers should be removed as they appear and 
dead branches and unnecessary and undesirable 
parts cut away. The practice of pruning is falling 
into disuse in many coffee-growing regions because 
of labor and financial conditions, and has been en- 




Fig. 349. Coffee seedling. 

tirely abandoned in Hawaii. It is frequently advis- 
able to allow a lower shoot to remain to replace 
the original stem which has suffered from the 
dying off of the lower branches. When the new 
stem begins to bear, the old one may be removed. 
Shade. — The most mooted question in coffee-cul- 
ture is that of shade. The opinion that heavy shad- 
ing is necessary has led to much injury of the 
industry, notably in Porto Rico. That high-grade 
coffee can be grown without shade has been shown 
in Guatemala and Brazil. The prevalent idea that 
shading benefits the foli- 
age and fruit is erro- 
neous. However, it is 
quite probable that 
shading the ground is a 
cultural advantage. Le- 
guminous trees are 
frequently planted for 
shade, and their nitro- 
gen-collecting powers 
have no doubt been bene- 
ficial to the coffee-plants. 
In Java, Ceylon and 
Africa, leguminous trees 
are used largely. Other 
possible advantages are 
protection against 
drought, and the moder- 
ation of the temperature 
of the upper layers of 
soil. The shade trees 
must not be so dense as 
to shut out light and air. 
A single tree may be 



placed in the center between blocks of four coffee 
trees each ; that is, each block of four trees will 
have a shade tree on each side of it in the row. 
For a discussion of this subject the reader should 
consult Bulletin No. 25, Division of Botany, United 
States Department of Agriculture, Shade in Coffee 
Culture, by 0. F. Cook. 

The trees used for shading in Porto Rico are 
guaba (Inga vera), guama {Iiiga laurina), moca 
(Andira inermis), and bucare {Erythrina mierop- 
teryx). The first two are used most extensively. 
In Mexico, the shade tree is Inga Inicuil. In 
Hawaii, coffee shading is practiced, the trees used 
being, in order of importance, silky oak (Grcvillea 
robusta), kukui, Java plum and Monterey cypress. 
The native ohia tree, the principal forest tree in 
Hawaii, is usually left standing at intervals in new 
land until the planted grevillea is large enough to 
att'ord protection. (Fig. 350.) In Hamakua, the 
Grevillea robusta has been found so much superior 
to all other trees that it is now the only one recom- 
mended. It is clean and free from blight, and 
throws off leaves profusely, thus reducing the hoe- 
ing and supplying fertilizing material to the soil. 
Furthermore, the shade is variegated, and not too 
dense. The best practice seems to be to provide a 
row of shade trees every thirty-five or forty feet. 

The shade trees are pruned generally by cutting 
away the lower branches and clearing them of dead 
wood ; and they are thinned out when neccessary. 

In new plantations the ferns are allowed to re- 
main to supply shade for the coft'ee seedlings, and 
more especially to lessen the loss from cutworms, 
which are very destructive to cultivated plants 
when the field is completely cleared. 

Most of the planters hold to the idea that if the 
coffee trees are topped, shade is a necessity ; if the 
trees are not topped, no shade is required ; but if 
the soil is poor or the field wind-swept, shade is 
beneficial. 

Harvesting. — The coffee trees begin to bear 




Fig. 350. A coffee plantation in an Obia forest, Hawaiian islands. 



244 



COFFEE 



COFFEE 



about the third year, giving light crops until 
the fifth or sixth j'ear. The trees blossom at least 
three times a year, the fore blossoming, the large 
blossoming, and the after blossoming. These occur 
in the months of February, March, April and May, 
according to location. Generally after seven or 







Fig. 351. Method of dryinK coffee in the sun in drawers that 
are slid under a house when there is no sunshine. 

eight months the berries are ripe. This throws the 
harvesting in the last four months of the year. 
The berries ripen unevenly, so that the plantation 
must be gone over several times. The picking is 
done by hand. The yield per tree varies greatly, 
according to the care given. One pound of dry 
coffee per tree is a general estimate, although this 
may be greatly increased. 

In Porto Rico the pickers are paid by the meas- 
ure, which is called " almud " and should contain 
twenty liters. About six or seven cents are paid 
for a measure. Twenty liters of berries are equal to 
about five pounds of coffee ready for the market. 
The expense of picking is $1.20 to $1.40 per 100 
pounds of coff'ee. In Hawaii, the cost of picking 
and transporting the coffee to the mill averages 
about three and one-half to four and one-half cents 
per pound of market coffee. 

Handling the ■product. 

When the berries are picked they are subjected to 
one of two processes. The berries may be dried at 



once and later put through machines called " huU- 
ers," to extract the seed ; or they may be " pulped," 
that is, have the outer fleshy coat removed, before 
drying. In Porto Rico, pulping is usually done at 
once. The pulping machine is driven by hand, water 
or other power. Sometimes the separated pulp is 
used as a fertilizer. The beans are collected in 
wooden or cement tanks in which they remain to fer- 
ment upwards of thirty hours, in order further to 
disintegrate the saccharine matter of the external 
coat, after which they are washed, either mechani- 
cally or by hand, and put on large cement floors in 
the sun to dry to a point where they can be stored 
safely. From these floors or from the storeroom 
they are put in drying drawers. These drawers, for 
the most part, are constructed underneath the high 
floors of houses, run on rails in the open, where they 
are kept as long as there is sunshine (Fig. 351); at 
the least danger of rain the drawers are run back 
under shelter. During the whole drying process the 
grains are repeatedly turned. In some places me- 
chanical hot-air drying apparatus is used. As soon 
as the coffee is dry, which should be when it is 
brittle when broken between the teeth, it is either 
hulled or left in the parchment (the tough inner 
integument, also called hornskin) and taken in 100- 
pound bags to the most convenient market. Coffee 
merchants established there buy the coffee for cash. 
They hull, polish and separate it into different 
grades by special and mostly modern machinery, 
and finally pick it over by hand. 

Hawaiian coffee is all fermented and washed. It 
is thought by many that the method of fermenting 
has a strong influence on the flavor of the coffee. 
The Hawaiian berry is first run through a pulping 
machine, immediately after being picked. When 
hulled, the bean in the parchment is fermented in 
shallow trays or bins eight to twelve inches in 
depth. When the beans have fermented and there 
is no longer a marked rising temperature, they are 
wa.shed in a stream of running water to remove 
the gum and then transferred to drying-houses, or 
the product is taken to the beach and dried in the 
sun. This product, known as parchment, is then 
packed and sent to the coffee milling establish- 
ments and is run through machinery which removes 
the parchment. The beans are then graded and 
polished and in many establishments hand-picked. 
When put up in bags of 100 to 150 pounds, the 
coffee is ready for market. 

Enemies. 

While a number of insects and fungi infest coffee 
plantations to a greater or less extent, the crop 
is remarkably free from serious annoyance. In 
Hawaii there are no serious diseases or insect 
pests, the torpedo bug {Siphanta acuta) and the 
brown-eyed disease (Ccrcogpfira coffeicola) of leaf 
and berry being the most troublesome. Both are 
readily amenable to preventive measures, the best 
preventive being thorough cultivation, the proper 
degree of shading, and the use of fertilizers. The 
coffee blight (Piilrinaria pndii) has done serious 
damage in some districts. It seems to occur prin- 
cipally in neglected plantations. It will probably 




^^t^' 



jm 



>*-;*%. 



^^ .;■_ ^. ■.' 



Plate VIII. Coffee in bearing. Shaded by orange. Cuba 



COFFEE 



COFFEE 



245 



continue to be a pest, since it infests also the 
guavp and certain ferns. Nematode worms are often 
present in the roots, and rarely occur in the stem 
and berry, causing the latter to drop before matu- 
rity. A "black fly" (aphid) is abundant on new 
growth in Hawaii. 

Porto Rico is not so fortunate in the point of 
numbers of enemies, but is comparatively free from 
serious annoyance. The diseases and insect pests 
thus far observed are as follows: 

Coffee leaf blight, provisionally called by F. S. 
Earle, Sclerofium sp., is a fungus which covers the 
trees from the roots up with brownish mycelial 
threads, spreading out, as the leaves are reached, 
into a fine white weft. The attacked leaves blacken 
soon and fall. The remedy is plenty of sunlight 
and si>raying with Bordeaux mixture. 

Stilhumflavidum, so-called American coffee dis- 
ease, is a fungus making on the leaves nearly round 
spots of about one centimeter in diameter and of 
a yellowish color, causing the leaves to drop. 
Reducing excessive shade is recommended as a 
remedy. Lately the same fungus has been discovered 
on the fruit, causing blackened spots on the pulp 
and seeming to eat its way into one of the kernels, 
on the parchment of which it causes wart-like 
growths which extend to the kernel itself. Spraying 
with Bordeaux mixture is being tried. 




Cement floor for air-diying the wet-washed coffee. 



These diseases, as well as coffee root-rot, do not 
occur frequently, however, and mostly in too moist 
and overshaded localities. 

Coffee leaf-miner (Leucoptera coffcclla) is perhaps 
the most serious coffee pest thus far observed. It 
is a minute silvery moth, which in its larval state 
burrows within the leaf tissues, causing brown. 
dead patches on the leaves. Sometimes more than 
one larva is found in the same patch, and the leaves ' 
are sometimes covered wita such patches, thus 



seriously deranging the nutrition of the plant. On 
rich soil the harm is not very apparent, but must 
certainly influence the crop. On poorer soils the 
leaves drop oft', leaving the trees entirely leafless 
or with only a pair of small leaves at the point of 
each branch, thus giving the growth of the plant 
a tremendous setback. Hand-picking and burning 
the attacked leaves have been resorted to, but 
without result ; as soon as new leaves are formed 
they are again and again attacked. Thus far the 
only remedies are its natural enemies (discovered 
on the island in 1904 by 0. W. Barrett), Chryso- 
charis livida, and Zagi-ammosoma multilineata, 
parasites, the larvae of which are found inside 
the coffee leaf-miner on which they feed, and an 
apparently fungous disease which attacks the 
miner in its larval state. It has been estimated 
that the leaf-miner is responsible for the loss 
of upwards of $100,000 worth of coffee in Porto 
Rico annually. 

Coffee scale (Leeanium hemupherieum) is present 
everywhere. It sometimes occurs so plentifully on 
the tender twigs that they seem to dry out, but 
this is very seldom, and the harm from the scale is 
not otherwise apparent. Larvre of lady-birds, and 
a white fungous disease which seems to grow in 
the bodies of the scale, spreading over all the scale 
on the same twig or stem or plant, seem to be 
sufficient to hold the scale in check. 

Weevils do much harm in some places by eating 
the young leaves, and by attacking the green soft 
parts of the twig.s, in some instances causing those 
parts bearing the fruit to drop or die. The most 
damage apparently is done in young coffee. Mealy 
bugs sometimes appear at the roots of old trees. 
May beetles dig holes in the earth near the stem 
and their larva do damage to the roots. Other 
larvffi, bugs, rats and ants attack the coffee plant, 
but none of them is serious. 

Coffee in Porto Rico. 

The climate and soil and nearness to European 
and North American markets, the dense population 
and the short distances between the seaports and 
the mountain slopes on which the coffee is grown, 
adapt Porto Rico especially to this industry. The 
rugged mountainous topography which comprises 
three-fourths of the total area, makes the cultiva- 
tion of other important crops than coffee almost 
impossible. As a result, coffee-growing has become 
the leading industry of the island, and the crop is 
grown in nearly every district. The best coffee is 
produced in the southwestern part. Formerly 
coffee was grown on the lowland, where it did 
well. The production of sugar, however, has driven 
most of it to the highlands. The high-water mark 
was reached in 1896, when 58,780,000 pounds, 
valued at $13,519,400, were exported. Most of 
this went to Europe. Spain takes a large share, 
and Austria, Hungary, Italy, France and Germany 
are good markets. United States takes very little 
of the output. The lower grades are shipped to 
Cuba or are sold for home consumption. The 
acreage in 1904 was reported as 18.3,.541. The 
industry is not in so prosperous condition as it 



246 



COFFEE 



COFFEE 



should be. The changed political relations of the 
island, with the attendant effect on its commerce, 
the general decrease in the price of coffee on the 
market, and the destructive hurricane of 1899, 
from which many plantations have not recovered, 
have all tended to depress the industry. The 
average production per acre had fallen in 1903 to 
25() pounds. This could be increased to 1,000 
pounds with improved methods. Selection for 
quality or yield has been little practiced, and the 
planting methods are careless. It is gratifying to 
note, however, that modern methods of cultiva- 
tion are finding a place. A project for the estab- 
lishment of a school for coffee-growers is under 
consideration by the government. 

According to the census of 1899, the average 
size of coffee plantations was nine acres. A few 
have 1,000 acres and more. A considerable number 
have 100 to 1,000 acres, but the majority consist 




Fig. 353. Coffee miU in Hawaii. 

of less than 100 acres, even going so low as a 
fraction of an acre. The larger plantations, as a 
rule, have their own population, who live in houses 
or huts provided for them by the plantation, free 
of rent. Usually they live in families, of vi'hich 
only the male members work in the fields, except 
in harvest time, when the entire family goes to 
pick coffee. This help may be supplemented, when 
necessary, by laborers from the smaller towns in 
the interior or by small proprietors. Full-grown 
laborers get thirty-five cents and boys ten cents 
and up for a day's work of about eleven hours. 
Much work, however, is done by contract, which 
nets the workers more. The quality of the labor 
is very satisfactory, and is mostly white. 

Coffee in Haivaii. 

Coffee has been cultivated in the Hawaiian 
islands for eighty years or more. The conditions 
for producing this crop are almost unexcelled. 
There are over 300,000 acres of land adapted both 
by soil and location to the production of a high- 
grade product. The climate is equable, the tem- 
perature seldom dropping below 50° or rising above 
85°. Some experiments are being made with 
rubber trees as a coffee shade, and indications are 
that their success will materially add to the 



value of the coffee land in Hawaii. The low prices 
now paid for coffee, however, are discouraging new 
plantings. The annual production is about 3,000,- 
000 pounds. Yields of 750 pounds of marketable 
coffee per acre are secured in Kona and Hamakua 
on fields that receive proper attention. The coffees 
are mild, and of high flavor, and frequently sell 
above the average market prices. The bean is large 
and flat, resembling Javan rather than Brazilian 
coffees. All of the coffee produced in Hawaii is 
milled and graded before being sent to market. 
Practically no parchment is exported. The average 
cost of production is about nine and one-half cents 
per pound. The picking season in the Kona or lee- 
ward districts runs from November to January, 
and in the windward districts from January to May. 
Fig. 353 is a Hawaiian coffee mill. 

There are three types of coffee in cultivation, — 
the so-called native Hawaiian of unknown source, 
introduced into the islands about eighty years 
ago, a hardy form which stands neglect and 
hard usage and lack of care better than any 
other cultural form in Hawaii ; the Java, in- 
troduced directly from Java about fifteen 
years ago; and Horner's Guatemala, said to 
have been introduced from Guatemala about 
1890, but its exact source is uncertain, proba- 
bly Javan. The last is the one most largely 
cultivated in Hawaii. It is a hardy tree that 
bears heavily, and is not very subject to dis- 
ease. The berry is large and flat like the best 
grades of imported Java. 

The industry is suffering because of the 
low prices for coffee. The hope for reviving 
the industry lies in the creation of a market 
in the United States for Hawaiian coffees in- 
dividually. Growers assert that the industry 
will soon be ruined unless the United States 
government protects it by tariff. 

Literature. 

Coffee, Its Culture and Commerce, C. G. Warn- 
ford Loch, editor, 1888, contains a compilation 
of nearly all the literature then existing. Other 
works are : Colonial Reports, Darling & Sons, Lon^ 
don ; The Improvement of Indian Agriculture, Dr, 
J. A. Voelcker, London ; Tropical Agriculture, P, 
L. Simmonds, London ; Ceylon Soils and Manures 
John Hughes, London ; Tropische Agrikultur, Sem^ 
ler ; Culture du Cafeier, C. Raoul, Paris, 1899 
Shade in Coffee Culture, 0. F. Cook, Bulletin No. 25, 
Division of Botany, United States Department of 
Agriculture. Various German, French and Dutch 
publications contain valuable discussions of coffee. 
For a discussion of the industry in Porto Rico, the 
reader should consult Coffee Planting in Porto Rico, 
J. W. Van Leenhoff, Circular No. 5, Porto Rico 
Agricultural Experiment Station, from which parts 
of this article are adapted. For Hawaii, see the 
Annual Reports of the Hawaii Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station, 1901, 1902, 1903. See list of publi- 
cations on tropical agriculture. Vol. I, page 99. Ref- 
erences on the industry in Porto Rico and Hawaii 
will also be found in the articles on these countries 
in Vol. I (pages 109, 114). 



COTTON 



COTTON 



247 



COTTON. Gossypium. Malvaccm. Figs. 354-367. 

By Herbert J. Webber and E. B. Boykin. 

The cotton of commerce is the hair or fiber on seeds 
of plants belonging to the genus Gossypium, a mem- 
ber of the Mallow family. This genus is distinguished 
from the other genera of the family by the presence 




Fig. 354. A cotton flower, and a bud 
or "square," showing the bracts. 



of three to five bracts surrounding the flowers, and 
by the seed being covered with wool. Many attempts 
have been made to classify and limit the species of 
Gossypium, but so far the authorities have failed 
to agree. The great variability and tendency to 
hybridize make it very difficult to determine to what 
species a given plant may belong. However, it is 
commonly conceded that there are only a few spe- 
cies whose products enter into commerce, and that 
the bulk of the production is from two species, 
namely, G. hirsutum, which furnishes the upland 
cottons (Figs. 101, 355, 356, 357), and G. Barba- 
dense, the source of the sea-island and Egyptian 
cottons (Figs. 100, 356, 357). The ordinary upland 
cotton in American literature has been commonly 
referred to as G. herbaceum, but after a careful 
study of types Mr. L. H. Dewey, of the United 
States Department of Agriculture, has concluded 
that this is an error and that our upland cotton, 
which is apparently derived from a wild Mexican 
variety, is G. hirsutum.. In the United States G. 
fiirsutum and G. Barbadense are the only two species 
that are cultivated commercially. The crop of 
India, which, aside from that of the United States, 
is the largest produced by any country, is probably 
derived principally from varieties of G. herbaeeuvi, 
while the Egyptian crop is produced by varieties 
which are supposed to belong to the species G. Bar- 
badense. The Egyptian cotton varieties resemble 



sea-island cotton very closely in all of their prin- 
cipal characters aside from the lint, which in some 
of the varieties, such as Mit-afifi and Ashmouni, is 
light brown and rather coarse and crinkly. 

All cultivated species are perennial in climates 
without frost, but in cultivation they are usually 
treated as annuals. The plants are mostly shrubby, 
more or le.'^s branching and two to ten feet high. 
The roots consist of several laterals, and a tap- 
root which penetrates the soil to a considerable 
depth. The limbs of sea-island are smooth, while 
those of upland are covered with delicate, whitish 
hairs. The leaves are three- to five-lobed — sea- 
island usually having three and the upland five. 
The flowers are perfect and resemble the holly- 
hock or hibiscus. When newly open they are large 
and white in upland, turning red with age, and 
creamy yellow in sea-island, with a purple spot 
at the base of each petal. They are surrounded 
by three to five fringed or deeply cut bracts form- 
ing the "squares" — the number corresponding to the 
number of cells in the bolls or pods. These bracts 
are much larger and the indentations are deeper 
and more numerous in sea-island than in upland 
varieties. Stamens are many, united in a tube about 
the single compound pistil; stigmas three to five. 
The fruit consists of three- to five-celled capsules 
or "bolls" which burst open at maturity through 
the middle of the cells, each cell liberating seven 
to ten seeds covered with long fibers. The fiber is 
a tubular hair-like cell ttjVtt to ttsVji of an inch in 
diameter, somewhat flattened, and spirally twisted. 
It is this latter character which gives the cotton 
its spinning qualities. The length, tenacity and 
fineness of the fibers determines the value of the 
cotton. Sea-island excels upland in these respects 
and therefore commands a much better price. Sea- 
island cotton seeds are small, black and smooth, 
while, as a rule, upland seeds are larger, and, after 
the fiber is removed, are covered with a dense whit- 
ish or greenish fuzz. The bolls of sea-island rarely 
contain more than three 







cells, while those of up- 
land usually have four 
and sometimes five. 
Sea - island bolls are 
much smaller and more 
pointed than upland. 

There are many com- 
mercial varieties i n 
each of the above spe- 
cies which have never 
been classified botani- 
cal! y, and whose true 
history will probably 
never be known. It is very difficult to classify 
them, owing to the readiness with which they are 
cross-fertilized and the great range of variation 
of the individual plants in a given variety. Some 
of them possess characters which suggest that they 
are produced by the hybridization of sea-island 
and upland varieties, while many seem to be the 
products of natural variation and selection. 

Aside from the cottons ordinarily classed as 
sea-island and upland, which are cultivated ex- 



Fig. 355. 
Mature plant of upland cotton. 



248 



COTTON 



COTTON 



tensively in the United States, a third group, 
known as long-staple uplands (Fig. 357), is grown 
in considerable quantity, over 100,000 bales 
being produced annually. The long-staple upland 
cotton ranges from one and one-fourth to one 
and five-eighths inches in length of lint. While 
the derivation of the long-staple upland varieties 
is not positively known, it is probable that they 
have developed from variations of the ordinary 
short-staple upland, and they are ordinarily referred 
to the same species (G. hirsutum). 

History. 

In what land and in what period of antiquity 
cotton was first used will probably never be known. 
Its use seems to be coeval with human history. Early 
writers tell us that it was worn by the ancient 
Egyptians and used for other purposes, more than 
a thousand years before Christ. With the progress 
of civilization it has grown in favor and in extent 
of cultivation, until it has become one of the most 
important crops in the world, the greatest of all 
fiber crops, and the most widely manufactured of 
all textiles. This great extension of the industry, 
however, has developed within comparatively 
recent years. Previous to the middle of the eight- 
eenth century, cotton had to be spun and woven 
by hand machines. There was also great difticulty 
experienced in separating the seed from the fibers, 
as it had to be done by hand. This work was 
usually done at night. After finishing the ordinary 




''--files ■.■>''■;.-'■', 




Fig, 356. A. Mature boll of Tniitt. a big-boUed upland cot- 
ton; B. mature boll of Peterkin, a small-bolIed upland 
cotton ; C, mature boll of sea-island cotton; D, mature 
boll of Gfriffin, a long-staple upland cotton. (About one- 
half natural size.) 

day's work, the members of the family would 
gather around the fireside and begin the work of 
pulling the fibers from the seed with their fingers, 
the task of each one being to separate four pounds, 
or enough seed to fill one of his or her shoes. Because 






,1?^ 




of these primitive methods of manufacturing the 
article and the great difficulty in separating the 
lint from the seed, it was for a long time produced 
only in limited quantities, mainly for domestic 
purposes, and thus prevented assuming the dignity 
of an important 

industry until ■^^^S'-'^^J^'-'"^ 

little over a cen- '■*£ ".-^^^ '-"-. 

tury ago. In the 
latter half of 
the eighteenth 
century there 
was a great in- 
dustrial revolu- 
tion. The cotton 
industry was 
greatly stimu- 
lated, mainly 
by the invention 
of the spinning- 
jenny, the self- 
acting mule, the 
power loom, the 
steam engine, 
the saw-gin, and 
other useful ma- 
chines. After 
these inventions, 
the house indus- 
try soon gave 
way to the fac- 
tory, and ma- 
chines were 
substituted for 
hand labor. The demand for raw material became 
greater, and production was immensely increased. 
There was a minute division of labor and a great 
specialization of the industry. The markets for the 
manufactured products were enormously extended, 
and thus was developed almost as oy magic the 
most widely diversified industry in the world. 

The growth of the cotton industry in this country 
has been marvelous indeed. With but few inter- 
ruptions, there has been a rapid and steady increase 
in production since the invention of the saw-gin by 
Whitney. Eistimating 500 pounds as an average 
bale, in 1792 less than 6,000 bales were produced; 
in 1820 the production was 320,000 bales, in 1840 
it reached 1,668,221 bales, and by 1860 it had in- 
creased to 4,488,311 bales. During the great civil 
war in the sixties, the production of cotton prac- 
tically ceased, thereby causing a cotton famine in 
this country and in Europe. Hundreds of mills had 
to cease running, thousands of operatives were 
thrown out of employment, and prices soared be- 
yond all bounds, reaching the high mark of over a 
dollar per pound and carrying the shock of the con- 
test to the uttermost parts of the globe. During 
this period great efforts were made to stimulate 
the production of cotton in India and other parts 
of the world. The failure of other countries to 
supply the demand while stimulated by these fabu- 
lous prices is a splendid demonstration of the prac- 
tical impossibility of maintaining the industry 
without the American cotton. After the close of 



Fig. 357. Seeds of cotton, showing staple. 
(1) Sea-island cotton; (2) long-staple 
upland cotton (Allen): (3) upland 
cotton. (Slightly over cue half nat- 
ural size.) 



COTTON 



COTTON 



249 



the civil war, production was resumed in this 
country and has been continued since at a rapid 
rate of increase, reaching 8,547,468 bales in 1892, 
and 13,693,279 bales in 1904. In a single century, 
from 1804 to 1904, the crop increased from 130,- 
000 bales, valued at $13,000,014, to 13,693,279 
bales, valued at .$557,147,306.65. In the early his- 
tory of cotton cultivation the seeds were not valued 
at all. Growers were troubled to know how to get 
rid of them. But in 1904 the seeds alone were 
valued at $90,258,227.86, making the total value of 
that year's crop, unmanufactured, .$647,405,534 51. 
Cotton now furnishes clothing for a large part 
of the human race, and millions of people are de- 
voting their exclusive attention to its cultivation. 
Millions more are engaged in its transportation and 
manufacture, and it furni.shes the basis of credit 
for a large part of this country and Europe. In 
fact, the magnitude of the cotton industry has be- 
come so great that any disaster to it will seriously 
disturb the economic conditions of the world. 

Regions of eultiratwn. 

Cotton is probably indigenous to the tropical and 
semi-tropical regions of both hemispheres. The 
earliest records of the Asiatics and Egyptians speak 
of it; Columbus found it growing abundantly in the 
West Indies, while other early explorers found it 
growing in llexico and South America. Its range 
has been greatly extended by the amelioration due 
to cultivation, and now it may be said to extend 
around the world, embracing thirty to forty degrees 
of latitude on either side of the equator. However, 
various modifications due to economic, soil and 
climatic conditions exist in this wide belt, the mcst 
favorable conditions being found in the United 
States. The soil and climatic requirements of 
sea-island cotton limit its gi-owth mainly to the 
islands and lands along the coast of South Carolina, 
Georgia and Florida, while upland cotton is adapted 
to a much wider range of conditions and its pro- 
duction far exceeds that of sea-island. 

There is no region in the world which has such 
a favorable combination of suitable land, intelli- 
gent and plentiful labor, cheap capital and ade- 
quate transportation facilities for the cultivation 
of cotton as the cotton-belt of the United States. 
It has been the chief source of supply of the cotton 
mills of the world, for in this section has been 
raised several times the quantity of cotton pro- 
duced in all other countries of the globe. There 
are various other countries which seem to possess 
the soil and climatic requirement for its growth, 
but for various economic reasons the industry has 
not been greatly developed in them ; however, a 
considerable quantity is produced in the following 
countries, in about the order named : India, Egypt, 
China, Italy, Turkey, Brazil, West Indies, Mexico, 
South Africa, Australia and South Sea Islands. 

There are no available statistics showing the 
annual crops of all cotton-producing countries, 
but the consumption of the mills of Great Britain, 
the continent of Europe, the United States, India, 
Japan, Canada, Mexico, and other countries fairly 
approximates the world's production. According 



to the United States census of 1900, the consump- 
tion for the year 1899-1900 was 13,535,000 bales 
of 500 pounds each. In the year 1900 the United 
States produced 9,990,900 bales. This will give an 
idea of the unique position which this country 
occupies among the cotton-producing countries of 
the world. 

Cotton culture. 

The two important crops of southern United 
States are cotton and corn, — the former as a 
money crop and the latter as a food crop. These 
two have been grown almost to the e.xelusion of 
home supplies. The cost of cultivation of corn is 
less than of cotton, but even at the lowest prices 
reached by cotton in many decades, it is a better- 
paying crop. So we find cotton as the very center 
and soul of southern agriculture. 

Profitable cotton-growing depends on the climate, 
fertility of the soil, good preparation of the land 
before planting, thorough cultivation of the grow- 
ing crop, and the quality of the seed. 

Climate. — The climatic requirements are plenty 
of moisture during the growing and fruiting 
period, dry weather during the opening and harvest 
season, and a temperature ranging from 60° to 
90° Fahrenheit for at least six months of the 
year. Too cool weather in the spring stunts the 
plants ; too much rain during the growing season 
encourages plant development at the expen.se of 
boll production, renders cultivation difficult and 
promotes the growth of weeds ; drought stunts the 
plant, causes early maturity and reduces the yield ; 
and early frost in the fall reduces the crop by 
preventing the further development of the young 
bolls and causing them to open prematurely. 

Rotation. — A three- course rotation is easily 
adapted to many of the cotton-growing farms. 
The following have given satisfaction : ( 1) Cotton, 
followed by crimson clover ; (2) corn ; (3) wheat, 
followed by cowpeas ; or, (1) Cotton ; (2) corn, 
with cowpeas ; (3) oats, with cowpeas. Several 
rotations are suggested for the cotton-growing 
states on pages 100-106. A short-course rotation 
(of two or three j'ears) is fundamentally essential 
in the cotton-belt. 

Soil and fertiliti/. — Cotton very readily adjusts 
itself to the sell conditions, and will usually 
yield a crop in proportion to the fertility of the 
land ; however, there are certain necessary ex- 
penses in the cultivation of cotton regardless of 
the yield, and it is unprofitable to grow it on 
land which is not sufficiently fertile to produce 
a crop whose value exceeds these expenses. In 
some sections, like the delta region of Missis- 
sippi, and various parts of Louisiana, Texas and 
Arkansas, the soils are rich enough to do this, but 
most of the cotton lands require the application of 
artificial manures, the rotation of crops and other 
means of increasing or retaining their fertility to 
enable them to grow cotton profitably. Millions of 
tons of commercial fertilizers, consisting largely 
of acid phosphate, kainit, muriate of potash, 
nitrate of soda and cottonseed-meal, are used 
annually by cotton-growers to enrich their land. 



250 



COTTON 



COTTON 



Barnyard manures also serve an important purpose 
in improving cotton lands. They supply a small 
quantity of plant-food and a considerable quantity 
of organic matter which opens the soil and im- 
proves its mechanical condition. They are also 
suppo.^ed to act on the constituents of the soil in a 
chemical way, converting the plant-food into an 
available condition for the use of the plants. 

Probably one of the cheapest and most effective 
means of soil-improvement is crop rotation. Cotton 
would never exhaust the land if washing could be 
entirely prevented and the seeds were returned to 
it each year, as the lint cotton, the part necessarily 
removed, contains only a very small quantity of 
plant-food ; but unfortunately in many cases the 
seeds are also removed without substituting their 
equivalent in other manures. This is a source of 
great loss, for the seed contains large quantities 
of the most valuable elements of plant-food. Sur- 
face washing is also a source of great impover- 
ishment to cotton-fields, as the nature of the crop 
necessitates a method of tillage which causes an 
extreme surface exposure of the soil for practically 
every month in the year, thereby intensifying the 
bad effects of heavy rains. During heavy rains the 
water is quickly shed into the middles of the rows, 
where it is confined to a very small part of the 
available area and has great power to wash away 
the fine soil as it runs off. Unless these conditions 
can be counterbalanced, cotton-fields will gradually 
grow poor. This can be accomplished in a large 
measure by planting from time to time leguminous 
crops which enrich the soil by collecting nitrogen 
from the air, and which occupy a larger part of 
the surface <and necessitate a minimum surface 
exposure of the soil, thereby greatly reducing the 
loss by surface washing. This is usually done by 
rotating cotton with corn, small grain and cow- 
peas. 

Other methods of preventing soil-washing are 
terracing, deep plowing, and running the rows at 
right angles to the direction of the slope of the 
land. 

Preparation of the land. — The preparation of 
the land before planting consists of breaking the 
soil and making the seed-beds. This breaking can 
be done in the winter or just before planting. As 
a rule, when cotton is to be planted after grain or 
other crops, the land is broken broadcast with a 
turn-plow in the winter. The rows are laid off 
several weeks previous to planting, and the seed- 
beds are made ju-st before planting. When cotton 
has been grown on the land the previous year, the 
above method is sometimes followed, but more fre- 
quently the new bed is made in the old middle, and 
the trouble of laying off new rows is thereby 
avoided. The method is not so important, the only 
essential point being to have the soil thoroughly 
broken, and to have fresh, loose seed-beds. 

Seediiif/. — There are cotton-planters on the mar- 
ket that give good service. Some of them, however, 
have a tendency to drop too many seeds, making 
much hand-hoeing or chopping necessary later in 
the removal of the surplus plants. The number of 
plants can be reduced and the stand regulated in 



part by the use of a weeder or a harrow when the 
plants are small. Many farmers dig plant-holes 
with a hoe and drop eight to ten seeds in each 
hole. In consequence of the waste in planting, the 
quantity of seed per acre varies considerably. The 
seed required will vary from one to three bushels 
per acre. One bushel is plenty when properly 
sown. 

The common practice is to have the rows four 
feet apart. On the lighter soils three to three and 
one-half feet will give as good results. This dis- 
tance, as well as that between the plants in the 
row, varies with varieties and soil conditions. The 
distance between the plants in the rows varies 
from twelve to twenty-four inches. Twenty inches 
is, perhaps, a safe distance on good soils. On poor 
soils the planting should be closer. 

Time of planting. — It is the general experience 
that cotton planted early most often gives best 
results. The time of planting varies with the dif- 
ferent localities. In Florida and southern Georgia, 
cotton can be planted much earlier than in North 
Carolina or Tennessee. The following table of 
dates, from Mr. A. B. Shepperson's " Cotton Facts," 
will give the approximate dates when planting 
begins and ends : 



States 


Usual date to 
begin planting 


Usual date to 
finish planting 


North Carolina 

South Carolina 

Georgia 

Florida 

Alabama 

Mississippi 

Louisiana 

Texas 

Arkansas 

Tennessee 


April 15 
April 15 
April 10 
April 1 
April 5 
April 5 
April 1 
March 15 
April 15 
April 15 


May 10, 
May 7 
May 1 
Mayl 
May 10 
May 10 
May 10 
May 10 
May 15 
May 15 



Thinning. — After the seeds come up to a stand, 
the cotton is chopped out with hoes, leaving one 
hill for every twelve to twenty inches and one to 
three plants in each hill. A few days later it is 
thinned again, removing all but one plant from 
each hill, leaving the most vigorous one. 

Cultivation. — Owing to the variable weather 
conditions, the subsequent cultivation can not 
follow any specific methods. How- 
ever, it is very important to culti- 
vate the crop thoroughly and 
rapidly, thus giving the plants an 
opportunity t o 
make a steady 
i and vigorous 
growth from the 
time of germi- 
nation through- 
out the growing 
season. In cul- 
tivation, sweeps (Fig. 358) are ordinarily used, 
which break the ground to a depth of about two 
inches, leaving a loose soil mulch over the sur- 
face. If this is done thoroughly and as soon as 
possible after each heavy rain, surface evaporation 




Fig. 358. 
Sweep used in cultivating cotton. 



COTTON 



COTTON 



251 



is reduced, and the bad effect of drought lessened ; 
excessive capillary action near the surface is pre- 
vented, and the plant-food in solution is thus kept 
from being carried above the root zone and left by 
evaporation at the surface, where it can be redis- 
solved and washed away by the heavy rains ; a 
better circulation of air in the interstices of the 
soil is secured ; a larger proportion of the rainfall 




Fig. 359. A bale of cotton, B;iles are of dilTfi-eni sizes and 
shapes, depending on the apparatns in which they are 
pressed; but they usually weigh about 500 pounds. The 
average yield is about one-third of a bale to the acre. A 
good crop is oue bale; an extra crop is a bale and a half. 

goes into the soil instead of running off, conse- 
quently the loss of fertility by surface washing is 
lessened, and the plants are thereby enabled to get 
the ma.ximum benefit of the plant-food and mois- 
ture in {he soil. 

Use of heavy seed for planting. — Recent experi- 
ments by the writers demonstrate the value of sep- 
arating cotton seed, and planting only the heaviest 
grade. Plantings of heavy seed have given an 
increase in yield of over 10 per cent more than 
plantings of the same seed unseparated. Thor- 
oughly practical machines and methods of separa- 
tion have been devised, so that it is now possible 
for every grower to separate his planting seed at 
very slight expense. Descriptions of the methods 
and machines are given in recent publications of 
the United States Department of Agriculture. 

Picking. 

Picking or gathering the cotton in the fields 
is a heavy item of expense. In upland varieties it 
amounts to thirty-five to seventy-five cents per hun- 
dred pounds of seed cotton, and more for sea-island. 
It must be picked by hand, as no mechanical appli- 
ance for harvesting has yet been invented which 
gives satisfactory results in practical working. 
The amount of cotton that one person can pick in 
a day varies from 100 to ,500 pounds, depending 
on the skill of the picker. One man can very 
easily care for the cultivation of twenty acres of 
cotton, but it requires two to four pickers to 
harvest such a crop rapidly enough to prevent loss. 
This extra labor in harvest time is usually supplied 
by the wives and children of the laborers. The 
harvest season extends over a period of about four 
months, beginning August 15 to September 10, 
according to the locality. 



The great desideratum of the cotton-grower of 
today is a machine for picking or harvesting the 
crop. Several machines now under trial, using the 
principle of a spirally twisting steel picking fingers, 
have proved promising in preliminary trials and it 
seems very probable that a thoroughly satisfactory 
picking machine will ultimately be secured. 

Ginning. 

Upland cotton is ginned (the lint or fiber taken off 
the seeds) with saw-gins. Ginning outfits are estab- 
lished all over the cotton-belt, where the cotton is 
ginned for the near-by growers.' These outfits con- 
sist of an elevator for sucking the cotton from the 
wagons to the gin, a gin, or as a rule one to six gins, 
and a press where the cotton is packed into bales. 
(Fig. 3.59). A modern ginning outlit can gin and pack 
thirty to forty bales per day. The operation usually 
costs the grower a dollar to a dollar and a half per 
bale. Saw-gins frequently cut and seriously injure 
the fibers, and for this reason they are not used in 
ginning sea-island cotton. A specially constructed 
roller-gin is used for this purpose. However, it is 
adapted only to ginning smooth-seeded varieties; 
therefore, it cannot be used for ginning the tufted- 
seeded upland varieties. 

After ginning and baling, if the cotton is to 
be shipped a very great distance, it is usually 
recompressed into smaller bulk. Cotton com- 
press companies are located mainly in the larger 
cities and usually handle enormous quantities of 
cotton (Fig. 360). 

Insects and diseases. 

There are many insect pests which are a men- 
ace to cotton-growers. Among those which do the 
most serious damage are the red spiders, cater- 
pillars, plant-lice, cutworms, cottonboll-worms and 
Mexican cottonboll-weevils (Figs. 361-363). 

Cotton is also attacked by a large number of 
diseases. The roots and stems of the plants are 
frequently affected by root-knot, sore-shin, wilt, 
and anthracnose of the stem. Among the diseases 










Fig. 360. Yard of a cotton compress (Shreveport, La.). 

of the leaves are rust, which is a common term 
applied to a large number of diseases, angular 
leaf-spot, leaf-blight and mildew. The bolls are 
often seriously damaged by anthracnose, boll-rot 
and shedding. 

Clean cultivation is an essential factor in hold- 
ing in check many plant enemies, as it destroys in 



252 



COTTON 



COTTON 



part their lodging places and food supplies. A 
thorough dusting with Paris green will control the 
webworms and cotton-square borers. Plant-lice 
are destroyed by plowing under their host plants 
in late fall or winter. When it becomes necessary 
to take some other course, spraying with whale- 
oil soap, kerosene emulsion or tobacco solution is 
effective. Cutworms are controlled by placing 
about the fields bunches of grass or weeds im- 
mersed in Paris green. The better method, how- 




Fig. 361. 
Mexican cottonboU- 
weevil. Enlarged. 



Fig. 362. 
Larva of Mexican cotton- 
boll-weevil. More enlarged. 



ever, is to kill them by thorough winter cultiva- 
tion, and keeping down all vegetation in the early 
spring. 

The cotton-worm {Aletia argUlacea), bollworm 
(Heliothis armigcr) and Mexican cottonboll-weevil 
(Anthonom.us grandis) are not so easily controlled, 
and their ravages have been costly. The cotton- 
worm is now more easily controlled than formerly. 
It is a blue-green caterpillar, with black spots and 
stripes on its back. It is most severe in late sum- 
mer, but is present the entire summer. There are 
several generations each year. The common method 
of combating it is to apply dry Paris green to the 
plants. 

The cottonboll-worm is a common garden pest, 
attacking various crops, as corn, tomatoes, peas 
and squash. The caterpillar is somewhat darker 
than the cotton-worm, but otherwise the two are 
very similar in their early stages. This, too, has 
several generations in a sea.son. It is most effec- 
tively controlled by the planting of an early trap- 
crop. Sweet corn is much used. As soon as the 
corn is infested it is removed and destroyed or 
fed to stock. Lantern traps for the moths and 
arsenical sprays for the worms have given limited 
success. 

The most serious problem confronting the cot- 
ton-grower today is the control of the Mexican 
cottonboll-weevil, which is threatening the de- 
struction of the industry. The weevil is small, 
three-eighths inch, or less, in length, of a dark 
brown or black color. The eggs are laid in the 
young bolls, and the larva? begin their work by 
eating the inside of the bolls. No very effective 
direct method of combating the weevil has been 
found. Its control depends on strict attention to 
many details in the culture of the crop, and to a 
modification of the farm practice. It is very 
important to mature the crop early, and then to 
clean up the plantation as soon as the cotton is 
picked, burning or plowing down all stalks and 



refuse ; this will largely control the weevil, at the 
same time that it improves the cropping practice. 
The seed should be fumigated with carbon bisulfid 
to be sure that the pest is not introduced in this 
way. Early trap-crops may be planted about places 
where the weevils are likely to hibernate, as about 
cotton-gins, and sprayed with arsenical poisons ; 
later the crops are destroyed. Sometimes the 
weevils are jarred from the trap-crop into pans, 
and destroyed. Volunteer cotton-plants must be 
destroyed. Attention mu.st be given to the picking 
and destroying of infested squares. All rubbish, 
infested squares that have dropped, stalks remain- 
ing at the end of the season, weeds and litter 
should be gathered and burned. 

Among the diseases attacking the cotton-plant, 
wilt is controlled by planting disease-resistant 
seed, the burning and careful destruction of all 
infested plants, and the rotation of crops. Sore- 
shin, or damping-off, is checked by liming the soil 
and cultivation to keep the surface mulch dry. It 
is caused by excessive dampness. No remedy for 
anthracnose is known. Red-rust is not serious. 
Vigorous plants will withstand it. It is usually 
localized in its attacks. Crop rotation is the most 
effective means of controlling the root-knot fun- 
gus (see article on "Soil Diseases," Vol. I, page 
450). Angular leaf-spot attacks the plants in June 
and July, forming watery spots on the leaves. The 
growing of vigorous plants is the best insurance 
against infestation by it. Leaf-blight is common 
but not very serious. It forms a tan or light spot, 
surrounded by irregular reddish spots, on tfie older 
or less vigorous leaves. No remedy has been sug- 




c^ 



Fig. 363. Cotton boll infested with three boll- weevil larvae. 
Figs. 3Gl-;i itdapted from Yearbooks. 

gested. Mildew is not serious and no treatment 
has been found. 

Shedding of the bolls is common in unfavor- 
able seasons. Extremes of rain and drought, or 
their alternation, are the probable causes. The 
trouble is to be prevented to some extent by 
maintaining good soil conditions and employing 
hardier varieties. 

Manujaclure. 

The manufacture of cotton consists of the 
various processes in the pi-oduction of thread or 
yarn and woven fabrics from the fiber. The spin- 
ning of yarn and the manufacture of coarse cotton 



COTTON 



COTTON 



253 



cloth has been practiced in many parts of the 
world from a remote period. Until slightly over a 
century ago, only very rude implements were 
used, the work being done almost entirely by 
hand machines. However, the industry has been 
completely revolutionized, and the enterprise of 
modern commerce has carried the cheap products 
of modern machinery to remote sections of the 
earth, rendering the hand-spun and clumsily 
woven cloth of earlier periods practically extinct. 

There are various steps in the process of spin- 
ning. The loose cotton from the Isale is first run 
through an opener or picker, where it is subjected 
to the action of a beater, which cleans it from 
impurities such as broken seed, fragments of 
leaves, burs and stalks, dirt, and the like, sep- 
arates the individual fibers, and delivers the cot- 
ton at the end of the machine in a uniform layer, 
called a lap. The lapping machine is fed with 
three laps at once and the three layers are drawn 
out to the thickness of one, the object being to 
neutralize the irregularities of each layer by 
averaging them with those of two others. From 
here it goes to the carding, combing and drawing 
machines, which extract the very short fibers, 
straighten out the others, and secure a uniform 
distribution of them in parallel series. It is next 
drawn through the "slubbing-frame," the "inter- 
mediate frame" and the "roving frame," which 
draw the "sliver" to a more uniform size and give 
it a slight twist. It then passes to the last pro- 
cess, the spinning, where it is still more twisted. 

By far the largest part of the yarn is 
woven into plain cloth, but a considerable quan- 
tity is used as warps in woolen and worsted goods 
or for knitting into underwear, and a large part 



water, washing it with pure water, then treating 
it with dilute sulfuric acid and again washing it 
with water. The treatment causes both a chemical 
and a physical change in the constitution of the 
fiber. The fiber before treatment is flattened and 
somewhat twisted, but by mercerization it becomes 
rounded into cylindrical shape, the walls of the 
tube become thicker and the cavity is correspond- 
ingly reduced, the surface becomes smoother, the 
length of the fiber is reduced, it assumes a spiral 
shape and acquires greater strength. The industry 
has become very important. According to the 
Twelfth Census, over 7,973,000 yards of cloth and 
1,600,000 pounds of yarn were mercerized in 1900, 
causing an additional value of $697,490. Egyptian 
and sea-island cottons are best adapted to mercer- 
ization, as they have long, silky fibers which are 
more uniformly acted on. 

Great Britain is the chief seat of cotton manu- 
facture. The United States ranks second. For a 
long time the industry in this country was mair.ly 
confined to the New England states, but in recent 
years it has rapidly risen into prominence in the 
southern states. Since the year 1890, this section 
has probably enjoyed a greater activity in the 
development of the industry than any other section 
in the world. The achievements in those states 
have been so marvelous as to cause serious alarm 
in New England and Great Britain. However, the 
southern mills are engaged mainly in producing 
yarn and cheap grades of goods ; therefore their 
products are not nearly so valuable as those of 
New England and Great Britain. The following 
tables will give an idea of the status of the 
industry, as shown by Shepperson's "Cotton Facts" 
and the United States census report: 



Number of Spindles and Consumption of Cotton for the Year 1902-03 in Countries Named. 





Great Britain 


Continent 
of Europe 


Northern 

states of 

United States 


Soutliern 

states of 

United States 


Total in 
United States 


India 


Spindles 

Consumption in bales (500 
pounds each) 


47,000,000 
3,185,000 


34,300,000 
5,148,000 


15,100,000 

1,980,000 


6,900.000 

1,910,000 


22,000,000 

3,890,000 


5,007,000 
1,350,000 



Summary of the Industry in the United States as Shown by the Census Reports op 1900. 





No. 
of es- 
tablisli- 
ments 


Capital 


Salaried officials, 
clerks, etc. 


Wage-earners 


Miscella- 
neous 
expenses 


Cost of 
material used 






Num- 
ber 


Salaries 


Average 
number 


Total wages 


products 


Cotton goods . 

Cotton, small 

wares . . . 


973 
82 


$460,842,772 
6,397,385 


4,713 
189 


$7,123,574 
226,625 


297,929 
4,932 


$85,126,310 
1,563,442 


$21,650,144 
462,534 


$173,441,390 
3,110,137 


$332,806,156 
6,394,164 


Total .... 


1,055 


$467,240,157 


4,902 


$7,350,199 


302,861 


$86,689,752 


$22,112,678 


$176,551,527 


$339,200,320 



of the product of sea-island cotton is converted 
into sewing thread. 

Within recent years the process known as mer- 
cerization has become an important adjunct to 
cotton manufacturing. It consists of subjecting 
the cotton to the action of caustic soda dissolved in 



By-products. 

Until comparatively recent years, cotton was 
grown entirely for its fiber, but now the by- 
products represent a large percentage of the total 
value of the crop. The roots supply a chemical 
substance similar in its action to ergot ; the bark 



254 



COTTON 



COTTON 



is used to some extent for making bagging, coarse 
carpets and the like ; but by far the most valuable 
by-products come from the seeds. For a long time 
growers either threw them into a stream or dis- 
posed of them in some other convenient way, as 
they were not regarded as having any value. 
Later they were used for manure ; finally the value 
of their oil was discovered, and a great industry 
has been developed in e.x'tracting and refining it. 
About 7 per cent of the seeds produced are used 
for planting, a large quantity are still used for 
manure, but the bulk of them are run through the 
oil mills. The quantity thus consumed from the 
crop of 1904 was 4,032,375 tons, or (i3.2 per cent 
of the total supply. The average price per ton 
paid to growers for them this season (1904) was 
$14.1.5. At this rate the value of the entire crop 
of seed was over $90,000,000. 

When the seeds reach the oil mills they are 
reginned for the purpose of removing the fuzz 
which covers them. This fuzz is called linters. It 
amounts to about thirty pounds per ton of seed and 
is used in upholstering, making cheap felts, and 
the like. The seeds are ther run through a machine 
which separates the hulls from the kernels. The 
hulls are used very largely for cattle food ; how- 
ever, they have some other minor u.ses. The ker- 
nels, "meats," are steamed or cooked and then 
placed in presses, where they are subjected to an 
enormous pressure for the purpose of extracting 
the oil. The residue is called oil cake. It is ground 
into meal and used as a concentrated cattle food 
and as a fertilizer. A ton of seed yields thirty- 
eight to forty-five gallons of crude oil, which is 
refined in mills especially constructed for this 
purpo.se. This oil has a great variety of uses — 
the more refined part being used for human food 




Fig. 364. Product of select plant (left) and ordinary plant 
(right) from same field. Left, seed 032 grams, lint 314 
grivins; right, seed 113 grams, lint 51 grams. 

under various names, while the less refined part is 
used for soap stocks and in various other manu- 
facturing processes. 

Cotton breeding. 

Breeding is one of the important factors in the 
production of a good cotton crop, which is almost 
wholly neglected. The great majority of cotton- 
planters ordinarily use any cotton seed without 
regard to variety and without practicing any 



selection. On the seed depends the crop, and it 
is just as important to use good seed as it is 
to cultivate and manure the crop. The results 
of careful experiments have shown that by sys- 
tematically .selecting and improving the seed, the 
yield can be greatly increased with but little extra 




Fig. 365. Desirable and undesirable types of Jones 
improved cotton. 

cost (Fig. 364). In any general field crop where the 
margin of profit is so slight as in cotton, it 
behooves the grower to use every possible method 
to increase the profit, and no cotton-grower can 
afford to neglect the proper selection of the seed 
which he expects to plant. Every cotton-grower, 
in attempting to improve his crop, should test 
comparatively a number of the standard varieties 
in order to determine what variety or varieties do 
the be.st under the local conditions presented on 
his plantation. This test of varieties is important, 
and should precede any work of breeding, as it is 
important to start the breeding with the best 
available foundation stock. 

How to improve cotton by selection. — Selection of 
type. — After having tested varieties and deter- 
mined in general what variety is best suited to 
the local conditions, grow a large field of this 
variety on soil which is as uniform throughout 
as can be selected. Give this field ordinary culti- 
vation. The next step is to determine what type 
of plant of this variety is the best. Every grower 
knows a good cotton plant. Ordinarily, plants 
should be selected of medium height and stocky, 
with the habit of putting on numerous bolls early 
in the season on the lower branches (Fig. 36.5). A 
careful observation of the plants in the field will 
enable the grower easily to determine the best 
type of plant, which gives the most cotton in 
general earliest in the season. Earliness in almost 
all cases is an important point, and in sections 
threatened by the boll-weevil and boll-worm, 
earliness of maturity should always enter into the 
consideration of the type of plants selected. 

Selection of plants. — After having determined 
the type of plant which is thought to be most 
desirable, the next process is to make the actual 
selection of plants. The selection should be made 
just before the fir.st picking. Delay the first pick- 
ing until the cotton is pretty well open and needs 
picking rather badly. Then go over the field row 
by row, walking slowly along each row and letting 
the eye have sufficient time to size up each plant. 
The great majority of the plants can be thrown 



COTTON 



COTTON 



255 



out at a glance. When good plants 
are observed, examine them care- 
fully, and if they are up to what 
is considered the highest stand- 
ard, mark them by tying a strip 
of white rag to one of the upper 
limbs where it will show plainly. 
The problem is to select from a 
large field possibly about one hun- 
dred of the best plants. In mark- 
ing the plants the first time, prob- 
ably two or three hundred will 
be chosen. After this first pre- 
liminary examination, the field 
should be gone over a second time, 
and the marks removed from 
any plants which are not truly 
superior plants, reducing the 
total number probably to one 
hundred marked plants. 

In this second examination, 
attention should be given to 
the amount of lint on the seed, 
as this in general determines 
the lint turn-out, and is im- 
portant. The breeder should 
be provided with a small 
aluminum pocket-comb, about 
four inches long, which can be 
used to separate and straighten 
out the fibers on the seed, so 
that the covering or amount 
of fibers becomes plainly visi- 
ble, as well as the length of 
the fiber. Every cotton-grower 
should learn this method of 
cotton-combing, as it is essen- 
tial to the careful judging of 
cotton. By using the fingers, 
the cotton can be separated or 
parted dovfn the middle of 
the seed ; and then carefully 
using the comb, holding the 
fibers at their base meanwhile 
to prevent their being torn off 
the seed, the fibers can be 
combed out straight, as shown 
in Fig. 366. In this way, the 
amount of lint on the seed, and 
the length and uniformity of 
length, become clearly visible 
and easy to judge. The pro- 
cess of combing requires some 
practice before it can be done 
successfully, but it will well 
repay the time spent in learn- 
ing. As one goes over the 
plants either the first or the 
second time, several seeds 
from different bolls on each 
plant should be combed out, 
and any plants discarded in 
which the seeds are not well 
covered with lint of good 
length. In ordinary short- 








Fifi. 366. Improvement in length and abun- 
dance of lint produced by selection. A, Im- 
ported Ei;5'l)ti;in cotton: B, first -gener.i- 
tion selection; C, second-generation selec- 
tion. 



staple cotton, no plant should be 
taken for seed which does not pro- 
duce lint of at least one inch in 
length. In the long-staple uplands, 
the standard of length will neces- 
sarily depend on the variety grown, 
as some sorts produce If-inch lint, 
while others produce as high as 
If-inch lint. 

In going over the select plants 
the second time, take all these im- 
portant points into consideration, 
and retain only those which are 
the very be.st plants and which 
represent the highest ideal type. 
These plants should be plainly 
labeled and numbered, and the 
product of each plant should 
be picked separately in a paper 
bag numbered to correspond 
with the number on the plant. 
The best bags to be used in 
picking and preserving sepa- 
rately the product of each of 
the select plants are the ordi- 
nary manila paper bags of about 
eight -pound size, which can 
ordinarily be purchased in any 
grocery store. The first pick 
can be made in these numbered 
bags and preserved, and the 
same bags can be taken to the 
field and the second or later 
picks placed in them, compar- 
ing the numbers on the plants 
and bags each time, to .see that 
the product of each plant is 
kept together. 

Ginning the select plants. — 
At the close of the season 
some special arrangement 
should be made so that a 
single gin can be disconnected 
from the stand of gins and 
used to gin these select plants. 
The gin should be arranged so 
that the seed cotton of a single 
plant can be fed in and ginned. 
After the product of each plant 
is ginned, the seed should be 
carefully collected and placed 
back in its numbered bag. It 
is highly important that the 
seed from each select plant be 
kept separate and free from 
mixture with other seeds. 

Keeping records. — It is very 
important, if the breeder is to 
know what advance is being 
made, that records be pre- 
served showing the weight of 
seed cotton and the lint pro- 
duced by each select plant. 
With these weights, the per- 
centage of lint can be deter- 



256 



COTTON 



COTTON 



mined readily, and all of the important factors 
which go to produce a heavy yield thus be re- 
corded. The preservation of such notes regarding 
the select plants will enable a comparison to be 
made of plants selected in various years, and will 
greatly enhance the value and interest of the 
work. 

Planting the selections. — The next year a field 
should be chosen for the breeding patch which 
has good soil, typical of the plantation and region 
so far as possible. It is important that the soil 
throughout the patch be of uniform quality and 
kind, and not patchy. Do not choose the richest 
and best land available, as this may be different 
from the land on which the improved variety is 
later to be grown. The breeding patch, if possible, 
should be isolated from any other cotton-field a 
distance of 500 to 1,000 feet at least. This is to 
avoid crossing or mixing with dift'erent varieties 
and unselected stock. Such isolation is very im- 
portant, if we are to avoid deterioration. A good 
place to put the isolated patch is in the middle of 
a corn-field, where it is surrounded for some dis- 
tance on each side by corn. If an isolated patch 
cannot be provided, the breeding patch as a second 
choice may be in one corner of a cotton-field planted 
with seed of the same variety from which the 
selections were made the preceding year. Under 
no conditions place the breeding patch in close 
proximity to cotton of other varieties or kind. 
The writer would urge that an isolated patch be 
provided in all cases, as this insures that all ferti- 
lization will be by pollen from plants coming from 
select mothers. The seed from each individual 
should be planted in a single row by itself, a plant 
to a row, by what may be termed the " plant-to- 
row" method. As each row is planted, a stake 
with the number on it of the plant from which 
the seed was taken should be placed at the end. 
Owing to the small quantity of the seed from each 
selection, it is best to plant it in hills about eigh- 
teen or twenty inches apart in the rows, dropping 
five to eight seeds in a hill. In the thinning or 
chopping, the laborers should be instructed care- 
fully to cut out all but the strongest and most 
vigorous plant of each hill. Give the breeding 
patch the same manuring and cultivation as is 
given an ordinary crop, but remember that in all 
cases this should be sufficient and thorough to in- 
sure the best results. 

Examination and selection of progenies. — When 
the cotton in the breeding patch is well open and 
it is important that the first picking should be 
made, go over the patch very carefully and study 
the progenies from the dift'erent select plants. 
It is important to determine which of the plants 
selected the first year has transmitted to its prog- 
eny, in the greatest degree, the good qualities of 
high yield, good lint and other features, for 
which it was selected. This is probably the most 
important point to be determined in all breeding 
work, as a select plant to be good must have 
the property of transmitting its desirable qualities 
to its progeny. A careful comparison of the one 
hundred or more progenies will usually result in 



the breeder finding a few progenies or rows which, 
as a whole, are considerably superior to the others. 
When these have been found, they should be 
marked, and the individual selections for continuing 
the breeding should be taken from these rows. 

Making the second-generation selections. — After 
the best progenies in the breeding patch have 
been selected, the breeder should then carefully go 
over these progenies, plant by plant, and select 
and mark tho.se plants which are found to be 
the most productive, and come up to the stan- 
dard set for length of lint, abundance of lint to 
seed, type of plant, and the like. The plants 
selected should be numbered as in the year pre- 
ceding. A good system of numbering these se- 
lected plants, which will show their pedigree at a 
glance, is as follows : For example, if one of the 
be.st progenies is from the original selection No. 2, 
label the selections in this row 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, 2-4, 
2-5, and so on, the second number after the dash 
being the number of the individual selected in this 
generation, while the first number, 2, is the number 
of the original selection. In the same way, if 
progeny 51 is one of the best, the selections made 
from this would be numbered 51-1, 51-2, 51-3, 
and so on. When the third-generation selections 
are made, they should be numbered in the same 
way, separating the generation by a dash. For 
example, the selections made from progeny of 51- 
1 would be labeled 51-1-1, 51-1-2, 51-1-3. 

The second-generation selections should be 
l)icked separately, as in the case of the first- 
generation selections, and ginned .separately, the 
seed being preserved to plant a breeding patch the 
next or third year. 

Securing select seed for general planting. — To 
secure select seed for planting a general crop, 
take intelligent pickers and train them to recog- 
nize a good, productive plant. Then, after having 
selected and marked the best plants in the breed- 
ing patch, send these pickers over the breeding 
patch, instructing them to pick all of the seed 
from the productive plants that are not marked as 
special selects. Use this seed to plant a general 
crop. If this seed is not sufficient to plant a general 
crop, plant what you can with it, in what may be 
termed a multiplication plot, and from this multi- 
plication plot have the select pickers pick suffi- 
cient seed, as above indicated, to plant a general 
crop the ensuing year. 

Continuing the selection. — In the third year, the 
individual selections made the second year should 
be planted in a special breeding patch, such as 
described for planting the first-year selections, 
and the planting should be made in the same way, 
using the "plant-to-row" method. The individual 
selections should be made in the same way as in 
the first and second years, when the progenies of 
the second-year selections have reached fruiting 
condition. 

In the succeeding years, the same method should 
be pursued, forming, as will be seen, a continuous 
method of pedigree selection. Each year, also, 
second choice seed should be taken from the 
breeding patch to furnish seed to plant a larger 



COTTON 



COTTON 



257 



multiplication plot, from which in turn choice 
seed can be taken to plant a general crop. 

Literature. 

The following are some of the principal works 
treating on cotton: Structure of the Cotton Fibre in 
its Relation to Technical Applications, F. H. Bow- 
man, Second Edition, Manchester, 1881 ; Cotton: 
Its Uses, Varieties, Fibre Structure, Cultivation, 
etc., C. P. Brooks, New York, 1898 ; Cotton : Its 
Cultivation, Marketing, Manufacture, etc., C. W. 
Burkett, New York, Doubleday, Page & Co., 1906 ; 
The Cotton Plant : Its History, Botany, Chemistry, 
Culture, Enemies and Uses, United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, Office of Experiment Stations, 
Bulletin No. 33, Washington, 1896, 438 pages; 
Notes on Egyptian Agriculture, Geo. P. Foaden, 
United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau 
of Plant Industry, Bulletin No. 62 ; Lyman, Cotton 
Planters' Manual ; Cotton Facts, A. B. Shepperson, 
New York ; Cotton and Cotton Oil, Cotton Plant- 
ing, Cultivation, Harvesting, etc., D. A. Tompkins, 
Charlotte, North Carolina, 1901, two vols. ; Trans- 
actions, New England Cotton Manufacturers' Asso- 
ciation, Waltham, Mass. (issued annually); The 
Cost of Cotton Production, J. W. Watkins, United 
States Department of Agriculture, Division of 
Statistics, Bulletin No. 16 ; Watt, Dictionary of 
Economic Plants ; Improvement of Cotton by Seed 
Selection, H. J. Webber, United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, Yearbook, 1902 ; Growing 
of Long-Staple Upland Cotton, H. J. Webber, 
United States Department of Agriculture, Year- 
book, 1904 ; Story of the Cotton Plant, Frederick 
Wilkinson, D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1902. 
In addition, bulletins issued by the agricultural 
experiment stations in the cotton-growing states, 
give much valuable advice on specific phases of the 
subject. Perhaps the best published information on 
cotton soils is the record of the work done by 
Hilgard, found in the Report of the Tenth Census, 
Vols. V and VI. 

Practical Suggestions on Cotton-Growing. 
By W. B. Mercier. 

The following comments on cotton culture are 
drawn from the author's personal experience, 
mostly in Mississippi and Louisiana. The advice 
will necessarily need to be modified somewhat for 
other regions and conditions. 

Fertilizers. — Cotton does not make excessive de- 
mands on the soil, but it is a clean-culture crop, 
and adds little humus to the soil, so that its con- 
tinued growth will wear out even the richest delta 
lands. Crop rotation, with the growing of a legume 
crop after the small grain and in the corn, is the 
most satisfactory way of rejuvenating the soil. 
But all lands will be benefited by the addition of 
some fertilizer. It hastens maturity on bottom 
lands, and increases the yield on poor uplands. 
Many farmers produce 500 to 800 pounds, and 
more, of lint per acre, while the average yield is 
less than 200 pounds per acre. It is evident that 
many growers are doing a losing business. The 

B17 



reason is not hard to find, when we consider that 
cotton is grown on the same land continuously 
without fertilizers or other means of supplying 
the constant 'drain. The writer averages 350 
pounds of lint per acre on large areas of hill land, 
with the application of 200 pounds of commercial 
fertilizer per acre in drills under the cotton. It 
has been his experience that with medium prepa- 
ration and culture, about 250 pounds of commercial 
fertilizer per acre is the most profitable quantity 
to apply. A greater quantity will frequently pro- 
duce a greater yield, but it is doubtful whether it 
is economy. In the more sterile soils in some parts 
of the eastern states, however, from 600 to 1000 
pounds of fertilizer is frequently used per acre with 
profit. On fresh lands, and on lands on which 
leguminous crops have iDeen grown, acid phosphate 
alone gives best results. On medium to poor soils, 
cottonseed-meal and acid phosphate mixed equally 
gives splendid results. Potash does not give bene- 
ficial results as a cotton fertilizer in Mississippi or 
Louisiana, as is shown by experiments. Notwith- 
standing this fact, 90 per cent of all fertilizer sold 
in these states contains potash. 

Variety to plant. — There are two general kinds 
of cotton grown, long-staple and short-staple. 
The writer has grown both, and always with the 
result that the short-staple is the more profitable 
under average conditions. He has never grown a 
long-staple variety that would yield more than 
70 per cent as much as short-staple variety on the 
same land with the same treatment. No long- 
staple he has yet tried gives more than 27 per 
cent lint, while any good short-staple gives 33 to 
35 per cent lint. The difference in price is usually 
about two to three cents a pound. 

There are so many varieties of cotton seed now 
offered for sale that one not accustomed to the 
advertising schemes of the high-priced new variety 
man will be puzzled to know what is best to plant. 
There are, in fact, only a few distinct varieties. 
One not familiar with the business cannot do 
better than to consult the leading farmers in 
his section as to what are the best varieties 
for that special locality. Some varieties will do 
well in one place that will be failures in another. 
In the writer's experience, a short-staple varietv, 
making a vigorous growth with medium long 
limbs, good-sized bolls, and seed with a tendency 
to early maturity, is best for general culture. 

Growth characteristics. — A few facts in regard to 
the general nature of the cotton plant may be 
of interest. There is no fixed time as to when the 
seed will germinate after being planted, as this 
is governed entirely by the temperature and the 
moisture in the soil. Also, there is no definite 
interval from the date of germination to the time 
when the first "form" or square is seen, as this 
is determined by various factors, such as time 
of planting, variety, soil, temperature and culture. 
It will average twenty-one days from the time 
a square first appears until it is a bloom; then 
it will average forty-two days from the bloom 
to the time of opening. The first blooms will 
be a few days longer in opening, as will also 



258 



COTTON 



COVER-CROPS 



the first bolls. The bloom opens wide early in 
the morning, and is of a light cream-color ; it 
begins to close and change to a pink color in the 
afternoon, and by the following morning is a deep 
pink color, and falls to the ground. 

Gathering season. — The gathering season usually 
begins in the hill country about the first of 
September, reaches its height in October, and 
is generally finished, except for scattering bolls, 
in November. On bottom-lands, the season usually 
begins later and lasts longer. The writer makes 
about three pickings, getting 20 per cent the first 
time, 60 per cent the second, and the remainder 
the third or last time. 

Handling the crop. — Before gins were so numer- 
ous, farmers would pick out several bales, and 



per cent of the business is done on what is known 
as the "furnishing" or credit system. The crop 
is virtually put in the hands of the merchant 
and commission man before the seeds are planted. 
The farmer pledges his crop to the merchant 
for supplies (mules, tools, feed for himself and 
teams) to make his crop with. The merchant, 
in turn, pledges all the cotton he controls to ■ 
the commission man and banker for money tc 
supply the farmer. This system necessarily forces 
the bulk of the crop on the market in three or 
four months. Consequently, the speculators and 
others interested manipulate the prices very 
much to their own liking, and nearly always to 
the hurt of the producer. There is a decided ten- 
dency of recent years, however, to market the 




Typical cotton-hauling scene. Mississippi. 



often their entire crop, before hauling to the gin. 
When this was the practice, we had a much 
prettier staple. The practice now is to pick, haul 
and gin the same day, if possible. This is not 
a good practice, for much of the cotton is green, 
and nearly always has on it dew or rain enough to 
make it damp; hence it is impossible for the gin 
to do first-class work. The ginner is often crowded, 
in this way, until he cannot do good work. Many 
public gins employ incompetent men, and through 
their carelessness there is great loss to the 
farmers. 

The package in which cotton is marketed is 
called a bale, and it is recognized as the most 
unwieldy package handled in commerce. It is only 
because of the pressing demand for cotton that 
many carriers will handle it. For a number of 
years the round, compressed bale was used, and 
it was much more convenient and neat. There 
is a great demand now for a better package. A 
bale of cotton (Fig. 3.59) weighs about 500 pounds. 
A characteristic load of cotton is shown in Fig. 
367. 

Marketing. — The usual means of marketing the 
cotton crop is unfortunate, to say the least. Ninety 



crop more slowly, and its effect has already 
been felt in the markets. A complete change in 
the system must be eflfected before the farmers 
are to get their proportion of the value of the 
product. 

The prices received for cotton varies from year 
to year, depending on a number of conditions. The 
law of supply and demand is the determining fac- 
tor. Ten cents ])er pound of lint cotton may be taken 
as the market price at present. 

COVER-CROPS. Figs. 368-370. 

By E. B. Voorhees. 

The term "cover-crop," which, until 1893, was not 
distinguished from "catch-crop," or from "green- 
manure crop," is now applied to a crop grown to 
prevent injury and lo.sses to soils, and either directly 
or indirectly to improve them, and often to afi'ord 
protection to trees or other plants, rather than to 
secure the proceeds or products of the crop itself. 
A catch-crop is one that is grown between the 
periods of other crops, as after early potatoes and 
before winter wheat ; or, sometimes the word is 
used to designate companion-crops, or those that 



COVER-CROPS 



COVER-CROPS 



259 



are grown between the rows of other crops, as 
turnips grown between potatoes. The purpose of 
the catch-crop is to utilize the land to the utmost, 
securing an incidental crop. Green-manure crops 
are those grown for the purpose of enriching the 
land, whereas cover-crops are grown to protect the 
land, or trees, or other plants that may be growing 
on it. Cover-crops may or may not be green-manure 
crops. Cover-crops usually remain on the ground 
in winter. [See the article on Fruit-growing for 
another discussion of cover-crops.] 

Uses of cover-crops. 

Cover-crops are used, (1) to prevent the loss of 
soluble plant-food, which occurs when lands are 
left uncovered during the late fall and winter, 
especially in the case of corn, potato 
and tobacco lands, and for small-fruits 
or cultivated orchards ; (2) to prevent 
the galling or surface erosion of hill- 
sides or slopes by winter rains ; and 
(3) to prevent root injury by excessive 
freezing of orchard lands, which danger, 
however, is apparent chiefly in the North 
and West, from Nebraska to North 
Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Can- 
ada. In all of these cases, the benefits, 
in addition to those mentioned, are due 
to the introduction into such soils of 
vegetable matter. 

The advantages of cover-crops in 
conserving and increasing fertility may 
be stated more in detail as follows : 
They absorb the plant-food from insolu- 
ble sources, and convert it into organic 
forms; they retain plant-food, particu- 
larly of a nitrogenous character, that 
would be carried away from a bare soil 
by leaching ; and they regulate temperature and 
moisture conditions, thus promoting nitrification 
when seasonal conditions are favorable. Cover- 
crops improve physical character by providing 
roots to break up the soil particles and make 
them finer, besides adding vegetable matter or 
humus-forming material to the land, thus making 
the moisture conditions more favorable. They 
encourage the deeper rooting of orchard trees and 
prevent deep freezing by acting as a mulch. The 
effect of the cover-crop on the land will depend, to 
some degree, on the root habit of the crop. The 
clovers are very deep rooters (Fig. 369), and are 
prized for this reason as well as for other merits. 

Crops that are used as a cover to accomplish 
these results should not be confused with those 
which are used for green -manures. If they are 
made to serve as green-manures the real advantage 
of the cover-crop may be lost, for if a cover-crop 
is left too late in the spring it may cause injury 
by robbing the main crop of the needed moisture ; 
and when plowed down, after making too large a 
growth, it will injure spring-sown crops by cutting 
off the capillary supply of ground-water. These 
points should be carefully observed, for while many 
cover-crops may serve a specially useful purpose as 
green-manures, the direct manurial effect should be 



regarded as an incidental gain, secondary to that 
secured from their use as cover-crops. 

Plants used as cover-crops. 

A very large number of plants have been used 
for cover-crops in the United States. These may 
be divided into two groups, viz., the legumes, or 
nitrogen-gatherers, and the non-legumes, or those 
which are sometimes distinguished as nitrogen-con- 
sumers. Of the legumes, the following have been 
used with considerable success : the several varie- 
ties of red clover and Canada field-peas, widely 
useful in the northern tier of states ; alfalfa, in the 
western states and California ; soybeans, cowpeas 
and crimson clover in the central and southern 
states ; velvet bean and beggarweed, especially 




Fig. 368. 



Crimson clover as an orchard cover-crop. Usually it should be 
!plowed under before it blooms. 

useful only in the South; hairy vetch and spring 
vetch, most successfully used in the South, though 
rather generally grown in the northern states ; 
sweet clover and sometimes, for peculiar conditions, 
serradella. Of the non-legume.s, rye, wheat, oats 
and barley of the cereals are probably m'ore com- 
monly used than any others ; rape and turnips of 
various varieties are used commonly, though they 
are not hardy in the northern sections of the coun- 
try ; buckwheat, white mustard and spurry have 
also been used with satisfaction under special con- 
ditions;. Various mixtures and combinations of 
these plants are sometimes used, in order that the 
cover may extend through a longer period, or to 
insure a covering of the land should conditions 
be unfavorable for one or more members of the 
combination. 

The knowledge gained through experiment sta- 
tion work as to the usefulness of cover-crops, is 
constantly increasing, and they are now considered 
an important part of rational agricultural prac- 
tice. 

Kind of crops to use. 

The principle that should govern in the use of 
cover-crops is to employ such crops as may accom- 
plish the special purposes desired. To get the best 



260 



COVER-CROPS 



results, a cover-crop should be used 
when there is a period in a succession of 
crops in a rotation when the land would 
be likely to lie bare for any consider- 
able period, or, as in the case of orch- 
ards, when it is desirable to increase 
the vegetable matter in the soil and to 
retard the vegetative growth of the 
trees and bushes, and thus to encourage 
a more complete maturity of the plant. 

The kind of crop to plant must be 
determined by the local conditions and 
the local needs ; that is, whether a 
grass, cereal, legume, or cruciferous 
plant shall be used, will depend on 
whether the habits of growth and char- 
acteristics of the plant will accomplish 
the purpose desired. For example, in 
the southern states, Bermuda-grass is 
admirably adapted to prevent erosion of 
land, yet this crop would not be recom- 
mended for northern conditions. In 
Delaware, and in certain other of the 
middle states, crimson clover is gener- 
ally seeded in corn as a cover-crop. It 
is hardy, grows well in the fall, and 
protects the soil during the winter ; in 
addition, it starts early and grows rap- 
idly in the spring, accumulating a large 
mass of vegetable matter containing 
nitrogen, in time to plow down for a 
spring crop. The conditions in these 
states are favorable for the use of crim- 
son clover as a cover-crop, whereas 
farther north the plant is not hardy 
and may serve as a cover-crop only in 
the fall. In the more northern sections, 
therefore, wheat or rye would be more 
desirable, as it will serve as a cover 
during the fall and continue to grow 
through the winter and early spring, 
absorbing and retaining soluble plant- 
food and gathering useful vegetable 
matter. 

In market-gardening, when it is 
necessary to plant early in spring, such 
crops as turnips, rape, oats, Canada 
peas, cowpeas, or soybeans, which die 
after freezing weather, are serviceable 
as fall cover-crops, because they accu- 
mulate large quantities of vegetable 
matter, cover the land with a mulch 
during the late fall and early win- 
ter, and are in condition to decay 
rapidly when the ground is plowed, 
which frequently may be done in 
early March. 

Literature. 

The following bibliography of 
some of the experiments conducted 
in this country will serve as a guide 
So the kind of crop to be grown 
under the varying conditions of 
climate, locatiin and cropping : 






Fig. 369. Root habit of (top) 
crimson. (middle Imammoth 
closer, (bottom ) winter 
▼etcb. Uorueli Exp. Sta. 



COWPEA 

Tennessee Experiment Station, Bulle- 
tin No. 4 ; Nebraska Experiment Sta- 
tion, Report 1899, pp. 50-61 ; Canada 
Experimental Farms, Ottawa, Canada, 
Report 1901, pp. 140-152 ; Ontario Agri- 
cultural College and Experiment Station, 
Report 1904 ; Cornell Experiment Sta- 
tion, Bulletin No. 198 ; Report of the 
Secretary of Agriculture, Nova Scotia, 
1902, Part I, pp. 70-90 ; Massachusetts 
Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 82 ; 
Missouri Fruit Experiment Station, Bul- 
letin No. 4; Delaware Experiment Sta- 
tion, Bulletins Nos. 60 and 61 ; Michigan 
Experiment Station, Special Bulletins 
Nos. 27 and 30; Connecticut Experiment 
Station, Bulletin No. 149 ; Proceedings 
of Western New York Horticultural 
Society, 1901, pp. 12-17 ; American 
Agriculturist, 1902, pp. 79 and 100. The 
term cover-crop was first used in this 
signification by Bailey in 1893, Cornell 
Bulletin No. 61. 

COWPEA. Vigna unguieulata, Walp. 
Leguminosce. Pigs. 370, 371. 

By J. F. Duggar. 

A summer-growing annual more closely 

related to the bean than to the pea, 
grown for forage, for green-manuring 
and cover-cropping, and sometimes for 
human food. The habit of the plant 
varies greatly, some varieties being 
erect or bush-like and others distinctly 
trailing. All intermediate forms occur, 
and the habit is dependent not only on 
variety, but on soil, time of planting 
and climatic condition.s. The cowpea is 
never a true climber, being without 
tendrils, but its slender runners twine 
around adjacent objects. The leaves are 
three-foliolate, and somewhat similar in 
shape and appearance to those of the 
common garden bean. The flowers are 
usually whitish or whitish purple, some- 
times with a yellowish cast. The pods 
are normally of straw color, but are 
sometimes purplish or dark. They vary 
in length from five to ten inches and 
contain numerous edible seeds. The 
seeds are usually kidney-shaped or 
roundish, but in some varieties the 
ends are slightly truncated. 

The cowpea, although belonging to 
the genus Vigna, is closely related to 
species of the section Strophostyles of 
Phaseolus. It is a native of India and 
the region northwestward to the southern 
part of the Trans-Caspian District, but 
has been a cultivated crop for two 
thousand years or more. It was intro- 
duced into the West Indies in the latter 
half of the seventeenth century, and 
began to be cultivated on the mainlan(J 



COWPEA 



COWPEA 



261 



of America somewhat later. At various times the 
cowpea has been known under several botanical 
names, the most common names being V. Sinensis 
and V. Catjang. The American varieties of the 
cowpea, however, are correctly classified as V. 
unguiculata {V. Sinensis), while the name V. Cat- 
jang properly applies to another species easily 
distinguished by its much smaller and more torose 
pods, and by its smaller seeds. By some, however, 
V. unguiculata is considered to be a synonym of 
V. Catjang. 

Geographical distribution. 

Varieties of cowpeas have become widely dis- 
tributed throughout the world, but only in China, 
India and the southern part of the United States 
has this plant been an important factor in agri- 
culture. Although cultivated in the United States 
for about a century, not until recent years has its 
cultivation received much attention north of the 
Ohio and Potomac rivers, and north or west of Ar- 
kansas and Texas. Within the past ten years, stim- 



ulated by tests made at the various agricultural 
experiment stations, the cultivation of the plant 
has been carried northward, and it now promises 
to fill an important place throughout the greater 
part of the humid United States. The northern 
limit of cultivation has never been traced in detail, 
but in a general way this area may be regarded as 
including the states of Massachusetts, New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, much of New York, Ohio, Indiana 
and Illinois, all of Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and 
Texas, and of course the region south and east of 
these states. 

Westward of this line it may serve a useful pur- 
pose, but can scarcely compete with alfalfa or red 
clover where these plants are generally successful. 

Composition. 

The seed of the cowpea is rather uniform in 
composition and is very rich in nitrogen, but not 
so rich in this element as is soybean seed. The 
forage varies considerably in composition because 
of the variation in the quantities of pods and leaves. 



Analyses op Parts of the Cowpea Plant. 



Hay* 

Green forage * 

Silage t 

Seed, shelled* 

Hullst 

Leaves ** 

Leaves t 

Fine stems and leaf stems ** . . 

Coarse stems** 

Stemsf 

Fallen leaves and leaf stems ** . 
Roots and stubble ** 



Moisture 



Per cent 

10.70 

83.60 

79.30 

14.80 

10.46 

10.65 

11.05 

8.97 

8.47 

10.00 

9.75 

5.25 



Ash 



Per cent 

7.50 

1.70 

2.90 

3.20 

2.81 

10.98 

11.24 

6.87 

4.92 

6.20 

20.78 

24.75 



Protein 



Per cent 

16.60 

2.40 

2.70 

20.80 

6.36 

22.44 

18.84 

11.88 

9.44 

5.87 

10.44 

8.63 



Fiber 



Per cent 

20.10 

4.80 

6.00 

4.10 

41.43 

16.78 

19.74 

43.59 

42.19 

38.84 

20.45 

56.25 



Nitrogen- 
free extract 



Per cent 

42.20 

7.10 

7.60 

55.70 

38.49 

31.69 

32.48 

30.74 

33.12 

38.20 

31.96 

3.82 



Etlier 
extract 



Per cent 
2.90 
0.40 
1.50 
1.40 
0.45 
7.46 
6.71 
1.75 
1.86 
0.89 
6.62 
1.48 



•Handbook of Experiment Station Work. 
** Alabama Station Bulletin, No. 118. 



t Louisiana Station Bulletin, No. 40; 
J Henry's "Feeds and Feeding." 



averaee for 12 varieties. 



Fertilizing Constituents in the Parts of the Cowpea Plant. 



Entire plant (b) 

Hay, blooming stage (o) 

Hay, ripening stage (a) 

Leaves (a) 

Leaves (6) 

Fine stems and leaf steins (a) 

Leaf stems (6) 

Coarse stems (a) 

Stems (b) 

Fallen leaves and leaf stems (a) 

Ripening stage, fallen leaves and stems (a) . . 
Blooming stage, fallen leaves and leaf stems (a) 

Fallen leaves (c) 

Roots and stubble (a) 

Roots and stubble, blooming stage (a) . . . . 

Roots and stubble, ripening stage (a) 

Roots (6) 

Roots (c) 

Dried tubercles 



Moisture 



Per cent 

10.95 

8.15 

9.05 

10.65 

11.05 

8.97 

9.64 

8.47 

10.00 

9.75 

7.80 

6.80 

10.51 

5.25 

7.00 

7.77 

10.12 



Nitrogen Phosphoric acid 



Per cent 

1.95 
2.57 
2.46 
3.59 
3.01 
1.90 
0.98 
1.51 
1.09 
1.67 
1.83 
1.36 
1.92 
1.38 
1.05 
1.17 
1.32 
1.09 
5.02 



Per cent 
0.52 
0.81 
0.85 
0.78 
0.22 
0.64 
0.50 
0.42 
0.34 
0.37 
0.64 
0.59 
0.30 
0.26 
0.41 
0.48 
0.42 
0.33 



Per cent 
1.47 
2.86 
2.14 
1.49 
1.12 
0.68 
1.33 
1.49 
2.25 
1.09 
1.45 
1.15 
0.80 
1.11 
2.11 
1.51 
1.51 
2.19 



(a) Alabama Station Bulletin, No. 120; average 6 varieties. (6) Louisiana Station Bulletin, No. 40; average 12 varietlea. 

M Louisiana Bulletin, No. 55; 1 variety. 



262 



COWPEA 



COWPEA 



Varieties. 

The cowpea is subject to such wide and easy 
variation as the result of climate and other envi- 
ronment that any treatment of varieties is unsat- 
isfactory. More than one hundred different names 
are on record purporting to be names of varieties, 
but in reality many of these are synonyms. 
Dodson states (Louisiana E.xperiment Station, Bul- 
letin No. 40 ) that there are probably about five 
botanical varieties, namely, tho.se with (1) red 
seed, (2) black seed, (3) white seed, (4) the clay 
varieties, and (5) granite and similar strains, 
with fine, dark markings on a brown background. 
He regards all others as connecting links or inter- 
mediate hybrids. However, we must recognize a 
considerable number of true agricultural varieties, 
with fairly good distinctions, whatever may have 
been their origin. Perhaps the best attempt to 
classify any considerable number of varieties was 
that made by Starnes in Bulletin No. 26 of the 
Georgia Experiment Station, which classification is 
here quoted : 

"Among the more important characteristics 
which distinguish the ditt'erent varieties are the 
following, in the order of their probable impor- 
tance : 

CHARACTERISTICS : 

(1) Form of pea. Main divisions : 

(a,) Crowders. 

(b) Kidneys. 

(2) Habit of growth. Divisions : 

(a) Trailing. 
(6) Recumbent. 

(c) Semi-recumbent. 

(d) Erect. 

(3) Time of maturity. Divisions : 

(a) Very early. 
(6) Early. 

(c) Medium. 

(d) Late. 

(e) Very late. 

(4) Color of pod. Divisions : 

(a) Dark pods, 
(fe) Light pods. 

(5) Color of peas. Divisions too numerous 

to specify. 

(6) Size of pods. Divisions : 

(a) Very large. 
(6) Large. 

(c) Medium. 

(d) Small. 

(e) Very smalL 

(7) Size of peas. 

(a) Very large. 

(b) Large. 

(c) Medium. 

(d) Small. 

( e ) Very small. 

(1) Form of pea. 

"The form or shape of the pea necessarily in- 
volves, as well, the form or shape of the pod. Two 
main forms appear to be assumed : (a) A rounded 



form so closely packed in the pod that the sides of 
the pea are flattened or indented, giving the pod a 
tightly stuffed, corrugated, plethoric appearance. 
This class of pea is known as crowder. (i) A flat- 
tened form, kidney-shaped, and placed farther 
apart in the pod, which is smoother and leaner in 
appearance. The pods of crowders are generally 
stubby and short, those of the kidney type, long. 








Fig. 370. Cowpeas as a cover-crop. Useful eitber in orchards 
or gener.il field conditions. 

" Both of these types combine indiscriminately 
the other points of difference, being of diverse 
sizes and colors of pea and of either shade of pod, 
while their habit of growth is as likely to be trail- 
ing as erect, and they are of all stages of maturity. 
Among the forty odd varieties tested this year at 
the station, the following are crowders — all the 
others kidneys : 

" Mush, Purple Hull Crowder, Red Crowder, Small 
Lady, Smith No. 14, Speckled Crowder, Sugar 
Crowder, White Crowder, Williams Hybrid. 

(2) Habit of growth. 

"The following divisions obtain in regard to 
growth : 

(a) Trailing : Conch, Red Eye, Williams Hybrid. 

(6) Recumbent : Calico, Congo, Large Lady, Li- 
lac Red Pod, New Era, Pony, Red Crowder, 
Red Ripper, Saddleback, Small Lady, 
Smith No. 7, Smith No. 9, Smith No. 
14, Speckled Crowder, Sugar Crowder, 
Vacuum, White, White Brown Hull, White 
Crowder, White Giant. 

(c) Semi-recumbent : Black, Black Eye, Blue 

Hull, Chocolate, Constitution, Everlasting, 
Forage or Shinny, Granite, Gourd, Mathews, 
Mush, Purple Hull Crowder, Redding, Red 
Yellow Hull, Rice, Shrimp, Smith No. 15, 
Taylor Prolific. 

(d) Erect : Clay, Coffee, Quadroon, Red, Unknown, 

Whippoorwill, Wonderful. 

"While the four divisions enumerated — trailing, 
recumbent, semi-recumbent and erect — are suffi- 
ciently distinct to form separate classes, it must 
be noted that any variety, no matter how erect its 
general habit, will trail or run before the end of 
the season if planted very early and in rich ground. 
This characteristic has led to some confusion in 
the identification of varieties. 



COWPEA 



COWPEA 



263 



(3) Time of maturity. 

"The divisions with regard to maturity are 
even more distinct than those characterizing 
growth ; they are as follows : 

(o) Very Early : Chocolate, Congo, New Era, 
Vacuum, White Giant. 

(6) Early : Granite, Red Crowder, Red Eye, Red 
Yellow Hull, Saddleback, Smith No. 9, 
Whippoorwill. 

(c) Medium : Coffee, Large Lady, Lilac Red Pod, 
Mush, Pony, Small Lady, Smith No. 7, 
Smith No. L5, White, White Brown Hull. 

(rf) Late . Black Eye, Everlasting, White Crow- 
der, Williams Hybrid. 

(e) Very Late : Black, Blue Hull, Calico, Clay, 
Conch, Forage or Shinny, Gourd, Mathews, 
Purple Hull Crowder, Quadroon, Red, Red- 
ding, Red Ripper, Rice, Shrimp, Smith 
No. 14, Speckled Crowder, Sugar Crowder, 
Taylor Prolific, Unknown, Wonderful. 

"Of all varieties. Conch is the latest and the 
flattest grower, trailing close to the ground like a 
potato vine. 

(4) Color of pods. 

" Certain varieties possess pods of a dark color, 
some almost brown when ripe, others reddish brown 
and still others bluish black or purple. The color 
of the pod bears no relation whatever to the color 
of the enclosed pea, which ranges from pure white 
through different mottled shades to red. 

"The following peas are dark hulled, all others 
are light or yellow hulled : 

White Brown Hull ; color of pod, dark brown. 

Blue Hull ; color of pod, blue-black. 

Red Eye ; color of pod, blue-black. 

Purple Hull Crowder ; color of pod, purplish 
black. 

Lilac Red Pod ; color of pod, reddish purple. 

Saddleback ; color of pod, purplish black. 

(5) Color of peas. 

" Naturally, more diversity is apparent in this 
feature than in any other. The following list of 
peas tested the present season is grouped accord- 
ing to color : 

White: Black Eye, Blue Hull, Conch, Large 
Lady, Mush, Pony, Red Eye, Rice, Small Lady, 
Smith No. 7, Smith No. 14, Smith No. 15, 
Sugar Crowder, Taylor Prolific, Vacuum, 
White, White Brown Hull, White Crowder, 
White Giant. 

Lemon : Smith No. 9. 

Pale Buff : Unknown, Wonderful, Quadroon. 

Pinkish Buff : Everlasting. 

Cream : Clay. 

Clear Pink : Shrimp. 

Dull Red : Purple Hull Crowder, Red, Red Crow- 
der, Redding, Red Ripper, Red Yellow Hull. 

Lilac Mottled : Lilac Red Pod. 

Red Mottled : Calico, Saddleback. 

Brown Mottled : Chocolate, Coffee, Williams 
Hybrid. 



Brown Speckled (on gray ground): Granite, 

Speckled Crowder, Whippoorwill. 
Brown Speckled (on blue ground): New Era. 
Black Mottled : Gourd, Mathews. 
Jet Black : Black, Constitution, Congo, Forage 

or Shinny. 

(6) Size of pods. 

(a) Very large : Calico, Gourd, Mathews. 

(b) Large : Black Eye, Clay, Coffee, Conch, 

Congo, Forage or Shinny, Granite, Quad- 
roon, Red, Smith No. 1.5, Unknown, Vacuum, 
Whippoorwill, White Giant, Wonderful. 

(c) Medium : Black, Blue Hull, Chocolate, Ever- 

lasting, Lilac Red Pod, New Era, Red Eye, 
Red Ripper, Saddleback, Smith No. 9, 
Speckled Crowder, Taylor Prolific, White, 
White Brown Hull, White Crowder, Wil- 
liams Hybrid. 

(d) Small : Constitution, Large Lady, Mush, Pony, 

Purple Hull Crowder, Red Yellow Hull, 
Rice, Shrimp, Smith No. 7, Smith No. 14, 
Sugar Crowder. 

(e) Very Small: Red Crowder, Redding, Small 

Lady. 

(7) Size of pea. 

(a) Very Large : Calico, Congo, Granite, White 

Giant. 

(b) Large : Blue Hull, Coffee, Gourd, Lilac Red 

Pod, Mathews, Red Ripper, Red Yellow 
Hull, Smith No. 9, Speckled Crowder, 
Vacuum, White Crowder. 

(c) Medium : Black, Black Eye, Chocolate, Clay, 

Conch, Forage or Shinny, Mush, New Era, 
Pony, Purple Hull Crowder, Quadroon, 
Red, Red Crowder, Red Eye, Smith No. 7, 
Smith No. 15, Taylor Prolific, Unknown, 
White Brown Hull, Whippoorwill, Williams 
Hybrid, Wonderful. 

id) Small : Everlasting, Large Lady, Redding, 
Rice, Saddleback, Shrimp, Smith No. 14, 
Sugar Crowder. 

(e) Very Small : Constitution, Small Lady, White. 

"There are other minor characteristics, as that of 
smooth and wrinkled surface, serving to distinguish 
varieties otherwise apparently identical. Blue Hull, 
Chocolate, Pony, Saddleback, Vacuum and White 
Giant, are wrinkled. All of the others are smooth." 

Detailed descriptions of a number of varieties 
may be found in bulletins of the various agricul- 
tural e.xperiment stations, especially in Georgia 
Bulletin No. 26, Te.xas Bulletin No. 84, and Louis- 
iana Bulletins Nos. 19 and 29. 

In the Gulf states, the two varieties most 
extensively grown are Whippoorwill or Speckled, 
and Unknown or Wonderful. In yield of forage 
the Unknown is at or near the head of the list 
in the southern part of the cotton-belt. Its large 
yield and relatively upright growth make it a 
favorite for forage, while its heavy yield and large 
stems and roots make it one of the best for the 
improvement of the soil. It is not suitable for 



264 



COWPEA 



COWPEA 



growing for seed much beyond the limit of the 
Gulf and South Atlantic states, nor for any pur- 
pose in the far North, being a very late variety. 
Whippoorwill, a bushy or erect.rather early variety, 
is a general favorite for seed production, and is 
suitable for cultivation for forage or soil-improve- 
ment as far north as New York. The very early 
varieties, for example New Era, Warren Hybrid, 
Warren Extra-Early, and Extra-Early Black Eye, 
mature seed considerably north of the line where 
the Whippoorwill completely matures. But both in 
the North and South, earliness is at the sacrifice of 
yield of forage. On the other hand, the New Era 




Fig. 371. A cowpea (Yigna nnguiculata). 



and some other early varieties are prolific bearers 
of seed, and on rich land make very satisfactory 
hay. 

The Iron cowpea is unique in being practically 
exempt from cowpea wilt, and from attacks of 
nematode worms, which commends it for use on 
the sandy soils of the southern parts of the Gulf 
and South Atlantic states. The seed resembles 
that of the Clay pea, and the plant in habit may 
be classed as a moderate runner. The yield of hay 
is good and of seed medium. The leaves are 
retained well, even after the plant has matured 
a fair crop of seed, so that hay may be made from 
this variety, while blooms, ripe pods and leaves 
are all abundant on the same plant. In mild 
winters in the Gulf state.s, the seeds lie in the 
ground uninjured, germinating late in the following 
spring. 

For forage or soil-improvement in southern 
Ohio, Alva Agee recommends the Black, a variety 
somewhat later than the Whippoorwill, and dis- 
tinguished both North and South for its large 
yield of forage. At the Georgia Experiment Sta- 



tion, the varieties leading in yield of forage were 
Black, Mathews, Gourd, White, Taylor Prolific, 
Blue Hull, Speckled Crowder, White Growder, 
Mush and Williams Hybrid. At the Alabama Sta- 
tion, among the most prolific producers of forage 
are Unknown or Wonderful, Clay and Iron. Among 
the varieties yielding most seed at the southern 
experiment stations are Black, Clay, Unknown, 
Taylor, New Era and Whippoorwill. 

Conditions that tend to dwarf the plant, to 
make it more erect or bushy and to hasten matur- 
ity are (1) planting late in the season and (2) 
growing the parent seed in high latitudes. 

Cvlture. 

Soil. — The cowpea is adapted to a wide range 
of land, being able to make some growth on prac- 
tically all soils except those that continue wet 
during the summer. Near the northern limit of 
its cultivation, sandy and loamy soils are prefer- 
able, as they hasten maturity. There its best use 
is for soil-improvement, which indicates that its 
usual place is on soil too poor or otherwise un- 
suited for the successful growth of red clover. 
A moderate degree of acidity is not fatal to its 
thrifty growth. 

Climate. — The cowpea is a native of a warm 
climate and is very susceptible to frost. Near the 
northern limit of its cultivation it must be started 
as early as the season is well settled, so as to give 
time for it to reach the desired degree of matu- 
rity ; but planting should be deferred until the soil 
is fairly warm. In the Gulf states, the earliest 
practicable date for sowing is the latter part of 
April, but this is usually at a disadvantage except 
when two crops per year are desired on the same 
land. May and June are the months preferred 
in the South. In Delaware, the latter part of June 
and early part of July have been found more de- 
sirable dates for sowing cowpeas than late May 
and early June. Early sowing has a tendency to 
cause the production of an excessive growth of 
runners, and may even change the habit of bush 
varieties. While moderately early planting usually 
increases the total yield of forage and the amount 
of tangling, rather late planting aflfords a larger 
yield of seed and tends to the development of 
a bushy plant. 

Planting. — Land on which cowpeas are to be 
grown should be plowed and well harrowed. Then 
planting may be done either in drills or broad- 
cast, the method to be used depending on a num- 
ber of conditions. Broadcast sowing reduces the 
labor but increases the quantity of seed. Usually, 
when soil and season are favorable, broadcast sow- 
ing gives a somewhat larger yield of hay, but in 
seasonsof drought, drilling and subsequent cultiva- 
tion make a fair yield more certain than broad- 
casting. To broadcast cowpeas they may be sown 
by hand and afterwards disked or cultivated into 
the loose soil, or they may be put in with a grain- 
drill with every tube open. On sandy soil they are 
sometimes sown broadcast and plowed in shallow. 
In drilling cowpeas, the distance between the rows 
is usually thirty-two to thirty-six inches. The 



COWPEA 



COWPEA 



265 



seeds are dropped either by hand, by a one-horse 
planter, by the modern corn-planter in which the 
cells in the dropping plates may be tilled to fit the 
peas, or by the grain-drill with most of the outlets 
closed. The grain-drills best adapted to this pur- 
pose are those having gravity or friction feeding 
devices, as the force feeds crack a much larger 
percentage of the peas. Drilling and cultivation 
usually afford the larger yield of seed. 

The seed. — The preferred quantity of seed for 
sowing broadcast is four to six pecks per acre, but 
varieties with large seeds may require a larger 
amount. For planting in drills, two to three pecks 
per acre are usually sufficient when the rows are 
wide enough to permit cultivation. At the Arkan- 
sas station, it has been found that the common 
practice mentioned above involves a larger quan- 
tity of seed than is necessary. In case drilled and 
cultivated cowpeas are to be mown, care must be 
taken to cultivate level, using ordinary culti- 
vators, or, in the South, heel scrapes. In the 
South, cowpeas are often sown broadcast or 
drilled among the growing corn. The seed is 
planted when the cultivation of the corn is nearly 
or quite finished. 

Inoculation has never been found necessary in 
the South because of the general prevalence in 
southern soils of the germ that causes the devel- 
opment of tubercles on the roots of cowpeas. 
However, there may be small areas in which this 
crop is seldom cultivated, where at first it will be 
an advantage to use as inoculating material 1,000 
or more pounds per acre of pulverized soil from 
a field where cowpeas have recently grown and 
developed abundant tubercles. In a number of 
localities in the northern and western states, when 
cowpeas were first introduced, few nodules devel- 
oped on the roots; whenever this occurs the need 
for inoculation is indicated. 

Pollination. — The cowpea is self-pollinated. 
Dodson made notes of the insect visitors, and 
concluded that insects were seldom concerned 
in bearing pollen from bloom to bloom. Artificial 
cross-pollination is exceedingly difficult in the 
field, but a larger percentage of hand-pollination 
is successful when the plants are grown in a 
greenhouse. 

Companion-cropping. — Since the leaves of the 
cowpea easily fall off in curing, unless weather 
conditions are altogether favorable, it is some- 
times advantageous to grow cowpeas in connec- 
tion with some grass crop, the presence of which 
makes curing quicker and entangles the leaves, 
thus preventing their loss. For this purpose the 
latest varieties of millet, especially German millet, 
are satisfactory for mixing with the early varie- 
ties of cowpeas, sowing one to one and one-half 
pecks of millet per acre with one bushel or more 
of cowpeas. Soybeans are sometimes grown in 
connection with cowpeas. Many southern farmers 
prefer a mixture of cowpeas and amber sorghum, 
about one bushel of each per acre. The admix- 
ture of sorghum greatly increases the yield on 
fair or good land, but somewhat increases the 
difficulty of curing the forage. A volunteer 



growth of crab-grass is, perhaps, in the Gulf states, 
the most generally satisfactory addition to cow- 
pea hay. 

A satisfactory mixture for the silo consists of 
drilled corn and cowpeas, the latter sometimes 
being drilled in several weeks after the planting 
of the corn. Although the cowpeas usually con- 
stitute the smaller part of this forage, their 
presence serves to increase the percentage of 
protein in the silage. 

Manuring. — The cowpea is most useful on the 
poorest grades of land, but often needs the help 
of commercial fertilizers. In the South, the most 
general requirement is for phosphoric acid, although 
on some poor and very sandy soils the addition 
of potash as well as phosphate is profitable. Tests 
in Delaware and Connecticut indicated that pot- 
ash, which was used at the rate of 160 pounds 
(muriate of potash) per acre, was the principal 
fertilizer needed. A common application is 200 to 
400 pounds of acid phosphate per acre, to which, on 
soils needing potash, may be added fifty pounds 
of muriate of potash or an equivalent amount 
of kainit. The cowpea is a leguminous plant, and 
so, after reaching the stage at which its roots are 
abundantly supplied with tubercles, derives its 
nitrogen very largely from the air. Hence, the 
use of nitrogenous fertilizers is not generally very 
economical, though the cowpea, in common with 
nearly all other plants, thrives best in the pres- 
ence of vegetable matter, and profits greatly by 
an application of stable manure, of which, how- 
ever, more advantageous use can usually be made. 
The yield is very slightly increased by applications 
of nitrate of soda, and nitrogenous fertilizers have 
little effect on the composition of the resulting 
forage. In one test at the Connecticut Storrs 
Experiment Station (Report 1893), potash not 
only increased the yield but increased the per- 
centage of protein in the forage. 

Harvesting. — In curing cowpea hay, the same 
rules obtain as in curing clover hay. Especial care 
must be taken to leave the cut forage exposed to 
the sun in the swath for as short a time as practi- 
cable, the curing being completed in cocks, or in 
such other way as to protect the bulk of the hay 
from long exposure to the sun. No definite rule 
can be given, but it is usual to rake the hay twenty- 
four to thirty-six hours after mowing and to pile 
it in cocks the afternoon of the second day after 
mowing. Here in fair weather it should remain for 
two or three days, at the end of which time the 
cocks may be opened for a few hours before being 
hauled to the barn. 

One method of hay-curing is thus described in 
Bulletin No. 40, of the Mississippi Experiment 
Station : "The mower is started in the morning as 
soon as the dew is off and run until noon. . . . 
As soon as the top of the cut vine is well wilted 
the field is run over with a tedder. . . . When 
the crop is very heavy the tedder is used a second 
time. Vines that have been cut in the morning and 
teddered in the afternoon are usually dry enough 
to put in small cocks the next afternoon, and 
if the weather promises to be favorable they are 



26G 



COWPEA 



COWPEA 



allowed to remain in the cocks two or three days 
before they are hauled to the barn. If it should 
rain before the vines are put in cocks they are 
not touched until the surface is well dried, and 
are then tedded as though freshly cut. We find 
the only safe plan is to put the hay for a few 
weeks in a stack covered with straw, or, still 
better, in a barn, where it should not be piled 
too deep. After a month it may be packed without 
danger of finding moldy or dusty hay in the cen- 
ters of the bales." 

Some persons store cowpea hay in the barn 
when merely well wilted, and disavow any fear 
of spontaneous combustion or molding. When this 
is done it is necessary that the crop be nearly 
mature, about one-half of the pods having assumed 
a straw-color; that there be no e.xternal moisture 
on the plants when placed in the mow; and that the 
hay be not moved, no matter how hot it may 
become, since forking over the hay would admit 
additional oxygen that would facilitate fermenta- 
tion or combustion. Until more is known of the 
conditions under which this procedure may be 
safe, it cannot be generally recommended. 

In the southern states, September and October 
are usually the driest months, and if the crop can 
be sown at such time as to bring the haying 
season in these months, this, together with the 
use of haycaps ( Fig. 279), will greatly reduce the 
danger of loss in curing. 

The harvesting of cowpea seed is not yet on 
a satisfactory basis. The pods are usually picked 
by hand and afterwards shelled by beating with 
a flail. Pickers have been patented and tested, 
but never extensively manufactured nor adopted. 
Hand-picking, the usual procedure, is too slow. 
The most rapid method is to cut the vines after 
most of the pods have matured, using a reaper or 
scythe; carefully to cure the whole in cocks; and 
to pass the vines and pods through a shredder, 
which cracks very few of the peas. Some persons 
advise running the vines through a grain thresher, 
driven at low speed and with blank concaves, pre- 
cautions which in our experience have not entirely 
prevented the cracking of a considerable propor- 
tion of the peas. 

Uses. 

The cowpea is useful for the following purposes: 

(1) For the improvement of the land, through 
the addition of vegetable matter and of nitrogen 
secured from the soil air. 

(2) For forage that may be utilized either as 
hay, as a soiling crop, for silage, or for pasturage. 

(3) For the production of a highly nutritious 
seed crop that serves as food for mankind and 
for domestic animals. 

(4) As a crop to fit the land for sod, in the 
North. 

The most profitable means of utilizing the crop 
is to use the top as forage, and to secure in 
addition the very considerable fertilizing effect of 
the roots, stubble and other residue left on the 
land. By this method the forage is utilized twice, 
once as food for animals and later in the form 



of barnyard manure, which will then be very rich 
in nitrogen. If the crop cannot be converted into 
hay, the next best use is to pasture it, thus leav- 
ing most of the fertilizing material on the land. 

The analyses heretofore given show that all 
parts of the cowpea plant are rich in nitrogen. 
The hay is similar in composition to wheat-bran, 
and experiments at the Alabama Experiment Sta- 
tion (Bulletin No. 123) showed that one ton of 
cowpea hay was practically equal to 1,720 pounds 
of wheat-bran in the ration of dairy cows. At 
this station, the grazing of cowpeas by dairy 
cows showed a value of about five dollars per 
acre of cowpeas grown as a catch-crop between 
the rows of corn, and a value of about eight 
dollars per acre in low-priced pork when nearly 
ripe cowpeas were grazed by hogs (Bulletin No. 
118). The cowpea makes a satisfactory silage 
when passed through a silage cutter and well 
weighted in the silo. It is usually preferable, 
however, to mix in the silo cowpeas with corn or 
sorghum. 

The cowpea as a fertilizer. — What clover is to the 
North and West as a means of improving the fer- 
tility of the soil, the cowpea is to regions south 
of the clover-belt. A ton of cowpea hay contains 
about forty pounds of nitrogen; hence, with a 
yield of two tons of hay per acre, we have in the 
entire plant, including roots and stubble, more than 
100 pounds of nitrogen per acre, equivalent to 
more than in 600 pounds of nitrate of soda. Of the 
total nitrogen in the plant, that in the roots and 
stubble usually constitutes 20 to 40 per cent, 
averaging about 30 per cent. 

Crops grown after the stubble of the cowpea, 
yield considerably more than when following non- 
leguminous plants, but usually much less than 
when the entire growth of the preceding crop of 
cowpeas has been plowed under as fertilizer. 

Diseases and insect enemies. 

In parts of the southern states near the coast, 
and especially on sandy soil long in cultivation, 
the cowpea is subject to the cowpea wilt {Neocos- 
mospora vasinfecta, var. tracheiphila) and to injuries 
of the root by nematode worms (Heterodera ra- 
dieicola). To both maladies the Iron variety is 
practically or entirely immune. Mildew, leaf-spot 
and other diseases of the foliage occur, but exten- 
sive damage from these is unusual. The leaves are 
sometimes eaten by grasshoppers and other insects. 

Literature. 

The literature on cowpeas is extensive. Mucb 
information will be found in the agricultural press 
and agricultural books. A few bulletins and 
reports are mentioned here: 

Alabama (College) Experiment Station Bulletins, 
Nos. 14, 107, 114, 118, 120, 122 and 123; Ala- 
bama (Canebrake) Experiment Station Bulletins, 
Nos. 9, 10 and 22; Arkansas Experiment Station 
Bulletins, Nos. 31, 58, 61,68, 70 and 77 ; Connect- 
icut (Storrs) Experiment Station Bulletins, Nos. 
6 and 23; Reports 1888, 1893, 1895; Delaware 
Experiment Station Bulletins, Nos. 46, 55 and 61; 



COWPEA 



DYES AND DYEING 



267 



Reports 1892, 1893, 1895 ; Georgia Experiment 
Station Bulletins, Nos. 3, 17, 23, 26 and 71; 
Illinois Experiment Station Bulletin, No. 94 ; Ken- 
tucky Experiment Station Bulletin, No. 98; Report, 
1902 ; Louisiana Experiment Station Bulletins, 
Nos. 8, 19, 29, 40, 55 and 72; Michigan 
Experiment Station Bulletins, Nos. 224 and 227; 
Mississippi Experiment Station Bulletin, No. 40; 
Missouri Experiment Station Bulletin, No. 34; 
New Jersey Experiment Station Bulletins, Nos. 
161, 174 and 180; Report, 1893; North Carolina 
Experiment Station Bulletins, Nos. 73, 98 and 162; 
Oklahoma Experiment Station Bulletin, No. 68; 
Reports 1899, 1901 and 1905; South Carolina 
Experiment Station Report, 1889; Texas Experi- 
ment Station Bulletin, No. 34; Vermont Experi- 
ment Station Report, 1895; Pennsylvania Experi- 
ment Station Report, 1895; Bulletin, No. 130; 
United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau 
of Plant Industry Bulletin, No. 25; United States 
Dejiartment of Agriculture (Agrostology 64), Cir- 
cular, No. 24; United States Department of Agri- 
culture Yearbook for 1896. 

DYES AND DYEING. Figs. 372-378. 

By C. S. Doggctt. 

Dyestuff materials are derived from the animal 
and vegetable kingdoms, and, in the last fifty years, 
those made synthetically from products obtained 
from coal-tar. In 1856, W. H. Perkin, an English 
chemist, discovered the production of a violet dye 
when experimenting with aniline, a body found in 
coal-tar ; soon afterwards, other dyes were made 
from the same products and they became known as 
aniline colors. Unfortunately, these colors were 
inferior to the natural coloring matters, which 
they surpassed in brilliancy, so that, although very 
many artificial colors have been made that equal or 
surpass those derived from natural products (in 
some instances the identical natural product being 
made synthetically), "aniline colors" even today 
are regarded in the popular mind with more or less 
suspicion. Over twenty-five thousand patents have 
been taken out covering these dyes or processes 
relating thereto, and more than two thousand arti- 
ficial dyestuff's have found more or less commercial 
value. The natural coloring matters are rapidly 
becoming of historic interest only and their cul- 
ture is lieing abandoned. A few are now secured 
from native trees of the forest. Twenty-five years 
ago madder began to be replaced by alizarine, 
the coloring principle found in it, which is now 
manufactured in enormous quantities ; and within 
the last six years, the artificial production of indigo 
has been compelling the producers of the natural 
product to improve their methods or succumb. 
Indeed, it is only the cheap labor of India that 
renders any competition possible. 

Dyestufi's are used for coloring all sorts of 
materials. Addition of coloring matter to a food 
product to disguise its appearance or character 
partakes of the nature of fraud. Harmless color- 
ing materials may be u.sed in confectionery and the 
like, where it is evident that no deceit is intended. 



Coloring materials vary so much in properties 
that it is not possible in this place to give the de- 
tails of their extraction. Coloring matters that 
exist as such are extracted with the proper solvent : 
water-alcohol and ether are the chief solvents. 
Many of the natural coloring matters, such as that 
of logwood, are not found in plants in the free 
state, but in combination with a glucose-like body, 
and are called glucosids, and only after a kind of 
fermentation or oxidation is the coloring principle 
in condition to be extracted. In common with many 
plants possessing medicinal properties, the special 
ferment also exists in the plant, so that fermen- 
tation proceeds when the proper conditions are 
met. 

List of natural animal and vegetable colors. 

The following very complete list of natural col- 
ors of vegetable and animal origin, compiled by 
Wilton G. Berry and published in Circular No. 
25, of the Bureau of Chemistry, Department of 
Agriculture, rescues from oblivion many coloring 
matters and fairly indicates their importance and 
use. The source of the color is given in Italics : 

Alder bark : Alnus glutinosa. Yellow. 

Alkanet : Baphorhiza tinctoria (Alkanna tinctoria, 
Anchusa tinctoria). Used in coloring oils, medicines, po- 
mades, wine, etc. Red to crimson. Alkanna green has 
also been prepared from the root. 

Aloes : Cape aloe (.4/oc spicata), A. arborescens, A. 
lucida, A. Succotrina, A. vera. Yellow. 

Al root or Aich root, soorangee, suranjee (India) : 
Morinda citrifolia, M. tinctoria. Alumina lake, yellow. 

Annatto, or anotto, orlean, roucou, orenetto, attalo, 
terra orellana, achiote : Bixa Orellana. Used for color- 
ing oils, butter, etc. (Fig. 372.) 

Archil, or orchil, orseille, oricello, orchilla : Rocella 
Montagnei (new), R.fuciformis (old), R. tinctoria. Also 
prepared from any lichens containing orcin or its deriv- 
atives, i. e., Variolaria, Lecanora, Evcrnia, Cladonia, 
Ramalina, Usnea. Appears in liquid, paste, and powder 
forms, the latter being a sulfonated derivative. Dyes 
unmordanted wool in neutral, alkaline and acid solutions, 
giving a bright bluish red. The color is not fast to light. 

Asbarg or gandhaki (Afgnanistan) : Delphinium Zalil. 
Yellow lakes prepared from the blossoms. 

Bahia wood : Ccesalpinia Brasilicnsis. Exported from 
Bahia. Sometimes called Brazilwood. See under Red- 
woods. 

Barberry : Berberis vulgaris. Yellow basic dye. 

Barwood, or camwood, kambe ' wood, bois du cam : 
Baphia nitida. From west coast of Africa and Jamaica. 
See under Redwoods. 

Bastard hemp : Datisca cannabina. Alkaline solutions, 
yellow. 

Bilberry, or whortleberry : Vaccinium membranaccum, 
V. MyrtiUus. Blue to purple. 

Box myrtle, or yangmce of China, kaiphal of India : 
Myriea Nagi [M. sapida and M. integrifolia), M. rubra. 
Alumina lake, brown orange. 

Brazilwood, or fernambourgwood, pemambuco wood, 
fernambuck wood, bois de femambuoc, rothholz : Guilan- 
dina crista, Ccesalpinia Braziliensis. Chiefly from Brazil 
and Jamaica. See under Redwoods. 

Brazilettowood, or Jamaica redwood, Bahama redwood : 
Balsamea sp. See under Redwoods. 

Buckthorn : Rhamnus cathartica. Purple juice which 
when treated with alkali becomes green. Used in confec- 
tionery as sap green. 



268 



DYES AND DYEING 



DYES AND DYEING 



Buckwheat : Fagopyrum esculentum. Yellow color 
from leaves and stalk. 

Buttercup : Ranunculus bulbotus and other species. 
Yellow. 

Cabbage : Brassica oleracea. Contains cauline, prob- 
ably identical with the cyanine of wine. 

Camwood, or gaban wood, poa-gaban : Closely allied to 
barwood. From African coast. See under Redwoods. 




Fig. 372. Annatto pod3, from which butter color is deilTed. 

Capers : Capparis spinosa. Yellow. 

Caramel : Sugar heated above its melting point turns 
brown and is converted into caramel. Brown. 

Carrot : Daucus Carota. Yellow. 

Catechu : Acacia Catechu, Ourouparia gambier. Brown 
to dull red colors. Influenced by oxidation. Contains 
catechin. 

Celery, or smallage : Apium graveolens. Yellow-green. 

Chamomile (Ger.), or matricario : Matricaria Chamo- 
milla. Alumina lake, yellow. 

Chay root, or che root, cherri vello, sayavee, imbural, 
turbuli : Oldenlandia umbellata. Contains alizarin, pur- 
purin, etc. See under Madder. 

Chelidoine juice : Chelidonium majus. Yellow. 

Chica-red, or crajina : Arrabidma Chica (Bignonia 
Chica). Vermilion-red powder, insoluble in water ; alka- 
line solutions, orange to red. 

Chinese green, or lokoa : Rhammis tinctoria, R. 
Dahurica. Only green dye other than chlorophyll. 

Chinese yellow : Gardenia grandiflora. Other Chinese 
yellows are wongsky, wougsky, wongschy, hoang-teng, 
hoang-tschi, hoang-pe-pi, and ti-hoang. 

Chrysamic acid : Aloes. Action of nitric acid on aloes. 
Yellow in alcohol. 

Chlorophyll : Green color of plants. 

Cochineal, or cochenille, coccionella : Coccus cacti 
(dried bodies of the female insect). Contains carminic 



acid soluble in water with purple color ; lakes, red to 
purple ; alum or tin lakes, cochineal carmine or coccerin. 

Cotinin : Preparation from young fustic. Yellow. 

Cranberry or red bilberry : Vaccinium Vitis-Idwa. 
Red. 

Cudbear, or cudbeard, perseo : Lecanora tinctoria, 
Variolaria orcina (lichens). Differs from archil in being in 
powder and free from excess of ammonia. Bluish red. 

Cyanin : Coloring matter from petals of flowers. 
Occurs in wine. Blue, turning pink with vegetable acids. 

Dragon's blood (palm): Dcemonorops Draco. Red resin, 
used chiefly tor coloring varnishes, for preparing gold 
lacquers, for tooth tinctures and powders, and for staining 
marbles. 

Dragon's blood (Socotra) : Draccsna Cinnabari. Red 
resin. 

Dwarf elder : Sambucus Ebulus. Red. 

Dyer's broom : Genista tinctoria. Yellow. 

Dyer's woodruff : Asperula tinctoria. Contains colors 
similar to alizarin. 

Elderberry : Sambucus Canadensis, S. nigra, S. pubens. 
Red. 

Fairy cup or blood cup : Chlorosplenium mruginosum. 
Calcium lake, green. 

Flavin : Prepared from oak bark. Olive yellow to dark 
brown powder. Yellow. 

Forget-me-not : Myosotis palustris. See Cyanin. 

French purple : Prepared from archil by treatment 
with acid. 

Fu.stic (old) or yellow Brazilwood, Holland yellow wood, 
murier des teinturiers, hois jaune, gelbholz : Chlorophora 
tinctoria (Morus tinctoria). Contains morin and maclurin. 
Yellow. 

Fustic (young) or bois jaune de Hongrie, du Tirol, 
Fisetholz, fustel : Rhus Cotinus. Contains fisitin. Yel- 
low. 

Galangal (Chinese): Alpinia officinarum. Alkaline 
solutions, yellow. Used in Russia for making "Nastoika," 
a liquor. 

Galangal (Javan): Alpinia Galanga. Alkaline solu- 
tions, yellow. 

Gamboge : Gareinia Hanburyi, G. Morella. Red resin. 
Lakes, yellow. 

Garancin : Formerly prepared from madder. Of his- 
toric interest only. 

Gentian : Gentiana lutea. Alkaline solutions, yellow. 

Goa powder : Vouacapoua Araroba (Andira Araroba) 
Aguiar. Contains chrysarobin and chrysophanic acid. 
Yellow. 

Golden seal or Canadian yellow root : Hydrastis Cana- 
densis. Yellow basic dye. See Medicinal Plants. 

Harmala red : Peganum Harmala. Basic color in- 
soluble in water ; alkaline solutions, red. 

Heartsease, or pansy, lady's delight : Viola tricolor, 
var. arvensis. Yields quercetin. Yellow. 

Hollyhock : Althcea rosea, Malva sylvestris, M. rotun- 
difolia. Solutions, violet-red. Crimson with acids. Green 
with alkalies. Alumina lake, violet-blue. 

Horse-chestnut : lakes, yellow. 

Indian yellow, or piuri, piouri, purree, purrea arabica, 
jaune indien. Prepared in India from the urine of cows 
fed on mango leaves, and contains yellow coloring matters, 
free and in form of magnesium or calcium salts. 

Indigo: Indigofera Anil and other species. (Fig. 373.) 
Insoluble in water. Becomes soluble by treatment with sul- 
furic acid, forming sulpho salts. Indigo carmine (blue). 
Soluble under reduction to indigo white in alkaline solutions 
containing a reducing agent, such as copperas, zinc dust, 
glucose, and certain organic ferments, bran being em- 
ployed in wool dyeing. On exposure to air, indigo white 
is oxidized to indigo. The dyeing process depends on this 
reaction. Indigo made artificially is very largely used. 
Indigo was once an important product of South Carolina, 



i 



DYES AND DYEING 



DYES AND DYEING 



269 



"In 1742, George Lucas, governor of Antigua, sent the 
first seeds of the indigo plant to Carolina, to his daughter. 
Miss Eliza Lucas (afterwards the mother of Charles Cotes- 
worth Pinckney). With much perseverance, after several 
disappointments, she succeeded in growing the plant and 
extracting the indigo from it. Parliament shortly after 
placed a bounty on the production of indigo in British 
possessions, and this crop attained a rapid development in 
Carolina. In 1754, 216,924 pounds and, in 1777, 1,107,660 
pounds were produced. But the war with the mother 
country, the competition of indigo-culture in the East 
Indies, the unpleasant odor emitted and the swarms of 
flies attracted by the fermentation of the weeds in the 
vats, and above all the absorbing interest in the cotton 
crop, caused the rapid decline of its culture, and in the 
early part of this century it had ceased to be a staple 
product, although it was in cultivation in remote places as 
late as 1848." (From "South Carolina," by Harry Ham- 
mond.) 

Jackwood, or jack fruit of Ceylon : Artocarpus integ- 
rifolia. Alumina lake, yellow. 

Kamala, or kameela, ramelas, rottlera : Eckinus 
Philippinensis (Rottlera tinctoria). Red powder. 

Kermes berries, or portugal berries, poke berries, 
pigeon berries, scoke berries : Phytolacca Americana 
(Phytolacca decandra). Reddish. 

Kermes, or false kermes berries, graines de kermes, 
vermilion vegetal : Coccus ilicis (dried bodies of the 
female insect). Solutions and lakes, blood red. 

Kino : Pterocarpus Marsupium, Butea frondosa, B. 
tuperba, and varieties, Eucalyptus corymbosa. Red color. 

Lac-dye, or lac-lac : Coccus laccce (from the female 
insect). Colors similar to cochineal. 

Lapacho, or taigu wood : Tecoma Lapacho and allied 
species. Yellow color. 

Lima wood, or Costa Rica redwood : Similar to St. 
Martha wood. See under Redwoods. 

Liquorice : Glycyrrhiza glabra. Brown. 

Litmus, or tournesol : Rocella, Lecanora, Variolaria 
(lichens). Red and blue. Used as an indicator by chemists; 
acids change the blue to red, and alkalies the red to 
blue. 

Logwood, or Campechy wood, Blauholz : Hoematoxylum 



Campechianum. The unfennented extract forms yellow 
solutions if neutral, and blue precipitate with calcare- 
ous water. The unfermented solution contains chiefly 
a glucoside which, on fermentation, yields hsmatoxylin, 
and the latter is easily oxidized to hsematein. Various 





Indigo {Indigofera Anil), fonnerly grown in the 
South, and still cultivated in India. 



Fig. 374. Madder (Rubia tinctorum). a and & and their op- 
posites are probably not true leaves but large leaf-like 
stipules : the leaves of K. tinctorum are opposite. Former 
source of the Turkey red dye. 

colored lakes are formed. Haematoxylin forms rose-red 
color with alum and a black violet lake with iron alum. 
Hsematein forms bluish violet with alkalies ; reddish 
purple with sodium carbonate ; reddish purple with 
ammonia ; bluish violet lake with ammoniacal copper 
sulfate ; violet lake with ammoniacal tin chlorid ; black 
with ammoniacal iron alum. Logwood and fustic are the 
principal natural coloring matters not yet replaced by 
artificial products. They are not used so exclusively as 
hitherto. Their coloring principles have not yet been 
made synthetically, and their low price and good qualities 
keep them important. 

Lopez root : Toddalia aculeata. Contains ber- 
berin. Yellow. 

Lomatiol : Tricondylus ilicifolia, Tricondylus 
myricoides. Yellow. 

Madder : Rubia tinctorum. (Fig. 374). Natural 
source of alizarin dyes. Formerly considered the 
most important of all dye-stuffs used by calico- 
printers, and cultivated very extensively in Italy 
and France, but is now entirely displaced by arti- 
ficial alizarin. The plant is a native of Asia Minor. 
Color dyed with it is the well-known Turkey red. 
Mang-koudur, or oungkoudon, song-kou-long, 
jong koutong : Morinda umbellata. Lakes, yellow to red. 
Marsh marigold : Caltha palustris. Yellow. 
Mountain wormwood, or Genepi des alpes : Artemisia 
Absinthium. Yellowish. 

Munjeet : Rubia cordifolia. Similar to madder. 
Myrtle berry: Myrtus communis. Bluish red. 
Nettle : Urtica sp. 

Nicaragua wood : Guilandina echinata. Boughs or 
twigs used. See Redwoods. 

Onion : Allium Cepa. Alumina lake, yellow-brown. 
Oregon grape root : Berberis Aquifolium. Yellow 
basic dye. 

Panama crimson : Vine called " China." 

Parsley: Apium Petroseiinum. Alumina lake, yellow. 

Peachwood, or St. Martha wood, Martin wood, bois du 



270 



DYES AND DYEING 



DYES AND DYEING 



sang : Guilandina echinata. From the Sierra Nevada in 
Mexico. See under Redwoods. 

Persian berries, or yellow berries, Kreutzbeeren, Avig- 
non-Korner, graines de perse, graines jaunes, graines d' 
Avignon (Rhamnus infectoria), French berries (R. Ala- 
ternus), Spanish berries {R. saxatiiis), Italian berries (R. 
infectoria), Hungarian berries {R. cathartica). Alum lake, 
bright yellow ; iron lake, dark olive. 

Poppy, or field red corn : Papaver Rkaas. Red. 

Poplar buds : Populus sp. Alumina lake, yellow. 

Prickly pear: Opunlia vulgaris. Red. One of the 
chief species of cacti on which the cochineal (which see) 
insect lives and propagates. 

Privet berries : Ligustrum. vulgare. Bluish red. 

Purple heart: Copaifera puhliflora. Alum lake, yellow. 

Puriri : Vitex littoralis. Alum lake, yellow. 

Quercitron : Quercus velutina and varieties: Yields 
quercetin, yellow. Quercitron bark extract is still used 
extensively. 

Quebracho : Qnebrachia Lorentzii. Yellow color. 

Redwoods : See Brazil, Bahia, Peach, Nicaragua, Sapan, 
Lima, Braziletto, Barwood and Camwood. These woods 




Fig. 375. 



Safflower (Carthamus Hnctorius). Source of a 
yellow dye. 



yield on treatment various red to yellow-red colored 
solutions, no two woods giving exactly the same shades ; 
i. e., Brazilin, probably occurring as a glucoside, forms 
Brazilein on oxidation and yields lakes similar to alizarin 
in .shade, but inferior in all other qualities. Florence, 
Berlin and Venetian lakes are lakes of the soluble red- 
woods. 

Rhubarb : Rheum officinale. Yields chrysophanis acid. 
Yellow. 

Rue : Ruta graveolens. Alum lake, yellow. 



Safflower, or dyer's saffron, carthame, safran batard, 
bastard saffron : Carthamus tinctorius. (Fig. 875). Yel- 
low. Triturated with French chalk and dried, forms 
various bright " rouges ". 

Saffron, or azafran (Afgh.); Crocus sativus. Yellow. 
(Fig. 376). 

Sage : Salvia officinalis. Yellow. 

Sandalwood, or santalwood, lignum santalum, red san- 
talwood, Saunders wood, red sandalwood, red Sanders wood, 
bois de santal, Sandelholz : Pterocarpus santalinus, P. 
Indicus. Contains santalin, a fine red powder easily soluble 
in alcohol and acetic acid with a blood-red color. See 
under Redwoods. 

Sapan wood, or sappan wood, Japan wood, bois du 
Japon ; also called red sandalwood, santalwood, sumbawa 
wood: Ccesalpina Sappan. Probably identical with caliatur 
wood or cariatur wood. See under Redwoods. 

Saw-wort : Serratula tinctoria. Alumina lake, yel- 
low. 

Sepia : Sepia officinalis, Loligo tunicata and other 
species of cuttle-fish common in the Mediterranean and 
Adriatic. Dark brown coloring matter from the ink- 
bag of these animals. The pure pigment constitutes four- 
fifths of the dried ink-bags as they occur in commerce. 
Dark brown ink-like pigment. 

Sorgo red, or durrha : Andropogon Sorghum. Lakes, 
crimson red. 

Spanish trefoil : Trifolium sp. 

Spinach : Spinacia oleracea. Yellow. 

Stringy bark : Eucalyptus maerorhyncha. Orange to 
yellow. 

Sun dew : Drosera Whittakerii. Lakes red to brown. 

Sumac (Cape), or pruim bast : Colpoon compressum. 
Alum lake, yellow. 

Sumac (Sicilian): Rhus Coriaria. Alum lake, olive. 

Sumac (Virginian): Rhus hirta. This and the above 
are used in dyeing processes as a source of tannin. 

Tyrian purple : Murex, Purpura, Buceinium, etc. 
(sea shells). The purple dye of the Phoenicians, Greeks 
and Romans. 

Turmeric, or curcuma, Indian saffron, terra raerita, 
souchet, safran d' Inde : Curcuma longa, C. rotunda. 
Yellow. 

Ventilago Madras-patana, or oural patti, pitti, lokandi, 
kanwait, etc. : Ventilago Madraspatn.na. Lakes, blue. 

Virginia creeper : Parthenocissus (or Ampelopsis) 
quinquefolia. Red color. 

Waifa, or hoai-hoa, Chinese yellow berries : Sophora 
Japonica. Alumina lake, yellow. 

Wallflower : Cheiranthus Cheiri. Yellow lakes pre- 
pared from the blossoms. 

Wall lichen : Parmelia parietina. Yellow. 

Waras : Moghania congesta (Flemingia congesta). Red 
resinous powder. 

Weld, or wau, gaude, yellow weed, dyer's rocket : 
Reseda Luteola. (Fig. 377). Alumina lake, yellow. With 
chromium, olive-yellow ; with tin, bright yellow ; with iron, 
olive. Considered superior to all other natural yellow color- 
ing matters, but now displaced by several synthetic dye- 
stufl's. 

Whitethorn, or blackthorn : Crataegus oxyacantha. 
Yellow lakes from blossoms. 

Woad, or pastel, waid : Isatis tinctoria, I. Lusitanica. 
(Fig. 378). Contains indigo. Formerly cultivated in Eng- 
land and Holland. 

Mineral coloring matters. 

Of the many inorganic coloring matter.?, only 
chrome yellow, chrome orange, iron and manga- 
nese oxids and Prussian blue may be treated under 
dyestuffs. None of the.se is used as .such, but they 
are produced on te.xtiles by chemical reactions. 



DYES AND DYEING 



DYES AND DYEING 



271 



The goods are first treated with a solution of one 
of the chemicals, and then on working in another 
solution the pigment is produced. In calico-print- 
ing, any pigment can be fastened mechanically as 
in ordinary printing, except that gum arable, dex- 




Saifron {Cntctis satitnts). 



Source of a yellow dye. 



Fig. 376. 

trin, starch, albumen, and the like, are employed 
instead of varnishes. 

Definitions. 

Lakes are insoluble compounds of alumina and 
coloring matters. If these are formed by them- 
selves, a color-lake or pigment is produced ; but if 
a fabric is first impregnated with alum or other 
metallic salts for which the fiber has an affinity, on 
subsequent treatment in the coloring solution the 
color-lake is produced in and on the fiber, which is 
then said to be dyed. Several other metallic oxids 
also possess similar properties, often giving differ- 
ent colored precipitates with the same dyestuffs. 
These metallic compounds are called "mordants" 
(from the French mordre, to bite). Tannic acid 
forms insoluble compounds with an entire series 
of coloring matters and is similarly u.sed. 

Although dyeing has been practiced from time 
immemorial, and by all nations of the globe, no 
satisfactory theory has been advanced to explain 
the process. Mechanical attraction, chemical affin- 
ity and "solid solution " are given as explanations, 
all having experimental evidence in support. In 
wool dyeing, the chemical affinity theory best 
elucidates the process. 



Classification of dyestuffs. 

The dyestuffs may be classified either according 
to their chemical composition, in accordance with 
the fibers for which they are most suitable, or with 
the methods used in their application. The first 
classification is of importance to the chemist, while 
the last is best for practical purposes, and is shown 
in the following grouping : 

(a) Direct cotton colors. These dye cotton in full 
shades without the aid of mordants ; in conjunction 
with them, certain salts, such as glauber salt or 
common salt, are used to aid in the ,,5^ 
absorption of the dye, as these salts '^' 
tend to force it out of the solution. _^|| 
Alkaline salts, such as soda, soap or -fM 
phosphate of soda, have an opposite ^^i 
effect and tend to retard the dj'eing '^^^ 
process and to prevent uneven dyeing. ^H' 

The direct cotton colors also act as '^^ 
mordants, combining with the colors J^i 
of the following class. These dyes "jfe. 
may be converted into others by treat- j^py 
ment with certain chemicals, thus ^ 
making a new dye on the goods. mj^- 

(b) Basic colors. Colors of a basic 'iM 
nature, which form compounds with -^ 
tannic acid, insoluble in water, and .jflf 
which dye the vegetable fibers with 
the aid, and animal fibers without the 
aid, of mordants. 

(c) Acid colors. Colors of an acid 
nature, which dye the animal fibers 
without the aid of mordants. 

((/) Mordant colors. Colors which 
are dyed with the aid of metallic mor- 
dants. Most of the natural coloring 
matters come under this head. 

(e) Sulfur colors. Colors of recent 
discovery. Most of them are insoluble 
in water, but soluble in water contain- 
ing .sodium sulfid. They are used 
for vegetable fibers as direct col- 
ors, and are similarly applied. 

if) Miscellaneous colors. These 
include those having little in com- 
mon, and require individual 
treatment. Some of the most 
important come under this 
head. 

(1) Indigo. See same in list 
of natural coloring matters. 

(2) Eosines and rhodaniine.s. 
Especially valuable for pro- 
ducing brilliant pigments in 
conjunction with metallic pre- 
cipitants, for making artifi- 
cial vermilion, etc. 

(.3) Aniline black is pro- 
duced by impregnating the 
cotton yarn or cloth with ani- 
line and the proper amounts of 
the required chemicals ; on 
after-treatment, oxidation ^'s- 3"- 

takes place and the color is ^fLra^ZlllT' 

formed. Other colors of much source of a yellow dye. 



272 



DYES AND DYEING 



DYES AND DYEING 



importance are produced by processes which con- 
sist essentially in manufacturing the dye in an 
insoluble form in the goods. 

Calico-printing. 

Calico-printing may be considered as local dye- 
ing. It is the art of producing on woven material 
a design in color by certain processes, one of which 




Fig. 378. Woad ilsatis tinctoria), o, Lower leaf; b, first year 
leaf; c, mature fruit. Source of a blue dye. 

is a printing process. The art has been developed 
from the early painting of cloth in India (in Cali- 
cut, hence the name "calico") to the modern print. 
There is probably no other industry in which so 
great a combination of artistic, mechanical, chem- 
ical and technical skill of the highest order is 
required, and this, too, to produce so cheap a 
finished product. Formerly the prints were made 
from wooden blocks cut in relief, there being a set 
of blocks equal in number to the colors desired if 
the pattern were small, or, if large, as many for 
each color as were necessary to make the complete 
design. This process is known as block printing 
and is done by hand. For large designs, or for 
those of more than twenty colors, this method is 
employed today and to a considerable extent to 
meet the demand for more artistic goods. The 



Japanese produce some very beautiful goods by ap- 
plying the colors with stencils. This method can 
be used by any one, and very artistic effects can be 
produced at a trifling expense. In fact, this work 
should prove most interesting to amateurs, as most 
elaborate designs may be made. 

The modern calico-printing machine consists of 
a large iron cylinder about which copper rollers 
are mounted. The cylinder is padded and the 
design is engraved in the copper rollers, each roller 
being engraved to apply one color ; as many rollers 
are necessary as there are colors in the pattern. 
Beneath each roller is a trough or "color-box " 
from which the color is carried to the roller by a 
wooden roller covered with cloth, or by a cylindri- 
cal brush. The entire surface of the copper be- 
comes coated with the color, but as it revolves, a 
sharp blade, known as the "doctor," scrapes off all 
the color except that in the engraved part. The 
cloth to be printed passes between the large cylin- 
der and the copper rollers, and the color is trans- 
ferred to it. With one passage the entire design is 
produced. In order to give it a resilient surface, an 
endless web, called the blanket, also passes through, 
and between it and the cloth to be printed un- 
bleached cloth passes, which serves to take up the 
surplus color. A second "doctor," called the lint 
doctor, removes any loose fibers from the copper 
roller. The rollers are so mounted in the framework 
that they may be adjusted while the machine is in 
operation, so that any misfit can be corrected. As 
the cloth passes from the machine it is dried and 
given such other treatment as the style of work 
may require. 

Pigments are printed by being mixed with blood 
albumen, or the white of egg, for delicate shades. 
On steaming the printed goods, the albumen is 
coagulated, becomes insoluble and fixes the color. 
Basic colors are mi.xed with tannin and acetic acid, 
in which the tannin lake of the color is soluble ; in 
drying, the acetic acid evaporates and the insoluble 
lake is produced. Mordant colors are similarly 
applied. 

Another process consists in printing on the thick- 
ened mordants and then dyeing the goods. The 
color is fixed where the mordant has been printed. 

Patterns are produced by printing dyed goods 
with chemicals which destroy the color. This is 
known as discharge work. Starches, gums, flour 
and other similar bodies are used in making the 
printing pastes. Wool, silk and yarns are also 
printed; the latter, however, on a machine in which 
the design is in relief. Both sides of the cloth may 
be printed in one passage through a double machine. 
If the patterns on both sides are to be alike and 
are required to fit properly, it is necessary to 
have the sets of rollers engraved in pairs, and in 
reverse order. 

Home dyeing. 

In all dyeing processes it is essential to have 
the goods free from grease, dirt and foreign mat- 
ter, and, for light colors, they should be bleached. 
In home dyeing, strict attention should be paid to 
cleanliness of the goods, and care taken accurately 



DYES AND DYEING 



FARM GARDEN 



273 



to carry out dyeing instructions. The package dyes, 
sold everywhere, are very serviceable, though not 
always entirely satisfactory. It should be remem- 
bered that the after-processes add a great deal to 
the appearance of the goods, and that amateurs 
have neither the necessary apparatus nor the skill 
of the professional dyer. Valuable material should 
be sent to a first-class dyer. 

By carrying out the following tests on small 
samples, which can be made readily, the suitability 
of the material for any particular use may be as- 
certained easily, and much after-annoyance avoided: 

(1) Fastness to light and atmospheric influences. 
The sample is exposed to sunlight under glass, and 
compared from time to time with a reserved part. 
E.xpose for two or 
more weeks ; the longer 
the better. A more se- 
vere test is to expose 
to the weather. 

(2) Fastness to rub- 
bing. Rub with a 
piece of white cloth. 

(3) Fastness to iron- 
ing. Press with a hot- 
iron, and compare. 

(4) Fastness to 
washing. Wash with 
hot soap four times, 
allowing the goods 
to dry in the air be- 
tween each two treat- 
ments. 

(5) Fastness to al- 
alkali. Immerse in 
strong ammonia and 
then in washing soda 
(one part in ten of water); dry without washing. 

(6) Fastness to perspiration. Treat for one hour 
with a teaspoonful of 30 per cent acetic acid in a 
pint of water at about blood heat. White wine 
vinegar diluted with an equal quantity of water 
will answer. 

(7) Fastness to boiling in soda. Boil for one hour 
in a gallon of water in which two ounces of wash- 
ing soda and one-half ounce of castile soap have 
been dissolved. 

Literature. 

Georgivics, Chemistry of Dyestuffs; A. G. Green, 
Survey of the Organic Colouring Matters ; Allen, 
Commercial Organic Analysis ; Fraps, Principles 
of Dyeing ; Knecht, Rawson and Rosenthal, Manual 
of Dyeing ; Hummel, Dyeing of Textile Fabrics ; 
Cain and Thorpe, Synthetic Dyestuffs ; Rawson, 
Gardner and Laycock, Diet, of Dyes, Mordants, 
etc. ; Crookes, Handbook of Dyeing and Calico- 
printing ; Rothwell, Printing of Textile Fabrics ; 
Leffmann-Weyl, Sanitary Relations of the Coal Tar 
Colors; Berry, Coloring Matters for Foodstuffs 
and Methods for their Detection (being Bulletin 
No. 2.5 of the Bureau of Chemistry, United States 
Department of Agriculture ; this also contains 
many references to literature on the subject); 
Bulletin No. 100 of same ; Sadtler, Industrial 

B18 



Organic Chemistry, contains a full bibliography 
on the subject. The book, Programme of the City 
and Guilds of London Institute, contains very full 
lists of books on many branches of technology, 
including dyeing and bleaching ; Patterson, Colour 
Matching on Textiles ; Rawson, Gardner and Lay- 
cock, Dictionary of Dyes, Mordants, etc.; Hurst, 
Silk Dyeing and Printing. 

FARM GARDEN. Figs. 379-391. 

The farmer's garden should be simple, ample and 
abounding. There is no need that it be stinted or 
cramped. The hand labor is increased when the 
garden is small and enclosed, for the spaces are 




Fig. 379. A farm vegetable-garden 



made up of long, wide rows that admit of cultivation 
by horse. 



narrow and the rows short, preventing the use of 
a horse. A garden area should be as much a part 
of the farm establishment as the cows or chickens 
are. 

Three classes of products may be grown in farm 
gardens, — flowers, vegetables, fruits. If the es- 
tablishment is a fruit-farm, the fruits will be sup- 
plied from the orchards or fields ; but even then 
there may be some kinds of fruit that will be 
grown only in a garden space. The garden may 
be field-like in its size and treatment ; it may be 
called a garden because it is part of the home 
idea rather than the money-profit idea, being 
accessible to the residence and supplying products 
that are used therein. 

Long, straight rows allow of cultivating by 
horse. As land is plenty, the rows may be placed 
far apart. Too often the farmer follows the dis- 
tances advised in the catalogues and books, and 
thereby plants his garden so close that he must 
hoe it and till it by hand. The distances given in 
the books are those that the plants require in order 
to arrive at proper development ; greater distances 
are no harm to the plants. At one side of the 
garden area, the bush-fruits and asparagus and 
rhubarb may be placed. The other parts may be 
planted in rotation. Even some of the flowers may 
occupy long free rows in the garden space, aflford- 



274 



FARM GARDEN 



FARM GARDEN 



ing abundance of bloom which may be picked with 
the same freedom that tomatoes and strawberries 
are picked. Or, the flower-garden may be made a 
part of the landscape or pictorial setting of the 




Fig. 380. Come] cherry (Oom«s Mas). An early blooniing 
small tree, the handsome little fruits of irhich are some- 
times used in preserves. Example of an odd or interesting 
plant that may be grown in a home garden. 

residence ; this relationship of it is discussed in 
Chapter IX of Vol. I, particularly at pages 312, 
317-18. 

Whether a part of the landscape features or of 
the separate garden area, the flowers should be 
of the kinds that require least special care and are 
surest to aff^ord abundant bloom under indifl'erent 
or even adverse conditions. The main part of the 
flower-garden should be permanent, comprising 
perennial plants. Such plants come up of them- 
selves year after year. Many of the perennials, as 
the phlo.xes, need to be divided or renewed (page 10) 
now and then, but this entails less labor than the 
growing of most annuals. Some of the perennials 
that are easily grown and that will unite to e.xtend 
their bloom from early spring to late fall are as 
follows : Snowdrop and snowflake, crocus, tulip, 
hyacinth, narcissus, polyanthus, English daisy, 
pinks, forget-me-not, peony, bleeding heart, lychnis, 
columbine, iris, larkspur, poppies, lilies, yucca, gas 
plant or dictamnus, hollyhock, phlox (improved 
kinds), certain kinds of sunflowers. Golden Glow 
rudbeckia, perennial pea, outdoor chrysanthemums, 
goldenrods, asters, Japanese anemone. 

Some of the most easily grown and satisfactory 
annuals for the general flower-garden are : China 
aster, marigold, cornflower or bachelor's button, 
petunia,verbena, sweet alyssum. Phlox Drummondii, 
cosmos (for late bloom), annual chrysanthemum, 
zinnia, stock, pansy (for a moist or semi-shady 
piace), nasturtium, sweet sultan, nicotiana (two or 
three kinds), annual poppies (bloom of short dura- 
tion), balsam, portulaca or rose moss (for sunny 
places), sweet pea, morning-glory, hyacinth bean. 

-^ssft. 



Certain shrubs may be grown primarily for their 
flowers as well as for their shrub ett'ect, as : Lilac, 
syringa or mock-orange, crape myrtle ( at the 
South), deutzias, hydrangea, snowball, spireas, blue 
spirea or caryopteris, weigela, ro.se of sharon or 
hibiscus, kerria or Japan rose, and various wild 
bushes of most neighborhoods. 

The Farm Fruit- and Vegetable-Gardens. 

By S. T. Maynard. 

The farmer's garden is proverbially the least 
productive area on the farm, whei'eas it should be 
the most productive and profitable, and should 
afford an abundance of the most wholesome lux- 
uries of country living, fruits, vegetables and 
flowers, in a condition in which they cannot be 
found on the market. The farm att'ords a variety 
of soils from which may be selected that which 
is adapted for the best growth of garden prod- 
ucts. It provides all of the tools needed for 
the most thorough cultivation. It can supply an 

Grape Vine 



00 



Asparagus 



QJ 



! :• I '; 
La 

^— ( 



Rhubarb 



11 



o 
o 



t 



f..K, 



riower-^flrdeii 



HoHsed- 



Tool 
house 



01 



cCco 

u> 
•O 

qjCC 

a. 



O 



.5C 



Vegetables 




soojt. 

Fig. 382. Garden plan, with short rows. 

abundance of plant-food, and the farmer or some 
of his family is on the place all the time and 
can look after the garden. The garden should 
afl'ord recreation for the women and children of 
the family, and a means, if they choose, of earning 
a little "pin money" by the sale of surplus products. 
The home garden is also a place in which various 
interesting fruits and other plants may be grown, 
largely for curiosity (Fig. 380). It is a place for 
odds and ends of things mentioned in books and 

advertized in 
Grape vine 

O 



; tn ■ 

■ o ; 



XSooseberries 



.^. f 



iAppie 



^lacKberries 'Peocli Currants "-l^aspberries 

Fig. 381. Garden plan, with lone rows. 



catalogues. 

The garden 
may be divided 
into three 
parts or sepa- 
rate gardens, 
— the fruit-, 
vegetable- and 
fl w e r - g a r- 
dens;oralImay 
be combined in 



FARM GARDEN 



FARM GARDEN 



275 



one. (Figs. 381 and 382). On the farm there are 

advantages in having the three divisions in one lot, 
and that not far from the house. The daily supplies 
may be gathered easily, and it will be more con- 
stantly under the eye and will be less liable to 
neglect. However, it may be best to have each 
separated a little from the others, when land is 
abundant. The work can then be performed more 
easily than when all are mixed together. 

Location of the garden. 

The vegetable-garden may be a part of any 
field crop, such as corn or potatoes, the vegetables 
being planted at the ends of the field rows so that 
both crops may be cultivated at once. 

The best soil for the apple, pear and plum trees 
is a rich, deep, moist loam, on an elevation sloping 
to the southwest, west or northwest, to insure 
good circulation of air and thus some freedom 
from blights and rots. The peach and the cherry 
do best in a thinner soil, if possible on a north- 
west or western slope. The cherry, especially 
the sweet varieties, will grow on the lawn or by 
the roadside without cultivation, so long as the 
soil is good. The peach is generally given thor- 
ough cultivation, but may be made to grow in turf 
if an abundance of plant-food is supplied, and the 
grass is cut frequently under them, or a mulch 
is spread as far as the branches extend. The trees 
must be made to grow vigorously, whether in 
the garden or on the lawn. [See the article on 
Fruit-growing.] 

Small-fruits generally succeed well on any deep, 
loamy soil containing an abundance of organic 
matter from decaying turf, stable manure or 
green crops turned under. 

Making the garden. 

If the land for the garden is clear and we 
are starting a new one, the first effort is to 
put the soil in good condition by plowing under 
a liberal quantity of stable manure, or by growing 
a cover-crop to be plowed under the season before 
the garden is to be made. For this purpose, 
peas and oats may be sown in the spring, and 
when the latter are in bloom the crop is turned 
under and harrowed thoroughly a few times until 
about August 1. Then peas and barley are sown. 
This crop is left on the land until the follow- 
ing spring to protect it from washing, and is 
plowed under whenever the land is needed, from 
April to June. 

For vegetables, a dressing of five to ten cords 
per acre of fine, rich stable manure should then be 
worked into the soil with a disk- or spring-tooth 
harrow. If stable manure is not available, any 
good commercial garden fertilizer may be used, at 
the rate of one-half to one ton per acre, or 50 to 
120 pounds per square rod. This may seem to be a 
large quantity of fertilizing material to apply, but 
garden vegetables mu.st make a quick growth to 
be succulent. Market-gardeners frequently use 
fifteen to twenty cords, or more, of stable manure 
per acre, and commercial fertilizer in addition, 
and make greater profits than if less were used. 



The large orchard fruits. 

Given a well-fitted soil, good trees are the first 
essentials for success. They should be secured 
from a reliable nursery as near home as possible. 
Strong No. 1, two-year-old trees of apples, pears, 
cherries and European plums should be chosen 
having a clean, straight trunk and a growth of 
three to six clean branches, one to two feet long, 
starting at three to four feet from the ground. 
No. 1 one-year-old peach, Japanese plums, and 
some varieties of cherries, are better than older 
trees. Many orchardists prefer a small No. 1, or a 
No. 2 peach tree, as a low head can be formed 
more certainly from it than from larger trees. 

Preparing the trees for planting. — As the roots 
of trees dug from the nursery are largely de- 
stroyed in digging, it is always best to remove a 
large part of the top at planting. Cut the lateral 
shoots back to a few inches in length, cutting out 
entirely any shoots not needed to form a good 
head. In the formation of the head we leave only 
three or four main branches. Each of these is 
branched when a foot or more in length. The pur- 
pose is to have three or four main lateral branches 
and one central leader. 

The modern orchard tree is grown with a low head, 
the main branches starting about three or four feet 
from the ground ; but in a mixed garden, where 
we cultivate other crops among and under the 
trees, they must be trained higher in order that 
the horse may go under them with the plow, and 
cultivator. 

Planting. — If the land has been fitted by deep 
plowing, the hole for the tree need be only as 
large as the spread of the roots ; if not, then a 
hole considerably larger must be dug, making the 
soil fine and mellow a foot or more deep. Fine, 
rich soil must be worked firmly about the roots 
until the hole is nearly full and the roots well 
covered, when the remainder of the soil is spread 
on loosely to serve as a mulch. Coarse green sta- 
ble manure should not be placed in contact with 
the roots, but it is very valuable on the surface 
about the tree, or over the roots when the hole 
is about half-filled. 

After-pruning and care. — If young trees are 
properly pruned when set out, they will require 
but little pruning until they begin to bear, except 
to check the growth of shoots coming out on the 
trunk or along the main branches that are not 
desired to make a well-formed head. Here and 
there should be cut out branches that cross others 
or tend to smother their foliage by drooping down 
on them. The tree should be kept shapely. In 
pruning old fruit trees, the aim should be to pre- 
vent crossing and crowding of the branches and to 
thin out the old wood, so that the number of fruits 
is reduced, and young and vigorous wood will take 
its place. The ends and the highest branches should 
be cut back so that the lower branches will be 
renewed and sunlight and air admitted. 

Pear, peach and plum trees are pruned in prac- 
tically the same way as the apple, except that 
they all need more heading in to force the growth 
into the lower and lateral branches. 



276 



FARM GARDEN 



FARM GARDEN 



Varieties of large fruits. 

The nursery catalogues give long lists of varieties 
of all of the large fruits, and from their description 
it would seem as if all were valuable, when in any 
one locality perhaps a half-dozen varieties comprise 
nearly all of the valuable qualities desired. Varieties 
suggested as excellent for general cultivation for 
home use are as follows : 

Apples: Summer: Astrachan, Oldenburg, Will- 
iams, Yellow Transparent. — Autumn : Gravenstein, 
Mcintosh, Wealthy, Fall Pippin. — Winter: Hubbard- 
ston, Jonathan, King, Baldwin, R. I. Greening, Spy. 

Pears: Clapp, Bartlett, Seckel, Sheldon, Bosc, 
Hovey. 

Peaches: Mountain Rose, Oldmixon, Crawford 
Early, Elberta. 

Plums : Euro- 
pean: Bradshaw, 
Lombard, Imperial 
Gage, Damson, Lin- 
coln, Quackenboss, 
Fellenburg, General 
Hand. — Japanese : 
Abundance, B u r - 
bank, Wickson, Oc- 
tober Purple. 

Cherries: Sweet: 
Governor Wood, 
Yellow Spanish, 
Black Tartarian, 
Downer Late. — 
Sour : Early Rich- 
mond, Montmo- 
rency. 



Thefollowingva- 
rieties are adapted 
for home use in the colder parts of Ontario and 
Quebec (W. T. Macoun): 

Apples: Yellow Transparent, Duchess, Lowland 
Raspberry, Langford Beauty, St. Lawrence, 
Wealthy, Mcintosh, Faraeuse, Swazie, Milwaukee, 
Scott Winter, Baxter. 

Pears: Flemish Beauty, in favorable localities. 

Plums: American : Bixby, Mankato, Cheney, 
Wolf, Hawkeye, Stoddard. — European : Mount 
Royal, Raynes, Glass, Montmorency, Perdrigen. — 
Russian : Early Red. 

Cherries: Orel 25, Ostheim (Minnesota), Mont- 
morency. 

For Iowa (A. T. Erwin): 

Apples: Summer: Duchess, Lowland Raspberry, 
Benoni. — Fall : Wealthy, Grimes Golden. — Winter; 
Roman Stem, Jonathan, Stayman Winesap, Gano. 

Crabs: Florence, Whitney. 

For severe locations in northern Iowa : 

Apples: Duchess, Charlamoff, Patten Greening, 
Wealthy, Okabena. 

Pears: Seckel, Lincoln, Longworth, Kieffer. 

Peaches: Champion, Greensboro, Hill Chili, Russell. 

Plums: Wyant, Brittlewood, Hunt, Hammer, 
Wild Goose, Miner. 

Cherries: Montmorency, Early Richmond. 



For Colorado, eastern slope (W. Paddock): 

Apples: Summer : Yellow Transparent, Red June, 
Oldenburg.— Fall : Wealthy, Utter, Plum Cider.— 
Winter : Jonathan, Stayman Winesap, Delicious. 

Plums: DeSoto, American Eagle, Arctic. 

Cherries: Montmorency, Morello. 

For Colorado, western slope : 

Apples: Summer: Yellow Transparent, Red June. 
— Fall : Maiden Blush. — Autumn : Strawberry. — 
Winter : Jonathan, Winesap, Rome Beauty, Grimes. 

Pears: Bartlett, Howell, Seckel. 

Peaches: Crawford, Elberta, Mountain Rose. 

Plums: Burbank, Italian Prune, French Prune. 

Cherries: Mayduke, Black Tartarian, Bing. 

For Alabama (R. 
S. Mackintosh) : 

Apples: Early : 
Early Harvest, As- 
trachan, Horse, Red 
J une. — Autumn : 
Buncombe, Equine- 
tele. — Late : Wine- 
sap, Terry, Yates. 

Figs: Celestial, 
Brunswick, Brown 
Turkey, Lemon, 
Green Ischia. 

Pears: Kiefer, 
LeConte, Garber. 

Pecans : Stuart, 
Frotscher, Pabst, 
Centennial. 

Peaches : Sneed, 
Greensboro, Alex- 
ander, Mamie Ross, 
Carman, Elberta, Family Favorite, Belle, Mountain 
Rose, Emma, Gen. Lee, Globe, Picquet, Columbia. 

Persimmons, Japanese : Hachiya, Yemon, Okame, 
Tsura-no-ko, Yedo-Ichi, Hiyakume. 

Pomegranates: Acid, Large Sweet, Spanish Ruby. 
Plums: Red June, Burbank, Abundance, Gonzales. 

Gathering fruit for home use. 

Most fruits for home use should be allowed to 
ripen on the tree, and with low-headed trees this can 
be done, if there is a mulch on the surface so that 
fruits that fall on the ground will not be much in- 
jured. With early, bright-colored apples, this is the 
practice of many growers. The fruit is allowed to 
color perfectly, when it falls to the ground and is 
picked up every morning and marketed in open 
bushel-boxes. Pears should be allowed to reach full 
maturity, but should be picked while hard and 
ripened in a dark, dry place. Peaches, plums and 
cherries should get mellow on the tree before being 
picked for home use. For market and to extend the 
season, all of these fruits may be picked before they 
are mellow, but they should be fully grown, and 
may be kept several weeks or months if put in 
cold-storage at a temperature between 32° and 
33°. The season may be considerably extended 
without cold-storage by gathering at one time only 
the fruits that are fully ripe. 




Dwarf apples, on doncin roots. These roots are not hardy 
in the upper Mississippi valley. 



FARM GARDEN 



FARM GARDEN 



277 



Winter fruit should be allowed to hang on the 
trees until fully mature, but must be picked before 
it mellows and before heavy freezing weather 
comes. After picking, it should be put in a place 
with an even, low temperature. On the farm this 
may be in a north shed, the north side of a high 
building, or a cellar, where the temperature has 
been lowered by opening the windows on frosty 
nights and closing them during the day, or by a 
quantity of cracked ice and salt (ice-cream freezing 
mixture). A half-ton of ice and fifty pounds of 
salt will cool a large space down to a good keeping 
temperature for most fruits. This temperature in 
the North can be kept low by closing the doors and 
windows during the day and opening them at night, 
when the outside temperature is lower than that 
inside. 

Dwarf fruit trees. 

Pear trees are prevented from growing large by 
being budded on quince stocks. Apples are dwarfed 
by being worked on paradise or doucin stocks 
(small-stature forma of apple tree). Dwarfs occupy 
less space than standard or free stocks, usually 
come into bearing earlier, but they require more 
care in pruning, spraying and thinning. Dwarf 
pears are often grown commercially, but dwarf 
apples are not yet planted for profit in this country. 
Any variety of apple may be grown on the dwarf 
stocks ; but inasmuch as apple-dwarfing is a home- 
garden practice, only good dessert varieties should 
be grown. Dwarf pears may be planted ten to 
twenty feet apart, depending on how closely they 
are kept headed in. About one rod asunder each 
way is the usual distance. Apples on doucin (Pig. 
383) may be given such distances ; those on para- 
dise stocks may be set at half these distances. All 
dwarfs should be started low and kept well headed 
back. Paradise-stock apple trees should be little 
more than bushes, or they may be trained as espa- 
liers or cordons. [For further information, see 
Waugh's " Dwarf Fruit Trees," New York, 1906, 
and Bailey's " Pruning-Book."] 

Small-fruits. 

The average farmer's family consumes less of 
the small cultivated fruits than the average city 
or village family, notwithstanding the advantages 
they have for producing fruit of the best quality, \ 
and that may be used in a fresh, ripe condition. 

The strawberry. — The strawberry is especially 
adapted to growth in the home garden, and is of 
the greatest importance from the fact that a crop' 
can be secured in a little over a year from plant- 
ing. Its yield per acre is equal to that of the apple 
in quantity. We may expect to secure, 5,000 to 
15,000 quarts to the acre, or 50 to 150 barrels, 
which, with apple trees 40 x 40 feet apart, making 
about thirty trees to the acre, would be three to 
five barrels per tree, which is above the yearly 
average. 

For the largest and best returns from small- 
fruits it is best to plant on new land. The straw- 
berry is fruited by most growers only one or two 
seasons, and after the fruit has been gathered the 



plants and mulch are plowed under. The land 
is then devoted to some crop, such as celery or 
late cabbage, that may be planted after the 
middle of July. New land, old pasture or clover 
sod, is planted with potatoes or some other 
hoed crop to get rid of the white grub (larva 
of the May beetle). The following spring straw- 
berry plants are set as early as the land will work 
up fine and mellow. Some growers further prepare 
land of this kind by sowing a crop of peas and 
barley after the potatoes ; or sufficient organic 
matter may be incorporated by plowing under 
a heavy dressing of manure in the fall. Thorough 
cultivation must be practiced and all weeds kept 
down from the time the plants are set until the 
ground freezes in the fall. 

In the North the beds must be protected in 
winter from freezing and thawing. A covering 
of straw, old hay, coarse, strawy manure, pine 
needles or other light material, put on just before 
severe freezing weather, will serve. Only a light 
covering, two or three inches thick, is needed, just 
enough to shade the ground, as the injury comes 
from the tearing action on the roots and crowns 
by freezing and thawing, and the lifting of the 
plants out of the ground. 

Raspberry and blackberry. — These two bush- 
fruits do best in a rather moist, loamy soil, al- 
though they may be grown successfully on any soil 
that contains a good quantity of organic mat- 
ter, if the surface is kept fine and mellow dur- 
ing the entire season, and especially in hot, dry 
weather. Plantations are generally renewed after 
growing six to ten years in one place, although 
under favorable conditions they sometimes last 
longer. The best time for planting is in the 
early fall, root-cutting plants being better than 
those from suckers, although the latter are more 
frequently used. 

They are grown in hills or in rows, the former 
requiring a stake at each hill, or low-training 
of the bushes by top pruning to make them branch 
low and thus stand without supports. Cultivation 
may be done with the horse both ways, when 
the hill-method is used. 

In rows, the canes may be supported by two 




A simple method of holding beny canes In place. 

wires, one stretched on each side of the plants and 
held in place by a nail driven into the cross- 
piece of the support, slanting toward the center. 
(Fig. 384.) The wires may be raised at any time 
and drawn into the middle of the row so as to get 
outside of all the canes, and then be put back 



278 



FARM GARDEN 



FARM GARDEN 



in place, thus drawing all the outside canes close 
together between the wires. The wires may be 
caught over the stake without any cross-arm, but 
this sometimes breaks the canes that are drawn in 




Fig. 385. Raspberry (Columbian) before pruning. 

next to the stake. No. 12 galvanized iron wire is 
used for this purpose. 

The pruning required is simply the removal of 
the fruiting canes as soon as the crop is gathered. 
If in hills and the canes are not supported by 
stakes or wires, the ends of the new canes are 
pinched to make them grow stocky. In spring the 
bushes may be cut back. (Figs. 385, 386.) 

The raspberry is easily pruned with the hand 
pruning-shears, but to do the work comfortably 
among blackberries, long-handled shears or a 
blackberry hook is required, with which to reach 
in among the thorny canes. 

Few varieties are perfectly hardy, and so the 
canes may need protection during the winter in the 
North. Raspberry canes are easily protected by 
bending them over and laying them on the ground; 
blackberry plants must be loosened a little at the 
roots to enable them to bend without breaking. 
Blackberries are seldom covered except in the 
extreme North. 

Currants and gooseberries. — These two fruits 
are almost necessities in the farm garden. They 
are easily grown and yield a large quantity of 
fruit for the space occupied and the labor ex- 
pended. They delight in a deep, moist, rich soil, 
the size of the fruit depending more on the rich- 
ness of the soil than on the variety. Strong one- 
year-old plants are best. They are planted four by 
six feet apart. The pruning required is to remove 
wood more than three or four years old to encour- 
age the growth of strong new canes. The best 
fruit is borne on wood two or three years old. 

The greatest difficulty to be met is the injury 
by the currant-worm, which eats the foliage soon 
after the leaves unfold. This pest is destroyed by 
dusting the bushes with powdered hellebore when 
the leaves are wet, or applying it in water. A 
blight attacks the leaves soon after the fruit is 
ripened, sometimes causing them to fall, thus leav- 
ing the bushes bare from the middle of July until 
winter. This weakens the bushes so much that the 
fruit the following season is small and of poor 
quality. Spraying the bushes with Bordeaux mix- 
ture is often necessary. 



The gooseberry requires practically the same 
treatment as the currant and is subject to the 
same pests. The English varieties are more subject 
to mildew. The fruit is not so much in demand in 
the markets, but is delicious and should be more 
largely used. 

Varieties of small-fruits. 

The following varieties of small-fruits are rec- 
ommended for general home planting : 

Strawberries: Brandy wine CSt.), Sample (P.), 
Marshall (St.), Clyde (St.), Senator Dunlap (P.), 
Haverland (P.) 

Raspberries : Cuthbert, Columbian, Loudon, Cum- 
berland. 

Blackberries: Agawam, Snyder, Ancient Briton, 
Eldorado. 

Currants: Fay Red Cross, Wilder, White Grape, 
White Imperial. 

Gooseberries: Downing, Red Jacket, Josselyn. 

The following varieties are adapted for home use 
in the colder parts of Ontario and Quebec (W. T. 
Macoun) : 

Strawberries: William Belt, Bubach, Greenville, 
Lovett, Splendid, Senator Dunlap, Excelsior. 

Raspberries, Red : Herbert, Clarke, Cuthbert, 
Marlboro. — Yellow: Golden Queen. — Black: Hilborn, 
Older. 

Blackberries: Agawam, Snyder. 

Currants: Red: Pomona, Victoria, Wilder, 
Cherry.— White : White Grape. — Black: Saunders, 
Victoria, Collin Prolific. 

Gooseberries : Red Jacket, Downing or Pearl. 

For Iowa (A. T. Erwin): 

Strawberries: Dunlap, Bederwood, Warfield. 
Raspberries : Red, Cuthert, Turner, Loudon. — 
Black : Gregg, Older, Cumberland. 




Fig. 386. Raspberry (Columbian) after pruning. 

Blackberries : Ancient Briton, Snyder. 
Currants: Perfection, Red Dutch, White Grape, 
Red Cross. 

Gooseberries: Champion. 



FARM GARDEN 



FARM GARDEN 



279 



For Colorado, eastern slope of the Rocky moun- 
tains (W. Paddock): 

Strawberries: Captain Jack, Jucunda. 
Raspberries : Red : Marlboro. — Black : Kansas. 
Blackberries: Wilson, Erie. 
Currants: Cherry, Fay, White Grape. 
Gooseberries: Downing, Champion. 

For Colorado, western slope : 
Raspberries: Red: Cuthbert, Marlboro. — Black: 
Gregg. 

Currants: Cherry, Red Cross, White Grape. 
Gooseberries: Chautauqua, Downing, Oregon. 

For Alabama and neighboring regions (R. S. 
Macintosh) : 

Strawberries: Excelsior, Lady Thompson, Klon- 
dike, Aroma, Gandy. 

Raspberries (North Alabama only): Turner, Cuth- 
bert, Loudon, King. 

Blackberries: Dallas, Mercereau. 

Currants and Gooseberries : Not grown. 

Dewberries : Australian. 

The grape. 

The grape may be grown on a trellis, a fence, 
a stone wall or the sides of a building. The best 
Fruiting Coiie _ 




yr^^ 




New Cane 




Fig. 387. A good, simple garden method of training the grape. 



trellis is made of stakes and No. 14 galvanized 
wire, as the vines cling to the wires and do not 
need much tying. For the best results, the vine 
should have a warm southern e.xposure and a thin, 
well-underdrained soil. The third, fourth and pos- 
sibly the fifth year from planting the fruit may be 
good without pruning, but as the canes grow older 
they form many lateral branches, thus producing a 
large number of small bunches of fruit that never 
ripen or are so small as to be of little value, and 
which are specially liable to rot. The remedy is 
pruning. 

The rule for pruning grape-vines, under all con- 
ditions, is to cut away each year as much of the 
old wood as possible, saving enough strong new 
or year-old canes to replace those cut away. Each 
new cane must have an abundance of space so that 
the sun and air will surround the leaves and fruit 
and thus prevent rot and mildew. The number of 
new canes to be preserved depends on the strength 
of the vine, the space to be covered and the root 
space occupied. 

A single vine may be made to cover a very large 
space if the feeding area in the soil is sufficient. 
An instance of this is the noted Mission vines in 
California, which sometimes cover thousands of 
square feet of surface and produce tons of fruit. 

A very simple, yet very satisfactory method of 



training the vine, is shown in Fig. 387. By this 
system, all the pruning required is to cut away in 
the fall or winter the old fruiting canes and bring 
up the new canes to take their places. D\iring the 
growing seasons, the laterals on the fruiting canes 
are kept pinched off just beyond the last bunch of 
fruit, and all laterals along the main vine and the 
new cane are kept from growing by pinching off as 
soon as they start. The pruning of vinifera grapes, 
grown in California, is quite different from this. 

Varieties of grapes. — The most generally adapted 
varieties of grapes are as follows : 

Purple: Worden, Concord, Campbell. — Red: Dela- 
ware, Brighton, Wyoming Red. — White : Winchell, 
Niagara, Diamond. 

The following varieties are adapted for home 
use in the colder parts of Ontario and Quebec (W. 
T. Macoun): 

Purple : Moore Early, Campbell Early, Rogers 
17, Merrimac, Wilder. — Red : Moyer, Delaware, 
Brighton, Lindley.— White : Golden Drop, Moore 
Diamond. 

For Iowa (A. T. Erwin): 

Purple : Worden, Moore Early, Concord. — Red : 
Delaware, Brighton. 

For Colorado, eastern slope (W. Pad- 
dock) : 

Purple : Concord, Moore Early. — Red: 
Brighton, Delaware. — White : Niagara. 

Colorado, western slope (W. Paddock) : 

Worden, Purple Damascus, Cornichon, 
Brighton, Niagara, Sweet Water. 

For Alabama (R. S. Macintosh): 

Moore Early, Concord, Delaware, Niagara. — 
Scuppernong, Eden, Memory. 

The vegetable-garden. 

It is a painful fact that very many farmers buy 
their vegetables from the market, where they are 
received from the metropolitan markets, other far- 
mers having grown them. In many cases, to be sure, 
it is cheaper to buy, because it is difficult to secure 
labor to grow them ; but a different farming plan 
might enable one to raise vegetables with greater 
economy. The successful market-gardener endeav- 
ors to keep his land occupied with growing crops all 
of the time, and makes his land very rich, that the 
crops may grow quickly and be tender and succu- 
lent. Most farmers till too much land. In most 
cases, if the land were made richer, we might 
grow our garden crops on half of the area, or 
less, with more profit and much less labor. A 
small area, made rich and thoroughly tilled and 
cared for, would supply a large family. The 
entire area need not be planted at the beginning 
of the season. If such crops as radishes, lettuce 
and peas are put in very early they may be 
harvested in time for sweet corn, cucumbers, 
squash, late beets, cabbage, cauliflower, and the 
like ; after early beans, sweet corn, potatoes and 



280 



FARM GARDEN 



FARM GARDEN 



others, we may plant celery, turnips, spinach, and 
the like. To secure a succession of such vegetables 
as sweet corn and peas, early, medium and late 
varieties are planted at one time, and some stan- 
dard sort is put in 



at intervals of a 
week or ten days 
afterwards. It is 
well to provide 
means, as boxes and 
hotbeds, to start or 
force plants ahead 
of their season, if 
the most interest- 
ing and useful re- 




Fig. 388. A " flat " or box in which 
garden seeds are started. 



suits are to be secured. (See Figs. 388-390.) 

Success in growing vegetables depends on : (1) 
the condition of the soil; (2) good seed ; (3) plant- 
ing ; and (4) the after care and cultivation. 

The soil. — In no one place can we find a perfect 
soil for all kinds of vegetables, but, as previously 
urged, a rich soil will largely make up for de- 
ficiency in variety. The question of the soil can 
not be discussed further here. 

The seed. — The modern methods of seed-testing 
enable the dealer to oft'er seeds of good germinat- 
ing qualities and the purchaser to know whether 
the seeds are good before planting ; but, as to the 
purity of the products, one must take the word of 
the dealer, and he should buy only of reliable seeds- 
men. (Consult Chapter VII.) 

A simple seed-tester can be made with two dinner- 
plates, a little fine clean sand, and two sheets of 
blotting-paper or cheese-cloth. (Fig. 391.) Put the 
sand in the plate, level it off nearly full, and satu- 
rate until water almost stands on the surface ; then 
spread over the blotting-paper or cheese-cloth and 
place on it the seeds, — ten, fifty or one hundred of 
each. The larger the number the more accurate the 
test. Over the seeds spread another sheet of blot- 
ting-paper or cloth, and cover all with another 
dinner-plate. 

Much of the success of this work depends on 
the temperature at which the sand is kept. As 



to 60° during the day ; for corn, beans, cucum- 
bers, melons, squashes, tomatoes, peppers, egg- 
plants, and the like, 50° to 60° at night and 60° to 
70° during the day is desirable. 

Planting. — With a fine mellow seed-bed, seeds 
should be covered according to their size and the 
condition of the weather. Fine seeds should be 
covered three or four times their thickness in dry 
weather, and less deeply in wet weather. The soil 
should be pres.sed firmly about the seed ; the drier 
the soil the more firm should be the pres.sure. Very 
fine seeds, like those of celery, are sown on the 
surface, a little fine soil is sifted on them, and a 
sheet of cheese-cloth is spread over and wet down. 
This prevents washing of the soil and holds the 
moisture in contact with the seeds. Fine sphagnum 
moss sifted on answers the same purpose. As soon 
as the seeds begin to germinate, the cloth must be 
removed and the bed shaded until the plants become 
well established. Fine seeds may be shaded with 



t^.Sy fe|'„^yu4tfe> %«-'jfe^j -*^"- ~^~-. — "• — 




«><i->^" 







Fig. 389. Home garden coldframes and seed-boxes. 

(CTarden of Luther Burbaiik.) 

nsarly as possible this should be the same as would 
be required for the best germination in the 
open ground. The best temperature for radishes, 
turnips, cabbage, lettuce, beets, celery, parsnips, 
grasses, and the like, is 40° to 50° at night and 50° 



Fig. 390. Method of forcing rhubarb by means of half -barrels. 

a little fine hay or rowen to keep the surface of the 
ground moi.st ; but if too much is put on it will 
cause them to decay. 

Cultivation and protection. — No crop, either of 
fruit or vegetables, will grow without some culti- 
vation and care and protection from insects and 
fungous pests. As suggested in Fig. 379, all crops 
should be arranged in rows wide enough so that 
the work of stirring the soil may be done with the 
horse. With a fine-tooth cultivator this may be 
done even with plants that grow from very fine 
seeds, like celery, onions and carrots. To preserve 
regular distances between the centers of rows, and 
to occupy the land closely, onions, carrots or other 
small-topped plants may be sown in double rows ; 
that is, there may be two rows one foot apart, with 
two and one-half or three feet clear space for cul- 
tivation to the ne.xt two rows one foot apart. 

Harvesting the vegetable crop. — Early vegetables 
are of little value if left in the ground long after 
they have reached the size for table use. Radishes, 
turnips, beets, kohlrabi and similar root crops 
become fibrous and woody, while lettuce, spinach, 
cabbage, cauliflower and the like run to seed. 
Therefore, if there is any surplus of summer vege- 
tables not needed by the family, it should be gath- 
ered and disposed of so that plant-food may not 
be taken from the ground. All winter vegetables 
should be tender and succulent when gathered and 
should be stored in a cool, slightly moist place, at a 
temperature of between 32° and 33°. To keep beets, 
parsnips and similar crops from wilting, they may 
be packed in cool, slightly moist leaves. A good 
time to gather these is in the morning after a 
frost, or when there is a little snow on them. If 



FARM GARDEN 



FIBER PLANTS 



281 




packed in barrels or bins, a layer of leaves is first 
put in the bottom, then the roots are mixed with 
a few leaves and a covering of leaves is put on top. 
A piece of burlap or a grain bag spread over all 
will keep the leaves in place. 

Varieties of vegetables. — Much of the value of any 
variety of vegetable depends on the selection or 
strain of the seed-stock. One variety is known and 
popular in one section 
and a ditferent variety 
in another section, so 
that no list of varieties 
adapted to all localities 
can be given. It is im- 
portant that each gar- 
dener grow varieties or 
strains of varieties that 
are known to be gener- 
ally successful in his 
own locality. Varieties 
change greatly from year to year, and it would be 
of little use to give lists. 

Protection from insects and fungous pests. 

There is no crop grown on the farm or in the 
garden that is not attacked by some pest, and 
if no attempt is made to control the pests many 
of the crops will be failures. An equipment for 
spraying is indispensable, and farmers and garden- 
ers should cooperate and equip themselves with 
a power sprayer by which the work of a whole 
community may be done promptly, thoroughly and 
cheaply. Through the state experiment stations 
one can know what these pests are and how best 
to control them. For chewing insects we may use 
hellebore, Paris green, arsenate of lead or other 
arsenates. For sucking insects, scales, aphides, 
and the like, we may use whale-oil soap, kerosene 
emulsion, lime and sulfur wash, or other insecti- 
cides that kill by contact. For blights, rusts, and 
rots we have an almost universal fungicide in 
the Bordeaux mixture. Spraying or other remedy 
must be employed promptly and thoroughly as 
soon as a pest appears. 

Full directions for the use of insecticides and 
fungicides may be secured from the state exper- 
iment stations. [See also Chapter II, "Insects and 
Diseases."] 

Literature. 

Green, Vegetable Gardening ; Fletcher, How to 
Make a Fruit Garden ; Fullerton, How to Make a 
Vegetable Garden, and How to Make a Flower 
Garden (two books); Greiner, How to Make the 
Garden Pay ; Henderson, Gardening for Pleasure ; 
Maynard, Successful Fruit Culture, and Home 
Decoration (two books); Williams, Window Gar- 
dening ; Mell, Gardening for the South ; Wickson, 
California Vegetables ; Bailey, The Principles of 
Vegetable - Gardening, The Principles of Fruit- 
Growing, Garden-Making, The Pruning-Book, The 
Nursery-Book ; Hunn and Bailey, Amateur's Prac- 
tical Garden-Book ; Card, Bush-Fruits. There are 
now njany available books in this field, and the home 
gardener need not lack for enthusiastic advice. 



FIBER PLANTS. Figs. 392-404. 
By Lyster H. Dewey. 

Fiber-producing plants are second only to food 
plants in agricultural importance. In continental 
United States, however, cotton, hemp and flax are 
the only fiber plants cultivated commercially, and, 
aside from cotton and hemp, most of the raw fibers 
used in our industries are imported. In an article 
of this scope, only the leading commercial fibers 
can be discussed. The reader of literature on fibers 
will find many names of materials that are used in 
tropical countries, but the fibers may not be subjects 
of export. In Mexico and Central America the 
name "pita" is widely used for a great variety of 
plant fibers, but none of them is produced in suffi- 
cient quantity to become an article of commerce 
outside those countries. Bamboo, okra, paper mul- 
berry and pandanus (screw-pine) aff'ord fibers that 
are used by natives in many countries. 

Commercial plant fibers include (1) Textile fibers, 
used for spinning into yarns for woven and knit 
goods, thread, twine and cordage, such as cotton, 
hemp and sisal ; including brush fibers, used in mak- 
ing brushes, such as ixtle and piassaba. (2) Plaiting 
or rough weaving fibers, used for hats, mats and 
baskets, such as straw, raffia and rushes. (3) Fill- 
ing or stuffing fibers, used for mattresses, cushions 
and upholstering, such as Florida moss, crin vege- 
tal and kapok. (4) Natural textures, such as Cuba 
bast, used in millinery goods and wrapping cigars. 
(.5) Paper materials, such as jute butts, esparto, 
straw and wood pulp. The last two groups are not 
specially discussed here. 

I. Textile Fibers 

Textile fibers are readily classified by origin, 
character and use into three groups : (a) Cottons, 
hair-like single cells, one-half to two inches long, 
growing on the seed in closed seed-pods, used for 
spinning into fine yarns for woven and knit goods, 
threads, twines and cords of small diameter. (6) 
Soft fibers, long strands of overlapping cells pro- 
duced in the bast or inner bark of the stalks of 
plants such as flax, hemp, jute and ramie, capable 
of subdivision into fine flexible soft strands, used 
for spinning into yarn for fine woven goods and 
also for threads, twines and cordage of small 
diameter, (c) Hard fibers, long strands of over- 
lapping cells, somewhat lignified or woody in 
character, extending through the ti,ssues of thick 
fleshy leaves or leaf stems of plants such as agaves, 
bananas, phormium, sansevierias and yuccas. 
While often capable of fine subdivision, these hard 
fibers are stiffer than bast fibers of the same de- 
gree of fineness. Hard fibers are used chiefly for 
coarse twines and cordage of all sizes up to 
eighteen-inch (circumference) towing hawsers. 

(a) Cottons (see article on Cotton). 

Cotton is produced by several species of the 
genus Gossypium belonging to the Mallow family. 
The most important commercial cottons belong to 
two distinct groups, as follows : 



282 



FIBER PLANTS 



FIBER PLANTS 



(1) Occidental cottons, of American origin. 
Gossypium hirsutum, Linn. American upland 

cotton, native in tropical America, now cultivated 
from Virginia to Texas and Oklahoma, also in 
Mexico, Argentina, Turkestan and in many parts of 
India. 

Gossypium Barbadense, Linn. Sea-island cotton, 
native in tropical America, now cultivated on the 
islands and adjacent shores of South Carolina, and 
through the interior of southern Georgia and north- 
ern Florida, also in the West Indies ; and Egyptian 
cotton, cultivated in Egypt and recently introduced 
in the colonies in both East and West Africa. 

Gossypium. Peruvianum, Cav. Peruvian cotton, 
cultivated in Peru and also to some extent in 
Africa. 

(2) Oriental cottons, of Asiatic or African origin. 

Gossypium herbaceum, Linn. Cultivated in India, 
Asia Minor and southern Europe. 

Gossypium arboreum, Linn. Cultivated in India, 
China and Japan. 

Gossypium Wightianum, Tod. Cultivated in India, 
China, Japan, Korea and Transcaucasia. 

In the United States, 25,000,000 to 30,000,000 
acres, about one-third the acreage of corn, is 
planted in cotton each year. The annual produc- 
tion ranges from 10,000,000 to 12,000,000 bales 
of 500 pounds each, more than half of which is 
exported. Fifty million to 75,000,000 pounds, 
chiefly Egyptian cotton, valued at $6,000,000 to 
$11,000,000, are imported, as it differs in quality 
from that produced here. 

(6) Soft Fibers. — Flax (see article on Flax). 

Flax fiber is secured from the inner bark of the 
straw of the flax plant, Linum usitatissimmn, Linn., 
belonging to the Linacem or Flax family. This 
plant, originating in Agia, is now cultivated com- 
mercially for fiber in Russia, Siberia, Austria, Hun- 
gary, Holland, Belgium, France, Italy, Sweden, Ire- 
land, Canada and the United States. In the United 
States, flax fiber is produced in eastern Michigan, 
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington. 
About 2,000 to 3,000 acres are devoted to fiber flax 
each year in this country, producing an average of 
about 450 pounds of fiber per acre, or a total of 
900,000 to 1,350,000 pounds valued at $90,000 to 
$135,000. The importations for use in the twenty 
flax spinning mills during the past ten years have 
averaged annually 7,701 tons, valued at $1,865,473. 
The imports include water-retted Belgian flax, 
making the average value higher than that of the 
dew-retted American flax. 

Hemp (see article on Hemp). 

Hemp is a soft fiber obtained from the inner bark 
of the hemp plant. Cannabis sa.tiva, Linn., an annual 
belonging to the Moracem or Mulberry family. Origi- 
nating in central Asia, hemp is now cultivated for 
fiber production in China, Japan, Russia, Hungary, 
Italy, France and the United States. In this coun- 
try hemp is one of the principal crops of the blue- 
grass region in central Kentucky, 10,000 to 20,000 
acres being grown there each year. Smaller areas, 



rarely exceeding a total of 1,000 acres, are grown 
nearly every year in Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska 
and California. 

The annual production of rough hemp in the 
United States amounts to 4,000 to 10,000 tons, 
valued at $480,000 to $1,200,000. The annual 
average quantity of hemp imported in the past ten 
years is 4,982 tons, with an annual average value 
of $716,264. There has been a general upward ten- 
dency in prices in the past fifteen years. With a 
more general use of harvesting machinery and 
fiber-cleaning machinery, now being introduced, 
the crop may be grown more economically and its 
cultivation will doubtless extend over much wider 
areas. 

Jute. (Figs. 392, 393.) 

Jute fiber is derived from the inner bark of two 
species of plants, — jute, Corehorus capsularis, Linn., 
and nalta jute, Corehorus olitorius, Linn., both native 
in northern India. They belong to the Tiliaeem or 
Linden family. They are cultivated commercially 
in India, Farther India, China, Formosa and south- 
ern Japan. The plants may be grown without diffi- 
culty in suitable soils in all warm, moist countries, 
but the large amount of hand labor required in the 
preparation of the fiber has prevented the develop- 
ment of the industry outside of Asia. 

The two kinds of jute plants are almost identical 
in appearance except in the form of the seed-pods. 




Fig. 392. Jute Worehorua capsularis) ready for harvest. 

(Fig. 393.) They are herbaceous annuals similar 
in habit to hemp, but more slender and less inclined 
to branch when standing alone. When grown 
broadcast for fiber, the slender whip-like stalks, 
one-fourth to one-half inch in diameter and five to 
fifteen feet in height, bear no branches except at 



FIBER PLANTS 



FIBER PLANTS 



283 



the top. The basal lobes of the leaves of both spe- 
cies terminate in slender points. The seed-pods of 
C. capsularis are nearly spherical, while those of C. 
olitorius are prismatic or nearly cylindrical. 




Fig. 393. Jute, left (Oorchorus capsularis); right, Nalta 
i\x\Ji [Corchorus olitorius). Branches with seed-pods. 

The best fiber is produced by C. capsularis, and 
this species is more extensively cultivated. The 
cultivation of C. olitorius is confined largely to 
the warmer and wetter regions near the coast. 
Several horticultural varieties are recognized in 
India, the most important of which are the follow- 
ing : "Serajganj," "Narainganj," "Dacca" and 
"Desi." These names are from towns or centers of 
jute cultivation north of Calcutta in the Bengal 
Province. 

By far the greater part of the jute fiber imported 
into this country is of the Serajganj variety, usu- 
ally known in our markets as "Seragunge." This is 
of a creamy yellow or light buff color, finer and 
softer than hemp. The Dacca fiber is very similar, 
and also the Narainganj, except that the latter is 
somewhat coarser. The Desi fiber, obtained from 
nalta jute, is finer in texture and of a dark gray 
color, the difl^erence in color being due chiefly to 
different methods of preparation. 

Jute grows best on alluvial or clay loam soils 
retentive of moisture, and where the air is warm 
and moist during the growing period. It will grow 
well on second bottoms or on low lands not subject 
to inundation. The land should be well plowed and 
harrowed to induce a rapid and uniform growth of 
the seedlings and thus prevent their being over- 
topped by weeds. The seed is sown in spring, 
broadcast, at the rate of twelve to twenty-five 
pounds per acre. Plants from thick seeding pro- 
duce finer but weaker fiber. 

The crop is harvested when in flower, about three 



months after sowing. The stalks are cut with a 
knife or sickle, or pulled by hand. They are cured 
in gavels or shocks, or often taken immediately to 
be retted in ponds or slow-running streams. The 
retting process, lasting one to three weeks, requires 
close watching to prevent over-retting. The fiber 
is stripped by hand from the wet stalks, cleaned by 
drawing it through the hands and whipping it on 
the water, washed, dried, and then packed in bales 
of about 400 pounds each for market. The coarse, 
flaggy fiber from the ends of the stalks, five to 
fifteen inches long, is often cut off and baled sepa- 
rately, and sold as "jute butts." The yield of fiber 
ranges from 700 to 3,000 pounds per acre. 

The jute crop of India, chiefly in the province 
of Bengal, occupies 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 acres 
each year, and the annual product amounts to 
2,000,000,000 to 3,200,000,000 pounds. The prices 
in New York in ten years ended December 31, 
1906, have ranged from three to six and three- 
fourth cents per pound for long fiber, and one to 
three cents for jute butts. The importations of 
jute, including jute butts, in these ten years, have 
ranged from 50,000 to 140,000 tons, valued at 
$1,500,000 to $6,500,000. In this period there 
has been a general tendency to increased acreage 
in India, increased importations, and an upward 
tendency in prices. 

Jute is used most extensively for gunny sacks, 
wool sacks, cotton bale covering, grain sacks (es- 
pecially on the Pacific coast), for wool twine and 
wrapping twine, and either alone or with other 
fibers in carpets and rugs. It is the cheapest, most 
easily spun, and most extensively used of the soft 
fibers. It is not so strong as flax or hemp. Its 
most important defect is its rapid deterioration. 

Repeated experiments have demonstrated that 
jute can be grown successfully in the south Atlantic 
and Gulf coast regions, but until mechanical 
methods have been devised for preparing the fiber 
it is not likely that the cultivation could be prac- 
ticed with profit in this country. 

China jute. 

China jute is a rather coarse grayish white, soft 
fiber imported in limited quantities from China. 
It is derived from the bast of the Ch'ing ma, 
Almtilon Avicennm, an annual malvaceous plant 
native in Asia and cultivated in eastern China. The 
plant has become widely introduced in the United 
States, where it is regarded as a troublesome weed 
and is called Indian mallow, velvet-leaf and butter- 
print. It grows three to eight feet tall, and has 
large heart-shaped, velvety leaves and small yel- 
low flowers. 

In China this plant is sown broadcast on upland 
or alluvial soils, and the fiber is prepared by ret- 
ting the stalks in water, then breaking and clean- 
ing by hand. The fiber is similar to jute, but 
slightly stronger and coarser, and as commonly 
prepared, more flaggy, making it more difficult to 
spin on machinery. It takes dyes very readily, a 
quality of importance in jute rugs, but owing to 
the diflSculty of working it, and its rapid deterio- 
ration, there is little demand for it. The prices 



284 



FIBER PLANTS 



FIBER PLANTS 



paid for it in this country are usually a fraction of 
a cent below those paid for jute. 

The plant grows well on alluvial and sandy loam 
soils from New Jersey to Kansas and Nebraska, but 
without mechanical methods for preparing the fiber 
it could not be cultivated with profit. 

Ramie (Fig. 394). 

Ramie, Baehmeria nivea, Hook and Arn., is a per- 
ennial-rooted, herbaceous plant belonging to the 
Urticacece or Nettle family. The rather slender 
stalks, bearing heart-shaped leaves green above 
and white beneath, attain a height of three to 
eight feet. When the plants are crowded thickly. 






,<*.,^i 









'%^^ia, 




Fig. 394. Xiainie (-B«/imeria nitfea). Second crop of the 
season ready for harvest. 

as they should be for fiber production, they bear no 
branches. When cut during the growing season, 
new shoots spring up from the roots, so that two 
to four crops may be had each season. 

Ramie is native in Asia, and is cultivated com- 
mercially in China, Formosa, southern Japan and 
to a less extent in India. It has been widely intro- 
duced in experimental cultivation in the warmer 
temperate zones of both hemispheres. The plant 
may be grown without difficulty, but it has not 
been demonstrated that the fiber may be produced 
profitably outside of Asia. 

Ramie requires a fertile soil, not subject to 
drought, but with good drainage. It grows well on 
sandy loam or alluvial soils, but can not be grown 
successfully either on stifl" clay or light sandy 
soils. It requires a warm moi.st climate during the 
growing season. 

The plant is propagated by seeds and by root- 
cuttings, and in India to some extent by cuttings 
of the stems. Transplanting root-cuttings is the 



surest method, but growing from seeds, if carefully 
attended to, gives a larger number of plants for 
the same labor. The seed is very small, like tobacco 
seed. It is germinated in glass-covered flats in 
greenhouses, or in warm weather out-of-doors in 
beds inclosed with boards and muslin or canvas 
cover which is frequently sprinkled. The seeds are 
sown on the surface, pressed down, but not covered, 
and they require a warm moist atmosphere for ger- 
mination. When about an inch high the seedlings 
must be gradually accustomed to drier air, to pre- 
vent damping off. When eight to twelve inches 
high, and after several days' exposure to outdoor 
conditions, they may be transplanted to the field. 
The seedlings are set in rows about twenty-four 
inches apart, and about ten inches apart in the row. 
If root-cuttings are used instead of seedlings they 
may be transplanted directly to the field, in rows 
the same distance apart. In either case, the space 
between the rows must be cultivated until the 
ramie is high enough to shade the ground. 

Seedlings or roots set out in May or early June 
should yield the first crop of shoots about the last 
of August. Afterward two to four crops should be 
produced each season. As the plants grow more 
thickly after the first crop, there will be fewer 
branching stalks and an increased yield. On rich 
soil, the fertility of which is kept up by the appli- 
cation of barnyard manure, the plants will con- 
tinue to yield shoots for twenty years or longer. 
Where the winters are cold enough to freeze the 
ground to a depth of three inches, or to the tops of 
the roots, the land should be mulched every fall. 

The shoots are harvested when they begin to 
produce flowers (Fig. 394). The stalks are cut or 
broken by hand. In some parts of China the indi- 
vidual stalks are cut as they reach maturity, the 
younger stalks being left to develop and the har- 
vest being thus practically continuous in the same 
field. In some places the plants are allowed to dry 
and are afterward soaked in water before prepar- 
ing the fiber, but usually the bark, including the 
fiber, is peeled off immediately after the stalk is 
cut. It is then cleaned while still fresh by draw- 
ing it between a wooden or bone knife and a bam- 
boo thimble, which removes the outer bark and 
most of the green coloring matter, after which it 
is dried. This hand-cleaned but not degummed fiber 
is known commercially as "ramie ribbons" or 
" China grass." In China, after more or less manip- 
ulation to subdivide it, it is spun and woven by 
hand, being used very extensively for summer 
clothing. It is exported to Europe where it is 
degummed, bleached, and combed, making a fine 
silky filasse for spinning. 

Ramie yields two to four cuttings each year 
after the first, and at each cutting four to eight 
tons per acre of green stalks from which the leaves 
have been stripped. The yield of dry ramie ribbons 
is about eighty pounds per ton of green stalks. 
These ribbons are quoted in European markets at 
four to eight dollars per hundredweight. There is 
a wide variation in quality, the best coming from 
Formosa. 
Practically no market for ramie fiber has been 



FIBER PLANTS 



FIBER PLANTS 



285 




Fig. 395. AramiJia (Ureria io!)o(o). 



established in the United States, and few ramie 
goods, sold as ramie, are made in this country. It 
is used extensively for dress goods in China, Japan 
and Korea, and in Europe its use is increasing 
for portieres, upholstered furniture, clothing and 
various other kinds of woven and knit goods, but 
thus far, excepting the knit ramie underwear made 

in Europe, ramie 
goods are little 
known in the 
United States. 

Rhea(Bcehmeria 
tenacissima), also 
called ramie, is 
cultivated to a 
small extent in 
India and the 
East India islands. 
It differs from 
B. nivea in hav- 
ing leaves green 
on both surfaces, 
and in requiring 
a more tropical 
climate. 

Aramina. (Fig. 
395.) 
Aramina,aword 

meaning "little 
wire," is a trade name recently applied in Brazil 
to the fiber secured from the inner bark of the 
carrapicho plant, Urena lobata, Linn. (Fig. 395.) 
This plant is a shrubby perennial, belonging to the 
Malvacea or Mallow family. It is native in India, 
but is now widely distributed in the warmer parts 
of both hemispheres. It is an aggressive weed in 
Florida, and is there called "Caesar weed." Its fiber, 
obtained in small quantities from wild plants, is 
used in a domestic way in many places, as for 
paper and cordage in St. Thome, for cheap cordage 
in Porto Rico, for sacking and twine in India, 
tie material for house-building in West Africa, and 
fishing-nets in Brazil. Only in the Sao Paulo in 
southern Brazil is the plant regularly cultivated 
for fiber production on a commercial scale. It is 
there called "guaxima." The fiber is prepared 
by stripping it by machinery in the field, dry- 
ing, and shipping to the factory where it is treated 
chemically and mechanically to prepare it for 
spinning. It is asserted that it will yield about 
900 pounds of fiber per acre. 

The fiber is four to eight feet long, light yellow 
or creamy white, somewhat ribbon-like, but capa- 
ble of fine subdivision. It resembles India jute in 
color, texture, length and strength, but lasts better. 
It is used most extensively in making sacks for 
shipping coffee, but it has been demonstrated 
that when suitably prepared it may be used in the 
manufacture of ropes, canvas, carpets, trimmings 
and curtains. 

Sunn hemp. (Fig. 396.) 

Sunn hemp is a bast fiber obtained from Croto- 
laria juneea, an annual plant of the Leguminosce or 



Bean family. (Fig. 396.) It is raised most exten- 
sively in central India. Like hemp and flax, it is 
not known in the wild state except where it has 
escaped from cultivation. It requires a light sandy 
soil and only a moderate rainfall, — fifteen to thirty 
inches. It will endure more cold than jute. The 
seed is sown broadcast at the rate of fifty to one 
hundred pounds per acre, usually in the spring, 
although in some localties it is grown as a winter 
crop. The plants are harvested by cutting with a 
sickle, or more frequently are pulled by hand, at 
flowering time or soon after. After the stalks have 
wilted so that the leaves fall readily, they are 
placed in bundles in stagnant pools or slow-running 
streams for retting, a process requiring four to 
eight days. When sufliciently retted, workmen enter 
the water, and, picking up the stalks a handful at 
a time, beat them on the surface of the water until 
the fiber separates. The fiber is further cleaned by 
washing it and wringing it by hand. It is then 
hung on bamboo poles to dry in the sun. The aver- 
age yield of fiber is about 640 pounds per acre. 

Sunn hemp is lighter colored, coarser and 
stronger than jute, and lasts better. It is stiffer 
than jute or hemp, and cannot be spun so readily. 




Fig. 396. Sunn hemp {Crotolaria juneea). 

It is used in India for cordage, sacking, and gen- 
erally as a substitute for jute. The small quanti- 
ties imported into the United States are used for 
the manufacture of coarse twines. 

The sunn hemp plant grows well in southern 
Florida, and as a leguminous crop, improving the 



286 



FIBER PLANTS 



FIBER PLANTS 



fertility of the soil, it would doubtless be valuable 
in rotation if there were a satisfactory mechanical 
method for preparing the fiber. 

Ambari. 

Ambari, or deccan hemp, is a bast fiber obtained 
from Hibiscus cannabinus, an annual belonging to 
the Malvacece or Mallow family. The plant has 
deeply parted leaves, giving it somewhat the ap- 
pearance of true hemp, though the foliage is much 
lighter in color. The stalks and leaf-stems are cov- 
ered with very short spines, making them disagree- 
able to handle when mature. 

The plant is cultivated in India. In Egypt it 
is grown on the borders of the fields for a wind- 
break. The fiber is prepared in about the same 
way as that of sunn hemp. It is called "Bimlipitam 
jute " in the London market. A very similar plant 
has recently been exploited in Brazil under the 
name Canhamo Braziliensis Perini. 

Miscellaneous bast fibers. 

Bast fibers for domestic purposes have been 
secured from many ditferent kinds of plants, but in 
most instances these have been superseded by com- 
mercial twines and cordage. Some of the most 
important of these fibers are the following: 

(1) Majagua (Paritium tiliaceuvi), used for hal- 
ters and cordage for small boats in Porto Rico and 
Cuba. 

(2) Olona (Touehardia latifnlia), formerly used 
for harpoon lines and fishing lines in the Hawaiian 

„ islands. 

1 . (3) Colorado 

W yW M / river hemp (Ses- 

bania macro- 
carpa), growing 
wild in large 
quantities o n 
the overflowed 
lands near the 
mouth of the 
Colorado river, 

\^\\ 'I 5(^ ' "^^W^ dians for bow- 

other light cord- 
age. 

(4) Indian 
hemp(.4jt)oc2/H)/m 
cannabinum). — 
A perennial 
plant of the 
Dogbane family, 
native through- 
out the greater 
part of the 
United States and especially abundant in the West. 
It was the most important source of bast fiber 
used by the North American Indians. (Fig. 397.) 

(c) Hard Fibers. 

The most important hard fibers are abaca, sisal. 
New Zealand hemp, Mauritius hemp, i.xtle and San- 



Abacd. (Pig. 398 ; also Fig. 142, Vol. I.) 

Abaca or Manila hemp is derived from the .sheath- 
ing leaf-stems of the abaca plant, Musa teztilis, Nee., 
a perennial belonging to the Musacece or Banana 
family. [See account in Vol. I, page 125.] 




Fig. 397. Indian hemp {Apocynum can- 
nabinum) , a common native plant. 



\ i # 

Fig. 398. Abaci (Mttsa «ert«3is). Two-year-old seedlings.- 

The fiber, as found in our market, is six to twelve 
feet in length, rather coarse and stiff, reddish yel- 
low to nearly white, light in weight, and the better 
grades remarkably strong. The approximate break- 
ing strain of the current abaca ropes of different 
sizes is as follows : 

J-inch diameter 550 pounds. 

|-inch diameter 2,000 pounds. 

1-inch diameter 7,000 pounds. 

2-inch diameter 25,000 pounds. 

The abaca plant is very similar in appearance to 
the banana plant. It consists of a stalk or trunk 
six to fifteen inches in diameter, and six to fifteen 
feet high, made up of herbaceous, concentric, over- 
lapping leaf -stems, bearing at the summit long, 
pinnately-veined leaves. (Fig. 398.) It reaches 
maturity when two to five years old. A flower- 
stalk pu.shes up through the center of the trunk, 
emerging at the top where it bears a cluster of 
flowers, followed by small, seed-bearing inedible 
bananas. The stalk then dies, but meanwhile two 
to twenty others of various ages are growing in a 
rather open clump from the same root. The fiber 
is compo.sed of the fibrovascular bundles near the 
outer surfaces of the leaf -stems. 

Abaca is native in the Philippines. It has been 
distributed throughout the greater part of the 
Philippine archipelago, and also has been intro- 
duced into Guam, Borneo and the Andamann 
islands. It is cultivated commercially only in a 
comparatively small part of the Philippines. The 
most important abaca districts are the t'amarines, 
Albay and Sorsogon in the southern part of Luzon, 
and the islands southward, Mindoro. Marinduque, 
Masbate, Samar, Leyte, Cebu, Negros and Mindanao. 



FIBER PLANTS 



FIBER PLANTS 



287 



A heavy and evenly distributed rainfall, sixty 
inches or more, and a continuous warm temperature 
are essential to the successful growth of abaca. 
A rich, deep, well-drained, mellow soil, containing 
plenty of humus, is necessary for well-developed 
plants. The best abaca lates (plantations) are on 
the southern and eastern coasts, and on the lower 
slopes of old volcanoes. Abaca is grown on the 
same land ten years or longer, without rotation or 
the application of fertilizer. While the plants 
sometimes persist in low land, they will not make 
a good growth in swampy ground or where the soil 
remains saturated about their roots. 

Abaca plants may be propagated by seeds, root- 
cuttings or suckers. In practice, suckers are used 
almost universally, except when they must be trans- 
ported long distances. Good seed is difficult to 
secure, since cultivated plants are cut before the 
seed is ripe ; and, furthermore, it is of very un- 
certain germination. Seeds must be germinated in 
a carefully prepared and protected seed-bed, and 
the seedlings transplanted to the field. Suckers or 
root-cuttings are set out directly in rows nine to 
twelve feet apart each way, or about 22.5 to 530 
plants per acre. Sweet-potatoes ("camotes") or 
some other crop are sometimes grown with abaca. 
The grass and weeds must be cut every two or three 
months, and the soil immediately around the abaca 
plants kept loose to allow a free growth of suckers. 
Experiments on the San Ramon Government Farm 
indicate that abaca plants make a much better 
growth on land plowed before setting and then kept 
well cultivated by horse-power cultivators, than on 
land merely cleared and burned over, then culti- 
vated with sweet-potatoes, as is the usual custom. 
Unless shade trees have been left at intervals of 
twenty to thirty yards, com should be planted 
between the rows to serve as a partial shade and 
protection from the wind. 

The stalks are cut between the flowering and 
fruiting stages. If cut earlier or later the fiber will 
be of inferior quality. The first stalks are ready to 
cut twenty to thirty-six months after planting, and 
afterwards the fields are cut over about once in 
eight months until the plants become unproductive 
at the end of fifteen to forty j'ears. The new plants 
continue to grow as the older ones are cut. The 
plants are cut with a sharp bolo, leaving the stump 
three to six inches high, slanting so as to shed 
water. 

Immediately after the stalk is cut the leaves are 
trimmed off. The outer fiber-bearing surface of 
each successive leaf-stem composing the trunk is 
then stripped off with the aid of a bone knife. The 
fiber is cleaned by drawing these fresh green strips 
between a knife and a block of wood, the knife be- 
ing pressed against the wood by means of a spring 
pole. The work requires strength and skill. Twenty- 
five pounds of clean dry fiber is a fair day's work. 
The annual yield of fiber varies from 300 to 1,000 
pounds per acre, the average being probably not 
far from 500 pounds. 

Abaca fiber is used in the Philippines for making 
hand-woven cloth, known as "tinampipi" and "sina- 
may." The fiber for this purpose is selected and 



tied end to end, not spun into yarn. It is ?-!so used 
for domestic cordage. Nearly all of the abaca 
fiber exported is used in making twines and cord- 
age. It is used for the best grades of binder twine, 
well-drilling cables, power-transmission rope, hoist- 
ing rope, and for nearly all marine cordage. Old 
manila rope, especially worn-out marine cordage, is 
used to make "rope manila paper." Abaca rope of 
the best quality has a working strength about 
twice as great as sisal. Standard or current abaca 
is about one and one-half times as strong as sisal. 
It is also lighter and more durable. 

Abaca fiber constitutes about three-fourths of 
the total exports of the Philippines. The principal 
markets are the United States and Great Britain. 
The importations into the United States during the 
past ten years are shown in the following table: 









Average 


Year 


Quantity 


Value 


import price 
per ton 




Tons 






1896 


47,244 


$3,604,585 


$76 30 


1897 


46,260 


3,408,322 


73 68 


1898 


50,270 


3,239,341 


64 44 


1899 


53,195 


6,211,475 


116 77 


1900 


42,624 


7,172,368 


168 27 


1901 


43,735 


7,115,446 


162 69 


1902 


56,453 


10.555,272 


186 97 


1903 


61,648 


11,885,510 


192 79 


1904 


65,666 


11,423,.395 


173 96 


1905 


61,562 


12,065,270 


195 98 



Sisal or henequen. (Figs. 399, 400 ; also Fig. 22.) 

The fiber known in our markets as sisal is ob- 
tained from the leaves of two closely related plants, 
henequen, Agave rigida, var. dongata, Baker, and 
sisal, Agave rigida, var. Sisalana, Engelm. These 







'K 



Fig. 399. Sisal {Agave rigida, var. Sisalana). No leaves 
are cut above an angle on the stem of 45°. 

plants belong to the AmarylUdacete or Amaryllis 
family, and are somewhat similar in a[ipearance to 
the century plant. They are both native in Yucatan 
and there, as elsewhere in Spanish America, both 
are called henequen. The varieties are distinguished 
in Yucatan by the Maya names, " sacci " for var. 



288 



FIBER PLANTS 



FIBER PLANTS 



elongata, and "yaxci" for var. Sisalana. The variety 
elongata, cultivated only in Spanish America, is 
known by the growers as "henequen," while the 
variety Sisalana, cultivated mostly in English- 
speaking countries, is called by the growers 
"sisal." 

Both plants are perennial. They have rosettes of 
fifty to seventy-five rigid, nearly straight, erect or 







Fig. 400. Drying fiber ol sisal. 

spreading leaves, three to five feet long, three to 
five inches wide, and about one-fourth inch thick 
above the base, terminating in a sharp reddish 
brown spine about one inch long. At maturity, 
eight to twenty-five years, the plant sends up a 
flower-stalk ten to twenty feet high, bearing dense 
clusters of erect flowers at the ends of horizontal 
candelabra-like branches. The flowers are followed 
by bulbils, or sometimes by seed-pods in elongata, 
1,000 to 4,000 bulbils ("mast plants") being borne 
on a single " pole." After flowering, the plant dies. 
Suckers are sent up from the roots after the first 
year until the plant dies. Sisal is a hard fiber three 
to five feet long, rather coarse and stifl", light yel- 
low or nearly white, nearly always lighter-colored 
than abaca. 

The variety elongata, henequen or sacci, develops 
an elongated trunk two to six feet high, and its 
leaves, two to two and one-half inches thick at 
the base, always have marginal spines, while the 
variety Sisalana, sisal or yaxci, has no distinct 
trunk ; its leaves are usually without marginal 
spines and rarely more than one inch thick at the 
base. It produces a stronger, softer, whiter fiber, 
but in less quantity than the other variety. 

In eastern Yucatan the variety Sisalana is culti- 
vated to a small extent for fiber for domestic pur- 
poses, for hammocks, bags and the like, but the 
fiber for export is secured from the variety elon- 
gata, cultivated most extensively in the region 
about Merida. This variety is also cultivated in 
Cuba, and to some extent in East Africa. The va- 
riety Sisalana is cultivated in the Bahamas, Turks 
and Caicos islands, Santo Domingo, Hawaii, Central 
America, East Africa and India. The production 
of Yucatan exceeds the combined production from 
all the other localities. 

Sisal requires a continuous warm and rather dry 
climate. The lowest recorded temperature in the 
sisal-growing region of Yucatan is 48°, and the 
annual rainfall twenty-nine to thirty-nine inches. 
It endures kght frosts in Tamaulipas. 



In Yucatan, and also in the Bahamas, the 
principal regions of sisal cultivation, the plants 
are grown almost exclusively over partly disin- 
tegrated porous lime rock, largely of coral or 
shell origin. Sisal will not grow well in light, 
sandy soil, nor where water stands about its roots. 
In most places it is grown at altitudes not more 
than 100 feet above sea-level. 

Land is prepared by cutting and burning the 
brush, and, unless too stony, it is plowed. Lines 
about nine feet apart are marked, and the plants 
are set about five feet apart in the rows. Suck- 
ers taken from old plantations are used for pro- 
pagation, except for starting plantations at long 
distances, when bulbils are sometimes used, as they 
are smaller and more easily transported. So far as 
possible, the young plants are set out at the begin- 
ning of the rainy season, especially in regions sub- 
ject to severe drought. After the plants are set 
they require no further care, except to cut the 
weeds and grass about twice each year. Cultiva- 
tion should be given two or three times each year 
when the character of the soil permits. Vegetation 
must be kept down, as it chokes and retards the 
growth of sisal plants and furnishes material for 
field fires, the most serious menace to the crop. 

The leaves are cut when three to five feet in 
length, and the outer ones are nearly horizontal. 
In the Bahamas the first crop is cut in the third 
or fourth year after the plants are set, and annual 
crops thereafter for six to twelve years. In Yuca- 
tan, the first crop is not cut until the sixth or sev- 
enth year, and after that a crop is cut every eight 
months for twelve to twenty-five years. The leaves 
are cut with a large knife and tied in bundles of 
twenty-five each, for transporting to the cleaning- 
machine. Only the outer leaves are taken. 

Nearly all of the sisal of commerce is cleaned 
by machinery. The difl'erent kinds of machines 
are all similar in principle. The fresh green leaves 
are fed sidewise at the rate of 10,000 to 30,000 
per hour, and the green pulp crushed, beaten and 
scraped away by two or three rapidly revolving 
drums, against which first one end of the leaf and 
then the other is pressed by means of adjustable 
curved aprons. In some machines, streams of water 
play on the fiber as it passes from the scraping 
wheels. It is taken directly from the machine to 
the drying-yard, and, when dry, is baled for mar- 
ket, usually without sorting, as it is rather uni- 
form in quality. 

The yield of fiber ranges from 3 to 4 per cent 
of the weight of the green leaves. The average 
yield of clean, dry fiber is usually between 500 and 
1,000 pounds per acre. 

Sisal is used most extensively for binder twine. 
It is also used for lariats and general cordage of 
one inch diameter and under for use on land. It 
kinks in pulley-blocks and rots in salt water, hence 
is not suitable for hoisting-ropes or marine cord- 
age. It is heavier than abaca, and its working 
strength is about one third less than that of current 
abaca rope of the same size and type. 

The increasing importance of si.<!al in our fiber 
industries is indicated by the following table. 



FIBER PLANTS 



FIBER PLANTS 



289 



showing the annual imports and increasing values 
during the past ten years : 









Average 


Year 


Quantity 


Value 


import price 
per tnu 




Tons 






1896 


52,130 


$3,412,760 


$65 47 


1897 


63,266 


3,834,732 


60 61 


1898 


69,322 


5,169,900 


74 58 


1899 


71,898 


9,211,377 


128 12 


1900 


76,922 


11,782,263 


153 17 


1901 


70,076 


7,972,564 


113 77 


1902 


89,583 


11,961,213 


133 52 


1903 


87,025 


13,289,444 


152 71 


1904 


109,214 


15,935,555 


145 91 


1905 


100,301 


15,250,859 


152 05 



Phormium or New Zealand hemp. (Fig. 401). 

The fiber known commercially as New Zealand 
hemp and New Zealand flax is obtained from the 
leaves of the Phormium hemp plant, Phormium 
tenax, Forst., belonging to the Liliaeece or Lily 
family. Neither the plant nor the fiber has any 
resemblance to hemp or flax. 

The plant is similar in habit to the common 
blue flag or iris, but much larger. Its many 



tHmPM ■ 




Fig. 401. New Zealand hemp {Phormium tenax). 

coarse, grass-like leaves, one-half to one and one- 
fourth inches wide and three to twelve feet long, 
grow in dense clumps from perennial roots. A 
flower-stalk hearing lily -like flowers grows at 
length from the center of the leaf-cluster. The 
old roots in the middle become weaker and die, and 
the outer plants in turn become new centers of 
growth. Many different varieties are recognized, 

B19 



varying in length and width of leaves, and in habit 
as well as habitat. 

The plant is native in New Zealand, and is dis- 
tributed in many parts of Australasia. It has been 
introduced as an ornamental in California and the 
southern states, and also in Europe, even as far 
north as Ireland and Scotland. It is cultivated for 
fiber-production on a commercial scale in New Zea- 
land, and to a small extent in southern Europe. It 
is the only important hard-fiber plant of the tem- 
perate zones. In New Zealand it grows between 
latitudes 35° and 4.5°, where it is subject to frost 
and snow, but it will not endure the more severe 
winters of our northern states. It grows best in 
a rich, porous, sandy or loamy soil, moist but with 
good drainage. Some of the varieties will grow in 
swamps. 

It is propagated by transplanting roots. The 
leaves are cut about once each year, and the fiber 
is cleaned in part by machinery. The machines 
thus far brought out leave the fiber but partly 
cleaned, requiring considerable hand-work to pro- 
pare it for market. Under favorable conditions, 
the plants yield 800 to 1,200 pounds of fiber per 
acre. 

The fiber is five to ten feet long, reddish yellow or 
nearly white. In color and appearance it resembles 
abaca, but it is much softer, more flexible, usually 
more finely subdivided and le-ss strong. It is some- 
what elastic, a valuable quality in tow-lines, and 
it is less injured by salt water than other com- 
mercial hard fibers aside from abaca. 

It is used for fodder yarn, lath yarn, and either 
mixed with sisal or abaca or alone for binder twine. 
In New Zealand, and also in Europe, it is made up 
into a great variety of woven goods. 

It has been quoted in the New York market at 
one-half to one cent per pound less than sisal until 
recently. The demand for it is gradually increasing. 

Mauritius hemp (Fig. 402). 

Mauritius hemp is a hard fiber obtained from the 
leaves of the Mauritius fiber plant, Furcrma fcetida. 
Haw. {F. gigantea), belonging to the Amaryllidacece 
or Amaryllis family. 

Aloes vert, as the plant is called in Mauritius, is 
a perennial, with a rosette of sixty to eighty erect 
or spreading, straight, rigid leaves, six to ten 
inches wide, and four to eight feet long, similar in 
appearance to agave leaves, but usually thinner 
above the base in proportion to their size, and 
somewhat plicate toward the apex. The terminal 
spine is rather weak and the marginal spines weak 
and irregular, or usually absent. The flower-stalk, 
attaining a height of fifteen to fifty feet, bears a 
rather loose panicle of drooping, light yellowish 
green flowers, followed by bulbils. Suckers are 
produced from the roots, and if the young flower- 
stalk is broken, suckers are produced in abundance 
from adventitious buds. 

Aloes vert is native in tropical America, but it 
is widely distributed in the tropics of both hemi- 
spheres. This and closely related species are the 
"maguey "of Porto Rico, the "molina" of Hawaii, 
the "pita floja" of Costa Rica, the "fique" of 



290 



FIBER PLANTS 



FIBER PLANTS 



I 



Venezuela, and one of the plants called "cabulla" 
of Central America. In most of these countries its 
fiber is produced in small quantities for domestic 
use, but only in the islands of Mauritius and St. 
Helena is it systematically cultivated for the pro- 
duction of fiber for export. 







-\' 






Fig. 402. 



Porto Rican Maguey {Furcra;a tiiberosa). 
from bulbs. 



Three-year-old plants 



It requires for its best development a tropical 
climate with a moderate rainfall, and a soil of 
good fertility. Under favorable conditions it grows 
more rapidly than sisal, producing its first crop of 
leaves in the third year. 

The leaves are crushed and the pulp scraped 
away by machines, but the fiber is afterward washed 
in soap and water, rinsed, dried, beaten and picked 
over, requiring a large amount of handling. The 
green leaves yield about 3 per cent of dry fiber, 
the yield per acre ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 
pounds. 

Mauritius fiber is white, .soft, more elastic than 
sisal, but also weaker. It is used either alone or 
mixed with sisal and other fibers in the cheaper 
grades of coarse twine and cordage of small diame- 
ter. During the past five years Mauritius hemp has 
been quoted in the New York market at six to 
seven and seven-eighths cents per pound, usually 
one-fourth to one cent per pound less than sisal. 

Ixtle. (Figs. 403, 404.) 

Ixtle (ext'-le) or istle (est'-le) and tampico are 
names applied to a group of hard fibers ten to 
thirty inches long, obtained from the cogollos 
(co-hol'-yos) or inner immature leaves of several 
different kinds of agaves and yuccas, all growing 
without cultivation on the dry table-lands of 
northern-central Mexico. None of the ixtle-pro- 
ducing plants has been cultivated for fiber produc- 
tion, and they are rarely found even in botanical 
gardens or collections of economic plants. 

Three kinds of ixtle are recognized by the trade. 
(In trade quotations the name is usually spelled 
istle, instead of the Mexican ixtle.) 

(1) Jaumave istle (How-mah'-ve), a nearly white 



fiber twenty to thirty inches long, resembling sisal 
but somewhat finer and more flexible, is used largely 
in the cheaper grades of twine and cordage and 
for ore sacks. This fiber is secured from Agave 
lophantha in the Jaumave valley about sixty miles 
from Victoria, in Tamaulipas. (Fig. 403.) 

(2) Tula istle, shorter and coarser 
than Jaumave istle, also used for the 
cheaper grades of cordage, is espe- 
cially adapted for the manufacture 
of brushes. This fiber is secured 
partly from Agave Leeheguilla (Fig. 
404) in the states of San Luis Potosi, 
Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon 
and Zacatecas. The plant is abundant 
in western Texas, but rarely utilized 
there. The leaves of Agave univittata, 
A. cmrulescens and A. Kerehccvei, all 
growing in the dry highlands of the 
above-named states, are also used 
for the production of tula istle. 

(3) Palma istle, a rather gummy, 
yellowish fiber, ten to thirty inches 
long, used chiefly in the manufacture 
of cordage, is obtained from several 
species of yuccas or "palmas," as 
these plants are called in Mexico, the 
principal ones being " palma sam- 
andoca," Samuela earner osana; 

" palma pita," Yucca Treadeana and Y. Treculeana, 
var. eanaliculata. All of these plants grow along 
the lower slopes of the mountains rising from the 
high table-lands of Mexico. 

The ixtle fibers are cleaned chiefly by hand by 
drawing each leaf, first one end and then the other, 
repeatedly between a blunt knife and a block of 
wood. The palma leaves have to be steamed or 
given an alkaline bath before the pulp can be 
scraped away. Machines are beginning to be used 
for cleaning ixtle, but the results are not yet 
entirely satisfactory. 

Ixtle fibers have been used in Mexico for textile 
purposes from prehistoric times, but until within 
the last decade they were used in this country only 
for shoe-brushes, 
clothes - brushes, 
scrubbing-brushes 
and the like. The 
high prices of sisal 
and abaca have 
made it neces- 
sary to introduce 
cheaper fibers 
for low-priced 
cordage, and im- 
proved cordage 
machinery has 
made it possible 
to use ixtle fibers 
with good effect. 
The fiber is strong 
and durable, but rather stiff and harsh. Sacks made 
of ixtle are said to endure ten years of constant use 
in handling ores in Mexican mines. In the past ten 
years the importations of ixtle fibers have increased 




Fig. 403. j!Lma3.ve istle ( Agave lophan- 
tha). Fiber is obtained from the 
inner leaves. 



FIBER PLANTS 



FIBER PLANTS 



291 



from 6,000 tons to 15,000 tons, and the prices have 
risen from one and one-half and three cents to 
four and five and one-half cents per pound. 

Manila maguey. 

This is a hard fiber similar to sisal, but not quite 
so strong. It is obtained from the leaves of the 
Manila maguey plant, Agave Cantula, naturalized in 
the Philippines and now being cultivated there. 

Aloe fiber. 

Bombay and Manila aloe fibers are hard fibers 
three to five feet long, similar in appearance to 




Fig. 404. Lecheguilla leaves and fiber. 

sisal but weaker and more elastic, used to some 
extent in the manufacture of medium grades of 
cordage. They are obtained from the leaves of 
agaves. 

Maguey fiber. 

Fiber for domestic use is occasionally obtained 
from the leaves of the large maguey plants. Agave 
atrovirens, A. collina, A. Potosina, A. Tequilana and 
A. vivipara, growing in central Mexico. The intro- 
duction of fiber-cleaning machinery in the last two 
years gives promise of the production of Mexican 
maguey fiber in commercial quantities. The fiber is 
three to eight feet long, nearly white, elastic, but 
not so strong as sisal. Several species of magueys 
are cultivated for the production of the Mexican 
beverages, pulque and mexcal, but none of them is 
cultivated primarily for fiber. 

Zapupe. 

Two agaves, known as " zapupe verde " and " za- 
pupe azul," have been planted extensively in recent 
years for fiber production in the states of Tamau- 
lipas and Vera Cruz, Mexico. Both have straight, 
rigid leaves, three to six feet long, narrower, 
thinner and more numerous than the leaves of sisal 
or henequen. Zapupe verde, having green leaves, 
has long been cultivated for fiber by the Indians of 
the district of Tantoyuca, Vera Cruz. Zapupe azul, 
with bluish glaucous leaves, is of uncertain origin. 
In appearance it very closely resembles Tequila 
azul. Agave Tequilana, but it is not used in eastern 
Mexico for the production of " tequila wine." Both 
species of zapupe produce fiber very similar in 
quality. It is finer and more flexible than sisal, and 
of about the same strength when compared by 
weight. It is extracted on sisal-cleaning machines, 
but it has not been placed on the market in suffi- 
cient quantities to determine its real market value. 



Sa7isevierias. 

The name "bowstring hemp " is applied to most 
of the fibers obtained from the leaves of a dozen or 
more species of the genus Sansevieria of the Lily 
family. Most of these species are native in tropical 
Africa, especially the dry bush country from Abys- 
sinia to Mozambique. One of the earliest known of 
this group of fibers is " moorva " or "murva," 
obtained from the leaves of Sansevieria Roxburgh i- 
ana in India and Australasia. It is said that this 
fine, elastic, strong fiber was used by the ancient 
Hindus for making bow strings. Two species, San- 
sevieria Guiiieensis and S. longifl.ora, are widely 
distributed in the American tropics. Numerous 
unsuccessful attempts have been made to exploit 
these plants. Recent efforts in Venezuela promise 
better results. At Nairobi and Voi, British East 
Africa, the fibers of Sansevieria Stuckeyi and S. 
Ehrenbcrgii are being extracted in commercial 
quantities by machines similar to those used for 
extracting sisal. The first has cylindrical leaves 
standing up from the ground like green stakes four 
to eight feet high, and one to two inches in diam- 
eter. The second has clusters of equitant leaves 
three to five feet long and one to two inches thick, 
arrow-shaped or triangular in cross-section. The 
leaves of both species yield 7 to 10 per cent of dry 
fiber. The fiber is similar to sisal in appearance, 
and is suited to the manufacture of twines and 
cordage. It has not been produced in sufficient 
quantities to establish a market value. 

Bromelia fibers. 

Hard fibers of remarkable strength and fineness 
are obtained from the leaves of at least four dif- 
ferent species of Bromelias growing without culti- 
vation in the moist lowlands from eastern Mexico 
through Central America to Colombia, Brazil and 
Paraguay. These include the "caraguata" of Ar- 
gentina, and the pita, silk grass (Hondui-as) and 
pinuela of Colombia, Central America and Mexico, 
obtained from B. Karatas, B. sylvcstris and B. Pin- 
guin. These fibers carefully prepared are sometimes 
sold in the Mexican market at one dollar (Mexican) 
per pound. The finest Mexican hammocks are made 
chiefly of this flber. It is also used for making 
game-bags, and even flddle- strings. The plants 
grow abundantly over thousands of acres, but there 
are no satisfactory machines for cleaning the fiber, 
and it is not produced in quantities sufficient for 
export. 

Pineapple fiber. 

Pineapple fiber is obtained from the leaves of the 
pineapple plant, Ananas saiivus, Schult., cultivated 
in nearly all warm countries for the fruit. The 
fiber is produced chiefly in the Philippines from 
long-leaved varieties cultivated especially for fiber, 
the fruits of these varieties being of little or no 
value. The fiber is cleaned by hand, by scraping 
away the pulp with a bone or a piece of broken 
crockery. After various processes, usually including 
beating, washing and sorting, the fibers are tied 
together end to end. The strands made in this man- 
ner, not spun or twisted into yarn, are woven hj 



292 



FIBER PLANTS 



FIBER PLANTS 



hand in the Philippines, making the beautiful piiia 
cloth. 

Attempts to use the leaves of pineapples in Flor- 
ida for fiber production have not given results that 
would warrant taking up the work on a commercial 
scale. 

n. Plaiting and Rough-weaving Fibers 
Coir. 

Coir, or coconut fiber, is obtained from the thick 
outer husk of the coconut, or fruit of the coco 
palm, Cocos niwifera, Linn., belonging to the Pal- 
macem or Palm family. Coir is a rather coarse, 
stiff, elastic fiber four to ten inches long, of a 
brownish color. In this country it is used for door- 
mats and floor covering. In Asia, and to some 
extent in Europe, it is used for cables and towing 
hawsers, valued for their elasticity and lightness. 
It is sometimes woven into coarse sail-cloth. 

The coconut palm grows in abundance along the 
sandy shores of nearly all tropical countries, and 
occasionally in inland localities, but the production 
of the coir of commerce is confined almost exclu- 
sively to the Laccadive islands and adjacent shores 
of southern India and Ceylon, and in southern 
China. Coir is obtained from green coconuts. The 
fiber from mature coconuts, such as are sold in the 
markets, is coarse and brittle and of little value 
except for jadoo fiber, used in place of leaf-mold 
for growing conservatory plants. Machinery is 
now used for shredding the fiber and twisting it 
into a coarse yarn, the form in which it is exported. 

Raffia. 

Raffia is a flat, ribbon-like fiber, consisting of 
strips of the epidermis peeled from the leaves of 
the raffia palm, Raphia Ruffia, Mart., growing in 
Madagascar, and the jupati palm, Raphia tcediyera, 
Mart., of eastern Brazil. These palms belong to 
the Palm family. They are plentiful in the wild 
state, and are not systematically cultivated. 

In this country raflia was formerly used almost 
exclusively as a tie material in nurseries and gar- 
dens, but now it is largely used in basketry, milli- 
nery and various kinds of fancy work. Its use for 
these purposes has increased the demand and re- 
sulted in doubling the price within the last six 
years. In Madagascar, raffia is made into woven 
goods. 

Matting fibers. 

Matting fibers are plaiting or rough -weaving 
materials, not textile fibers. Entire stalks or leaves 
are used with a warp of cotton or hemp yarn, or in 
many instances, especially in the Pacific islands, 
the same or similar materials are used in both 
directions, that is, for warp as well as woof. 

Japanese matting is made from the mat rush, 
" round grass " or " bingo-i," Juncitu effusus, Linn., 
or the "three-cornered grass," "shichito-i," Cyperus 
tegetiformis, Roxb. The mat ru.sh is distributed 
throughout the greater i)art of the north temperate 
zone. It is plentiful in many parts of the United 
States, but is not used here except as a tie material 



by Chinese gardeners. In Japan and the region 
about Shanghai, China, it is cultivated with great 
care in the rice-fields. 

It is propagated by roots set out first in nursery 
beds, then transplanted to the fiekis late in the fall 
after the rice crop has been removed. The crop ia 
hoed, well fertilized and watered, somewhat like 
rice. It is cut in July. The roots are then dug to 
make room for transplanting rice, and to be used 
for future planting. The shoots are dipped in a 
pond of water, holding white clay in suspension, 
to give them a coating which tends to preserve 
their color and toughness. When dry they are 
stored away in bundles until used. 

In the Ningpo and Canton districts of China, 
and in Formosa, the Chine.se mat rush " Kiam- 
tsau," Cyperus tegetiformis, is cultivated largely 
in the rice-fields to supply material for matting. 
In the region about Calcutta and for the fine 
Tinnevelly mats of south India Cyperus tegetum, 
Roxb., is used. Its leaves are harder than those of 
C. tegetiformis. 

Nearly all of the "round grass," Juneiis, used for 
matting is from cultivated plants, and the stalks, 
mostly sterile shoots, are used whole, while the 
sedges, " three - cornered grass " of the genus 
Cyperus, are largely from wild plants, and the stalks 
are split into two or three sections before drying. 
The matting made in China and Japan is woven on 
hand-looms, and afl:ords employment to thousands 
of men, women and children. The United States 
imports floor matting to the value of about 
$4,000,000 every year, and its use is steadily 
increasing. 

A power-loom has been devised for weaving floor 
matting, and ett'orts are being made, with only 
partial success thus far, for securing in this coun- 
try a satisfactory supply of rushes. 

Hat fibers. 

Hats are made from round or flat plaited or 
woven fibrous material, chiefly straw or shredded 
leaves of palms or palm-like plants. Panama hats 
are made from finely_divided strips of the palm-like 
leaves of the "jipi-japa" plant, Carludovica pal- 
mata. This plant belongs to the Cyclanthacece, not 
to the Palm family. It is a native in Central 
America and tropical South America. The fan-like 
leaves, two to six feet in diameter, borne on stalks 
six to fourteen feet high, are cut while young, slit 
into shreds and immersed in boiling water, then 
dried and bleached in the sun. In drying, the 
slender strips roll up into cylinders, like fine 
straws. These are woven by hand into bowl-shaped 
bags, and afterward pressed into the form of 
hats. The weaving is done chiefly in the morning 
and evening, as the dry air of mid-day makes 
the straw too brittle to work well. The finest 
panama hats are made in Ecuador and Colombia. 
Cheaper grades are made from other species of 
carludovica. 

Porto Rican hats are made from the leaves of 
the "yaray" or hat palm, Inodes casearia, a rather 
small palm scattered across the southern part of 
Porto Rico and most abundant near the shore a 



FIBER PLANTS 



FLAX 



293 



few miles south of Mayaguez. The palm leaves are 
treated very much like those of the jipi-japa. The 
weaving is done by women and girls in their own 
homes. The center of the industry is at Cabo 
Rojo, where the open plaza in the center of the 
town is devoted to drying and bleaching the leaves. 
Straw braids for hats are made from ditt'erent 
kinds of straw. Wheat and allied species are used 
e.xtensively in southern Europe and also in China. 
In Europe the straw is grown chiefly in the prov- 
inces of Tuscan}', Modena and Vienza, in northern 
Italy. The seed is sown thickly, and the straw is 
pulled up by the roots before maturity. After dry- 
ing, the upper joints, the only part used for fine 
braids, are removed by hand, sorted and tied in 
bundles. This straw is used for the Tuscan, Leg- 
horn, Venetian and Swiss braids, extensively used 
for hats for both men and women. Rye is also 
grown in Italy, where it is treated much like 
wheat for the production of a plaiting straw. Bar- 
ley and rice are cultivated in Japan for the pro- 
duction of Japanese straw braid, which is exported 
in large quantities to the United States. 

III. Upholstery and Stuffing Fibers 

This group includes a large number of fibrous 
materials of vegetable origin. The straw of flax, 
grown for seed and threshed in an ordinary grain- 
threshing machine, thus ruining it for textile pur- 
poses, is put through a series of fluted rollers, 
which crush it and fit it for a coarse stufling 
material used in couches, car seats and carriage 
cushions. 

Crin vegetal is a fiber obtained from a small 
palm, Chamcerops humilk, native in Algeria and 
cultivated in southern Europe. The leaves of the 
plant are shredded and the strands twisted into a 
coarse yarn, making, when picked open, an elastic 
material somewhat like curled hair. A similar 
material is also made from the leaves of the saw 
palmetto, which grows in great abundance over 
hundreds of acres in Florida and westward along 
the gulf coast of Texas. 

Florida moss (Dendropogon, or Tillandsia, usne- 
oides), not a true moss, but a flowering epiphytic 
plant of the same family as the pineapple, grows in 
abundance on trees along rivers and bayous in the 
coast region from the Dismal Swamp of Virginia 
to Florida and Mexico. When abundant it is very 
injurious to the trees on which it grows, often be- 
coming a serious pest in orange groves. In many 
places in Florida it is collected, and placed in heaps 
until fermented to loosen the outer covering, which 
is removed by running it through a crude machine 
consisting essentially of a revolving toothed cylin- 
der and toothed concaves. The tough inner fibrous 
material resembling horse-hair is extensively used 
for cushions and mattresses. 

Kapoh is a soft cotton-like down growing in the 
seed-pods of the silk-cotton trees, Cciba pentandra, 
Ceiba grandiflora and Bomhax malaharicum, native 
in the tropics of both hemispheres. Although 
abundant in many parts of the tropics, nearly all 
of the kapok of commerce comes from the Dutch 



East Indies and Ceylon. The pods are collected 
from the wild trees, and the down separated from 
the outer covering and from most of the seeds and 
packed for shipment. It is too short and brittle 
for spinning, but it is very light, fluft'y and elastic, 
making an excellent substitute for feathers for 
cushions, pillows and mattresses; and it is also used 
in place of cork and hair in life-preservers. 

Literahire. 

Herbert R. Carter, The Spinning and Twi.sting of 
Long Vegetable Fibers, London, 1904 ; Charles 
Richards Dodge, A Descriptive Catalogue of Useful 
Fiber Plants of the World, Washington, 1897; 
John W. Gilmore, Preliminary Report on Commer- 
cial Fibers of the Philippines, Manila, 1903 ; Wil- 
liam I. Hannan, Textile Fibers of Commerce, Lon- 
don, 1902 ; J. Forbes Royle, The Fiber Plants of 
India, London, 1855 ; Jose C. Segura, El Maguey, 
Memoria sobre el cultivo y beneficip de sus pro- 
ductos, Mexico, 1901 ; M. Vetillart, Etudes sur les 
fibres vegetales employees dans I'industrie, Paris, 
1876 ; Julius Zipser, Textile Raw Materials and 
Their Conversion into Yarns, London, 1901 : Vege- 
table Fibers, Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, 
Additional Series II, Royal Gardens, Kew, 1898. 
Rafael Barba. El Henequen en Yucatan, Mexico, 
1905 ; Harold H. Mann, Sisal-Hemp Culture in the 
Indian Tea Districts, Calcutta, 1904 ; T. F. Hunt, 
The Forage and Fiber Crops in America, 1907. 

FLAX. Liniim usitatissimum, Linn. Liiiacew. 
Linum (Latin), Linon (Greek), Lein (German), 
Lin (French), Llin (Celtic). It is from these 
names that we get our common words, linen, 
lint, linseed and line. The specific Latin name 
means "most useful." [See also Fiber Plants.] 
Figs. 405-410. 

By C. P. Bull. 

Flax is annual, grown for the fiber of the bast 
and the oil of the seeds. It grows one to four feet 
tall. Flowers are borne in cymose inflorescences 




Fig. 405. The flax flower, a, open flower and bud just open 
ing; 6, petals removed, showing close relation of anthers 
and stigmas; c, anther and pollen: d, stamen; e, pistil; 
^, petal; f^, plan of flower: A, section showing arrangement 
of parts. 

and are distinctly 5-parted in every respect ; sta- 
mens 10, monodelphous ; .stigma 5-parted ; sepals 
5; petals 5, blue, sometimes white; each loculus 
of the ovary is incompletely halved and bears 2 



294 



FLAX 



FLAX 



seeds; fruit, a capsule, 5-ceIled, 
with 10 seeds. This species is the 
only cultivated form of the fia.x 
family (Liiiaee(e), except for orna- 
ment, but some of the species so 
closely resemble it that the hus- 
bandman would be unable to recog- 
nize any difference. A large number 
of species are recognized by botan- 
ists. Bessey reports 13.5 species in 
all, and 22 native to America. Some of these are 
perennial. Many of them are of easy culture in an 
open and warm place, where they are fully exposed 
to the sun, giving attractive bloom. 

History. 

It is not definitely known to what country may 
be attributed the origin of the flax plant. L. angusti- 
folium is said to grow wild from Palestine to the 
Canary islands. It is also reported as being the 
species grown by the Swiss lake dwellers. L. usi- 
tatissimum, it is said, is the ancient flax of Egypt 
and Assyria. The ancient use of the fiber is evident 
from the fact that the Egyptian mummies are 
found wrapped in linen and the flax plant is carved 
on their tombs. Another evidence of its antiquity 
is found in Genesis xli. 42 : " Pharaoh took off 
his ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand 
and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen." Its 
introduction into Europe dates from very remote 
times. Its importance was materially lessened by 
the genera! introduction and use of cotton. 

The introduction of flax into the United States 
was made at an early date, probably by the early 
Pilgrims. No definite records are available. Up to 
some thirty or more years ago it formed a part of 
most farmers' harvest, but since the opening of the 
new lands in the West, and the wonderful manu- 
facturing achievements, it has been a crop with 
which to reclaim the native sod. The farmers of 
older lands gave up its culture to cheaper lands. 
At present (1906), a new interest is awakening. A 
wide-spread use for the fiber calls for added care in 
harvesting, and a better knowledge of the science 
of agriculture develops the fact that flax is not 
" hard" on the land, and that crop rotation permits 
of the use of the crop on every well-managed farm. 
The production of flax in America is now placed on 
an entirely new basis. 

Geographical distribution. 

In America the flax industry stands as one of the 
oldest. The production of flax has been confined 
largely to the newer, western lands, as it gradually 
became le.ss profitable on the older eastern farms. 
The importance of the indu.stry in the United States 
is shown by the number of acres (2,534,836) de- 
voted to flax, the number of bushels (28,477,758) 
of seed produced, and the farm value ($24,049,072) 
of the crop. [These figures and following table 
from the agricultural Yearbook, 1905.] For the 
mo.st part, flax is grown in the northern states 
and Canada, the two Dakotas and Minnesota pro- 
ducing about 90 per cent of the total American 
product. 



Peoductiok 


OF Flaxseed in Minnesota and 


North Dakota. 




Acres 


Bushels 


Farm value 
per acre 


Farm value 
per bushel 


Yield per 
acre 


Minnesota . . . 
North Dakota . . 


449,008 
1,357,171 

1,806,179 


5,073,790 
15,743,184 

20,816,974 


$9 72* 
9 74* 


$0 86 
84 


11.3 bus. 
11.6 bus. 



'Computed. 

It does not seem to matter much, for the produc- 
tion of flax seed, whether the climate be hot or 
cold. It is grown in north and south Europe, and 
in this country from Texas to Manitoba. For fiber, 
however, it has been asserted that certain localities, 
as Michigan and Oregon, produce a better quality 
for spinning purposes. 

The production of flax seed at present exceeds 
the home demand, but a ready market is found in 
European countries, especially England, for all the 
export trade that can be supplied. The exports are 
mostly by-products of the oil-mills, — oil-cake and 
oil-meal. Until the year 1891, the domestic supply 
was not equal to the demand, and most of the flax 
seed used in the East was imported from Europe, 
the home products being nearly all manufactured 
and used in the states west of the Alleghanies. 

Average Yields op Grains in Bushels Per Acre 
FOR 1902, 1903 and 1904 in Minnesota. 





Wheat 


Oats 


Barley 


Flax 


Corn 


Marshall .... 
Northfield . . . 
Halstad .... 


Bus. 
14.5 

i3.3 


Bus. 

47 
47 
29.5 


Bus. 

28.5 
31 

27.4 


Bus. 

12.2 

11.8 

9.1 


Bus. 

40 
40-50 



Propagation and cultivation 

The propagation of flax is entirely by the seed, 
which is planted in the spring (the middle of May 
to the middle of June in Minnesota) of the same sea- 
son that the crop is harvested. It requires eighty- 
five to one hundred days in which to mature the 
crop. At present, flax in the United States and 
Canada is grown almost exclusively for seed. The 
demand for linseed oil has been an important factor 
in stimulating the seed-producing feature. The 
fiber has been neglected in this country until the 
last few years. Several companies are now at work 
on machinery and other equipment necessary to 
the making of cordage and coarse-woven materials. 



Cost of Producing 


Flax in 


Minnesota. 




Land 


Land 


Cost of 


Total 




value 


rental 


producing 


cost 


Marshall, South- 










west Minnesota. 


$60 00 


$3 00 


$5 857 


$8 857 


Halstad, North- 










west Minnesota . 


30 00 


1 80 


5 053 


6 853 


Northfield, South- 










east Minnesota . 


70 00 


3 50 


6 326 


9 826 


Large farm. North- 










west Minnesota . 


30 00 


1 80 


4 337 


6 137 



FLAX 



FLAX 



295 



These figures represent the cost when flax is 
grown on stubble land. When it is grown on new 
breaking, the cost is slightly higher. 

Choice of goil. — The flax, having a delicate and 
relatively small root system, and growing to ma- 
turity in so short a time, demands a soil that is 
rich in soluble organic matter and in moisture. 
The character of the soil does not seem to be of so 
much importance. Good crops have been produced 
on very sandy soil, but the straw in such cases is 
very short. On the other hand, the larger crops 
are grown on the heavier clay soils, but in this 
case at the expense of 
the quality of the fiber. 
Experiments have been 
conducted in various states 
on many types of soil, and 
the consensus of opinion 
seems to be that the heavier 
lands give better results, but 
that more seems to depend on 
the preparation before seeding 
than on the type of soils. In 
short, experience teaches that flax 
may be grown on a variety of soils, 
but for the best results a moist, deep, 
friable loam or clay loam is prefer- 
able. In the great flax-growing areas 
of the Northwest, the virgin upland- 
prairie homestead farms are plowed 
and seeded to flax without regard to 
the soil. In the older sections, flax is 
used as a reclamation crop to reduce the 
low land to arable fields. These low-lying 
pieces (prairie sloughs) vary in size from 
one to several acres, and originally were 
too wet for cropping, but as the country be- 
came older, the water gradually disappeared 
so as to render them useful for pasture and 
finally dry enough to plow. The farmers, eager 
for more acres on which to grow grain, have 
reclaimed the border of these sloughs from 
year to year, and are thus maintaining the an- 
nual flax area and getting their farms into 
form and condition for systematic crop rota- 
tion. Thus, flax has been valuable in subduing 
the virgin sod. On the older and heavier lands 
it has a tendency to improve the physical condi- 
tion of the soil. 

Preparing the soil. — This feature in the flax 
industry receives too little attention. A com- 
mon practice in the western states is to break 
the sod in July or August and " back-set " later in 
the fall, but more often the back-setting is not 
done. The following spring the soil is harrowed 
(or disked if the farmer possesses a disk) and 
seeded. It is worthy of note in this connection that 
on the new prairie upland sod thus treated, the 
yield, often as high as thirty bushels per acre, is 
sufficient to pay the price of the land. It is gener- 
ally conceded, however, that flax needs a better 
prepared soil, and, as the country grows older, the 
preparation of the seed-bed receives more and more 
attention. No definite rules can be laid down that 
would be suitable for all types of soil, and in all 



climates, but a few general principles must always 
be observed : 

(1) The land should be plowed deep in the fall 
previous to the spring in which the seed is to be 
sown. If the land is sod, five inches will be suffi- 
cient, but if it is old land, it should be stirred six 
to eight inches deep. 

(2) Heavy clay soils should be worked deeper 
than the lighter loam 
or sandy soils. 

(3) Generally it is 
not advisable to har- 
row in the fall. 

(4) In the spring, the 
heaviest of soils should 
be plowed again, then 

disked and 
harrowed un- 
til smooth and 
firm. The lighter 
soil should be 
disked as early as 
it is sufficiently dry 
to permit of working, 
then harrowed and pul- 
verized fine. 
(5) Flax should not be seeded 
on land that is wet, lumpy or 
wesdy. 
Manuring. — It is a waste of 
time to sow flax on impoverished 
land. The returns will not repay 
the cost of production and the 
seed, to say nothing of the rental 
value of the land. Flax is com- 
monly regarded as an exhausting 
crop, but it is relatively no more 
exhausting of soiJ fertility than other grain crops. 
The root systems of flax plants are not large 
when compared with other grains, as wheat and 
oats. Flax may be considered, therefore, as a deli- 
cate feeder. This means that soil on which flax 
is to be grown must be rich in soluble organic 
matter, or be supplied with the necessary ele- 
ments of plant-growth. 

In this country very little attention is given 
to the use of manures and commercial fertilizers 
for flax. It is doubtful whether the latter are 
necessary, if the farmers u.se proper systems of 
crop rotation, and by the use of farm manures 
and waste products maintain the soil fertility. 
In the use of manures, it is always preferable to 
have them in a fine or composted condition, espe- 
cially on the lighter soils. It is not advisable to 
apply the manure the same year that the seed is 
sown, as it causes an uneven crop, a tendency to- 
ward coarseness of the fiber, and frequently light 
seed. Aside from this, it brings more or less weed 
seed to the soil. A few of the states report the 
use of fertilizers, such as nitrate of soda, muriate 
of potash, dried blood, dissolved bone-black, dried, 
fish and various barnyard manures, but no authen- 
tic results have yet been recorded. 

The eastern states, as a rule, practice methods 
of manuring, while the western country gives little 




296 



FLAX 



FLAX 



or no attention to this feature of crop production. 
On the older farms of the East, fertilizing is 
necessary for the success of the crop. On the 
newer western farms, flax may be grown for a 
number of years without the use of manures ; but, 
sooner or later, manures will become an absolute 
necessity. 

It is recommended that the shives from the mill 
and the flax straw from the threshing machine be 
returned to the soil. If this is done, a very largj 
part of the fertilizing ingredients are returned. 
The only elements removed and not returned to the 
soil are those of the seed, which are as follows : 
Water, 12.3 per cent ; ash, 3.4 per cent ; crude fiber, 
7.2 per cent ; albuminoids, 20.5 per cent ; carbo- 
hydrates, 19.6 per cent ; fats, 37 per cent of the 
total weight of the seed. When the straw is pool- 
retted for the manufacturing of the fiber, large 
returns may be secured by sprinkling the pool 
steep, which is rich in organic matter, on the flax- 
field. This is likely to introduce the wilt disease, 
however, if flax is to follow in the next few years. 

The seed. — It was supposed for a long time that, 
in order to procure the best results, seed-flax must 
be imported, at least every three or four years, 
from the flax-growing countries of Europe. How- 
ever true this may be for the production of the 
flax fiber, it does not hold true for the production 
of seed. Many imported varieties of flax have been 
tested at the Minnesota Experiment Station, but 
none has proved so valuable a seed-producer as the 
common or native flax, which is undoubtedly an 
acclimated stock of the well-known Riga. It is not 
definitely known that it is necessary to import seed 
in order to secure fiber for the production of the 
finer linens. 

In growing flax for seed, a farmer can afford to 
use nothing but the best. There is such a vast dif- 
ference in the individual seeds in their power of 
growth and production, that to use the small, 
shrunken seeds is but to encourage a small yield. 
In ordinary farm practice, however, it is seldom 
that a farmer makes any efl'ort to .select the largest, 
heaviest, plumpest and most matured seed (those 
known by experience and experiment to give best 
results) for seeding purposes. He sells all the seed 
as threshed, except enough in the bottom of the 
bin to plant his next year's acreage, many times 
not even saving this, but depending on the local 
elevator for seed the next spring. 

The selection of the seed can be.st be made on the 
specific gravity basis, i. e., taking advantage of 
the difl'erence in the weights of the seeds. The 
ordinary fanning-mills will do this work quickly 
and effectively when operated intelligently. The 
better form to use is the "sideshake" mill. This 
form drops the seed ofl" the feed-board under the 
hopper in a steady .stream. The wind blast here 
catches and carries the grain with it to various 
distances according to the weight of the kernels, 
the lightest .seeds being carried out at the back of 
the mill, while the heaviest ones drop nearly straight 
down. By setting the sieves in the lower shoes of 
the " .shake " (one so as to catch the heavy kernels 
and the other farther out so as to catch the medium 



and lighter grain.s), the best can be saved for seed 
and the other, called " market grain," can be 
cleaned. The .small percentage thus saved does not 
lower the market grade of the grain, for separating 
this from the chafl" and lightest seeds more than 
compensates for the small percentage saved for 
seed purposes. So far as the writer is aware, no 
experiments have been made comparing the results 
from good, medium and poor seed-flax, but with all 
other cla.sses of crops the results have shown marked 
advantages in favor of the well-graded seeds. 

Seeding practices. — Flax is planted in the spring 
after all danger from frost is past. As it requires 
only eighty-five to one hundred days for maturing, 
the planting is seldom done before May 10 in the 
Middle Northwest. In some of the new sections on 
low spots where water stands on the surface in the 
early spring, the planting season is materially 
lengthened, .seeding often being done as late as July 
1. It is unsafe, however, to sow flax later than June 
15 in the great northwest flax section. Early seed- 
ing, May 10 to 20, always gives the best results, as 
the plants get well rooted and strong before the 
hot, dry summer weather comes. 

From an account given in Report No. 10 of the 
United States OflSce of Fiber Investigation, the fol- 
lowing dates for sowing and harvesting in the 
various states are taken : 



state 


Sown 


Cut 


Days 


Massachusetts . . 


April 29 


August 1-6 


94-100 


Connecticut 




May 11 


Aug. 7-23 


88 


New York . 




May 22- 
April 30 


July 13- 
August 26 


45-97 


Marj'land . . . 




May 4 


August 25 


113 


Kentucky . . 




April 29 


August 11 


105 


Ohio .... 




April 30 
April 10-15 


July 15 
Sept. 5-12 


77 


Indiana . . 




148-150 


Illinois . . . 




April 24 
May 30 


July 30 
August 3 


98 


Kansas . . 




76 


Missouri . . 




May 23 


August 1-3 


71-83 


Iowa . . . 




March 15- 
June 10 


August 15- 
October 1 


114-154 








California . . 




April 25 


June 20 


57 


Wisconsin . . 




June 1 


August 30 


92 


Michigan . . 




Ajiril 20 


August 20 


92 


Minnesota . 




April 30- 
June 1 


August 7- 
Sept. 5 


78-119 


Nebraska. . 




May 7 


August 3 


89 


South Dakota 




May 15 


August 15 


93 


Oregon . . 




May 18 
1 


August 14 


89 



The depth to plant varies somewhat with the soil 
and .season. On the heavier, wet soils the .seed 
should be planted shallower than on the lighter 
soils. In the ordinary soils, flax should be planted 
not deeper than one and one-half inches. 

The quantity of seed used by the American farmer 
varies from two to six pecks per acre. For the 
production of seed, the Minnesota Experiment Sta- 
tion has found that for Minnesota conditions two 
pecks give most satisfactory results, but the farm- 
ers of the Northwest usually sow a little more. 
For fiber, the quantity sown is never less than four 



FLAX 



FLAX 



297 







pecks per acre, six pecks being generally considered 
best. 

If the flax is grown for seed, it is at the ex- 
pense of the quantity and quality of fiber, and 
conversely. The dift'erence is occasioned by the 
thickness of the seeding. The quantity of seed pro- 
duced depends on the number of branches that bear 
the seed-bolls. By sowing two to three pecks per 
acre, the plants are sufficiently far apart to permit 
of reasonable branching. Under .such conditions, 
the straw grows about thirty inches long. When 
six pecks per acre are seeded, the plants are very 
close together, thus preventing the branching habit 

and forcing a 
taller and finer 
growth. 

At present, 
there are but two 
general methods 
of sowing, viz., 
with the so-called 
grain drill and 
with the ordinary 
broadcast seeder. 
With the former, 
the seeds are 
planted in parallel 
rows six to eight 
inches apart. All 
seeds are placed 
at an even depth 
and in a compact 
seed - bed. This 
method is pre- 
ferred for seed 
production, as the 
plants have a 
better chance to 
branch and to 
form seed - bolls. 
In broadcasting, 
the seeds are scat- 
tered promiscu- 
ously over the 
ground and cov- 
ered by the gangs 
of cultivating teeth following the seed spouts. By 
this method, a trifle more seed is needed per acre. 
For fiber purposes, the broadcast method is said 
to produce a better and more even quality. Any 
conditions which stimulate branching or coarseness 
are adverse to the making of a long, fine fiber. 
The drill rows permit of an uneven crowding which 
brings about an uneven growth of the plants (Fig. 
407). 

Place in rotation. — Although flax is not a gross 
feeder and does not yield profitable returns if 
planted on the same land year after year, it is not 
exceptionally "hard" on the soil. It requires an 
abundance of organic matter in the soil, and for 
this reason follows corn (for which barnyard ma- 
nure has been applied), a clover sod, or a grass- 
ley to good advantage. Since flax does not do well 
on any one field oftener than once in six or seven 
years, it works best into long-course rotations. A 




Fig. 407. Flax. At A is shown a plant 
grown for seed: at B, for fiber. 
The differenee between open and 
close planting is evident. 



suggested rotation of this kind is as follows : First 
year, corn ; second year, oats or barley, or both ; 
third year, wheat (seeded to grass or clover) ; 
fourth year, meadow ; fifth and sixth years, pas- 
ture or meadow as desired ; sixth or seventh year 
(as the case may be), flax is planted. It is often 
suggested to plant flax once in two cycles of 
a short-course rotation. In such a case it would 
come every other year, or three or four years in 
succession in every alternate cycle of the rota- 
tion ; thus, in a four-year rotation, flax would 
appear on the same field once in eight years : 

Four-Year Rotation with Flax. 



Year 


Field I 


Field II 


Field III 


Field IV 


1906 . . . 

1907 . . . 

1908 . . . 

1909 . . . 


Corn 
Oats 
Clover 
Flax 


Oats 
Clover 
Flax 
Corn 


Clover 
Flax 
Corn 
Oats 


Flax 
Corn 
Oats 
Clover 


1910* . . 
1911* . . 
1912* . . 
1913* . . 


Corn 
Oats 
Clover 
Wheat 


Oats 
Clover 
Wheat 
Corn 


Clover 
Wheat 
Corn 
Oats 


Wheat 
Corn 
Oats 
Clover 


1914 . . . 

1915 . . . 


Corn 
Oats 


Oats 
Clover 


Clover 
Flax 


Flax 
Corn 



*No flax during this cycle of the rotation. 

Varieties. — The average American farmer recog- 
nizes but two general varieties of flax, — the White 
Blossom Dutch and the Russian Riga. The latter is 
generally used and is considered best. The former 
has been tested repeatedly at the Minnesota and 
North Dakota Experiment Stations, but no stock 
has yet been found to surpass the Riga in seed pro- 
duction. At Yale, Michigan, and at Corvallis, Ore- 
gon, the growers for the most part have followed 
the example of the farmers of Great Britain, Hol- 
land and Belgium, and imported new seed from 
Russia (and some from Holland) every two or three 
years. It is reported that the home-grown seed 
does not produce so fine a grade of liber as the 
imported seed. It is also said that the White Blos- 
som Dutch variety loses its white blossom char- 
acter in a few years after importation. In this 
connection, it is worthy of note that the new flax 
(Minn. No. 25), introduced in 1905 by the Minne- 
sota Experiment Station to the farmers of Minne- 
sota, came to the Station in 1891 as a white blos- 
som variety. It now has a blue blossom. If such 
changes take place in color characters, it is not 
unreasonable to suppose that the character of the 
fiber may also be affected by the change. How- 
ever, the quality of the fiber of home-grown flax 
is being improved by breeding. Experts state that 
the low grade of fiber of American flax is due to 
the method of sowing more than to the seed. 

The high-priced labor of this country is nearly 
a complete barrier to the production of flax for 
fiber chiefly. For this reason it is imperative, in the 
Middle Northwest at least, that a fair crop of both 
seed and fiber be produced. Varieties of .superior 



298 



FLAX 



FLAX 



seed- and fiber-yielding properties have been se- 
cured, but until labor is cheaper and more reliable, 
or until a higher price is paid for fiber, the grow- 
ing of fiax fiber will have to be coupled with seed 
production. It must not be inferred from this that 
flax is grown for fiber alone in the flax-producing 
countries of Europe, excepting perhaps in parts of 
Ireland ; the seed is saved and is regarded to be a 
secondary product of considerable value. 

Breeding. 

The systematic American breeding of flax has 
been limited to the Minnesota and North Dakota 
Experiment Stations. But limited as it is, some 
lessons have been learned and results have been 
secured that are of vast economic importance. The 
Minnesota Station has bred two high-yielding varie- 
ties, one for seed and one for fiber. North Dakota 
Station has bred one that has proved to be notice- 
ably wilt-resistant. 

Minnesota experiments. — The general plan for 
breeding flax at Minnesota has been as follows : 

(1) To secure, through systematic methods of 
testing, a few of the most promising varieties. 

(2) T9 save the seed of these and to grade it 
carefully, eliminating all but the very best seeds. 

(3) To plant two to five thousand hills of each, 
with two or three seeds per hill. (Fig. 408.) 

(4) When the plants are a few inches high, to 
thin to one plant per hill. 

(5) At maturity the best ten to twenty-five 
plants are secured by a gradual elimination of the 
poorest plants. These are selected on the basis of 
the economic character that is desired : If seed is 
the object, the plants selected are those that have 
a number of top branches and bear a large number 
of seed-bolls. If fiber is desired, the tallest, stiffest 
and least branched are saved. The plants thus 
selected are termed mother-plants and are given a 
register number (nursery - stock number). Certain 
notes are taken on them, as height, number of 
branches, quantity of seed, and the like, and the 
best 250 seeds are saved to plant a centgener the 
succeeding year.^ 

(6) At harvest the next year, the best ten plants 
are again selected from which the seeds are 
saved as one lot. The total number of plants is 
recorded. All plants are carefully tied in a bundle 
and threshed in an especially devised centgener 
thresher. The total weight of the seed from all the 
plants is divided by the number of plants, thus 
giving the average weight per plant. This weight, 
together with centgener notes, is a measure of the 
inherited ability of the mother-plant. Such a cent- 
gener test goes on for three years. 

(7) At the end of three years an average is made 
of each mother-plant's progeny for the three years. 
The best one or two nursery-stock numbers having 
highest yields, other things being equal, are saved 
for future trial. All others are discarded. 

(8) The best of all the bulk seed, saved from all 
plants harvested the last year of the three years' 

' Centgener is a name given to the product of a single 
mother-plant ; in this case used to designate the plants 
resulting from the 250 or more selected seeds. 



test, is planted in a " nursery increase plot," and 
given a Minnesota number." From the field plot 
results another three years' test, and the average 
is made. Each year such notes as height, days to 
mature, per cent lodged, evenness in height and 
ripening, type, yield per acre, and the like, are 
taken. 

(9) If in this test a certain stock shows by its 
record, as did Minnesota No. 25, that it is superior 
to all others, the bulk seed is again saved. This 
seed is planted in "field increase plots" until sev- 
eral hundred bushels of well - graded seed are 
secured. 

(10) This " field increased " seed is then sold to 
farmers of the state in lots of four bushels or less, 
at a price slightly above the ordinary market price 
of flax. 

(11) These farmers, by signing a contract, be- 
come cooperators of the Experiment Station. At 
harvest time a blank form of inquiry is sent to 
each cooperating farmer to fill out and return io 
the Experiment Station. From the replies, a com- 
parison of the new variety with the common 
variety under farm conditions is made. 

(12) Inquiries coming in from other farmers in 
following years for the improved variety are re- 
ferred to the cooperators. 

To illustrate the results that have been secured, 
the following table giving the results of compara- 
tive tests made by forty-eight farmers in various 
parts of Minnesota is introduced : 

Flax, Minnesota No. 25 Compared with 
Common Varieties. 

Minnesota No. 25 15.0 bushels per acre 

Common flax grown by fanners . 11.9 bushels per acre 

Gain 3.1 bushels per acre 

Rate of increase 26 per cent 

Minnesota No. 25 Compared with Varieties Sold by 
Commercial Houses in 1901. Average 

Yield Yield Yield yield 
Iil02 1903 1904 3 tri.lls 

Minnesota No. 25 21.4 19.3 17.1 19.3 

Minnesota No. 12, Seedsmen . 11.4 19.1 18.4 16.3 
Minnesota No. 14, Seedsmen . 12.5 20.3 15.4 16.0 
Minnesota No. 13, Seedsmen . 9.6 20.0 16.6 15.4 
Average yield of Minnesota No. 25 for three years is 19.3 

bushels. 
Average yield of three commercial varieties for three 

years is 15.9 bushels. 
Increase in favor of Minnesota No. 25 is 3.4 bushels. 

In addition to the improvement shown in these 
tables. No. 25 is a week earlier than common vari- 
eties, and is more even in growth and in maturity. 

North Dakota experiments. — At the North Dakota 
Experiment Station, Bolley has been breeding flax 
with a view to getting a variety that is immune to 
the wilt disease. In this work, he has followed 
closely the Darwinian hypothesis that success 
attends the survival of the fittest. One of the 
common varieties was selected and planted on a 

^ A Minnesota number is given to any new accession 
introduced into the field test in comparison with all other 
promising stocks and varieties from various sources. 



FLAX 



FLAX 



299 



plot of soil known to be "flax-sick." The majority 
of the plants succumbed to the disease. The very 
few that survived were carefully harvested and 
stored. The seeds from these were in turn planted 
on " fla.x-sick" soil. Year by year the proportion 
of plants surviving the attacks of the disease grew 
larger until, in 1904, a comparatively immune or 
wilt-resisting variety was secured. This experi- 
ment, though simple and dealing only with one 
of our economic crops, has an immense economic 
value. It opens the road to success in breeding 
disease-resistant varieties of all our field crops, 
garden crops and flowers. 

Harvesting. 

The ideal way to harvest flax for the best quality 
of fiber is to pull it by hand, thus securing the full 
length. In Europe, where labor is cheap and the 
acreage per farmer small, the flax is nearly always 
pulled and stood up in bunches (stooks) to dry, but 
the high price of labor and the relative efliciency 
of harvesting machinery makes the pulling of flax 
almost prohibitive in America, and it is practiced 
only to a very limited extent. 

When flax is grown exclusively for the seed, it is 
cut with the self-rake reaper or the binder. Occa- 
sionally, in the absence of a better machine, the 
mower is used. Its use, however, is not at all satis- 
factory, as it leaves the crop in condition difficult 
to handle without considerable loss. When cut 
with the binder, the farmers seldom use twine, and 
the gavels are thrown from the machine and lay 
as if cut with a reaper. If twine is used, the bundles 
are gathered into small, loose shocks that permit of 
rapid drying. If cut with the reaper, the gavels are 
left in position as they fall until well dried on the 
upper side. They are then turned with an old-style 
barley fork so as to expose the other side to the 
sun. When dry, the crop is either stacked or 




Fig. 408. Nursery planting machine used in breeding 
experiments . 

threshed. Often, in the absence of the threshing 
outfit, the crop remains in the field until the outfit 
arrives. For this reason, there is considerable loss 
caused by rains. The flax grown on the low ground 
is generally low grade if not carefully guarded, 



through molding and successive wetting and dry- 
ing. A flax field at harvest-maturity is shown in 
Fig. 409. 

A few trials have been made to determine the 
po.ssibilities of heading the standing flax, then 
cutting and binding the straw, thus possibly de- 
creasing the cost of preparing the straw for man- 




Fig. 409. Field of flax ready for harvest. 

ufacturing purposes. Nothing has as yet proved 
to be practicable. Ideas of special machines for 
pulling and preparing the flax have been conceived, 
but thus far efforts have failed. 

Obstructions to growth. 

Weeds. — One of the greatest drawbacks to the 
production of flax is the ever-present weed incur- 
sion, which sooner or later must be met by every 
farmer. On old land, especially, is it impossible 
successfully to grow flax for seed with present 
methods of culture. On the newer lands weeds are 
no serious menace to the crop, although they are 
generally present in limited numbers. The nature 
of the flax plant gives ample opportunity, with 
thin sowings for seed purposes, for weeds to de- 
velop. When five or six pecks are seeded per acre, 
weeds are crowded out if the ground is well pre- 
pared before sowing, thus giving the plants a good 
start before the weeds get started. A good sys- 
tem of crop rotation with flax following a grass- 
lay or a corn crop for which manure has been 
applied, will quite eliminate this trouble. 

The weeds commonly found in flax-fields of the 
Northwest are as follows : Foxtail (Chatochloa 
viridis), lamb's-quarter {Chenopodinm album), pig- 
weed (AmaranthiLS retroflexus), pepper-grass (Ltpid- 
ium Virginicnm), wild mustard (Brassica arvensis) 
and other of the mustard family, French weed 
(Thlaspi arvense), smartweed (Polggomim Persi- 
caria). Many other weeds occasionally find their 
way into the flax-field, but do not attract attention 
as do those named. None of the weed seeds are ex- 
ceptionally diflicult to separate from flax seed, but 
when present they increase the cost of manufactur- 
ing and decrease the market price, and cause a 
dockage to be levied, not to mention the cost of 
freight on them. In the flax-straw, weeds greatly 
decrease the value of the fiber. The weed-stalks 
are hard to break. When broken, the pieces catch 
in the fibers and cause tangling and breaking. 



300 



FLAX 



FLAX 



They also interfere with the scutching. Any weed- 
fibers that get into the skein are a detriment to 
the cloth or cord manufactured. 

Disease. — One of the most dreaded of all diseases 
of field crops is the flax-wilt {Fusarium lini, Bolley). 
So prevalent is the disease that no fiax- bearing 
country is free from it. Bolley says, " The plants 
are attacked at all ages and die early or late in the 
stage of growth, according to the time and inten- 
sity of the attack. If the soil is much afi'ected, 
that is to say, ' flax-sick,' most of the plants are 
killed before they get through the surface of the 
ground." Young plants, two to five inches high, 
wilt suddenly, dry up, and soon decay if the 
weather becomes moist. Older plants take on a 
sickly, weak, yellowish appearance, wilt at the top, 
slowly die, turn brown and dry up. Nearly mature 
plants when attacked, but not dead, are easily 
pulled, the roots breaking off at about the level of 
the furrow slice. The diseased roots have a very 
characteristic ashy appearance. 

Flax-wilt is different from many fungous dis- 
eases, in that it lives a long time in the soil and 
that it is carried with the seed. Thus, a wilt-free 
soil may produce a flax-wilt crop if the seed-flax 
was grown on flax-wilt ground ; or a flax-wilt soil 
will produce a flax-wilt crop even though the seed 
had no flax-wilt to carry with it. In either case, 
however, the first crop under these conditions may 
not give much evidence of the disease. Succeeding 
crops would be badly infested. 

A careful and exact study of the life-history of 
the cause of flax-'w^lt has made it possible suc- 
cessfully to combat it. The fungus is an imper- 
fect one and lives normally as a saprophyte, but 
occasionally becomes a parasite. Its chief means 
of distribution is by the spores which are carried 
on the seed of the flax. Obviously, then, by treat- 
ing the seed, the disease can be very largely 
obviated. 

Until recently, no treatment for the dreaded flax- 
wilt disease had been discovered, but the working 
out of the life-history of the fungus by Bolley, 
brought out the fact that treatment of the seed 
with certain fungicides will eliminate the disease 
from seeds known to be from an infected crop. A 
farmer with soil free from flax-wilt germs can 
safely sow seed from a flax-wilt crop if the seed has 
been thoroughly treated. At the North Dakota 
Experiment Station, a series of tests were made to 
prove the value of seed treatment for flax-wilt, 
and in every instance when the seed was treated 
and sown on soil free from wilt, there were no 
signs of the disease. But the same lot, untreated, 
sown on wilt-free soil, showed the presence of the 
disease. 

There were several fungicides which might be 
used, but it was necessary to find one that was 
strong enough to kill the spores of the wilt and 
yet not injure the vitality of the seed. Formalin is 
recommended as the cheapest and quickest effectual 
solution. The treatment as recommended by Bolley 
is as follows : Mix thoroughly one pint or one pound 
of the formalin with forty gallons of water. This 
quantity of solution is sufficient to treat aboiit one 



hundred bushels of seed. Before applying the solu- 
tion, the seed must be carefully cleaned and graded 
with a fanning-mill. If this is not done, pieces of 
broken stems and shriveled seeds carrying the 
di.sease will not be completely disinfected. Thus 
the wilt will be carried to the soil. 

In treating the seed, it is advised that about five 
bushels be spread thinly on a floor or canvas. The 
solution is then sprayed on the seed with a fine 
nozzle (a common sprinkling-pot or a patent sprayer 
may be used). At the same time the flax is stirred 
rapidly with a rake or shovel in order to get every 
seed in contact with the fungicide. After spraying, 
the stirring should continue a short time to aid the 
drying. 

Care in the application of the solution is impor- 
tant. An excess of water will cause the flax seed 
to stick together and will interfere with seeding. 
Ordinarily, with careful treatment, the grain can 
be seeded in a few hours after treatment. [See also 
page 50.] 

Flax rust {Melampsora lini) is another menace to 
the flax crop, but happily it is not causing much 
damage. It was first reported in the Northwest in 
1905, — a very wet season. It completely destroyed 
some fields in the Red river valley. It is not prob- 
able that great damage will come from this dis- 
ease, since flax for the most part is grown in 
small, disconnected areas and is changed from field 
to field. 

Manufacture. 

Flax has long been known as a valuable plant 
for the production of wearing apparel and matting 
fiber. It has also been the source of a valuable oil, 
useful for many purposes, especially in the making 
of paints. Until recently, flax has been grown 
almost exclusively for its oil in this country. There 
were no means to make use of the fiber and com- 
pete with the fiber productions of Europe. 

At present there are four distinct manufactur- 
ing interests which employ the flax crop. One of 
these uses only the seed. The other three are dis- 
tinctly fiber industries, and manufacture cloth, 
thread and yarn, insulating material and binding 
twine. For these interests, the crop is generally 
taken from the farmer just as he is pleased to har- 
vest it. In a few instances, as at Yale, Michigan, 
the crop is sometimes pulled by hand. For the oil- 
mills, the flax seed is commonly delivered direct to 
the local elevator from the threshing machine. 
From here, in due time, it finds its way to the mill, 
where it is separated from weed seeds and other 
foreign material before being ground. 

Linseed oil. — One of the first commercial manu- 
facturing uses to which flax was put in America 
was based on the oil contained in the seed. The 
demand for linseed oil, as it is called, and the in- 
dustry have developed rapidly, until an oil-manu- 
facturing plant today entails an investment of a 
million or more dollars and employs hundreds of 
men. 

The supply of flax for the oil -mill is shipped 
mostly from the local elevators, and stands in the 
transfer yards until graded by the State Inspec- 



FLAX 



FLAX 



301 



tion Department. In the meantime, it is bargained 
for by the various firms. The cars are then side- 
tracked to the mills, where the mill hands unload 
into their elevators. Once in the elevator bin.s the 
flax is spouted into the hoppers of large clean- 
ers, which by means of their many shakes and 
sieves separate the flax from the straw, dust, 
weeds and other seeds. The foreign seeds are sold 
for various purposes. The flax is elevated from the 
cleaner to a vertical system of five large rolls or 
breaks ; the upper ones barely crush the ber- 
ries, while the lower ones reduce them to a fine 
meal, which is carried to large cookers that 
temper it and heat it to 160° to 200°. Some 
seeds need more moisture, others have too much. 
The tempering adds to or takes from the grain 
enough moisture to bring it to a common temper. 
From the cookers the hot meal is drawn into a 
conveyor that distributes it evenly in a mould 
about 12 X 20 X 2J inches. To hold the meal after 
these moulds are removed, a camel's-hair cloth 
is placed around it. The moulds or forms are 
placed in a hydraulic press and subjected to a 
pressure of 3,.500 pounds per square inch. The oil 
is squeezed out and flows into a small sluice tank 
to rid it of the finest meal particles. It then goes 
to the large tank or to the refining tanks. From 
these the various grades of oil are drawn off into 
original packages (barrels, etc.) for market. 

the grades of oil are named according to a sys- 
tem peculiar to each mill. Thus, the same grade of 
oil may have two or more names as it is put out 
from two or more mills. The oils are used for a 
variety of purposes, from the making of patent- 
leather shoes to paints. 

Fiber. — The processes employed in making the 
various products from flax fiber are too long to be 
described in detail. The old methods followed by 
our fathers and mothers, as recently as 1870, were 
crude, but were apace with the progre.ss of other 
industries at that time. A half-acre or an acre was 
the extent of the flax-field, but each farmer grew 
some flax for making the family's " homespun." 
The flax was pulled, retted, hackeled, spun and 
woven by hand. Today, the hand labor is elimi- 
nated almost entirely. In fact, it is difficult to get 
men to do any of the hard work for which ma- 
chinery has been invented. When cut, if the flax is 
stood up in shocks, there is damage done to the 
stalks where they touch the moist soil. 

After harvesting, the seed is threshed from the 
straw. This is done in some instances by holding 
the heads of the bundles in the cylinder of the 
threshing machine. In others, the heads are cut 
from the stalks in the process of breaking and are 
threshed in a separate device. In olden days, the 
seed was pounded out by whipping the "hand" (a 
handful) over a barrel, or it was " rippled," that is, 
drawn through a coar.se comb. 

Flax grown for fiber in this country is threshed 
by passing the heads repeatedly between rapidly 
revolving cylinders or belt pulleys, the seed being 
afterward cleaned with fanning -mills. Special 
threshing machines are used at the two binder 
twine factories. 



In preparing the fiber for weaving, the straw 
must be passed through a process of decay, called 
retting. This loosens the outer covering and shives 
(the inner or woody part of the plant) from the 
bast fibers and makes the separation of the fiber 
easy. The retting is accomplished in two ways : 
(1) By aerial- or dew-retting, i. e., spreading the 
flax on the ground in an open field or pasture ; (2) 
by placing the bundles in slow-flowing streams or 
pools (Fig. 410). The latter is the true way of 
retting, makes a whiter, better fiber and is much 
quicker. The steeping in this way acts constantly 
on the mucilage that holds the fiber and wood to- 
gether. Rain-water is said to be best, although 
river-water is most commonly u.sed. One or two 
weeks is sufficient time for pool-retting, while many 
weeks are often necessary properly to dew-ret. 

It is obvious that the fermentation must stop at 
the proper time. This is observed to be just when 
the fiber separates easily and freely from the woody 
stalks. The straw should then be removed from the 
water and spread out thinly and allowed thoroughly 
to dry. When dry, the straw goes to the " break." 
The hand-break was a large wooden mallet which 
fitted into a V-shaped bed-piece and was worked up 
and down by hand. The power-breaks vary in style, 
but consist essentially of corrugated rollers which 
draw the straw through and at the same time 
crinkle the fiber and break the shives into small 
pieces. From the break the broken straw is 
scutched and hackled, i. e., pounded by hand or 




Fig. 410. Retting flax in the river at Northfleld, Minn. 

pulled over a series of rapidly revolving fingered 
rollers to remove the shives. 

In scutching, the broken straw is held in hand- 
fuls against revolving paddles which beat off the 
shives. In hackling, the scutched fiber is drawn 
by hand across sets of fixed upright steel pins to 
comb, separate and straighten the fibers. Machine 
hackles are used for cheaper grades in some mills. 

In the early days the fiber went to the loom with- 
out further preparation or treatment. But the 
latter-day American must have his linen immacu- 
late and uncolored by threads of natural color. 
For this reason the fiber goes through a boiling 
and bleaching before it is made into cloth. This 
practice, to a certain degree, is detrimental to the 
lasting quality of the clorh. 

This, however, does not apply to American-grown 
flax, as this flax is not used for fine linens. Shoe- 



302 



FLAX 



FLAX 



thread, carpet-yarns, fishing-lines and seine-twines 
are products of the best American flax, and huck 
toweling or crash from the tow. (Tow is the coarse 
and broken material resulting from scutching.) 

As yet, manufacturers use the American-grown 
flax fiber only for making the coarse grade of 
cloth (crash, so-called "Russian linen," toweling). 
All of the liber for making the finer linens is im- 
ported from Europe. The American farmer must 
soon learn the necessity of producing flax with a 
limg-line fiber. In this work the various experi- 
ment stations will prove a valuable source of aid. 

Binding twine. — The making of binding twine 
from flax is a new industry. For this the flax does 
not require retting. It is bought from the farmer 
and delivered unthreshed, as it was cut and cured, 
from the field to a baling station. The company 
bales it and ships it to a warehouse to become thor- 
oughly dry. When dry, the straw is passed through 
a tempering tunnel, on an endless moving apron. 
Here it is heated to drive otf any excess moisture. It 
next passes sidewise through a heading and break 
machine. The straw comes out fluted, with the shives 
broken, and falls on a moving platform which con- 
veys it into a slowly revolving spiked apron. On the 
moving apron a small quantity of heavy, coarse fiber 
(similar to sisal) is added to give the twine sta- 
bility. From the spiked apron it is removed by a 
very rapidly revolving spiked apron which draws 
the strand out and brings it to a common center, 
where it is delivered into a tall, cylindrical basket. 
These baskets of fiber are fed into other machines 
which draw the strands out more and aid in remov- 
ing the last of the shives, and which again deliver 
the strands to baskets. From these the fiber is fed 
into the twiner and skeiner, a machine which 
twists the twine and reels it on large wooden 
spools. These spools are taken to the bailers, where 
the twine is reeled off and wound into balls. The 
balls are then baled the same as other binding 
twine. A tester takes an occasional ball and tests 
its strength and length to see that the output is 
held up to a good average. 

As yet, there is no cordage but binding twine 
being manufactured. It is but a question of time 
when American flax will be manufactured into all 
grades of cord and thread and rope. 

Miscellaneous uses. — For upholstering and similar 
purposes, flax fiber is being used extensively in the 
Northwest. The so-called tow mills receive the 
straw from the farmers just as it comes from the 
threshing machine, and put it up in bales and ship 
it to the central market or factory. One extensive 
industry is located in Minnesota. At this place the 
fiber is chemically prepared and passed into layers 
of different thicknesses. The thinner ones are sewed 
between two pieces of building paper. Such mate- 
rial is used for insulating, cold storage, refrigerator 
cars, ice-boxes, and the like. 

Exhibiting. 

There has been as yet no attempt, so far as 
the writer is aware, to gather the flax and its 
various products (in process of manufacturing) for 
exhibition purposes. At the Minnesota Experiment 



Station the writer is gathering samples of mate- 
rial illustrative of the various steps in the develop- 
ment of flax from the seed to the manufactured 
products, with a view to having a connected museum 
history of flax. Such an exhibit will be of immense 
value from an educational standpoint, and would 
very properly occupy museum space in any educa- 
tional institution, at agricultural expositions and 
fairs. It is seldom that anything but the seed is 
exhibited. A few bundles of the mature straw are 
often used for decoration. These are not generally 
so labeled that the average visitor knows what they 
are. Managers of expositions and fairs, as well 
as exhibitors, have much to learn in improving the 
manner of display. 

Markets. 

There are no special markets for flax. As a rule, 
farmers do not hold their crop long after threshing. 
They sell the seed to the local elevator. A few ship 
direct to the factories. The great bulk of the straw 
is burned. The grain companies buy flax seed as 
they do other grain, and sell to the linseed mills 
according to the standard grade and price. The 
seed often is transferred directly to the consumer ; 
at other times it is stored in terminal elevators. The 
average farm price of flax for the past ten years 
is $1,094 per bushel. The ten-year average Min- 
neapolis price is $1,205 per bushel. 

Market grades of Minnesota commercial flax seed. 

No. 1 Northwestern. — Shall be mature, sound, 
dry and sweet. It shall be northern-grown. The 
maximum field-, stack-, storage- or other damaged 
seed shall not exceed 12 per cent. The minimum 
weight shall be fifty-one pounds to the measured 
bushel of commercially pure flax. 

No. 1 flax seed. — No. 1 flax seed shall be north- 
ern-grown, sound, dry and free from mustiness, and 
carrying not more than 25 per cent of immature 
or field-, stack-, storage- or other damaged flax 
seed ; and it must weigh not less than fifty pounds 
to the measured bushel of commercially pure seed. 

Rejected flax seed. — Flax seed that is bin-burnt, 
immature, field-damaged or musty, and yet not to 
a degree to be unfit for storage, and having a test 
weight of not less than forty-seven pounds to the 
bushel of commercially pure seed, shall be rejected. 

No-grade flax seed. — Flax seed that is damp, 
warm, mouldy, very musty, or otherwise unfit for 
storage, or having a weight of less than forty-seven 
pounds to the measured bushel of commercially 
pure seed, shall be no-grade. 

The above grades represent only one market. 
The grades for other markets differ somewhat and 
depend on the location. 

Literature. 

Textile Fibers, Maxwell ; Yearbook United States 
Department Agriculture ; Fiber Investigations, 
Reports, United States Department Agriculture, 
Martin Dodge ; North Dakota and other State Ex- 
periment Station Bulletins ; Minnesota Plant Dis- 
eases, E. M. Freeman ; Soils and Crops of the Farm, 
Morrow and Hunt, 



FORAGE CROPS 



FORAGE CROPS 



303 



FORAGE CROPS. 

Forage is herbage food, whether green or cured. 
The forage crops are grasses (whether utilized in 
meadows, pastures or otherwise), all coarse natural 
grazing crops such as animals are likely to find 
provided in nature, and miscellaneous roots and 
vegetative parts grown specifically for feeding 
purposes. They are distinguished from the threshed 
grains and all manufactured products. It will be 
seen at once that there are two cultural groups 
comprised in the class of forage crops, — the group 
occupying the land for a series of years (meadows 
and pastures), and the group comprising the 
annual-grown or biennial-grown plants (as maize, 
cowpea, pea, millet, roots). These groups overlap, 
however, so that no hard and fast line can be 
drawn between them. 

The word roughage is applied to the coarser for- 
age products, as maize, cowpeas, kafir corn ; some- 
times it is used as equivalent to forage. 

Fodder is practically equivalent to the word for- 
age, but is less specific ; it is by some restricted to 
dried or cured forage. The word is commonly used 
for the coarser kinds, in distinction from hay. 

Soiling is the feeding of green harvested forage 
direct from the field to the animals. The feed is 
carried to them. This system is distinguished from 
pasturing. The animals are kept in small enclo- 
sures or in stalls, and thereby their feed is regu- 
lated and the crop is not injured by them. The term 
is probably derived from that use or origin of the 
verb to soil that indicates to satisfy or to fill. 

A species of pasturing is sometimes known as 
soiling. By means of movable fences, the animals 
are allowed to graze a part of the crop clean, and 
then to move on at the 



common-language usage must prevail with a word 
which has so long been general property. 

In this Cyclopedia, the main forage groups are 
treated separately, for cultural and other reasons. 
Some of the leading forage discussions may be 
found under Grasses, Meadows and Pastures, Le- 
gumes, Root-Crops, Soiling Crops, Silage. Detailed 
information on the different kinds of forage crops 
is given under the names of the crops, in the 
proper alphabetic order. Some of the leading for- 
age crops are alfalfa, cabbage, the various cereals, 
clovers, cowpea, kafir corn, maize or Indian corn, 
mangels, millet, rape, soybeans, sorghum, vetches. 

There are very many minor plants that are used 
for forage in a small way now and then. Such of 
the-se plants as give promise of becoming impor- 
tant or have attracted attention are treated 
together in this article. Many native plants are 
foraged by live-stock now and then, but it would 
be interminable and unprofitable to try to dis- 
cuss them here. Their names sometimes occur in 
current agricultural literature. Most of them have 
been mentioned in one place or another in experi- 
ment station literature, and they can be traced 
through The Experiment Station Record. Unless a 
plant has been prominently mentioned, it is not 
discussed in this book. 

Literature 

The current periodical and bulletin literature on 
forage crops is very large. Some of the book- 
writings are as follows : Flint, Grasses and Forage 
Plants, J. H. Sanders Publishing Company, Chicago; 
Shaw, Forage Crops, Clovers, Grasses, Soiling Crops 
and the Silo (four books). Orange Judd Company, 
New York city ; Wallace, Clover Culture, Iowa 



next feeding to fresh for- 
aging. This use of the 



Ei^^ie 



term is allowable, since 
the object is the same, — 
to supply the animal 
with a given amount of 
succulent food : the ani- 
mal does the harvesting. 
This practice may be 
known as pasture soiling. 

It would not do to al- 
low animals to roam at 
will and to gorge them- 
selves in such crops as 
maize, growing grain, 
heavy alfalfa, clover or 
cowpeas ; consequently 
the animals are soiled on 
these crops in one way 
or another. 

Silage is green or un- 
cured forage that is pre- 
served, or ensiled, in a tight receptacle or silo. 
Silage is discussed in Vol. Ill in its feeding rela- 
tions. Its philosophy is discussed in the present 
volume under Maize and Silage. 

There are several special or restricted usages of 
the term " forage plants " or " forage crops " ; but 




-**&E?^. 






i^tALJusU a 







Fie 411 White Flint forage corn \ 11 tweho tuns per acre New Jersey 

Homestead, Des Moines, Iowa ; Hunt, Forage and 
Fiber Crops in America, Orange Judd Company; 
Beal, The Grasses of North America, two vols., 
Henry Holt Co.; Spillman, Farm Grasses of the 
United States, Orange Judd Company, New York ; 
Myrick, The Book of Corn, Orange Judd Company ; 



304 



FORAGE CROPS 



FORAGE CROPS 



Dreer, Grasses and Clovers; Phares, Farmers' Book 
of Grasses ; Coburn, Alfalfa ; Peer, Soiling Crops 
and Ensilage, M. F. Mansfield, New York city ; 
Stebler and Schrciter, The Best Forage Plants, Lon- 
don ; Voorhees, Forage-Cropping. 

The Significance of Forage-Cropping. 

By Charles S. Phelps. 

The term forage refers to any form of herbage 
used as food for live-stock. It consists of the leaves 
and stems of fresh or air-dried plants, together, in 
some cases, with the attached seeds. It includes 



^^asr*- -ig*. 



.<e«g» 







-^-*te 













wmb'ji^^^^ 



Fig 412 Pea and oat hay 



Ten acres average yield 2 15 ton per acre 
New Jersey. 



mainly pasturage and soiling crops ; hay of the 
meadow-grasses, legumes, millet, and cereals ; field- 
cured fodder corn, sorghum, and kafir corn ; the 
stems and leaves of some grain crops after the 
seeds are removed ; silage crops ; and root crops. 
The acreage in forage crops, according to the cen- 
sus of 1900, exclusive of pasture lands, repre.sents 
approximately 1.5 per cent of all improved land, 
and a little over 21 per cent of the area devoted to 
all crops, while the percentage of the total value 
of all crops is 16.6. Forage crops stand second in 
total acreage and in total value in the list of culti- 
vated crops, corn being in the lead, while the value 
per acre is only seventeen cents less than the aver- 
age for the cereals. 

Pasturage was the earliest form of forage used 
and is still the chief food of live-stock in nearly all 
countries in the summer season. In earlier times 
pasture lands were all held and used in common 
and only small fenced areas were devoted to the 
growing of cultivated crops. As the population in- 
creased, the proportion of cultivated lands became 
larger and the proportion devoted to grazing be- 
came less. This change was necessary in order that 
the land might furnish support for the increasing 
inhabitants. In the earliest days of stock-raising, 
dried fodder was the only feed used in winter in 
cold climates. Wild grasses were doubtless the fir.st 
plants dried for winter use. The ease with which 
these could be air-dried and preserved led to the 



selection of the seed of some of the best kinds, and 
to their being sown on cultivated lands. Little is 
known as to when the common grasses were fir.st 
brought into cultivation, or which kinds are the 
oldest. It is said by one writer that up to 1815 
not over three or four species were in cultivation 
throughout Europe. Clover was introduced into 
England from Flanders about 16.50 and soon took 
an important place in the agriculture of that 
country. In the earlier history of this country all 
cereal grains were needed as food for man, and 
dried herbage was used exclusively as food for live- 
stock. Little effort was made to produce milk or 
to fatten cattle, sheep or swine, 
except during the summer sea- 
son. The live-stock was sustained 
through the winter on what was 
often less than a healthy mainte- 
nance ration. As the country de- 
veloped and the proportion of the 
non-agricultural population grew 
larger, animal products increased 
in market value and the winter 
production of such products be- 
came profitable. This led not only 
to the use of grain feeds, but to 
the production of a better grade 
of forage. 

In many parts of this country 
there are large areas so rough 
and uneven as to be of little value 
for any other use than pastures. 
Even in the newer parts of our 
country there is a steady decrease 
in the area devoted to grazing and 
a steady increase in the area devoted to cereals. 
In the older European countries the area used exclu- 
sively for pastures is much less than in the United 
States. Where land values are high it is a common 
practice to rotate pasture with cultivated lands, 
and in this way the pastures are improved and 
made to support more stock. Areas in use for 
growing grain are frequently sown to clover or 
rape in the spring and thus are fitted to supplement 
the regular pastures late in the season. 

In many parts of Europe and in some of the 
more densely populated parts of this country, the 
summer feeding of green forage crops, or soiling, 
is replacing pasture feeding. By this plan of feed- 
ing, more stock can be kept on a given area, the 
expense for fencing is greatly reduced and the 
manure can be more completely saved, but the 
labor involved is somewhat greater. In this country 
the high price of labor and the large amount of 
rough, low-priced land will long defer the general 
adoption of the soiling .system. Irregularity in the 
supply of pasture, however, as a result of periodic 
droughts, makes advisable the partial substitution 
of green forage for pasture feeding. Such a plan 
of feeding is especially suited to high-priced lands, 
because more stock can be kept per acre than by 
exclusive pasturing. A large number of crops can 
be made available for this plan of feeding, and 
these can be grown so as to furnish valuable feed 
throughout the summer season. A number of soil- 



FORAGE CROPS 



FORAGE CROPS 



305 



ing crop successions have been published by the 
experiment stations, those by the New Jersey, 
Connecticut (Storrs) and the Massachusetts Stations 
probably being the best. 

The preservation of herbage in an air-dried state 
for winter use is a common practice in all countries 
where snow covers the ground part of the year. 
In the northern part of the United States, east of 
the Mississippi, grasses and clovers are more gen- 
erally grown for hay than any other crops. In the 
southern belt of states cowpeas, soybeans and 
Japan and crimson clovers form the chief hay crops, 
while in parts of the Rocky mountain region and 
Pacific coast states alfalfa is grown almost exclu- 
sively as a dry fodder. On many farms where dairy- 
ing is an important branch of farming the grain 
crops, cut before the seed is matured, add much to 
the supply of dry fodder. Some of the annual 
grasses, such as the millets and Hungarian grass, are 
grown in most of the states. These prove especially 
valuable because of the short period needed for 
their growth and the large yields given by some 
varieties, especially the Japanese millet. They often 
prove useful to supplement the regular hay crop 
during seasons of shortage in that crop. In some 
of the southern states and in Kansas and Nebraska, 
sorghum and kafir corn are grown considerably and 
field-dried as cattle feeds. These crops thrive better 
in regions of low rainfall than do the common 
grasses or maize. In the older states of the East, 
the stover of the corn crop has been carefully saved 
and utilized for many years, but in the great corn 
belt, up to within a few years, this part of the 
crop has been left in the field to be used only for 
grazing, while much of it was trampled by the cat- 
tle and thus wasted. As a system of mixed hus- 
bandry replaced exclusive grain-growing, the value 
of the stover was more fully appreciated, and the 
crop is now generally saved and used in feeding. 

The preservation of forage in the form of 
silage has given ri.se to a newer branch of for- 
age-cropping. It affords a means of preserving 
coarse, bulky fodders, that can be dried only 
with difficulty, in a small space, and thus renders 
them available in a succulent form when 
green feeds cannot be obtained. While the 
preservation of fodders in a closed pit was 
practiced in Germany before 1850, the first 
experiments with the silo in this country 
were made in 1875. At first their introduc- 
tion was slow, but they soon found many 
advocates, and since 1880. their use has 
increased rapidly. The chief reason for the vp^. 
general adoption of the silo in the northern V'^.tl' 
belt of states is that corn, a crop well 
adapted to the climate, is the best one for 
preserving in the silo, coupled with the 
fact that silage is a cheap and valuable feed for 
dairy stock. Silage is not likely to replace dry 
fodders, yet in all of the older states it has become 
an important adjunct to the older system of dry 
feeding, particularly for the dairy. 

The growing of forage crops lies at the founda- 
tion of the practice of mixed husbandry. The 
rearing of live-stock and the marketing "of the 



greater part of the farm crops in the form of 
animal products affords greater immediate profit 
and causes a smaller drain on soil fertility than 
does the direct sale of farm crops. Except in warm 
climates, animal husbandry, and especially dairying, 
can be practiced successfully only where forage is 
grown and stored for winter use. As the market 
value of grains becomes higher, owing to the 
increasing demand for cereal foods by man, forage- 
cropping is sure to take a more prominent place 
in animal husbandry, and effort will be made to 
produce forage of higher food value. 

The great group of forage crops comprised in 
the grass family are all deficient in protein, while 
the plants of the clover family are relatively rich 
in protein. The tendency of late years has been to 
grow more forage of the plants of the clover 
family, and their use for this purpose is likely to 
increase as grain-feeds become more expensive. 

Forage-cropping affords opportunity for a more 
complete system of crop rotation than does grain- 
farming. On all stock- or dairy-farms a rotation 
should be arranged so as to include grasses and 
clovers, the smaller cereals, and corn grown for 
silage or for grain. A valuable rotation on dairy- 
farms will be found to be a six-years plan consist- 
ing of (1) rye sown after grass, with clover as a 
cover-crop ; (2) corn, with a cover-crop of rye or 
clover ; (3) oats ; (4) clover and mixed grasses, to 
be continued for three years. 

Where the winters are mild and the ground is 
free from snow much of the time, there is great 
waste of fertility unless a winter cover is provided. 
Forage crops like rye, rape and clover, often can 
be grown for this purpose, and at the same time 
furnish valuable pasturage in the fall or spring. 
The adaptability of the crimson and the Japan 
clovers to the mild climate of the South makes 
these crops particularly valuable as cover-crops 
in that part of the country. Experiments at the 
Minnesota Experiment Station have shown that 
continuous grain-growing is very wasteful of soil 
fertility, not so much because of the large amount 
of plant-food removed by the crops as because of 




Fig. 413. Hay-stacking scene in Oregon. 



the decomposition of the humus and the loss from 
the surface soil of the soluble constituents. A 
rotation with cereals and clover was found greatly 
to reduce the loss from what took place under 
continuous grain-culture. Most forage crops are 
also directly less exhaustive of soil fertility than 
the grain crops, and than many of the truck crops. 
The grass crop serves, in a measure, as a soil-reno- 



B20 



306 



FORAGE CROPS 



FORAGE CROPS 



vator, preventing the loss of humus and of plant- 
food by keeping the soil covered with a crop 
throughout the growing season. The turf and fine 
" aftergrowth " adds much to the fertility of the 
surface soil, when the meadows are plowed for 
cultivated crops. The clovers, and other legumes, 
so extensively grown as forage, take much of their 
nitrogen from the air and add considerable to the 
stores already in the soil. As a rule, forage-crop- 
ping and the feeding of the forage to farm live- 
stock is therefore a more economical system of 
farm management than the direct sale of farm 
crops. 

Incidental Forage-like Plants. Figs. 414-423. 
By the Editor, C. F. Wheeler, and others. 

The main forage crops are treated elsewhere in 
this Cyclopedia, in their proper alphabetical order. 
There are many incidental and littl :-grown plants 
sometimes mentioned in connection with forage and 
rotation discussions that may be brought together 
here. 

Bird's-foot clover, Bird's-foot trefoil, Yellow 
trefoil {Lotus corniculatuf!). Leguminos(v. A peren- 
nial clover-like plant with a long taproot, stems 
spreading, from a few inches to two feet long, with 
clusters of five to ten bright yellow flowers on 
the ends of the stems. It is widely spread in the 
Old World and naturalized in this country, espe- 
cially in the South, where cattle and sheep eat 
it readily. It withstands drought and may be 
sown in mixtures in dry pastures. It does well on 
light, sterile soils, and roots deeply. It begins to 
grow early, and is chiefly valuable as a spring 
pasture. 

Broom sedge. A name applied to several spe- 
cies of Andropogon or Beard-grass, especially to 
Andropogon Virginicus, which is common in sandy 
soil from eastern Massachusetts to Virginia, Illi- 
nois and southward. Stock eat this grass readily 
when it is young, and it furnishes pasturage during 
the season. When fields are left without culti- 
vation for a time, it becomes one of the worst 
weeds. 

Buffalo pea. A name given to Astragalus cras- 
sicarpus {Leguminosce), which grows throughout 
the Mississippi valley. The straggling stems pro- 
duce many fleshy pods two-thirds of an inch in diam- 
eter, which are relished by hogs, sheep and cattle. 
The pods appear early in the spring and reach full 
size the last of April in southern Texas and by June 
in North Dakota. Successful attempts to cultivate 
this plant are not on record. 

Burnet (Potcrium Sanguisorba). A deeply root- 
ing perennial herb of the rose family about a foot 
high, with alternate leaves and small flowers in a 
dense head. It is a native of limestone regions in 
central and southern Europe and temperate Rus- 
sian Asia, where it is used for pasture. Early in 
the last century it was highly recommended in 
this country for the same purpose, but it is seldom 
seen in cultivation at present. It is fairly hardy 
and somewhat drought-resistant in places. It is not 
Tery palatable, and is a weak grower. It is adapted 



to dry, sandy and calcareous soils. It may be sown 
in April and again in September in mixtures. It is 
seeded at the rate of thirty pounds to the acre. 
The leaves are sometimes used in flavoring soups 
and other dishes. 




Fig. 414. Chick-pea or Gram 

( Cicer arietinum ) . 



Chick-pea (Cicer arietinum). Leguminosw. Fig. 
414. Also called Gram, Garbanzo, Idaho pea, 
Chuna, Bengal grain. A native in Europe, and 
little cultivated here. It is much grown in south- 
ern Europe, Asia and Mexico for its seeds, which 
are used for cattle food and also as human food. It 
is a branching annual, growing two feet high, as a 
bushy, hairy plant. Many upright stems rise from 
the same root. The leaves have several pairs of 
small, roundish or oblong leaflets ; the flowers are 
white or reddish, small, single and axillary, on 
short stalks. The seed is roundish, flattened on the 
sides, with a projection on one side. The plant 
matures in about ninety days, and yields little 
green stuff. The herbage contains a poisonous 
secretion that renders it unfit for stock feed. 

The seed is sown at the rate of thirty to fifty 
pounds per acre, depending on whether it is drilled 
or broadcasted. It is planted late in the spring. 
There are several varieties, adapted to a wide 
range of soils ; a loam soil is best. It is better 
adapted to arid and semi-arid regions than to 
humid. It is very sensitive to cold, and likes plenty 
of sun during its growing period. It is valuable as 
a nitrogen-gatherer, and the seeds are useful for 
horse, cattle, sheep and poultry feeding. Under 
the name of chuna a variety was introduced in the 
Southwest to be used as a substitute for coft'ee. 
The chick-pea is used as an adulterant of coft'ee. 

Chinese yam (Dioscorea glabra). Dioscoreacece. 
This plant was introduced into this country as <> 
substitute for the potato soon after the rot threat- 
ened the extermination of the potato. For a while 
it was cultivated. It forms a long, club-shaped 
root two to three feet long, being largest at the 
bwer end. The plant is propagated from small 



FORAGE CROPS 



FORAGE CROPS 



307 



bulblets or tubers that are produced in the axils of 
the leaves, or from cuttings of the upper part of 
the root. On a rich loamy soil, the yield of these 
tubers may exceed fifty bushels per acre. Animals 
are fond of the herbage, and hogs relish the small 
tubers that lie on the ground uninjured through 
moderate winters. In France it is sometimes culti- 
vated by sowing the bulblets broadcast. The roots 
are extremely brittle, and being largest below they 
are difficult and expensive to dig. At present it is 
seldom grown except as an ornamental vine. 

Chufa (Cyperus esculentus, sometimes known as 
earth almond). A perennial sedge (family Cyper- 
acecB) that is frequently a noxious weed in low 
damp places on southern farms. It produces an 
abundance of small, cylindrical, underground 
tubers. The tubers or nuts are much relished by 
hogs. The hogs are generally turned on the field 
and allowed to harvest the crop. When cultivated, 
the nut has a fine flavor if properly dried. 

The crop does best on sandy soil that has been 
well fertilized. Heavy soils should be avoided. 
The tubers are planted early in spring, and about 
two inches deep. The rows are two to four feet 
apart, and the tubers are set twelve to fifteen 
inches apart in the row. No cultivation is neces- 
sary, except that weeds must not be allowed to 
grow. In October or November the tubers will be 
ripe, and the hogs may be turned on. The crop is 
recommended for fattening hogs. 

Colza. An annual variety of Brassica campestris 
(the rutabaga species), also called summer rape. 
It is cultivated especially for oil in Europe. It is 
unfortunate that in England and many parts of 
the continent the name coleseed or colza has been 
applied to rape as a synonymous term. They are 
perfectly distinct ; the seed produce of colza is 
much greater, though inferior to rape. The Swedish 
turnip is a cultivated form of this plant, bearing 
somewhat the relation to the normal form that 
kohlrabi does to the cabbage. 

Elliott's Sida (Sida EUiottii). Malvacem. A deep- 
rooting, malvaceous shrubby plant of some value 
as a dry-land forage. It is rather drought-resistant, 
but does best on moist land or under irrigation. It 
will not stand frost. It is a scant grower, reaching 
only about one foot in height and bearing little 
foliage, which is against it. Stock like it, and rab- 
bits are destructive to it. It matures seed, and has 
been found to volunteer. It has been tested at the 
California Station. 

Fenugreek (Trigonella Fwimm-Gr cecum). Lcgu- 
miiiosce. An annual forage and medicinal plant in- 
troduced from the Mediterranean region. Stems 
erect, more or less branched, eight to twelve inches 
or more high ; leaves three-foliolate ; leaflets 
smooth, wedge-oblong, obtuse, coarsely toothed 
above, about one inch long ; flowers one or two in 
the axils of the leaves, sessile or nearly so, yel- 
lowish ; pod linear, one and one-half to three inches 
long, more or less curved, veiny, long-beaked. The 
seeds have aromatic and stimulant qualities, and 
are used in veterinary medicine and in patent cat- 
tle feeds. The pods ripen successively from the 
bottom of the plant to the top ; this results in the 



shattering of the older pods, making it necessary 
to harvest the plant while many of the pods are 
still green. The yield of seed is small. 

Fenugreek is a low grower and cannot be cut 
to advantage with the mower. It is not a promis- 
ing crop for soils deficient in lime. It ia scarcely 
worth cultivating for forage, as the yield is small 
and it is little relished. It endures low temper- 
atures, but requires an abundance of moisture to 
make winter growth. In its native home, it is 
seeded in the spring at the rate of thirteen to six- 
teen pounds per acre, preferably after rains. 

Furze (Ulex Europmts). Leguminosa:. Also called 
Gorse and Whin. A shrub, native of Great Britain 
and adjacent parts of Europe, where it is much 
used as a winter forage, the green sprigs of one 
year's growth being eaten. Branches dark green, 
spiny, usually almost leafless ; flowers yellow, pa- 
pilionaceous, axillary and often crowded at ends 
of branches. 

The plant is propagated by seed at the rate of 
twenty-five pounds per acre, or by greenwood cut- 
tings under glass when used as an ornamental. It 
grows in waste places and rocky hillsides unfavor- 
able for cultivated crops. It prefers a sandy or 
gravelly soil and a sunny exposure. The seed comes 
up sparingly and the plants are usually killed by 
hot, dry summers. It may furnish some grazing, 
but is of little value. [Fig. 2608, Cyclo. Hort.] 




Fig. 415. Flat pea {Lathyrus si/lnestris) . 

Flat pea (Lathyrus sylvestris). Lcguminosm. Fig. 
415. A tall viny plant, native of Europe, intro- 
duced about twenty years ago under the name of 
Lathyrus sylvestris, var. Wapneri. Wagner improved 
the wild plant by cultivation and recommended it 
as a very promising new forage plant. The Ex- 



308 



FORAGE CROPS 



FORAGE CROPS 






/ 




Fig. 416. 

Kidney vetch 

[Anlhi/lUs Yul 

neraria) . 



periment Station at Michigan tried the flat pea 
extensively for ten years, and reached the conclu- 
sion that it is of little value as a fodder plant or 
green-manure. In Kansas it was 
slow to start, but yielded an ex- 
cellent forage for a long period. 
It is adapted to soils that will 
grow alfalfa. It is 
very resistant to 
drought and has been 
recommended for arid 
regions. It has given 
fair results in parts 
of the South, but its 
real worth has not 
been established. 

Hagy or H a g i 
(Lespedeza bicolor). 
Legu m i n osce. A 
perennial forage 
plant, introduced in 
recent years from 
Japan, that has some 
promise for lands 
where it is difficult 
to get a catch of 
clover, and on light, 
dry soils. It grows 
rapidly, sometimes 
to a height of six 
feet, and is leafy 
and bushy. It is 
planted in the spring, sprouts readily, flow- 
ers late in summer and remains green until 
killed by hard frost. Its usefulness is limited 
somewhat by the fact that it becomes woody 
soon after blooming. It has small blue flow- 
ers and produces a heavy crop of seeds. 
Grown also for ornament. [See Fig. 1263, 
Cyclopedia of American Horticulture.] 

Kidney vetch (AnthyUis Vulneraria). 
Leguminosa:. Fig. 416. Perennial, with 
spreading stems to a foot high ; whole plant 
covered with short silky hairs ; flower-heads 
in pairs at the ends of the branches ; flowers 
small, yellow to a deep red. It is found 
throughout Europe and western Asia, from 
the Mediterranean to the arctic circle. It 
grows where soil is poor, in limestone re- 
gions. It was first cultivated by a German 
peasant about fifty years ago. It has been reported 
as of small value wherever tried in the United 
States. [See Circular No. 6, Revised, page 7, Divi- 
sion of Agrostology, United States Department of 
Agriculture.] 

Krishum. Under this name the inhabitants of 
Cashmere cultivate a leafy species of the blue-flag 
genus for forage (Iris cnsata, Thunb., var. pahu- 
laria, Naudin, or Iris pakilaria, Naudin). Figs. 
417, 418. Seeds of this plant have been off'ered 
for some' years by at least one American seedsman, 
but it does not appear to have attracted much 
attention. The plant is perfectly hardy and vigor- 
ous at Ithaca, New York, on poor soil, but it has 
not been tried for forage, being used as an inter- 






Fig. 417. 
Krishum (Iris 
pabutaria) . 



esting border plant. It makes a profusion of ribbed 
gra.ss-like leaves nearly or quite a half-inch wide, 
reaching a height of two to three feet. The leaves 
are said to afford hay and pasturage. It is a per- 
ennial, the subterranean parts forming a tough 
hard growth. The flowers are small, not 
showy, lilac-blue. Krishum is .said to thrive 
in very dry places. 

Lentil (Lens esculenta). Legiiminosoe. 
Fig. 419. A much-branched, tufted annual, 
one to one and 
one - half feet 
high. The leaves 
have several 
leaflets and end 
in a tendril. The 
flowers are 
small, white or 
pale blue, axil- 
lary and borna in pairs. The pods 
are .short and broad, very flat, and 
contain two flat seeds. The lentil is 
a very ancient food plant, and ranks 
among the most nutritious of vegetables 
for human food. It is used 
in Europe and somewhat in 
the United States for fodder, 
made from the vines. If the 
plant is cut early iirtits growth, 
and is cured properly, it 
is said to make a very 
palatable stock food, es- 
pecially for dairy cows. 
It is of easy culture, re- 
quiring no special care 
between seed-time and i'-'.. 
harvest. The seed may be \> 
sown in drills one and ■ 

one-half to two feet apart, 
in early spring, preferably on 
warm, sandy soils of moderate 
fertility. It is harvested when 
the stems begin to turn yellow. 
When the pods are dry the seed 
may be beaten out with a flail. 
The plant is hardy and prolific. 
Mesquit (Prosopis juliflora). 
Leguminosce. A small, spiny 
shrub or tree which is the most 
common woody plant of the 
southwestern arid region. It is often 
found in groves with a short trunk 
much like an apple tree. It is very 
valuable as a honey plant, as its 
period of bloom extends over two 
months. Its forage value lies in the 
pulpy edible pods which are six to ten 
inches long, containing about a dozen 
hard seeds. The pods are very nutri- 
tious, and are eaten by natives and 
travelers as well as by stock. The 
leaves, pods and bark are rich in 
tannin. The seeds are said to be next 
in value to barley for fattening horses, , .^'^•, ^''' . 

... , ,■ , " Ins iHilmlnna 

cattle, sheep and hogs. seed-pods. 



FORAGE CROPS 



FORAGE CROPS 



309 



Mexican clover (RichardKonia geabra). Rubiacccr. 
Known also as Spanish clover, Florida clover, pigeon 
weed, ipecac weed, water parsley and others. An 
annual forage plant, native of Mexico and Central 




Fig. 419. Lentil {Lens esmlentrr). 

America, but naturalized along the gulf coast and 
occasionally farther north. Stems branching, dif- 
fuse, two to four feet long, creeping ; leaves nu- 
merous, oval, rough ; flowers nearly white, in small 
heads. In its general habit it resembles red clover. 

Mexican clover makes its best growth late in 
the season and comes into cultivated fields after 
other crops are removed. It demands a sandy soil 
for its best growth. The yield of hay may exceed 
two tons per acre, and is commonly mixed with 
crab-grass. The hay seems to be succulent, nutri- 
tious and palatable to most stock, though feeders 
are not agreed as to its value. It is not adapted 
for pasturage. Its chief value is as a renovator 
of sandy soils, and as a covering for the ground 
in late fall and winter, to be plowed under in the 
spring. 

Modiola (Modiola dcmmbens). 
Malvaceae. A perennial forage 
plant introduced from Chile into 
California. Its value has not 
been fully determined. It is 
much liked by stock and seems 
to increase the flow 
of milk when fed to 
dairy cows. A few 
growers have consid- 
ered it nearly equal Fig. 420. Partridge pea. 




in value to alfalfa. It has wide adaptability to 
.soils, withstanding alkali, and thriving on either 
moist or dry lands. It grows readily from either 
seeds or the nodes on the prostrate stems. 

Partridge pea, Sensitive pea, Magothy Bay- 
bean (Cass/a Chammcrista). Li'i/uminofur. Fig. 420. 
A native stout herb with showy yellow purple- 
spotted flowers, highly recommended in colonial 
times in Maryland and Virginia for green-manuring 
[see page 106]. So far as known to the writers it 
was not used directly as forage, but only to prepare 
land for forage and other crops. It is one of the 
plants called "sheep-kill," said to be very purgative 
to sheep. The practice was to plant the partridge 
pea with oats in spring, using about one pint of the 
seed to one bushel of oats. After the harvesting of 
the oats, the partridge peas grew to maturity and 
produced a large crop of seed. The next year 
this land was put in corn. The cultivation of the 
corn resulted in destroying large numbers of the 
seedlings, but a sufficient quantity of them came 
on after the la.st cultivation of the corn to produce 
a satisfactory stand. The opinion was general 
that, with a rotation of oats or rye and corn, it 
was very advantageous to grow the partridge peas, 
especially as having once been seeded they per- 
sist for many years without re-seeding. To a very 
slight extent the plant is still used in this way, 
but owing to the enormous superiority of the 
cowpea this use has been practically abandoned. 
[See Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc. Ill, p. 226 (1793). 
Magothy bay is in Maryland on Chesapeake bay.] 

Prickly comfrey (St/mpht/tum afpcrrimum.) Bor- 
ragiriacca: Fig. 421. A perennial forage plant ; 
stem erect, two to four feet : leaves dark rich 
green, long and narrow, abundant, rough, mucil- 
aginous ; flowers purple, in nodding, one-sided clus- 
ters. It has given greatest success in New York, 
Michigan and Florida, in the latter state on waste 
lands. It is now rarely grown in this country. It 
is said to be much grown in Europe. If cut and 
fed in the green state, the leaves and stalks make 
valuable forage. Stock must be trained to like it, 
as it is somewhat unpalatable. It is used for soil- 
ing, but is not to be pastured and does not make 
good hay. Prickly comfrey produces an abundance 
of seeds, but is nearly always 
propagated by cuttings of the 
fleshy roots. The planting dis- 
tance varies from eighteen to 
thirty-six inches each way. As 
the plants attain a large size, 
the greater distance is prefera- 
ble. A light sandy soil is best ; 
several cuttings may be had each 
year. 

Russian thistle (Salsola Tra- 

giia). Chenopodiacem. 

"- Fig. 422. Introduced 

_ from northern Eu- 

^^S%'§r '"''P® '"'■° ^^^ north- 
^ '^'^^ western United States 
by Russian immi- 
grants about thirty 
years ago. For a 



An old-time rotation plant 



310 



FORAGE CROPS 



FORAGE CROPS 



time it was thought that the rapid spread of the 
pest would render farming impossible west of the 
Mississippi, but at present it is considered harmless 
and perhaps of some value as a forage plant when 
fed early. 



■i\ 




Fig. 421. Prickly comfrey (Symphytum asperrimum). 

Sacaline {Polygonum Saehalinenne). Polygonacece. 
A tall bushy perennial (6-12 ft.) forage plant that 
gives little promise. It does not grow well from 
seeds, but may be propagated by root-cuttings. 
The stems are woody when two to three feet high ; 
leaves broad and heart-shaped. It is not drought- 
resistant. It met with some success in Florida, 
where the succulent young stems were relished by 
stock. It forms a great mass of roots and is tena- 
cious. Once much advertised as a forage plant. 
(Fig. 1881, Cycle. Hort.) 

Samphire {Salicornia herbacea). Chenopodiacem. 
A succulent annual plant with leafless, jointed, 
branching stems six inches to two feet high. It 
belongs to the goosefoot or pigweed family. It is 
abundant along the coast from Anticosti south to 
Georgia ; it is also found in salt marshes in the 
interior from Manitoba to Utah. It is much relished 
by cattle. Not in cultivation. 

Scotch broom {Cytisus seoparius). Leguminosm. 
A leguminous shrub, with yellow pea-like flowers 
on nearly leafless green stiff branches, native to 
Europe. (Fig. 423.) It is naturalized in this 
country, growing on stony or sterile soils and 
establishing itself in open woodlands. The slender 
twigs are used in parts of Europe as a sheep for- 



age, being said to be more valuable than furze. It 
appears not to have attracted much attention as a 
forage plant in North America. As a naturalized 
plant it occurs mostly from New Jersey, southward 
in the seaboard region, and it is reported in Massa- 
chusetts and Nova Scotia ; also on Vancouver 
Island. 

Shad scale {Atriplex caneseens). Chenopodiacem. 
The most important of the American saltbushes, of 
which there are about fifty species in the western 
part of North America. Shad scale is a scurfy, 
branching, shrubby perennial growing four to ten 
feet high. The fruit has four broad thin wings 
looking somewhat like shad scales. It is native of 
the high valleys and plains of Wyoming, Nevada, 
Arizona, New Mexico and western Texas. The 
leaves and branches are eaten by cattle. Seeds are 
produced in great abundance, often a half bushel 
or more on a single plant. These are readily eaten 
by sheep and are considered very fattening. In the 
Southwest shad scale is found on alkaline soils, and 
even withstands small amounts of the black alkali. 
Its resistance to cold adds greatly to its value. 
(See Farmers' Bulletin, No. 108, U. S. Department 
of Agriculture ; also article on Saltbushes.) 

Square-pod pea (Lotus tetragonolobus). Legumi- 
nosce. A quick-growing annual, native of southern 
Europe, where it is grown for ornament and for 
salad. It is notable for its heavy production of 
root-tubercles, making it a valuable soil-renovator. 
It makes an unusually heavy growth of herbage, 
having yielded in test plats at the California Sta- 
tion, where it was introduced, at the rate of 
twenty-four to twenty-six tons per acre, equal to 
about five tons of air-dry hay. The seeds are 
rather large, and are borne in four-sided, winged 
pods. It has been disappointing, however, as it is 
unable to withstand frost and brief intervals of 
drought in the winter season, rendering it unfit for 
field growth. 

Sulla (Hcdysarum coronarium). Leguminosm. A 
strongly-rooted, vigorous perennial legume with 
numerous very succulent radical compound leaves 



$: 




Fig. 422. Russian thistle (Salsola Tragus). 

one to six feet high, according to soil and climatic 
conditions. It is a native of southern Europe. In 
the dry climate of Algeria in soil not irrigated, 
sulla was the most satisfactory plant grown for 
feeding and green-manuring. It failed in North 
Carolina, and was of no value in Michigan. It 
grows vigorously in early spring, but is tender. 



FORAGE CROPS 



FORAGE CROPS 



311 



and will not stand frost. It is not recommended 
except in Florida. There it grows through the 
winter. [Bulletin No. 22, Division of Agrostology, 
page 57.] 

Tanveed (Madia sativa). CompositxB. A rank- 
growing annual, native in Chile and California. A 
variety is said to be a useful plant for sheep pas- 
tures in dry soil. It is cultivated in the arid South- 
west and parts of California. In many places it is 
considered a troublesome weed. In Chile it is 

grown for the 
lubricating o i 1 
contained in its 
seeds. The leaves 
have a viscid ex- 
udation and the 
plant has a rank 
odor. It is spring- 
sown and grows 
rapidly after 
warm weather 
comes. The seed- 
heads ripen un- 
evenly and shat- 
ter badly. 

Tagasaste(Q/- 
tisus proiiferus 
Yar.albus). Legu- 
minosm. A shrub, 
native in the 
Canary islands 
where it is 
greatly valued as 
a forage. It is 
used there chiefly 
for cows and is 
said greatly to 
increase the flow 
of milk. On the 
strength of its 
reputation there 
it has been in- 
troduced into many countries for the same pur- 
pose. It has been tested at the California Station 
and elsewhere, with rather unfavorable results. 
Unless kept down by browsing or grown in dry 
places, it becomes large and woody, good only for 
firewood. On drier lands it makes a low, shrubby 
growth that is browsed by stock when the more 
succulent grasses disappear. All of the plant is ex- 
ceedingly leafy. It has been recommended for all 
stock, but has not yet demonstrated such general 
usefulness. It is said to be unsuitable for horses 
except as a dry fodder. It is intolerant to frost. 
It has been recommended for light, dry soils. A 
loose, friable soil is an advantage, as the taproot 
can penetrate to greater depths, enabling it better 
to withstand drought. The soil should be well 
drained. In favorable situations it grows luxu- 
riantly, and is very attractive because of its dark 
green foliage and profusion of white flowers which 
are much visited by bees. It is adapted to barren 
hilly lands, and will endure for twenty years or 
more. 

Tangier pea {Lathyrus Tingitanus). Leguminosce. 




Fig. 423. 
Scotch broom ( Cytisus scoparius) . 



Tangier Scarlet Pea. A vigorous annual plant, 
native of Barbary. Stems spreading, winged, gla- 
brous, three feet long ; leaflets linear-lanceolate, 
obtuse, mucronulate ; stipules lanceolate ; peduncle 
two-flowered ; flowers dark red-purple ; pod four to 
five inches long. The seeds may be used for table 
use and the plant is liked by cattle. It is spring- 
planted in close drills. It seems to be hardy, and 
as a native of the Mediterranean region it should 
be resistant to heat and drought. It was first tried 
in California in 1889. It is sometimes grown as a 
flower-garden plant. [See Fig. 1242, Cyclopedia of 
American Horticulture.] 

Teff (native name of Eragrostis Abyssinica). An 
annual grass of northeast Africa, grown for food ; 
its small grains are made into bread. Two varieties 
are cultivated, a white and a red variety, the first 
being much superior to the second. It produces 
seeds abundantly and may be of use for hay in the 
southern states. When grown from imported seed, 
it makes a heavy yield of fine hay, but seed grown 
in this country has thus far germinated poorly. 

White mustard (Bragska alba). Orncifcra;. An 
erect, much-branched annual, bearing stifle hairs on 
the stem. The leaves are deeply cut and rough- 
hairy. The flowers are yellow. The pods are spread- 
ing, hairy, the lower part thick and few-seeded ; 
the seeds are large, roundish, pale yellow, and 
sticky when wet. It is widely scattered, appearing 
as a weed, but is grown for its seed, as a catch- 
crop, green-manure and forage. It is a short-season 
crop and a rank grower, exceedingly rich in nitro- 
gen, which gives it its value for these purposes. 
Many attempts have been made to show that it 
draws on the nitrogen supply of the air in the 
same way as legumes, but they have failed. As a 
catch-crop it is most useful, since it may be sown 
after many other crops are harvested, or in the 
last cultivation of tilled crops, as corn, when it 
will serve the purpose of pasture for sheep or 
young stock, as a cover to prevent soil-washing in 
winter, conserve soil nitrogen, and improve the soil 
as a green-manure when plowed under. There is 
little difliculty in ridding the land of mustard where 
it has been grown. It is not much used by cattle, 
and must be supplemented when used for sheep or 
young stock. 

White mustard will thrive on a wide range of 
soils, but does best on a calcareous loam soil that 
is well supplied with moisture. It is sown any time 
after the danger of frost is past in the spring, as 
it is very susceptible to frost. It may be sown 
alone for pasture or green-manure, at the rate of 
six to fifteen pounds of seed per acre, broadcasted. 
If sown with rape or a like crop, as is recommended 
to lessen bloating of sheep pastured on the rape, 
the proportion of mustard to rape should be about 
one to three. It may be advisable to sow the mus- 
tard after the rape is started, as it matures more 
quickly. The stalks quickly become woody, so it is 
best to pasture the mustard before it blooms ; and 
when it is to be used as a green-manure it should 
be plowed under before it gets woody. White mus- 
tard, as also black mustard and charlock, are now 
common weeds. 



312 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



FORESTS. Figs. 424-487. 

If agriculture is the raising of products from 
the land, then forestry is a part of agriculture. In 
the past we have considered the forest to be the 
free and uncontrollable gift of nature, as are the 
mines, the sea and the air. We have also been 
obliged, in all the older regions, to destroy the 
forest to make it possible to practice farming. 
Unlike the mines and the sea, however, the forest 
can be renewed. The renewing is a species of crop- 
ping. This cropping has its own laws and demands 
its own special practices, but it is cropping, never- 
theless. 

Most persons have the tree sense well developed, 
but do not have the forest sense developed. Ever 
so many trees may not make a forest. The forest 
is an organism. One tree has relation to other 
trees, and it thrives or fails to thrive largely be- 
cause of that relationship. The forest has climate 
and weather. It has flora and fauna. The forest 
must be treated as a unit, not merely as a collec- 
tion of trees, any more than a city is treated as 
a mere collection of houses. A person may be ever 
so skilful in growing forest trees and yet know 
nothing about forestry. A man may be ever so 
good a builder, but may know nothing about plan- 
ning, organizing and administering a city. 

The planting and care of trees is arhorieuUure. 
The trees may be pears, oranges, maples or pines. 
The raising and care of trees in forests is silvi- 
culture ; this is one part of forestry. Other parts 
of forestry are forest management, harvesting, 
marketing. 

If a forest is a crop, the product must be har- 
vested. This means that the trees must be cut. 
The person who merely admires trees, thinks of 
them as inviolate. They may be inviolate in the 
yard or on the roadside, but in the forest they are 
destined for harvest, as are the stalks in a corn- 
field. If the crop is to be harvested, provision must 
be made for raising a new crop. As the natural 
forests disappear, timber must be raised. Some of 
it must be raised on ordinary farms. With all the 
use of cement and iron, the demand for timber is 
increasing. A forest may be as necessary to a 
good-sized farm as pastures are. The farm forest, 
therefore, becomes one factor in the general scheme 
of farm management, — as consciously part of it as 
the orchard, or the cereal lands, or the live-stock. 

If one is to understand what forestry is, he must 
get it out of his head that natural forests are 
necessarily perfect forests. From the standpoint 
of products, man can grow a much better forest 
than the major part of the natural forests. The 
natural forests are likely to be as weedy as ne- 
glected corn-fields, with whole acres that have a 
good tree only here and there, and great ranges of 
trees that are contending with most adverse con- 
ditions. 

In all the old eastern state.s, the woodlot is an 
almost constant part of the farms. It is a ready 
source of home supplies. In the last census year 
New York furnished more than seven and one-half 
millions of dollars' worth of farm forest products 



(probably one-third of the state is in woodland"), 
leading all the states and being closely seconded 
only by Michigan. Pro'.iably every one of these 
farm woodlots can be improved more markedly 
than can the orchards on the same farms. 

The novelty of systematized ideas about forest- 
cropping is indicated by the newness of the word 
forestry itself. The first le.xicon definition of for- 
estry in this country seems to have appeared in 
Webster's Dictionary in 1880. Even in 1895 the 
Standard Dictionary defined it as a word of very 
limited usage. At the present day it is misunder- 
stood by the greater part of the persons who use 
it : most of them think it means merely tree-plant- 
ing, even shade-tree planting ; others think it 
means the cutting or lumbering of the native for- 
ests. It is not the purpose of the Editor to attempt 
a definition here — what has just preceded may give 
a hint, and what is to come will e.xplain some of the 
field; — but it may be said that it has to do both 
with the making of new forests and with the utili- 
zation of the old ones. A modern cyclopedia of 
agriculture would be greatly deficient if it omitted 
a rather full discussion of the subject of farm 
forests. 

While forestry is an agricultural subject, it is 
also a public policy subject, a fact that is expressed 
in the German custom of associating forestry 
instruction with the schools or departments of 
economics. Forests are concerned with the public 
welfare in the maintenance of water-courses, regu- 
lation of floods, and modification of wind and 
weather ; and they aff'ord a means of utilizing pub- 
lic and communal lands and of providing public 
supplies. In other countries, whole towns or com- 
munities own forests in common. There are regions 
in this country in which it would undoubtedly pay 
the town, county or state to purchase lands for the 
purpose of setting them aside as long-time invest- 
ments in timber-growing. Under wise management, 
a town forest might go a long way toward pay- 
ing town expenses, at the same time that it pro- 
tected the streams, held back the rainfall, aft'orded 
labor in the winter, encouraged thrift in the in- 
habitants and contributed to the attractiveness 
and wholesomeness of the region. A man might 
do far worse than to bequeath a forest to maintain 
a school (at the same time that it kept the children 
close to nature and to home), or to aid a charity, 
or to provide for dependents. The United States 
and Canadian governments are fully alive to the 
public policy aspects of forestry questions, as is 
evidenced by their growing forest services, a sub- 
ject that will be considered briefly again in Volume 
IV of this work. 

There is still another aspect of the forest that 
must not be overlooked. It is essentially native, 
natural and wild. It maintains an area of abun- 
dant and free life in the midst of a civilization 
that razes and levels the surface of the earth. It 
is part of the real out-of-doors, comparable with 
the mountains and the sea. No child should be for- 
bidden the influence of a forest ; and no nation can 
afford to lose the forest if it hopes to foster free- 
dom and inspiration. 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



313 



Farm Woodlot : Its Place in the Farm Economy. 

By B. E. Fernou: 

When the first settlers in the northeastern Uni- 
ted States hewed their farms out of the forest, 
turning into pasture and field the larger part of 
their holdinss, they left parts uncut for their 
domestic wood - supply, — the farm woodlot. This 
was to furnish fence-posts and rails, repair wood 
for buildings and implements, and, above all, fuel. 
It wpn natural to clear the better land first and to 
leave tor the woodlot the poorer parts; and this is 
proper. Unsuitableness of the ground for farm use 
and intonvenience of location were probably the 
main or only considerations by which the woodlot 
was reserved. It is not likely that the idea of a 
timber crop, which could be reaped and re-grown 
at will, iike other farm crops, had been present 
either in locating or in using the crop. It was con- 
sidered Merely a storehouse of material from which 
the farmer might draw at any time to supply his 
needs, if the intention had been to make it serve 
its purpose continuously, it was certainly, in most 
cases, treated most improperly, — culled and cut 
without any regard to reproduction. Instead of 
using first the dead and dying, the crooked and 
inferior trees, the limbs and leavings, for fire-wood, 
and thus improving the condition of the remaining 
growth, body-wood of the best trees was considered 
none too good for the stove, and the best trees of 
the best kind were chosen for posts, fence-rails and 
other inferior uses. 

As a consequence of this culling system, which 
left only undesirable kinds and trees, — the weeds 
among tree-growth, — many woodlots have become 
well-nigh useless, mere weed patches. Many have 
ceased to supply even the domestic fire-wood. The 
soil, which was of little use for anything but a 
timber crop, is rendered still less useful under this 



--d^*^- 






(«•-' 



■^ 




•.f* 






:=*^:s 



Fig. 424. A typical Vennont woodlot (sugar-bush) showing 
the rocky ground better adapted to forest growth than to 
agriculture. 

treatment. In addition, the compacting of the soil 
by the constant running of cattle makes the start- 
ing of a crop of seedlings nearly impossible. It 
would not pay to turn it into field or pasture ; the 
farm has by so much lost in value, simply because 



the woodlot was worked like a mine instead of like 
a crop. If, after cutting the original growth, a new 
crop sprang up, this was merely an accident or 
natural sequence, not a result secured by a deliber- 
ate efi'ort or premeditated plan, except in sporadic 






m.m{ 





liiiillitii 






Fig. 425. Forest growth in swamp in which farming is 
impossible. Absolute forest laud. 

cases. In the deciduous forest, composed of broad- 
leaf trees, the sprouting capacity of the stumps 
was responsible for re-growth, and many woodlots 
became sprout-lands, which were cut over and over 
again, also without any care for the stocks, and 
by this neglect and the browsing of cattle became 
poorer and poorer. In this way, notably in the 
southern New England states and Atlantic coast 
sections, a regular sy.stem of coppice, as this kind 
of sprout-forest is technically called, being cut over 
every twenty to thirty years, established itself. 

There are cases on record, however, and probably 
many cases have remained unrecorded, in which 
farmers in the East have deliberately sown or 
planted pine and other trees for a timber crop. 
.\gain, abandoned fields and pastures have been 
seeded to pine and other kinds of trees by natural 
processes, increasing the woodlot area. Undoubt- 
edly, there have also been sporadic efforts to im- 
prove the resulting timber crop by thinning, and 
other practices of conservative treatment have 
e.xisted here and there ; but until very lately such 
efforts have been e.xtremely rare. 

In many of the southern states, the proportion 
of woodland to field in farmers' hands is still such 
that the woodlot forms the larger part, and the 
farmed area is shifted by making new clearings, 
the exhausted farm land relapsing into woodland. 
Similar conditions are also still prevalent in the 
western forested sections. 

When the forestless prairies and plains were 
being taken up for farm use, and it became neces- 
sary or desirable to plant trees, it was not only or 
not so much the question of wood-supplies as cli- 
matic amelioration that was looked for in the wood- 
lot, and here, therefore, the location was considered 
with reference to its function as a wind-break ; the 
plantings were made around the house and farm- 
buildings, or on the windward side of the orchard, 
or in shelter-belts alongside of fields. 



314 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



Within the last ten or iifteen years, since not 
only the stores of the farm woodlots, but the for- 
est resources of the country in general, have begun 
to show signs of exhaustion, there has been more 
attention paid to the woodlots, and the propriety of 
treating them as crops rather than as storehouses 
or mines, has been frequently discussed. Besides, 
their value to the farm, aside from furnishing the 
domestic supply of wood, is also more fully recog- 
nized. 

In this connection it may be proper to point out 
that wood prices have risen in the past, and will 
rise still more rapidly in the future, and hence the 
neglected woodlot may become a more important 




Fig. 426. Steep rocky slope supporting forest growth, but 
unfit lor agriculture. Absolute forest land. 

rent-producer, if properly used, than could have 
been supposed a short time ago. This rise in prices, 
to be sure, affects mainly the better kinds and cuts. 
In some regions, as in Massachusetts, where the 
good timber is cut out and poor fuel-wood is plen- 
tiful, there is naturally no such rise noticeable, — 
a good inducement to pay attention to the woodlot 
and to improve the character of its product. 

One point that the average farmer raises against 
timber-cropping is that it takes time to grow wood, 
and one must wait twenty, thirty, forty or more 
years before one can harvest. This is true. Never- 
theless, we insist that it is good policy to bestow 
the patience required, considering that this crop is 
frequently growing on soil otherwise useless ; that 
each year it grows nearer to a realizing value, and 
hence increases the value of the farm, even though 
it may not admit of harvest, — and all this without 
any expense, or, at most, very little. 



Moreover, with a woodlot already in existence, 
the time at which the results of improvement in 
the methods of its treatment are reaped are by no 
means so distant. The response in increased incre- 
ment will be soon experienced; with little expendi- 
ture, the rate of growth may be doubled and the 
result reaped within five or six years. This is one 
of the places where, again and again, mere care 
in the use has produced astonishing results. 

On a well-regulated farm of 1(50 acres, at least 
forty to fifty acres could be advantageously kept 
under wood, even if only the home consumption is 
to be satisfactorily supplied by the annual growth, 
and the waste land to be made productive. 

Importance of the woodlot. 

As to the importance of the woodlots and their 
value to the nation as wood-producers, we can gain 
an idea from the Census statistics. For the year 
1900 the Census shows that over $100,000,000 
worth of wood was cut on farmers' woodlots, and 
that in round numbers about one-third of the area 
held in farmers' hands is under wood, or waste fit 
only for wood production, namely, about two hun- 
dred and eighty million acres. 

The value of the woodlot to the farmer we may 
place in four categories : 

(1) As a wood -supply. — In many cases, the 
obvious value which lies in the supply of wood 
materials may be the least important one, and, if 
there were no other advantages to be derived, the 
farmer might very well dispense with it. The de- 
velopment of means of transportation and improve- 
ment of roads have made coal accessible to many 
farmers, so that the fuel-supply, to these at least, 
is not now so important a question as it once was. 
Again, wire fences are better and often cheaper 
than the wooden fences. The wood trade in many 
regions is so well developed that the farmer can 
buy wood -supplies of any description from the 
lumber-yard. 

But, aside from the fact that these new ways 
require expenditures of ready cash, the length 
of haulage and the consequent waste of time and 
energy often make it economy to rely on home 
supplies. There come times, also, as in continued 
snow-blockades or during coal strikes, when in- 
dependence from such market supplies is appre- 
ciated ; many farming communities deficient in 
woodlots have suffered fuel-famines which set 
them a-thinking about their waste places that 
might have furnished the needed fuel. 

Yet we must admit that, with the exception 
of such rare occasions, the wood-supply question 
frequently may not of itself be a sufficient reason 
for maintaining woodlots. 

(2) ,4s a poor-land crop. — The greatest value of 
the woodlot is that it is capable of producing more 
returns from certain parts of the farm than any 
other crop, from those parts which are not fit for 
farm use because of soil conditions or topography. 
We have heard a great deal about unprofitable 
farming. We feel sure that, in many cases, lack of 
proper adaptation of crop to soils and lack of con- 
sideration for the small matters, neglect of the 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



apparently unimportant corners of the farm, may 
account for it. There are on most farms soils that 
are fit only for timber crops ; there are also every- 
where conditions of farm soils and of markets 
which make it doubtful whether farming the soil 
pays ; others, where pasturing is the only profitable 
use of the ground ; and, again, others where, 
although farm crops might still be raised, timber 
cropping alone is advisable. 

A German authority on farming matters some 
years ago made an extensive investigation to find 
out when, under the conditions prevailing in his 
country, it was more profitable to abandon farming 
and to plant to forest. He found that on land fit 
only for oats and rye, which does not give a net 
yield of more than eighty cents per acre, or on 
wheat soil of more than one dollar and eighty cents 
per acre, it would pay better to plant to forest, 
pine in the first case and spruce in the second case, 
provided the owner could wait forty or fifty years 
for the return. According to various circumstances, 
the financial result from wood-cropping would then 
be 15 to 60 per cent higher than the accumulated 
farm returns, with wood at three to seven cents 
per cubic foot, and an annual production of sixty 
to seventy cubic feet per acre, say two-thirds of a 
cord. Although we cite this calculation from a 
foreign country, where entirely different conditions 
of market exist, merely to make it clear that such 
matters are capable of calculation, yet the figuring 
may not vary so very much in this country with 
spruce wood worth now four cents or more, and 
pine in places bringing twelve to sixteen cents per 
cubic foot. 

(3) Utilizing of labor. — A value not to be under- 
estimated lies in the fact that the work in the 
woods can be performed at the season when other 
work is slack. This factor is discussed at length 
in the succeeding article. 

(4) In its influence on its environment. — Lastly, 
we should mention the influence of the woodlot on 




Fig. 427. Desert where yuccas still maintain themselves, but 
farm crops fail entirely. {Figs. 424 to 428 are from photo- 
graphs loaned by the Forest Service.) 

the climatic, soil and water conditions of the farm, 
wherein in some situations may lie its greatest 
value: not only on the wind-swept prairie farms, 
but in the eastern and southern sections of the 
country as well. We are not inclined to overesti- 
mate these influences. But we do know that springs 





Fig. 428. Characteristic root system of 
trees, enabling them to grow on soils 
and situations unsuitable to farm 
crops. 






have run dry wKen the shading wood was cut off 
and were replenished when forest conditions were 
reestablished. Not everywhere and under all cir- 
cumstances will this be experienced, for there are 
other influences at work which give rise to springs 
and which 
may be so po- 
tent that the 
forest influ- 
ence becomes 
negligible. 
Yet the fact 
that in gen- 
eral on moun- 
tain slopes a 
forest cover is 
influential in 
prod uci ng 
equable water 
conditions, 
that it pre- 
vents erosion 
and washing of the soil, is not doubted by any one 
who has studied the history of the results of defor- 
estation in France, where thousands of farmers 
became homeless by the terrible work of the tor- 
rential mountain streams and where, by reforest- 
ing, favorable conditions have been reestablished. 
In our southern states, especially where the com- 
pact soils are liable to gullying, the proper location 
of woodlots, together with proper methods of culti- 
vation, will reduce this danger. 

The philosophy of this forest influence lies in the 
fact that a forest cover changes surface drain- 
age into sub-drainage, checking the rush of water 
over the ground by the litter, brush and tree 
trunks, and thus giving time for it to penetrate the 
soil and to drain off slowly. Generally speaking, 
larger amounts of water penetrate the soil and are 
stored under forest growth, which prevents rapid 
evaporation. Later it becomes available by sub- 
drainage, feeding the springs and other subsoil 
waters, and thus ultimately becoming a benefit to 
neighboring fields. This action presupposes that 
the effective forest floor of mulch and litter and 
shrubs has not been destroyed by fire or by over- 
pasturing and tramping by cattle. 

The farmer in the West has learned by experi- 
ence the benefit of the windbreak, and orchardists 
have long known its value ; but that crops in fields 
protected by timber-belts yield better than in 
unprotected fields, and especially that winter frosts 
are prevented by such protection, is not fully 
realized by farmers. By preventing deep freezing 
of the soil the winter cold is not so much prolonged, 
and the frequent fogs and mists that hover near 
forest growths prevent many frosts. That stock 
will thrive better where it can find protection from 
the cold blasts of winter and the heat of the sun 
in summer, is another fact which gives value to 
the woodlot where stock is kept out. 

Experiments have shown that every foot in 
height of a forest growth will protect one rod in 
distance, and a series of small timber-belts would 
produce most favorable farm conditions. 



316 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



This windbreak benefit, as well as that of regu- 
lating water and soil conditions, is secured by 
proper location of forest areas. While, therefore, 
in the first place, soils and situations unfit for farm 
purposes are to be selected for 
the woodlot, to secure its bene- 
ficial influences may make other 
disposition desirable. 




Fig. 429. 

American larch [LarU 

Americana). 



farm crops. 




Fig. 430. 

Arborvitae ( Thuya 

occidcHtaUs). 




Factors in woodlot management. 

Choice of species. — While we 
speak of a timber crop as one, 
there is quite as much variety 
possible in timber crops as in 
Not only are there many different 
kinds of wood, each posse.ssing distinct qualities 
and fit for distinct employment, but there are dif- 
ferences of treatment which pro- 
duce differences of result. There 
are the conifers, — pines, spruces, 
hemlocks, firs, larch, cedar and the 
like, — which furnish building ma- 
terials and grow from seed only 
(with few e.xceptions), requiring a 
long time to make suitable size for 
the purpose for which they are best fitted ; and 
there are the broad-leaf trees of great variety, 
hard and soft woods, fit for a variety of purposes, 
and often becoming available 
for use sooner than the con- 
ifers, capable of reproduction 
by sprouting from the stump 
(coppice) as well as by seed. 
Whether it be in the man- 
agement of an established 
woodlot or the starting of a 
new plantation, a choice of 
species and method of treat- 
ment must be made from the 
first, with the object clearly in view that the crop 
is to serve. 

Limitations as to output. — We have started to 
consider the woodlot as destined, 
in the first place, to supply domes- 
tic needs of fuel and small-dimen- 
sion material ; but the question 
may arise whether it could not be 
managed with a view to supplying 
the general market. By general 
market we mean the requirements 
of sawmills and lumber - yards. 
Excepting special cases, the far- 
mers' woodlot is not well fitted for the practice of 
commercial forestry, — the growing of timber for 
the general market. The reasons for this inapti- 
tude are partly economic, partly 
r;\^ ,-'", based on the natural history of 
;'' . forest-growth, and on silvicultural 
peculiarities. 

Wood is a crop which, unlike 
other farm crops, does not have a 
physical maturity indicating the 
harvest time. This time is a ques- 
tion of decision by the harvester, 
based on financial considerations. 



Fig. 431. 

Bald cypress ( Taxodium 

distichum). 




Fig. 432. 

Black walnut 

{Jui/lans nigra). 






{^ 



i 



'i 



Fig. 433. 

Butternut {.Tug 

lans cinerea). 



or on considerations of size. Size is ultimately the 
basis of financial considerations also, for with 
increasing size the usefulness and value of the tree 
increases ; and size is, of course, a que.stion of time. 
Therefore, by the accretion in diameter and height, 
the timber crop not only grows in volume annually, 
but in value also. Practically valueless until, say 
ten years, it then may begin to be fit for hop-poles, 
hoop-poles, bean-poles and the like ; at twenty 
years, not only a larger amount of good fuel wood, 
but posts and fence-rails may be cut ; at thirty 
years, in addition, telegraph poles and railroad ties 
and perhaps some other small-dimension material 
may be secured ; but to grow logs for mill use we 
should have to wait twice that time. It would be 
rare to get .satisfactory log sizes before sixty to 
seventy years, for the sawing of logs of small 
dimension is wasteful and unprofitable ; for ex- 
ample, the loss in slabs and saw-kerf with logs 
twelve inches in diameter, under best practice is 
still over 30 per cent, and of logs eight inches in 
diameter may be over 60 per cent. And since with 
most species, on the poorer soils which are to be 
devoted to the timber crop, even these sizes are 
not plentiful, though the crop is well tended, the 
long-time element involved would, in most cases, 
deter the farmer from engaging in growing saw- 
timber. 

There are also reasons against such a proposi- 
tion, which lie in the nature of forest development 
and the limitations of the woodlot. If size of the 
tree is of importance in determining its value and 
harvest time, size of the area on which forestry is 
to be practiced is of importance in determining the 
purpose and method of management. The limited 
size of the woodlot, say fifty acres at most, if a 
continuous business with annual harvests of sixty- 
year-old timber were contemplated, would malce 
the annual harvest so small as to appear impracti- 
cable except under special conditions, while an 
intermittent management, under which larger 
areas or quantities from period to period are har- 
vested, may find equal objection because of the 
requirement of the sawmills for assured amounts 
of annual supply. The growing of log timber in 
the woodlot, therefore, in most cases will be found 
impracticable as a business proposition. In addi- 
tion, the usually isolated position of the wood-lot 
in small patches is inimical to timber-growing. 
Exposed on all sides to the drying winds, the soil 
under the older trees standing more open is likely 
to deteriorate, and not only thereby is the incre- 
ment on the standing timber reduced, but natural 
regeneration is impeded, and other silvicultural 
practices ate rendered more difficult, unless special 
pains are taken to preserve a "wind mantle" on the 
outskirts. Altogether, it will be found in most 
places impracticable to devote the woodlot to any 
other purpose than the production of home supplies 
of fuel and small-dimension material. 

Cooperative management. — The diflSculties m.en- 
tioned, however, could be overcome and the far- 
mers' woodlands profitably devoted to log-timber 
production, if they were located together and man- 
aged cooperatively under one plan. Such cotipera- 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



317 



tive management by farmers exists in Europe ; it 
has the same advantages as any trust organization, 
and makes possible the conduct of forest-cropping 
in a business-lilie way under business conditions, 
and under direction of a competent manager. This 
would be impracticable for the individual owner. 

Distinction between field and forest crops. — While 
the farmer is the cultivator of the soil and has this 
general calling in common with the forester, and 
hence may properly learn to manage his forest 
crop, he must realize that the farm crop and the 
forest crop have, after all, not very much in com- 
mon, and he must appreciate the difference between 
the two, if he is to make a success of his woodlot 
management. 

We have seen that, from the business point of 
view, the long time of development and the absence 
of a definite maturity indicating harvest time 
make an essential difference between field crops 
and forest crops. When to cut the timber crop is 
a matter of judgment and calculation, based on 
measurement. There are in every vocation of life 
those who conduct their business inditt'erently by 
the " hit or miss" method, without measuring or 
figuring; but, even if farming could be conducted 
by such a method, for a mistake in one year can be 
corrected the next, it is most detrimental in forest- 
cropping. Mistakes often show themselves here only 
after many years, and can be corrected only once 
in a lifetime. Much more deliberation is advisable, 
and measuring and figuring are indispensable, if 
business success is desired in forest management. 

Not less striking is the difference in the natural 
history of the two crops and, in consequence, of 
their treatment. This difference lies essentially in 
three directions: (1) the forest crop makes different 
demands for its development from the field crops ; 
(2) is not necessarily reproduced by cutting and 
replanting, as is usual with farm crops, although 
this may be done ; and (3) its development cannot 
be influenced to any extent as in farm crops, by 
the methods of fertilizing and cultivating the soil 
with which the farmer is familiar. By the mere 
mode of harvesting the old crop, the new crop can 
be produced, and almost alone by the use of the 
axe can its development be accelerated. 

The most important condition which in these 
operations needs consideration is the light which 
is at the disposal of the different components of 
the crop. The timber crop, as a rule, is not of one 
kind, but of different species in mixture which grow 
at different rates and make diff'erent demands for 
light; or, at least, it is of ditt'erent-sized trees, and 
the question arises which of them to favor with 
additional light by removal of their neighbors. We 
see, then, that while the forest crop, like the wheat 
crop, consists of masses of the crop plant, unlike 
the wheat crop the single individual in the forest 
crop requires attention. 

It is the manipulation of light conditions, akso, 
that provides a desirable seed-bed, secures plentiful 
seed production, gives a satisfactory start, and 
influences the progress of the young crop. 

The forest crop makes very little demand on the 
elements of plant-food in the soil, getting its carbon 




Fig. 434. 
Mountain ash (Sorbiis Anw 
cana). 




White a£h l/'mji/ius 
Atnericana). 



from the air and drawing on the soil chiefly for 
water. [This question is discussed in detail in the 
succeeding article.] 

Again, the farm crop is dependent on the 
weather, success or 
failure being a matter 
of the seasons of each 
year, and the opera- 
tions of sowing, culti- 
vating and harvest- 
ing requiring prompt 
attention. The forest 
crop, although also 
dependent on the sea- 
son, is never an entire failure, and, consisting of 
the accumulations of annual increments, averages 
up the good and the bad seasons in its final harvest. 

There is also a greater lati- 
tude as to the time when op- 
erations in the forest crop 
may be performed. A few 
years' difference in making 
the desirable improvement 
cuttings does not entail 
heavy loss, and only when 
attention is required by the 
young crop may a few weeks 
or months of delay be detri- 
mental. The harvesting may 
usually be done when con- 
venient. 

Finally, in the woodlot managed under coppice 
or under coppice with standards (that is, a coppice- 
growth with a short rotation, with occasional trees 
[standards] w h i c h are 
given a longer rotation), 
which are the most suit- 
able systems for a far- 
mer's use, only a little 
knowledge and skill are 
required to make a success. 
As has been pointed out, 
a simple, judicious work- 
ing plan, laid out once 
for all, is desirable with a 
crop which takes such a 
long time to mature, while in the farm crops changes 
from year to year may be desirable. 

Forest distribution in the United States. 

We may anticipate a very ditt'erent attitude of 
farmers to their woodlots and a very different treat- 
ment in the different sections V^^ /33?»3, 
of the country by virtue of V-'^^sS"^^ 
the difference in forest con- 
ditions, as well as in market 
conditions. From the.se 
points of view we can divide 
the country variously into 
regions. 

Botanically speakinf, it 
has been customary to divide 
the country from east to 
west into three great regions: BeechCfno™ %r'mgmea. 

(1) Atlantic forest region, ot F.Americana). 




\ 



Fi£. 436. 

Hop honibeam or ironwood 
( Ostri/a Vinjinica). 




318 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 




Fig. 438. 

Black locust {Robinia 

Pseudacacia). 




Fig. 439. Honey locust 
iOleditschia triacanthos). 



bounded by the Mississ-ippi basin on the west and 
reaching south into Texas, once a large hard-wood 
forest, often mixed with conifers which also some- 
times occupy e.xtensive 
areas by themselves. (2) 
The Pacific forest region 
on the western moun- 
tains, composed almost 
exclusively of coniferous 
growth, and (3) the prai- 
ries and plains region, be- 
tween the first and second 
regions, bearing only scat- 
tered tree growth, mainly 
along the water courses. 
If we add climatic and economic considerations, 
many more subdivisions may be made, and certainly 
not less than a dozen would fairly represent the 
different conditions. 

Maine, perhaps the best 
wooded state in the coun- 
try, is still so much in the 
woods that it stands by 
itself; but, taking the en- 
tire New England states 
as a group, we find that 
they are still one-half in 
woodland, and, according 
to the nature of the topog- 
raphy and soil, must re- 
main so for many years. 
This is also the most den.sely populated section of 
the country, and the farmer's woodlot, which is 
usually within easy reach of a market, should 
occupy an important position 
and would pay well if properly 
cared for, and if not merely 
abandoned to eke out an exist- 
ence. Coppice -growth and 
white pine groves on abandoned 
pastures and fields are the 
characteristic features of the 
woodlot area. 

Not very different are the 
conditions in the Middle Atlan- 
tic states, e.xcept that a much 
larger area is and can be under 
cultivation, more than one-half being now under 
farm. Hard-woods, especially chestnut and oak, 
are in preponderance. The easy reproduction of 
the white pine, which is a striking feature on New 
England farms, is not seen here. 
The Southern Atlantic states 
exhibit at least three different 
topographic regions : the coast 
region of sandy lowlands and 
swamps, in which coniferous 
growth prevails ; the foothill 
region of mixed growth ; and the 
mountain region in which hard- 
woods are most prominent. These 
states are still almost as exten- 
sively wooded or else as unfit for 
west'emfitaipa agricultural use as Maine, but 
(.Oataipaspeciosa). have Only one-third the popula- 




Fig. 440. 

Basswood (Tilia 

America7ia) , 




tion per square mile of the first two divisions, 
hence, the woodlot question is probably rarely 
raised. Abandoned or neglected fields grow up so 
readily to wood that the forest constantly threat- 
ens to regain its empire. 

Much the same conditions prevail in the Gulf 
states, except that here the lower half is mostly 
an extended, sandy, pine forest, the northern 
uplands having hard-wood with pine intermixed. 
Hardly 20 per cent is cultivated, and the popula- 
tion is still very much less than in the Southern 
Atlantic states. 

The central southern states, north of this group, 
are much better developed, with over 35 per cent 
under farm and a population as dense as in the 
southern Atlantic states. The forest is mainly 
hard-wood and is densest in the eastern mountain 
region. 

The largest farm area is found in the three 
states, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with over 70 per 
cent of the land improved and a population which 
rivals in density the New England states. Here is 
another region in which proper management of the 
woodlot would unquestionably pay, since scarcely 
over 12 per cent is in forest, and the waste land 
scarcely 18 per cent, most of which could probably 
also be utilized for timber crops. These states are 
almost devoid of coniferous growth. 

The lake states, which have supplied the bulk of 
our lumber consumption for so many years, are 
being rapidly exhausted of their coniferous growth, 
although the extensive hard-wood areas will still 
hold out for a generation. The southern parts are 
sufficiently densely populated to make attention to 
farm forestry worthy of consideration. 

Placing in one division, although climatic and 
economic conditions are variable within it, the 
great and practically forestless interior area of 
approximately one million five hundred thousand 
square miles, we have that part of the country in 
which timber-planting has been long practiced, 
where climatic amelioration is the main function 
of the woodlots, and where there is endless oppor- 
tunity for further extension and more rational 
management. 

The Rocky mountain region is relatively scantily 
wooded with short coniferous growth, improving 
to the northward. Farmers and miners will some 
day bemoan the destruction by fire which has so 
uselessly wasted thousands of square miles. 

The mountain regions of the Pacific coast states 
are still so den.sely wooded with magnificent conif- 
erous growth, that the practice of farm forestry 
probably could not find lodgment even in the 
agricultural valleys adjoining. But in southern 
California there are forestless regions where the 
woodlot, planted eucalyptus groves, has already 
earned its well-appreciated position. 

Forests of Canada. 

The forest area of Canada, including the wood- 
lands of the northern territories and of the pra.'ries. 
is estimated at approximately 1,250,000 square 
miles, but the area in strictly commercially valu- 
able wood probably does not now exceed 500,000 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



319 



square miles, nearly half of which is in British 
Columbia. Commercial timber is now, and will con- 
tinue to be, secured from the forests of the old 
eastern provinces and British Columbia,the remain- 
ing territory being either forestless or depleted of 
its valuable timber. Some twenty-five millions of 
acres have been cut out in the settlement of the 
country for farm purposes. 

The composition in general is the same as that 
of the northern forest in the United States : hard- 
woods (birch, maple and elm prevailing) with 
conifers mixed, the latter, especially spruce, be- 
coming pure occasionally. The nearly pure hard- 
wood forest of the southern Ontario peninsula has 
been supplanted almost entirely by farms, and 
here, even for domestic fuel, coal, imported from 
the United States, is used. Although white pine, 
the most important staple, is found in all parts 
of this forest region, the best and largest supplies 
are now confined to the region north of Georgian 
bay. Unopened spruce- and fir-lands still abound, 
especially in Quebec on the Gaspe peninsula. Spruce 
forms also the largest share in the composition of 
the New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfound- 
land forest, the pine in the first two provinces 
having practically been cut out. Extensive, almost 
pure balsam-fir forest, fit for pulp wood, still covers 
the plateau of Cape Breton, while Prince Edward 
island is to the extent of 60 per cent cleared for 
agricultural use. 

Much of this eastern forest area is not only 
culled of its best timber, but burnt over, and 
thereby deteriorated in its composition. 

North of the Height of Land (a plateau with 
low hills, which cuts off the Atlantic region from 
the northern country, and marks the northern 
limit of commercial forest) in Ungava and west- 
ward, spruce continues to timber line, but, outside 
of narrow belts following the river valleys, only 
in open stand, branchy and stunted, hardly fit 
even for pulp, for the most part intermixed with 
birch and aspen. This open spruce forest continues 
more or less to the northern tundra and across 
the continent to within a few miles of the mouth 
of the Mackenzie river and the Arctic ocean, the 
white spruce being the most northern species. In 
the interior northern prairie belt groves of aspen, 
dense and well developed, skirt the water-courses 
and form an important wood-supply. 

The forests of British Columbia partake of the 
character of the Pacific forest of the United States, 
the Coast Range with conifers of magnificent devel- 
opment, including Douglas fir, giant arborvitae, 
western hemlock, bull-pine and a few others, the 
Rocky mountain range also of coniferous growth, 
but of inferior character, large areas being covered 
with Alpine fir and lodge-pole pine, important as 
soil cover and for local use in the mining districts, 
but lacking in commercial value. 

For farm forestry, the southern part of Ontario 
offers the most promising field, for probably 50 per 
cent of the farm area would be better under wood. 
Beginnings of forest planting and woodlot manage- 
ment have been made here within the last few years 
with the aid of the Agricultural College at Guelph. 




Fig. 442. 

White oakiQuernis 

alba). 




Factors in Timber Production. Figs. 424-428. 
By Raphael Zon. 

Although the growing of wood, inasmuch as it 
must make use of the soil, is a part of agricultural 
production, yet it has many dis- 
tinctive features which justify 
discussing it independently. A 
clear understanding of the way 
in which wood crops grow, and 
of the factors involved in their 
production, is essential to an in- 
telligent treatment of the far- 
mer's woodlot. 

Three factors are invariably 
present in the production of all raw materials, — 
nature, labor, capital ; and it is the way in which 
these factors are combined in the production of 
timber crops that distinguishes the latter from all 
other agricultural crops. 
While these factors have 
been brought out in the pre- 
ceding article, it is impor- 
tant that we here emphasize 
certain features, that we 
may more clearly compre- 
hend their relation to forest Fig. 443. 
production, and hence to Redoak (o«erc»sr«6™). 
the adaptation of the woodlot to the farm scheme. 

Nature. 

In no other agricultural crop does nature play 
so prominent a part as in the 
production of wood crops. In 
raising field crops the farmer 
deals, as a rule, with annual 
plants, tender and highly plas- 
tic, which have had their 
original characteristics radi- 
cally changed in accordance 
with the needs and wishes of 
man. In the production of 
timber, one deals with 
tree - species, perennial, 
wild plants, yielding with 
difficulty to human influ- "■ ~ =" 

ence. The long period, often more than a lifetime, 
required by trees to grow from seed to maturity, 
prevents man from leaving his impress on them ; 
while the short cycle of development of agricul- 
tural plants offers opportunity, 
year after year, to mould and 
adapt them to the conditions 
desired. This explains, to a 
large extent, why our farm 
crops are now being widely ■ 
grown in climates very differ- 
ent from those of their original 
home, while only compara- 
tively few tree-species have 
been extended beyond the lim- 
its of their native region. By 
proper planting or timely thin- 
ning, to be sure, one can stim- shagba^rk'hickoiy 
mate the growth of trees in iHimna ovaia). 




'9^ 




320 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



Silica (SiOo) 

Potash (K-O) 

Lime (CaO) 

Magnesia (MgO) 

Phosphoric anhydrid (P2O5) 
Sulfuric anhydrid (SO3) . . 
Other constituents .... 



Total amount 



height or thickness, produce clear boles, or even 
improve the quality of their wood ; but the power 
of influencing the inherent character of the species 
by breeding forms adapted to new climatic or soil 
conditions is very limited. During the long time 
required for the ripening of timber crops, man must 
practically remain a passive observer, leaving na- 
ture to do all the work of growing the wood. Tim- 
ber crops must be con- 
sidered, therefore, largely 
the work of natural 
forces; at least, our 
American forests, with 
very few exceptions, are 
a wealth produced not by 
labor or capital, but accu- 
mulated by nature with- 
out the) assistance of man. 
Although so essentially 
the product of the free 
forces of nature, the for- 
est claims from nature 
much less than agricul- 
tural plants (the demands 
which plant-life makes on 
nature are the require- 
ments of climate, soil and 

topography). In the North and in the mountains, 
the forest extends beyond the range of the hardiest 
cultivated plants, where, 
together with pasture and 
meadow, it is the only pos- 
sible means of utilizing the 
soil. 

Forest trees, as a rule, 
are far less sensitive to 
unfavorable climatic condi- 
tions than most agricul- 
tural plants. A prolonged 
drought that proves ruinous to farm 
crops is often not felt at all by 
forest trees, which depend for their 
water-supply on the deeper layers 
of the soil. 

The forest, although it thrives 
best on good soils, will grow also 
on soils lacking the chemical and 
physical properties necessary for 
the support of agricultural crops. 
This is demonstrated by the mag- 
nificent pine forests which grow on 
dry, sandy soils, and the good growth 
of arborvitfe or balsam fir in 
swamps. The ability of forest 
trees to grow on poor soil is doubt- 
ss due partly to their roots, 
which penetrate deep into the 
ground and spread over large 
areas searching for water and 
food ; but it is due mainly to their 
slight demand on the nutritive 
substances of the soil, especially 
the minerals. Beech, for example, 
Chestnut'(oLonea "^eds annually but one-third, and 
dentata). the pine but one -sixth of the 



amount of mineral substances required by a field of 
wheat of the same area. Roughly speaking, the 
amount of mineral substances required by forest 
growth is about one-half of what is needed by agri- 
cultural crops, as may lie inferred from the follow- 
ing comparative analyses of the ashes of forest and 
agricultural products,made byEbermayer(Physiolo- 
gische Chemie der PHanzen, 1882 : Vol. I, page 761): 

Amount op Mineral Substances Consumed by Agricultural and Forest Crops 
Per Acre Per Year. 



Mixed 

agricultural 

products 



Lbs. 
37 

78 
43 
17 
28 
11 
21 



235 



Forest growth 



(a) Wood 
and leaves 



Lbs. 

29 

11 

62 

10 

8 

3 

3 



126 



(6) Wood 
only 



Lbs. 
1.6 
4 
9 
2 

1.4 
0.4 
0.6 



19 



Approximate ratio 
of forest to Jigri- 
CMlturiil demainl 
for mineral sub- 
stances 



h 




Fig. 446. 

Tulip tree {Liriodendron 

Tulipifera) 




Fig. 447. 
American Elm 
{Ultnus Ameri- 
cana) 




Especially significant is the relation of wood and 
farm crops to nitrogen, the most indispensable ele- 
ment of plant life. The sources of nitrogen are 
precipitation, assimilation of the free atmospheric 
nitrogen, as by the root tubercles of the legumi- 
nous plants, and fertilizers. Precipitation furnishes 
yearly about 10.7 pounds of nitrogen per acre. 
An acre of beech forest consumes every year 45 
pounds of nitrogen, fir forest 37 pounds, spruce 
forest 35 pounds, and pine forest 30 pounds ; an 
average crop of potatoes consumes 54 pounds, 
wheat 55 pounds, rye 47 pound.s, and barley 39 
pounds. For the building up of leaves, four to five 
times more nitrogen is consumed than for the 
building up of the wood itself. The 10.7 pounds of 
nitrogen conveyed annually to an acre of soil by 
precipitation is just suflicient for the production 
of the wood substance, but not for the leaves. The 
nitrogen required for the production of the leaf 
substance is furnished by the forest itself in the 
form of fallen foliage and needles that have stored 
up large quantities of nitrogen. In farming, the 
need of nitrogen above the amount .supplied by 
precipitation must be artificially introduced into 
the soil by manuring or fertilizing, or by the use 
of legume crops. 

. Since the bulk of all mineral substances is also 
deposited in the foliage and not in the wood (see 
table), the forest tree.s, every fall, return to the 
soil, in the form of dead leaves, the greater part 
of what they have taken up through their roots. 
Thus forest trees, in addition to furni.shing their 
own fertilizer, by bringing up mineral substances 
from the deeper layers of the soil and depositing 
them on the surface, accomplish practically the 
same result that is brought about in farming by 
deep plowing. Therefore, the soil under the forest 
(provided the leaf litter is not removed or other- 




Plate XI. A well-managed forest. "Cathedral Aisle" of white pine, Intervale, 
White Mountains, New Hampshire 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



321 



wise destroyed) is constantly gaining in fertility 
instead of becoming exhausted, — just the reverse 
of what happens in farming, where every harvest 
impoverishes the soil by depriving it of a part of 
its nutritive substances. 

While farm land must, of necessity, be fairly 
level, since a slope of 20° renders it unfit for till- 
ing, and an incline of 25° unfits it even for pasture, 
gradients up to 45° are still capable of sustaining 
tree-growth. On slopes from 5° to 30°, the forest 
finds its true home, producing there more wood, 
and often yielding greater revenues than when 
grown in the valley. The reason for the increased 
growth of trees on moderate slopes is to be found 
in the stimulating effect of favorable exposures 
with their greater amount of light and air, of more 
perfect drainage, and of greater protection from 
wind and frost than is usually found on flat 
ground. 

The ability of the forest to grow on situations 
too poor or otherwise unfit for agriculture led to 
designating such situations as absolute forest land 
(Figs. 425-6). To absolute forest land, therefore, 
belong all territory north of the range of cultivated 
plants, all steep slopes, gullies, situations too rocky 
or too dry for agricultural plants, and swamps. It 
is impossible, of course, always to draw a distinct 
line of demarcation between absolute forest land 
and other land, since the soil may be artificially im- 
proved, as, in the case of swamps by drainage, but 
such improvements are, as a rule, very costly, and 
in this country, where there is still a comparative 
abundance of land, the absolute forest soil may be 
made profitable without improvements, by devoting 
it to forest growth, for which it is fitted, as it 
were, by nature itself. 

Labor. 

The raising of agricultural crops demands a 
great amount of human eft'ort. The land must be 
plowed, harrowed, manured or otherwise fertilized, 
the seeds put in the ground, the harvest gathered 
and threshed, and all this has to be repeated year 
after year. 

In the growing of wood crops the application of 
human labor is very limited. The forest provides 
for the fertilization of its own soil, new crops start, 
as a rule, from self-sown seeds transported by wind 
or birds, or from stumps or roots of old trees, and 
wherever man does undertake to assist nature by 
sowing or planting cut-over land, the work on the 
same area has to be done only once in many years. 
It is only the harvesting of the timber crops which 
requires any considerable labor, and this occurs at 
very long intervals. Tens, often hundreds of years 
must pass before the new crop becomes ready for 
the axe. 

While farm crops must be harvested as soon as 
they ripen, a delay of even a few days often caus- 
ing considerable loss, the harvesting of timber 
crops may be postponed for many years without 
injury to the crop, and can be done at a time and 
rate most profitable and convenient to the timber 
owner. 

The relative importance of labor as a factor in 

B21 




Fig. 449. 

Cottonwood (Populus 

deltuides). 



the production of timber and farm crops is well 
shown by the fact that while the 414,000,000 acres 
of improved farm land, given by the Twelfth Cen- 
sus, engage 10,000,000 men, or 
one man to every forty acres, 
the 700,000,000 acres of forests 
engage only 120,000 men, em- 
ployed in harvesting the timber 
and getting it out to the nearest 
points of shipment, or one man 
to every 5,800 acres. This dif- 
ference ise.specially large in this 
country because most of the 
labor that is employed in our 
forests is engaged solely with 
harvesting and transporting the 
timber crops, and practically 
none with forest-culture proper, 
which is still in its inception. 
But even in forests managed most intensively, only 
one-tenth to one-thirtieth of the labor required by 
an acre of farm land is needed per acre of forest 
land. The difi:erent bi-anches of 
agricultural production may be 
arranged in the order in which 
each calls for labor, beginning 
with that which needs least, as 
follows: Ranching, wood-grow- 
ing, hay-raising, production of 
cereals, fruit - growing and 
truck-farming. 

At a smaller expenditure of 
labor, forest land is capable of 
producing at the same time an 
equal, if not a greater amount 
of useful vegetable substance 
than farm land. Thus, common farm crops yield 
on an average 3,400 to 4,600 pounds of vegetable 
substance per acre ; of this, only about one-third 
(1,000 to 1,500 pounds) is in 
the form of grain. An acre of 
forest produces under human 
care 8,000 to 10,000 pounds of 
vegetable substance annually, 
and of this about one-half is 
in the form of wood, the re- 
mainder being roots (450 
pounds), and leaves (3,000 
pounds). Deducting from the 
wood the amount of water held 
by it mechanically, there re- 
mains 1,500 to 3,600 pounds 
(dry weight) of vegetable sub- 
stance, as the product of one acre in one year. 
Putting these facts together with the Census fig- 
ures, according to which there is one man for every 
forty acres of improved farm 
land, the inference may be 
drawn that in agriculture the 
labor of one man is instrumen- 
tal in raising annually 40,000 
to 60,000 pounds of useful 
vegetable substance ; the same 

amount of labor expended in „,,, „^'!;,!f!'„,„,. 
, f^ , , Hard or sugar maple 

growing wood crops could pro- (Acer sacchammm). 




Fig. 450. 

Box elder {AcerNt- 

giuido). 



,.:ifj4^ 



-^^^l 




Vs<r% 



Fig. 4S1. 
Silver or soft maple 
(.leer dasycarpuin). 




322 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 





Fig. 454. 

Hemlock (Tsitga 

Canadensis). 



duce under forest management of similar intensity, 
between 400,000 and 600,000 pounds of useful 
vegetable substance, or ten timesas much. These 
figures, of course, must not be consid- 
ered, even for a moment, as absolute. 
To begin with, the average acreage of 
farm land cultivated by one man, as 
given by the Census, is altogether too 
large, since not all land that has been 
reported as improved farm land is 
actually cultivated, — a great part of 
it remains idle. These figures are 
merely brought forward to illustrate 
approximately the relative role which 
labor pla)'s in the production of wood and of agri- 
cultural products. 

Capital. 

Wood-cropping, to be done continuously, needs 
investment of capital, and, in a certain sense, of a 
larger capital than is re- 
quired for farming. The 
form in which most of the 
capital is tied up in wood- 
cropping is very charac- 
teristic of forestry as an 
industry. It is not the 
land that claims most of the investment, since land 
devoted to forest growth is, as a rule, poorer and 
therefore has a considerably lower value than farm 
land. Nor do buildings, 
tools, machinery or labor 
absorb much capital, be- 
cause all these items are 
a source of considerably 
less expenditure in for- 
estry than in farming. 
The forest crops do not 
need buildings to house 
them ; the tools used in harvesting or caring for 
the harvest are very simple and inexpensive ; the 
application of machinery, with its concentration 
and division of labor, is very circumscribed because 
of the bulkiness of the product, 
and because variety in the size 
and shape of trees requires the 
constant exercise of judgment 
on the part of the wood-cutter ; 
there are no seeds nor manure 
to buy ; very little wages need 
be paid. In other words, the 
capital needed for defraying the 
current expenses of growing 
wood-crops is small as compared 
to that needed for raising agricultural crops. Thus, 
while in Europe the current expenditure per acre 
of forest land managed most intensively does not 
e.xceed two dollars on the average, 
according to the figures of the 
„ /y United States De- 

''^•Ui^Js^- partment of 

Agriculture for 
1893, the cost of 
Fig. 457. "Mn~ raising wheat 
Black spnice {picea Mariana). and corn crops 




Fig. 455. 
Balsam fir {Abies balsamea). 




Fig. 456. 
Norway spruce 
(Picea excelsa). 




in this country was $8.88 and $8.68, respectively, 
not including the rent for land and the cost for 
superintendence. 

The chief demand for capital in continuous 
wood-cropping is the necessity of keeping a large 
supply of growing, immature trees on hand. Here- 
in is the most essential difl:erence between forestry 
and agriculture : while farm crops mature in one 
year, and all that has grown during the year is 
harvested at the end of the season, trees must be 
left to grow for many years before sufficient wood 
of the desired kind accumulates. A tree is not 
born old ; starting from the seed or stump, it 
grows in height and thickness year after year 
until it reaches the size required for the market. 
If the most marketable size is attained at the age 
of eighty years, then to secure the best returns it 
must be left on the ground for eighty years to 
accumulate the requisite amount of wood. If one 
eighty-year-old tree is to be cut each year, there 
must be on hand seventy-nine trees of ages 
varying from one to seventy-nine years. When 
one eighty-year-old tree is cut down, seventy-nine 
trees must be left standing, because they are all 
needed to produce annually that one mature tree. 
Continuous wood-cropping requires, therefore, an 
accumulation of a large amount of immature, 
growing timber, which forms as essential an ele- 
ment in continuous wood-production as machinery 
does in a factory. While the farmer may dispose 
of the products of his annual harvest, the grower 
of timber crops is compelled to leave the annual 
growth made by the trees for a number of years, 
and in this way must tie up in growing trees a 
capital equal to the aggregate value of the unsold 
annual crops of the whole period. That the grow- 
ing, still immature timber is a real capital and not 
an imaginary one, is only too well shown by the 
temptation to which so many owners of small 
timber tracts succumb, to realize on it prematurely ■ 
by selling it at the first opportunity. 

The larger the required sizes of trees, or the 
longer the period needed for their maturing, the 
larger must be the stock of young, growing trees 
on hand, and consequently the larger must be the 
capital tied up for continuous production of wood, 
and vice versa. Thus, to supply continually an 
annual demand for the product of one acre of 
eighty-year-old trees, a total area of eighty acres 
is needed ; while one-fourth of the area would be 
sufficient to grow every year one acre of twenty- 
year-old trees, such as would make fence-posts. 

In forests managed systematically for continuous 
timber crops, the growing stock of wood usually 
amounts to 75 or 80 per cent of the total invest- 
ment. For this reason, the raising of continuous 
crops of large timber for construction purposes 
can be done advantageously only on considerable 
forest areas, with a large capital tied up perma- 
nently in young, growing trees. The owner of a 
small woodlot will inevitaby find it most profitable 
to raise chiefly fire-wood, mine props, fence-posts, 
ties, and similar timber products that require a 
comparatively short time for their production, 
using for that purpose only quick-growing species, 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



323 



or managing his forest as sprouts which possess at 
an early age a capacity for more rapid growth 
than trees started from seed. The fact, however, 
that the woodlot, as a rule, is not an independent 
enterprise, but an adjunct to fanning or some other 
business, enables its owner to manage it not on a 
strictly financial basis, because of the many bene- 
fits which he derives from it indirectly, in the form 
of windbreak or shelter to his cattle, in addition 
to the products raised for his own home con- 
sumption. 

There are also purely technical reasons which 
make extensive forest tracts better adapted for 
raising timber crops than small woodlots would 
be. In a large forest the proper distribution of 
trees of various ages, which is so essential to con- 
tinuous wood-cropping, can be more easily attained; 
on a large tract the main body of forest, being 
well protected by the outer rows of trees on the 
edge of the forest, suffers less from wind than 
small woodlots, which are frequently exposed to 
the sweep of gales; in a large forest there are 
always more seed trees and more seed on hand, and 
the conditions for starting a new crop are generally 
more favorable than on small tracts. 

Timber crops, unlike farm crops, can not be 
managed very intensively. Intensive industries are 
characterized by their capacity for absorbing a 
considerable amount of labor ; and forestry, with 
the exception of harvesting timber crops, olfers, as 
has already been pointed out, but little opportunity 
for the application of labor. Besides, forests grow, 
as a rule, on the poorest soils and roughest situa- 
tions, which makes any intensive management 
financially unprofitable because of the expenditure 
being out of proportion to the possible gain in net 
returns. If to this be added the fact that it takes 
100 to 150 years for trees to reach large dimen- 
sions, and therefore only tto or y^ of the total 
forest area can be cut over every year, if annual 
sustained yields of large timber are desired, the 
need of vast forest areas for continuous wood-pro- 
duction becomes self-evident. 

All this taken together emphasizes the impor- 
tance of capital as a factor in the production of 
wood crops, and has even led to designating for- 
estry as a " capital intensive " industry in distinc- 
tion from agriculture which requires a relatively 
smaller fixed capital but a larger amount of labor. 

The three main factors of forest production may 
be thus arranged in the order of their importance : 
Nature, capital and labor. 

Literature. 

B. E. Fernow, Economics of Forestry, Thomas Y. 
Crowell & Co., 1902 ; John Nisbet, The Forester, 
Vol. I, William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and 
London, 1905 ; Gifford Pinchot, A Primer of Fores- 
try, Parts I and II, Bulletin 24, Forest Service, 
United States Department of Agriculture ; William 
Schlich, A Manual of Forestry, Vol. I, Introduction 
to Forestry, London, Bradbury, Agnew & Co., 1896 ; 
"Forsten," by M. Enders in " Handworterbuch der 
Staatswissenschaften," edited by Conrad, Elster, 
Lexis and Loenig, Jena, -1900. 




Fig. 458. 

Redwood {Stqxtoia 

sempermrens). 




Raising the Timber Crop, 

By Samuel B. Green. 

Trees may be divided into two classes : (1) 
Those that are called shade-enduring or tolerant, 
and (2) those that are light-de- 
manding or intolerant. These 
characteristics of trees are of 
great importance in considering 
the subject of the renewal of 
growth on forest lands, or even 
in the matter of planting land 
that is not yet in forest. While 
it is not an absolute rule that 
tolerant trees have a thick mass 
of foliage, and intolerant 
have open foliage, yet this 
statement is so generally true 
that when this characteristic 
is known it serves as a very 
reliable indication. Among 
our tolerant trees may be 
mentioned the spruce, balsam, 
white cedar, red cedar, oak, 
hornbeam and hard maple. 
Among our intolerant species 
are the poplar, cottonwood, 
willow, soft maple, birch and 
jack and red pine. 

The ideal forest is one that 
might be called a two-storied 
att'air, that is, having an in- 
tolerant species above and a 
tolerant species below, much 
the same as in a crop of corn, 
where we may have pumpkins 
growing under the shade of 
the corn. Trees protect one an- 
other and are mutually helpful, 
and as a rule are most hardy 
when grown in groups. Trees 
also interfere with one another, 
and in their struggle for light 
and soil privileges the weaker 
trees are often suppressed and per- 
haps all of them are injured. On 
the other hand, crowding forces 
them to take on an upward 
growth and kills out the lower 
branches, which is necessary for 
the production of good timber. 
Trees that grow in the open have 
side branches and make inferior 
lumber that is full of knots. 



Fig. 459. 

■White pine iPlmis 

atrobus). 




Fig. 460. 

Red or Norway pine 

{Finu^ resinosa). 




The forest rotation. 

There is a popular fancy 
that a natural rotation of 
trees exists, and where soft 
woods are cut hard-woods 
naturally follow, and the 
reverse. In reality, there is 
little to justify this notion. 
Under natural conditions, 
sometimes hard-wood will 



Fig. 461. 

Scotch pine (.Phms 

.aylvestris) . 




Fig. 462. 
Grey or Jack pine (Pinua 
divaricata). 



324 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



follow pine, or pine will follow the hard-woods, 
where the two were mixed at the time of cutting 
and there was on the ground a young growth which 
had an opportunity to grow when its competitor 
was removed. 

When land is severely burned after being cut 
over, the trees that show first are the kinds that 
produce seed in great abundance, and whose seed 
will float long distances in the wind, such as poplar 
and birch ; or else those having fruits especially 
liked by birds, such as the bird cherry, which is 
widely distributed. The pine, and perhaps other 
trees, may come in later, owing to their being 
seeded later, or owing to the later advent of con- 
ditions favorable to their germination and growth. 
It may often happen in the case of burned-over 
pine land, that pine seed is distributed over it the 
first year after it is burned, but owing to the lack 
of protection from the sun the young seedlings, 
which are very delicate and require slight shade, 
are destroyed. 

On the other hand, the young poplars, on newly 
cleared land, may find just the condition for growth, 
and the land becomes thickly seeded ; later there 
comes a general weakened condition of the poplars 
by reason of too much crowding. Under the growth 
of these weakened poplars, pine seedlings may find 
the right conditions of shade for their most .suc- 
cessful growth, and will gradually force their way 
up through the poplars, and finally kill them out. 
On the other hand, the poplars, birches and other 
trees, gi-asses and shrubs growing on the land when 
the timber is cut, may make so strong a growth as 
to kill, for a time, the young pine seedlings that 
are on the land. 

Forest regeneration. 

The term regeneration is commonly used in for- 
estry to signify the renewal of forest trees on the 
land. It is a convenient term and well worthy of 
general use. The dift'erent forms of regeneration 
may be referred to as, (1) regeneration by natural 
seeding ; (2) regeneration by artificial seeding ; (3) 
regeneration by planted seedlings ; (4) regenera- 
tion by planted cuttings ; (5) regeneration by 
sprouts and suckers (i. e., coppice-growth). 

I^he method of regeneration best adapted for 
one section may not be at all fitted for another 
section under difl^erent conditions, and often it is 
best to combine two or more of the different forms 
of regeneration. Where natural regeneration of 
valuable species can be easily brought about, it is 
generally the best practice. This is especially true 
in sections where timber is comparatively cheap, 
as is generally the case in this country where the 
returns from the land can hardly be expected to 
pay for any great amount of labor. 

(1) Natural regeneration by seed may be greatly 
assisted by stirring the surface of the soil in good 
.seed years, just before the seed is scattered, and 
by thinning enough to let in light and air to the 
seedlings. When it is desired to have an open field 
adjoining woodland thus seeded, the land may be 
plowed or loosened with a disk harrow or drag, and 
put in such condition as to make a sufficiently good 



seed-bed. When the soil will not permit of such 
exceptional treatment, it may be loosened by a 
drag made by tying together several oak branches 
or small logs, which, when dragged over the ground 
several times, will gradually break up the surface. 
This will be especially necessary where there is a 
thick covering of mold or "duff" on the land. This 
same method of stirring the soil is applicable when 
the land is to be seeded by hand. Good seed years 
do not often occur in our most desirable species, 
and it is very important to take advantage of 
these good years when they do come. 

Natural re-seeding is almost the only practical 
means of re-stocking large areas of forest lands, 
as other methods are too expensive. It generally 
takes place readily, and the chief reason why it is 
not more successful is the frequent destruction of 
the young seedlings by fires, by cattle and improper 
methods of logging. 

The methods of cutting adapted to secure 
natural regeneration by seed in the forest naturally 
separate themselves into three systems, each of 
which may be best adapted to some special condi- 
tions. They are known as (1) the selection method ; 
(2) the strip method ; (3) the- sprout method ; and 
(4) the group method. 

Selection method. — The selection method refers 
to the cutting of mature trees and the removal 
of inferior trees to make room for the better 
kinds. In this system much care should be exer- 
cised to prevent the growth of grass, which 
generally comes in when the cutting is done more 
rapidly than the seeding trees can seed the bare 
land and furnish it with a good covering that will 
keep out the grass and other weeds. On the other 
hand, it is just as important to exercise great care 
in providing sufficient light for the young seed- 
lings which have started, so that they can make a 
good growth and not be shaded out by the older 
trees. The removal of a single tree, even though 
it be a large one, often lets in so little light 
that seedlings cannot get a good start. For 
this reason the group method (referred to later) is 
probably best adapted for general use, since it 
opens up a sufficient space to warrant considerable 
attention being paid to securing good conditions 
for the young seedlings. 

Strip method. — The strip method may be used to 
advantage where the soil and tree growth is very 
uniform over large areas. The strip method is a 
form of clear cutting and is chiefly applicable to 
large tracts of even-aged pure stands of conifers 
or any light-seeded species and when there is a 
ready market for timber of all sizes. The location 
of the strips and their alternate cutting involves 
the laying out of plan of management for many 
years ahead. The woodlot owner, therefore, will 
seldom find it necessary to resort to this method of . 
forest treatment. 

Under this system the trees are removed in nar- 
row strips, as a rule not wider at any time than 
twice the height of the trees, so that the remain- 
ing older trees can easily re-seed the denuded land ; 
but the be.st width of the strips will depend on the 
species and the local conditions. For example, in 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



825 



the case of oak, perhaps, the strips should not be 
wider than the height of the trees, while in the 
case of birch, elm, maple and pines, the strips 
might exceed in width six or eight times the height 
of the trees, and still they would be re-seeded suc- 
cessfully. Such strips should generally be started 
on the side opposite the prevailing winds at seeding 
time, so that the seeds may be blown on to the 
denuded land. Of course, in the case of oak, beech 
and similar trees, where the wind has compara- 
tively little effect on the carrying of the seed, this 
point is not to be so much insisted on. 

Group method (Fig. 4G3). — The group method is 
a system of cutting irregular strips successively on 
the inside of certain groups. This may be termed a 
natural method, and for general use, especially in 
mixed woods, and where the land and tree condi- 
tions are rather variable, it is much the best. If 
this system is followed, one can adapt the method 
of cutting to the different species and to the differ- 
ent conditions which may be found in the forest. 
For example, a tamarack swamp, a dry knoll cov- 
ered with oak, a steep hillside, and level rich rocky 
land covered with elm, and very often various other 
conditions, would very likely all be included in 
almost any forest track of considerable size in the 
northern states, and each part, for best results, 
should receive special treatment. Under this plan 
we can begin with one group or several, and we 
can start our regeneration in each group perhaps 
where there is already a good growth of desirable 
young trees. In fact, this system gives us a chance 
to begin regeneration where the greatest necessity 
or the best opportunity for it already exists. The 
size of the openings will depend, as in the strip 
method, on the species grown and on the natural 
conditions of the land. As a rule, the finst open- 
ings should be one-fourth to one-half acre or more, 
and the strips taken around these openings should 
not exceed in width the height of the trees in the 
strips next to be cut ; but, as previously stated, 
this matter should be determined largely by the 
kinds of trees. Successive strips should be cut 
only when the previous strips have become well 
stocked with trees, that is, when regeneration is 
accomplished. Of cour.se, the regeneration in 
each of these strips should be given the same 
care that would be given to any well-managed 
forest in order to bring about a predominance of 
the most valuable kinds under the best light 
and soil conditions. 

(2) Regeneration by artificial seeding. — Occasion- 
ally it may be desirable to sow seed in woodlands. 
This is often the case with ash, hard maple and 
birch, and with our nut-bearing trees, such as black 
walnut, butternut, the hickories, chestnut and oaks, 
which readily renew themselves by such means. 
These may be planted in spots or broadcasted after 
the land has been loosened. In the case of pine and 
spruce, however, success is uncertain under such 
treatment, and should seldom be attempted. Per- 
haps it is most certain to furrow out between the 
trees with a plow, where.it is practicable, as it 
might be, for exam.ple, on some of the sandy lands 
of Wisconsin and Michigan, where furrows might 




Fig. 463. Diagram Ulus- 
tiating group method of 
cutting. Cuttings are 
Itegun at points marked 
1 and are gradually ex- 
tended by successive 
cuttings, as indicated 
bv figures 2, 3. 4 and 5. 
(After Sdilich.) 



be run between the trees or the land loosened in 
patches with a hoe. In these furrows, or in patches 
in the forest, the seed of pine or spruce might 
often find just the right conditions for growth. 
Such methods of treatment are occasionally used 
in the pine forests of northern Germany, to secure 
a regeneration of Scotch pine and beech. When the 
seed is to be sown in patches, these should seldom 
be over two square yards in 
area. From these patches 
the seedlings may be set in 
near-by openings, after they 
are well established. This 
treatment can be made 
successful only where the 
standing trees afford the 
proper shade conditions for 
the seedlings. 

Under some conditions, 
tree seeds may be sown 
broadcast on the land and 
be covered by the treading 
of sheep. This would often 
work well in the case of 
brushy pastures on rocky 
land. Ash, box-elder, maple, 
pine, beech and other tree seeds are sometimes 
sown in clear fields with oats or other grains, 
where the straw protects from the sun in summer 
and the stubble holds the snow and acts as a winter 
protection. Seeds of ash, maple, elm, and some 
other trees may sometimes be sown to advantage 
in the hills with corn in prairie planting, and wil- 
low cuttings may be used in the same way, or these 
may be planted in the hills with beans. 

(3) Regeneration by planting seedlings. — The re- 
generation of land by planting seedlings is prac- 
ticed to considerable extent in sections where 
timber is high in price. For instance, in parts of 
Hessen it is no uncommon sight to see large areas 
of land planted in spruce at as regular intervals as 
corn is planted on cultivated land ; when the crop 
is mature it is taken out by the roots and the 
land plowed and again planted. In the parts of 
Hessen referred to, however, there is a good 
market for even the stumps of trees and the 
smaller twigs. Such a condition is seldom found 
in any part of the United States. 

There is a large part of this country where 
the land cannot be stocked with valuable trees 
without resorting to replanting. This is often the 
most economical way of securing a stock of conif- 
erous trees in almost any part of the United 
States under the conditions which frequently pre- 
vail on our cut-over lands, where there is very 
little chance for natural or artificial regenera- 
tion of desirable kinds by seed, owing to the fact 
that all seed-producing trees were cut when the 
land was logged or have since been destroyed 
by fire, and the ground covered by a growth of 
grass, raspberry bushes, other weeds and inferior 
small trees. Seedling pines often can be set out at 
intervals of perhaps ten feet apart each way, 
under conditions where they would be sufficiently 
crowded by the weeds, poplars, hazel-brush and 



326 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



other growths, so that they would take on an 
upright form, quite free from branches until their 
tops interlaced, after which they would properly 
crowd one another. Such planting often can be 
done at an expense of less than two dollars per 
acre. In planting seedlings under such conditions, 
the best implement to use is a mattock, with which 
a space a foot or more in diameter is cleared of 
brush and the .soil brought into condition for the 
seedlings. Under very favorable conditions the 
work can be done for even a less figure than that 
given. It is not too much to expect that a man 
and a boy, in a day of ten hours, under reason- 
ably favorable conditions, can plant at least 1,000 
seedlings and handle them with all the care nec- 
essary to keep the roots from getting dry. Pine 
and spruce seedlings are best kept in a pail 
partially filled with water when carried to the 
field. 

After the seedlings are planted, it is neces- 
sary for success that they be looked after for 
a few years until they are well established, other- 
wise they may be smothered by the surrounding 
weeds and trees. It is a good plan, under such con- 
ditions, to go over the land at least once in the 
summer with a large knife, and with a few slashes 
give the planted seedlings an advantage over the 
surrounding vegetation. 

In the planting out of old fields, where for 
any reason it may be undesirable to plow the land 




Fig. 464. Haidy catalpa plantation of the South Amaua Colony, 
South Amana, Iowa. Trees twenty-four years old. 

entirely, a good condition for planting may be 
secured by furrowing out in autumn where it 
is desired to plant, and in the spring planting on 
the edge of the furrow where the soil has fallen 
from the furrow-.slice. In the case of hillsides 
of this kind that are liable to wash, the furrows 
should run across the slope and be made nearly 



level, or with a gentle slope so that the water 
will follow the furrows without gullying them. 
These furrows will hold the water and prevent the 
seedlings drying out. On wet land seedlings are 
sometimes planted on the surface, and the soil 
mounded up over the roots. This method is well 
adapted to white cedar on wet land. 

(4) Planting of cuttings. — There are few trees 
that can be grown in general practice from cut- 
tings, but it is the best way to start willows and 
some poplars, since seedlings of them are difficult 
to secure. It may often happen that willows and 
poplars can be planted to good advantage on the 
cut-over land, where renewal of growth is expected 
from such shade-enduring trees as basswood, hard 
maple, hickory and chestnut. Under such condi- 
tions the willows will grow rapidly and form a 
predominant covering under which the other species 
will flourish. 

(5) Regeneration hy coppice. — The commonest and 
simplest way of natural regeneration is the sprout 
method. This is based on the capacity possessed 
nearly exclusively by the hard-woods (of the coni- 
fers only by the California redwood) to renew 
themselves after cutting by shoots produced from 
the stump or roots. As a matter of fact the bulk 
of all our second growth hard-woods originated in 
this way. This method does not depend on the 
occurrence of good seed years, it is little affected 
by fires, which sometimes even stimulate a more 
vigorous sprouting, and is adapted to small as well 
as large timber tracts. The sprouts for the first 
40 to 50 years grow faster than trees started from 
the seed and are, therefore, capable of producing 
tan-bark, firewood, fence posts, ties, telephone and 
telegraph poles within a much shorter time than 
trees from seed. For this reason this method lends 
itself most readily to woodlot owners, especially in 
the central hard-wood belt, where the composition 
of the woodlot is chiefly hard-woods and the de- 
mand for small-sized timber is great. Chestnut, 
oaks, particularly the chestnut oak, ashes, willows, 
maples and poplars are well suited for regeneration 
by sprouts. 

In cutting coppice-growth the trees should be 
cut ofl' close to the ground when they are dor- 
mant, and the stumps left highest ■ in the center 
so that they will have a tendency to shed water 
and not be so liable to rot as when left hollow 
in the center. The advantage of cutting close to 
the ground is that the sprouts that come out 
from the trunk soon get roots 'of their own, and 
such sprouts are much more durable than when 
they depend entirely on the roots of the old stumps; 
and they are less liable to be broken off in a high 
wind. After a number of years the ability of the 
stump to sprout will gradually cease, although 
with good management and protection oak and 
other hard-woods may be reproduced for a long 
time in this way. 

Choice of species to plant. 

The choice of species will naturally be limited 
by soil and climatic conditions, and also by the time 
required to get returns. The slow-growing species, 



\ 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



327 



such as oak, ash and white pine, do not offer any 
great inducement for the private individual, except 
in the case of such kinds as renew themselves 
readily from the sprouts or where the land is 
already stocked with a young growth. The fast- 
growing species are the ones to which individuals 
are largely limited in making their plantations. 
Among the most desirable of these is 
Catalpa speciosa, which under favorable 
conditions will make good post timber 
in ten or fifteen years. The yellow or 
black locust, which has a little wider 
range northward, and is fully equal to 
the catalpa in rapidity of growth at the 
North, is also well adapted for post tim- 
ber. In some sections the white willow 
and Cottonwood may be grown to advan- 
tage, the willow being used largely for 

(fuel and poles, while the cottonwood is 
used largely for dimension lumber in 

(Cheap construction. 

' These four trees promise the quickest 
returns of any deciduous trees that are 
grown in our northern states. In the 
case of willow, the average yield per 
acre of cord-wood on good soil, under 
favorable conditions, will not be far 
from three cords, when once the land is 
well stocked with trees. Under the con- 
ditions which exist in many central- 
western states, such plantations may prove very 
profitable. While cottonwood lumber at present is 
regarded as of little value in most of the timber 
sections, yet on our prairies it is in demand for floor 
boards and dimension stuff in cheap construction, 
and will often increase in growth at the rate of 
500 to 1,000 feet board measure per acre per year. 
Of the coniferous species, spruce is probably the 
most promising. White and Norway spruces grow 
at about the same rate, but as the seed of the 
Norway is much the more easily secured, it will 
naturally be given preference. It will yield thirty 
to thirty-five cords of pulp-wood per acre when 
thirty years old. It is in demand for paper pulp, 
and the outlook is for an increase in the price of 
this material. 

The future will undoubtedly see a more general 
use made of inferior woods, by impregnating them 
with antiseptic materials, and it is probable that 
we shall, in this way, find a much wider use for 
such wood as that of the common cottonwood and 
soft maple. 

Seeds and seeding. 

Source of seeds. — One of the most important fac- 
tors for the grower of tree seedlings to have in 
mind is that the source of the seeds may sometimes 
have a very considerable effect on the value of the 
seedlings. It may be laid down as a safe general 
rule that those seeds are most desirable which 
come from trees grown in a climate as severe as 
that in which they are to be sown. As trees reach 
the limit of their growth they have a tendency to 
become dwarfed, and the seedlings from these trees 
undoubtedly perpetuate (more or less) this dwarfing 



tendency. Hence, even though an essential point 
in considering the value of any tree is hardiness, 
the question of size is also important and should 
be taken into account. We may conclude, then, 
that since trees from milder climates generally 
lack in hardiness, and those from a very severe 
climate may lack in size, it is best to procure seeds 




Fig. 465. Forest of Picea excelsa (known in this country as Norway spruce) 
in Hessen, planted for paper pulp; side branches removed as soon as dead. 

from the best trees grown near by, or from those 
grown under similar climatic conditions elsewhere. 
Generally, it is not necessary to limit this range 
very closely, and a range of one hundred miles 
north or south of a given point will seldom make 
much difference in hardiness. 

Gathering secd.'i. — In some cases it is best to pick 
the seed from the trees even before they are quite 
ripe, as they will generally ripen if kept dry after 
being picked. Very unripe seeds do not keep so 
well as perfectly ripe seeds. Most kinds of tree 
seeds can be gathered cheaply from the ground 
after they have fallen. This method of gathering 
often can be greatly facilitated by clearing the 
land under the trees, so that it will be smooth and 
even. The seeds of some species can be swept up 
at little expense under trees growing along high- 
ways or city streets. 

Seeds of coniferous trees, such as pine, spruce, 
tamarack and arborvitse, are dry and winged, but 
the red cedar has a fleshy, berry-like covering sur- 
rounding its seed. The seeds that grow in cones 
are most easily gathered before being shed from 
the cones. The cones should be gathered before 
they open, and then dried, after which those of 
most species will open and the seeds can be 
threshed out. Cones of a few trees, as those of the 
jack pine, will not open without artificial heat. 
These can be opened by gently heating them over 
a stove or in an oven to a temperature of 100 to 
150° F. Seeds of this class grow readily, but must 
be very carefully stored or they will lose their 
vitality. They may be kept like the seed of ash 
and box-elder, but are more liable to injury than 
these kinds from too much moisture or heat, and 



328 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



^. 



for this reason some careful growers prefer always 
to keep them mixed with dry sand in a cool shed. 

The seeds of the red cedar hang on the tree all 
winter and must be picked by hand. They should 
be soaked in strong lye for twenty-four hours, the 
,,v -f fleshy covering 
removed by rub- 
bing them against 
a fine sieve, and 
then stratified in 
sand, where they 
will be frozen 
during the winter. 
Even with this 
treatment they 
will seldom grow 
until the second 






Fig. 466. Diagram illustrating method 
of planting seeds in patches in 
woodland. 

year. 

Stratification. — Stratification is a term used to 
describe a certain method of storing seeds. It is 
adapted to almost any of our seeds, but is especially 
useful with the black walnut, hickory, basswood, 
plum, cherry, mountain ash and hawthorn. When 
only small quantities are to be cared for under this 
method, it is generally best to put them in boxes, 
mixed with several times their bulk of sand, and 
bury in the dry ground out-of-doors ; but when 
large quantities are to be handled they may be 
mixed with the soil on the surface of the ground, 
covered with mulch and left until spring. 

Seed-storing. — In the matter of storing seeds 
it is difficult to lay down any exact rule. How- 
ever, it is perfectly safe to winter over all of 
the seeds of hardy plants Avhich ripen in autumn, 
by burying them in sand out-of-doors, and yet the 
seeds of ash, hard maple, box-elder, locust, and 
other dry seeds may be stored to advantage in any 
dry, cool room. It is very important to have them 
thoroughly dry before they are stored in any large 
bulk. A very good way of wintering seeds of the 
ash, birch, hard maple and box-elder is to spread 
the seeds on the surface of the hard ground and 
cover with an inverted box. It is an advantage to 
have a small ditch around the box to carry off the 
water. 

Seed treatment. — The seeds of leguminous trees 
should be scalded in order to get good results. 
This applies to the black, yellow and honey locust 
and the coffee tree. To do this successfully, the 
seed should be placed about one inch deep in a 
large milk-pan or similar vessel and hot water (130° 
to 160° Fahr.) poured over them, perhaps three 
inches deep. This should be allowed to stand until 
cool, when it will be found that some of the seeds 
have swollen. These should be picked out and the 
remainder treated again with hot water, and the 
process repeated until all have swollen. Seedlings 
of this class are managed in much the same way 
as those of ash and maple. 

Seed planting (Figs. 466-469).— Seeds may be 
classified into three groups: (1) deciduous -tree 
seeds that ripen in spring and early summer ; (2) 
deciduous-tree seeds that ripen in autumn ; (3) 
coniferous-tree seeds. 

Among the seeds that ripen in spring and early 



summer are soft and red maple, the elms, cotton- 
woods and willows. These should be gathered 
as soon as ripe, and, with the exception of the 
red elm, should be sown in a few days or weeks, as 
they retain their vitality but a short time. Red 
elm seed will not grow until the following spring. 

The thousands of seedlings of cottonwood, elm 
and soft maple that naturally spring up along the 
sand-bars and river and lake shores, show what 
are the best conditions for the germination of 
these seeds, but seeds of white elm and soft mapla 
generally do well when sown in any good garden 
soil. Cottonwood seedlings can be grown by scat- 
tering branches bearing unopened seed-pods along 
the furrows in moist soil and covering the seed 
lightly, when they will shell out ; but they are 
of such uncertain growth that most nurserymen 
depend on the sand-bars and lake shores for their 
supply. 

Willows are seldom grown from seed, as these 
are difficult to raise, and the trees start easily 
from cuttings. Elm, soft maple and mulberry seeds 
generally grow well on any good moist soil, but 
that which is somewhat sandy is best. They 
should be sown thickly in drills eight inches wide 
and three feet apart, when they may be easily 
cultivated by a horse cultivator. Or they may 
be sown in rows sixteen inches apart and culti- 




-pi;::^,^^ 



[l". 



i('ri< ra 



' t'' 



'^t« 



.1^ 



V u 



) ? 



Fig. 467. Young conifeicus evergreens growing under scieen at 
Sherman Nursery, Charles City, Iowa. For the tiist two 
or tliree yeitrs evergreens of all kinds have to be screened 
from the sun, after which they need no protection. 

vated by hand. Elm and soft maple seed should be 
covered about three-fourths inch, mulberry about 
one-fourth inch and soft maple about one inch. If the 
weather is dry at the time the seed is sown, the 
soil over the seed should be thoroughly firmed, and 
if the weather continues dry the rows should be 
watered. Watering, however, is seldom necessary 
on good retentive land, if the soil has been prop- 
erly packed. When watering is resorted to, it is a 
good plan to cover the drills lightly with some 
mulch or litter, or shade them with boards, but 
these should be removed as soon as the seed- 
lings first appear. With proper conditions, seeds so 
planted will start quickly and grow rapidly. The 
seedlings of soft maple and white elm will gen- 
erally be large enough for transplanting to the 
young forest or windbreak the first season ; how- 
ever, they may be allowed to grow another year in 
the seed-bed without injury, but should generally 



FORESTS 



FORESTS • 



329 



be transplanted before the growth of the third 
year begins. 

The seeds of deciduous trees that ripen in 
autumn may be sown to advantage at that time, 
provided the soil is such that it will not pack too 
firmly, or when the seeds are not liable to be 
washed out or eaten by rodents or other animals. 
Our most successful nurserymen generally prefer 




Fig. 468. Coniferous seedling bed with details of lath screen; five-eighths inch 
lath is used for cross and diagonal braces and one-half inch for others. 

to sow such seeds in autumn, and they aim to 
bring about the conditions that make it successful, 
but good results also generally follow the early 
sowing of such seeds in the spring. The distance 
between the rows, and the covering, should be the 
same as recommended for elm seedlings. 

It is important to keep the soil loose and mellow 
between the seedlings, and to keep the weeds very 
carefully removed until at least the middle of July, 
after which they may sometimes be allowed to 
grow to advantage to afford winter protection ; but 
in the case of very small seedlings this protection is 
best given by a light mulch, put on in autumn and 
taken off in spring. The weeds should be kept out. 

If the seeds of red cedar, black thorn, mountain 
ash and others that require a long time to start 
are sown in the spring and do not germinate, it 
is a good plan to cover the bed with an inch or 
two of hay or leaves to keep out weeds, and let 
this mulch remain until the following spring, when 
the seeds will probably be in condition to grow. 
The mulch should then be removed. 

Quantity to soiv. — The proper quantity of seeds 
of deciduous trees to sow in nursery rows depends 
very much on the kind and quality of the seeds 
and the soil in which they are to be sown. As a 
rule, thick sowing is better than thin sowing. The 
seeds of box-elder, ash and maple should be sown 
at the rate of about one good seed to the square 
inch ; elm and birch should be sown twice as thickly. 
Plums and cherries sown in drills should be allowed 
about one inch of row for each good seed. Black 
walnut, butternut, hickory and similar seeds 
should preferably be planted three or four in a 
place, where they are to grow, and all but one 
seedling cut out when several years old. If sown 
in drills, they should be placed three to six inches 
apart. Rather thick seeding does not seem to be 
any great hindrance to the making of a sufficient 
growth by seedlings of most of our broad-leaved 
trees the first year, but if left thick in the seed-bed 
the second year they are often seriously stunted. 



The quantity of seed to sow in order to secure a 
given number of seedlings will depend also on the 
quality of the seed and on the soil and weather 
conditions at the time of sowing. The quality of 
seed varies much in different years and from differ- 
ent trees. The only way to be at all accurate is to 
test the seed, but as this is troublesome, and as 
the seed of most of our common trees is very 
cheap, it is seldom practiced, and 
,\ growers simply plan to sow two or 

three times as much seed as would 
theoretically produce the number of 
seedlings desired. 

The number of seeds in a pound 
varies greatly with the size of the 
seed and dryness. In the case of the 
birch there are perhaps four hundred 
thousand; in Scotch, shortleaf and 
red pine and Norway spruce there are 
perhaps seventy thousand ; in white 
pine about thirty thousand ; in box- 
elder and white ash about ten thou- 
sand ; in basswood and sugar maple 
about eight thousand ; in soft maple about four 
thousand ; in black walnut twenty of the dry nuts 
in one pound, and in hickory nuts forty to sixty 
in a pound. 

Raising coniferous trees from seed. 

The land selected for the seed should have a 
light, porous surface soil, preferably underlaid 
with a moist subsoil that will not dry out easily. 
It should be so located as to have good circulation 
of air over it, that the plants may dry off quickly 
after rains ; and it must be so shaded as to keep 



Fig. 469. One of the slat-screens used in Fig. 468. 

off about one-half of the sunlight. In practice, we 
aim to secure these conditions as follows : A piece 
of well-drained, rather sandy soil in an airy place 
is selected and laid out in beds four feet wide. In 
May, or later, the seeds are sown rather thickly 
(about three good seeds to a square inch), either 
broadcast or in rows, and covered with about one- 
fourth inch of sandy loam and then with about one- 



330 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



fourth inch of clear sand. Before the seedlings 
break the ground, a permanent framework at least 
three feet above the beds is made and covered with 
laths, laid about one and one-half inches apart, 
running north and south, or with sufficient brush to 
shut out about one-half the sunlight ; or a movable 
lath frame may be built, as shown in Fig. 467. If 
the bed is very much exposed to the winds, it should 
have similar protection on all sides. Under such 
conditions, or in woodlands where these conditions 
can be fulfilled, evergreens can be raised with much 
certainty, while, if seed is sown in the open ground, 
most kinds fail. 

A cheap and convenient screen can be made from 
common lath 4x4 feet square, leaving a space the 
width of a lath between each two and nailing the 
ends between two lath at right angles. Such 
screens can be made for about thirteen cents each. 
Sparrows and gophers are prevented from destroy- 
ing the seeds or young seedlings by placing boards 
along the sides of the beds and then covering the 
whole bed, screen and all, with small-mesh wire 
netting. 

The most common cause of failure with those 
who try to raise evergreens is a fungous disease 
called "damping off," which occurs only while the 
plants are growing rapidly the first year. The 
seeds may start well, and the seedlings may grow 
vigorously for a short time, or until there is a spell 
of damp weather, and then die off with great 
rapidity. The use of sand on the surface and plenty 
of air circulation in moist weather, will largely 
remedy the difficulty. 

Most of the coniferous tree seedlings grow very 
slowly when young. Many species do not make a 
growth of more than three inches the first year 
nor more than five or six inches the first two 
years. In fact, many species could be planted at 
the age of five or six years without inconve- 
nience as far as the size of the tops is concerned, 
but the growth of the roots is more rapid when 
younger, e.-;pecially in rich soil. For this reason, 
evergreen seedlings should be planted out at an 
age of two, or, at the most, three years, while 
the roots are still manageable. Under some con- 
ditions it is possible to plant out one-year-old 
seedlings, but, as a rule, these are too small for 
convenient handling or succe.ssful growth in the 
open. 

Mulching forms an important factor in the 
growing of evergreen seedlings' It should con- 
sist of a three-inch covering of straw or leaves, 
evergreen branches or other material. This 
mulch should be applied to the seed-bed as 
soon as the seed is sown to preserve the mois- 
ture in the soil and to prevent the weeds start- 
ing before the trees. Careful watch must be 
kept, for if the mulch is not removed as soon 
as the seedlings break the soil they will all die. 
On the approach of winter the same sort of 
mulch should be put over the seedlings to protect 
them from the sun and from alternate freezing 
and thawing. This should be removed in the 
spring after all danger from drying, cold winds 
has passed. 



Literature. 

Bruncken, North American Forests and Forestry, 
G. P. Putnam & Sons ; Gilford, Practical Forestry, 
D. Appleton & Co.; Green, Principles of American 
Forestry, Wiley & Sons ; Green, Forestry in Minne- 
sota, published by Minnesota Forestry Association ; 
Roth, A First Book of Forestry, Ginn & Co.; Sar- 
gent, Forest Trees of North America, Report of 
Tenth Census ; Forestry for Farmers, United States 
Department of Agriculture, Farmers' Bulletin No. 
67; Forest Planting and Farm Management, Farm- 
ers' Bulletin, No. 228. The following bulletins of 
the Forest Service (formerly the Bureau of For- 
estry) of the United States Department of Agri- 
culture, are selected from a long list of helpful 
bulletins : Forest Growth and Sheep Grazing, No. 
15 ; Forestry Conditions and Interests of Wisconsin, 
No. 16 ; Experimental Tree-Planting on the Plains, 
No. 18 ; Osier-Culture, No. 19 ; A Primer of For- 
estry, 2 Vols., No. 24 ; Practical Forestry in the 
Adirondacks, No. 26 ; Practical Tree-Planting in 
Operation, No. 27 ; The Forest Nursery, No. 29 ; 
The Woodman's Handbook, No. 36 ; The Woodlot, 
No. 42 ; The Planting of White Pine in New Eng- 
land, No. 45 ; Forest Planting in Western Kansas, 
No. 52 ; The Natural Replacement of White Pine in 
New England, No. 63. 

Practical Protection and Improvement of the 
Farm Woodlot. 

By Alfred Akerman. 

Most of the woodlots on American farms have 
been mismanaged or unmanaged. One of the serious 
problems facing the farmer today who sees his 
wood-supply rapidly diminishing is how to treat 
his mismanaged woodlot. Before entering into a 
discussion of this, however, it is well to call atten- 
tion to the factors involved in the proper care of a 
woodlot. The first of these is protection from harm; 
the second is the actual improvement of the crop. 

Protection. 

Protection of' the woodlot is fundamental, for 
without it planting, pruning and thinning amount 
to nothing. The two most important phases of this 
subject are protection from fire and from the graz- 
ing and browsing of animals. 

Protection from Jire. — In dealing with fires, as 
with ailments of the body, an ounce of preven- 
tion is worth a pound of cure. For this reason, 
farmers would do well to examine into the con- 
ditions which surround their woodlots, to ascer- 
tain whether the liability to fire may not be 
lessened by a few simple and inexpensive pre- 
cautions. For example, a woodlot which borders 
on a public road may be protected by a cleared 
strip along the road ; for a great many fires 
start from a cigar-stump or lighted match which 
is tossed aside by a passing smoker. Such cleared 
strips, or " fire lines " as they are called, should 
be cleaned up once or twice a year by burn- 
ing at a time when the fire will not spread, or 
by raking back the leaves and other infiammable 
material that may have accumulated. The cost of 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



331 



such a precaution is insignificant in comparison 
with the loss from a fire in the woodlot. Fire lines 
are also useful between woodlots, if the neighbor- 
ing property is not well protected. (Fig. 470.) 

Another ine.xpensive preventive measure is the 
posting of fire notices. A great many persons, and 
especially boys, start fires because they are thought- 
less. A notice 
posted in a con- 
spicuous place 
will often make 
the careless 
more thought- 
ful. 

When a fire 
is set, prompt- 
ness in begin- 
ning to fight it 
is the most im- 
portant consid- 
eration. As 
soon as it is 
discovered, all 
hands should 
go to the place 
at once. A few 
minutes' delay 
may mean the 
loss of timber 
that it has 




Fig. 470. A Are line in Europe. 



taken years to grow ; it may mean the loss of farm 
buildings and haystacks as well. 

The method of fighting fire varies greatly with 
circumstances. Sometimes a good thick brush is 
used to beat it out. Sometimes rakes and forks 
come in handy. When the soil is light the most 
effective method is to shovel earth on the burning 
material. Nothing is effective against a top fire, 
except a back fire ; but top fires rarely occur in 
farm woodlots. 

Protection from grazing and browsing. — Cattle, 
sheep, goats and hogs should not be allowed to run 
in young growth, nor in old growth when repro- 
duction is desired. Many of our broad-leaf trees 
are eaten greedily by cattle, which also destroy 
many seedlings by treading on them. It is difficult 
to bring about a satisfactory combination of pas- 
ture and forest. From the time the young trees 
have lifted their branches out of reach until the 
reproduction time comes round, grazing does little 
harm. The same is equally true of deer, moose and 
similar animals. 

Improvement. 

Pruning. — The object of pruning forest trees is 
to produce clear lumber. If that object can be 
accomplished without going to the expense of prun- 
ing, it may be dispensed with. If trees are grown 
at the correct distance apart, the side branches 
will be shaded to death while they are small, and 
in most cases will drop off in a few years. There 
are exceptions to this rule, however. Some trees 
retain their dead side limbs for many years ; and 
it may be wise to assist the tree, in such cases, in 
ridding itself of them. The question then resolves 



itself into whether the clear lumber is worth more 
than the cost of pruning. 

In one case, at least, it is worth while to prune. 
The white pine (Pinus Strobus) is one of the trees 
that holds its side limbs. The price of clear pine 
lumber justifies a small outlay on pruning. 

It is a waste of time to prune trees that have 
reached a diameter over six or eight inches. As 
just stated, the object of pruning is to secure clear 
lumber ; and to prune large trunks is to lock the 
door after the horse is stolen, for large knots are 
already formed. 

It is also a waste of time to prune more than 
two hundred or three hundred trees to the acre. 
The very best trees, ten or fifteen feet apart, should 
be selected. If more than these are pruned, some 
of them will be shaded out before the stand is 
mature, or will be taken out in improvement thin- 
ning, if thinning is practiced. In either case, a 
part of the labor put into pruning will be lost. 

In pruning, any number of dead limbs may be 
removed without injury to the trees ; but live limbs 
should be taken sparingly. It is a good plan to 
take the dead limbs up to where the live ones 
begin, and, if necessary, to take two or three 
whorls of the dying and dead ones, and then to 
wait a few years before going farther. 

The work may be done with an axe or with 
strong pruning-shears. The cuts should be close to 
the trunk, so that the knots will grow over as soon 
as possible. If the axe is used, great care should be 
exercised, not to bruise and hack the bark of the 
trunk. 

Thinning (Figs. 471, 472). — Thinning is the 
most important improvement work which may be 
done in the woodlot. By thinning is meant the sys- 
tematic removal of a part of the trees in a grow- 
ing crop of timber to benefit those that remain. It 
should not be confused with the removal of mature 
trees, which is a very different operation. 



mljm 




Fig. 471 . Dense stand of young hard- woods moderately 
tbinned. 

The practicability of thinning has been ques- 
tioned. Among other things, the cost of the work, 
the injury by falling trees, lodgment of trees 
against those remaining, and increased liability to 
windfall have been urged. As to the cost of 
the work, it is conceded that in some circum- 



332 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



stances it is prohibitive. For this reason, a young 
stand should be allowed to wait until the material 
to be removed has reached such a size that its sale 
will pay for its removal ; and it should not be 
thinned agam until the material to be removed has 
accumulated in sufficient quantity to pay for its 
removal. If the wood more than pays for its 
removal, so much the better ; but if it pays only 
for its removal, the improvement is a net gain. 
The farmer who knows the price of labor, the cost 
of drawing to market, and the price to be secured, 
can easily determine when a thinning may be 
safely undertaken. 

In reply to the other objections, it may be 
said that, when thinning is done properly, the 



''1 1 / 111. i> I / ' / 




mimM 





Fig. 472. Dense stand of young hard-woods ia need of 
moderate thinning. 

falling trees do little injury, they do not lodge 
so that they can not be brought down with a twist 
of a cant-hook, and the remaining trees do not 
blow down. 

The principal object of thinning is to preserve 
the balance between height-growth and diame- 
ter-growth of the trees that are to form the 
final stand. Increa.se in volume is determined by 
height- and diameter-growth. If the trees stand 
too close together, height-growth will be in excess, 
followed by a reduction in vitality. If the trees 
stand too far apart, diameter-growth will be in 
excess, accompanied by large side limbs. In either 
case the quantity and quality of the timber will 
be affected. Therefore, by preserving the balance 
between the two, an acre of land is made to 
produce more and better lumber in a given period 
of time. 

The extent to which a closed stand may be 
opened depends on several conditions. The kind or 
kinds of tree that compose the stand, the nature of 
the soil, the character of the undergrowth, the 
purpose for which the timber is grown, all play 
a part in determining the degree of thinning. This 
is one of the many matters in forestry that cannot 
be reduced to a rule, but must be based on a study 
of each woodlot. There are, however, several con- 
siderations which indicate the extent to which a 
woodlot may be thinned. The classes into which 
trees in a closed stand gradually become separated, 
in the course of their struggle for existence, are 



of assistance in selecting trees for removal. Four 
classes are usually distinguished : (1) dominant, 
(2) intermediate, (3) suppressed, and (4) dead. 
Dominant trees are those that have their crowns 
in the iight ; they have kept ahead of the oth'ers 
in height -growth. Intermediate trees are those 
that .still have their crowns in the light, but are 
somewhat backward, and are destined to become 
suppressed in the near future. Suppre.ssed trees 
are tho.se that stand slightly below the intermediate 
class and will probably die within a few years. 
Now, moderate thinning would involve the removal 
of such of the intermediate trees as are interfering 
with the best development of the dominant ones. 
Care should be taken not to open up the stand to 
such an extent that undesirable undergrowth will 
result. In the case of shallow-rooted species, like 
the spruce, the stand should not be opened up too 
much or it will become liable to windfall. The 
cover must be broken into enough, however, to 
stimulate the growth of the remaining trees, or 
very little good will have been accomplished by the 
operation. In no case should the cover be broken 
to such an extent that it will not close in two or 
three years. 

Whether suppressed and dead trees should be 
removed depends principally on whether they con- 
tain enough wood to make their removal, along 
with the remainder, worth while. Some stimulation 
will result from the removal of certain of the 
suppressed trees, but most of them are so far 
behind the dominant trees that are to compose the 
final .stand that their presence or absence has little 
effect, one way or the other, on the development 
of the dominant ones. Yet it often pays to remove 
some of the suppressed, and sometimes even a part 
of the dead trees, while the more important thin- 
ning is in progre.ss, although, except in extraor- 
dinary cases, it would not pay to go into a stand for 
suppressed and dead trees alone. On the general 
principle of cleaning a stand of all useless material 
that might add to the dissemination of disease or 
increase the danger from fire, it is sometimes e.x- 
pedient to remove dead and suppressed trees, when 
it can be done without extra cost, while thinning 
is being done. On the other hand, it is sometimes 
desirable to retain the suppressed trees, or a part 
of them, in order to keep the ground as well shaded 
as possible. 

Certain species in a mixed stand are more desir- 
able than other.s. If it comes to a choice between 
two trees of different species, other things being 
equal, the more desirable kind will be left. For 
example, a white ash and a yellow birch tree are 
standing side by side, and the conditions demand 
that one should be removed ; the birch would be 
removed and the ash should be allowed to grow, 
for white ash logs sell for over twice as much as 
yellow birch. 

A defect in an individual of a desirable kind 
may render it less valuable than a tree of inferior 
kind. For example, a decayed spot in the ash 
mentioned above may have made its removal pref- 
erable to that of the yellow birch. 

The shape of the crown and its position relative 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



333 



to surrounding crowns are of special importance. 
The processes of respiration and assimilation are 
effected in the foliage which composes the crown 
of the tree. The crown of a tree is its lungs and 
stomach, so that the development and health of the 
crown are closely related to the growth and health 
of the tree ; and when a decision is to be made, 
the position, shape and health of the crown should 
be given great weight. 

In addition to the above considerations, which 
should be studied in determining the e.xtent to 
which a thinning should be carried, another 
method, though a rough one, may be found useful. 
The amount of wood .standing on the area to be 
thinned is estimated, and a percentage of the vol- 
ume of the stand is removed. For example, a 
given stand would run twenty-six cords to ihe 
acre ; about four cords an acre, or 15 per cent of 
the volume of the stand, would be removed in a 
moderate thinning. 

One of the advantages of thinning that has not 
been mentioned, and which should not be over- 
looked, is that it may be combined with other 
operations in practice, although in theory quite 
distinct. As an example of this, an improvement 
thinning may sometimes be combined with har- 
vesting a part of the final crop. 

How to treat a mismanaged woodlot. 

There is no better way to outline the treatment 
of mismanaged woodlots than to describe the work 
done in a few concrete cases. 

A burned-over stand of hard-woods may be taken 
as an example. The species represented in the 
stand were chestnut, red, white and yellow oak, 
with scattering white-wood, white ash, sweet birch 
and beech. Most of the trees were of sprout origin. 
The stand ran about eighteen cords to the acre. 
Fire had been allowed to run through the lot a few 
seasons before. Many of the chestnuts were badly 
scorched about the base, and were dying back in 
the crown. The other trees had also suffered to a 
considerable extent. There was very little seedling 
reproduction on the ground. It was evidently im- 
possible to do anything with any but the best of 
the existing trees ; it would have been a waste of 
land to allow the others to cumber it. The stand, 
therefore, was severely thinned, about one-third of 
the volume being removed. The thinning was done 
in the winter ; as spring came on, the tops and 
larger limbs were piled and burned, in order to 
prepare the ground for planting. Then the whole 
was underplanted to white pine. Two-year-old 
seedling stock was used, the distance being six feet 
each way. The planting cost about six dollars an 
acre. Ninety-seven per cent of the plants were 
alive the following spring. The wood was sold the 
winter following for three dollars a cord on the 
pile, which insured a net profit of over a dollar a 
cord on the thinning operation. It was removed 
while the snow was on the ground, and hence there 
was no injury to the young pines. The result of 
this treatment will be a pine stand with a mixture 
of hard-woods. A part of the hard-woods will be 
removed when the pine is thinned, but the re- 



mainder will remain until the final crop is 
gathered. 

Another example is a stand of old-field white 
pine. When taken in hand the main body of the 
stand was about fifty years old, with scattering 
trees that were older. The older ones, or wolf trees, 
had a start over the others and had developed 
large side limbs ; they were not fit for anything 
except the cheapest kind of lumber. The main 
body of the stand was too den.se, and, with the help 
of the large wolf trees, was beginning to choke 
itself into a stunted condition. The stand ran 
about thirty-five cords to the acre. It was thinned 
moderately, by removing some of the intermediate 
and suppressed trees. Where the large wolf trees 
could be thrown without injury to the better 
growth, or without leaving too large an opening, 
they were taken out. Six cords of firewood and 
over a thousand feet of boxboards per acre were 
secured from the thinning. The stand may be let 
alone for some ten years, when it can be decided 
whether to cut the crop or treat it to another 
thinning, and allow it to grow a while longer. 

Another example of a mismanaged woodlot may 
be cited as illustrating very different conditions. 
The stand was composed in part of very old chest- 
nuts and oaks, some of them three or four feet 
through ; and under these there was a more or 
less complete under-stand of chestnut, oak, birch, 
maple and hemlock. The party who controlled the 
property had been making the mistake of refusing 
to allow any trees to be cut ; and the result 
was that the large trees were deteriorating and 
the younger ones were much too crowded. The 
lot was gone over carefully, and a part of the 
large trees removed, and at the same time a 
very moderate thinning was executed in the 
smaller growth. Care was exercised in throwing 
the large trees, and the smaller ones were not 
broken to any great extent. As reproduction 
was abundant in the places where no under-stand 
existed, it was not necessary to resort to planting. 
The treatment was successful financially as well 
as silviculturally. 

Literature. 

Schlich, A Manual of Forestry, Vol. II, Part III, 
London, Bradbury, Agnew & Co.; The Woodlot, 
Graves & Fisher, Washington, United States Forest 
Service ; Alfred Akerman, Forest Thinning, Boston, 
Massachusetts State Forest Service. 

Harvesting and Marketing the Timber Crop. 

By E. E. Bogue. 

Perhaps the most important step in the manage- 
ment of a timber crop is the harvesting, as on it 
depends the future existence and usefulness of the 
crop. This is strikingly true of the farm woodlot, 
in which every care must be exercised to perpetu- 
ate the crop in its most productive condition, to 
meet the annual requirements of the owner, and at 
the same time to be a source of income. The prac- 
tices employed in harvesting the woodlot and the 
forest crop have many points of difference, and at 



334 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 




Fig. 473. Stand of pine ready for harvest. 

the same time have much in common. A discus- 
sion of the practices employed in harvesting tim- 
ber on a large scale will be suggestive to the 
thoughtful reader, and will enable him better to 
direct his efforts in a small way; and the few 
points regarding the harvesting of the farm wood- 
lot that need especially to be noticed will be more 
easily comprehended. 

Methods of harvesting. 

There are two distinct methods of harvesting 
forest crops practiced in the United States, — clean 
cutting and selection cutting. Each has its ad- 
vantages and advocates. 

Clean cutting has been practiced more exten- 
sively in the past, and it is still in vogue where 
timber is plentiful. It has the advantage of free- 
dom of action, little or no attention being given 
to saving young trees for future crops ; the ground 
is gone over but once to secure the marketable ma- 
terial ; and economy of logging and milling opera- 
tions is effected. Clean cutting is the most prac- 
tical method where the trees are even-aged or are 
of nearly the same size, all having reached a stage 
when growth is slow or has nearly ceased, and 
practically all are ready for the harvest. This is 
frequently the best method in coniferous forests, 
where there is often but little undergrowth. Some 
lumbermen who have had wide experience in cut- 
ting hard-woods, including broad-leaf trees, in- 
sist that this is the most practical method even 
under those conditions. In the case of clear plant- 
ings that have reached the proper stage, clean 



cutting is used for final harvest, thinnings 
having been removed from time to time. 

When this method is to be employed, in 
order to know approximately the quantity 
of timber, it is customary to engage a 
timber -cruiser, who passes through the 
timber along more or less definite lines 
making careful observation to the right 
and left, estimatmg the quantity of tim- 
ber of each kind as he passes. Record is 
made of the estimate of each part of a 
section, and at the end the estimates are 
summarized. It requires a man of much 
experience in a particular kind of timber 
to be of any value as a cruiser. A man 
habituated to the timber in the lake or 
gulf states would be at a loss among the 
redwoods and sugar pines of the West. 

Selection cutting consists in removing 
the more mature trees of a given species 
or of all species down to a certain diame- 
ter limit. On large tracts a valuation sur- 
vey is made at the time to determine the 
quantity of timber in board feet above a 
certain diameter limit. In measuring the 
diameter it is always taken at breast- 
height (Fig. 474), or four feet and four 
inches from the ground, to avoid the usual 
expansion at the base. The diameter limit 
is any that may be determined on, but is 
usually twelve, fourteen or sixteen inches ; 
the loweir the limit the greater the harvest 
at the time and the longer the period that must 
elapse before another equal harvest can be gath- 
ered from the same land. Usually 2 to 6 per cent 
of the timber is measured, and from this the re- 
mainder is estimated. If the tract is small, a 
higher percentage or even all the trees may be 
measured. As this . » . ., 

method implies ,111 ,fl I 

making calcula- 
tions for another 
crop, the diameter 
of all species down 
to two inches is 
frequently taken. 
Calipers are used 
for measuring the 
diameter and a 
hypsometer for 
determining the 
height, although 
the height may be 
ocularly estimated 
for all practical 
purposes in that 
particular kind of 
timber. If a hyp- 
someter is not at 
hand, the height 
of a tree or any 
point on it may be determined by triangulation, 
according to the following diagram (Fig. 475): 

DE; or, in figures, suppose AB equals 90, 




Fig. 474. Measuring with calipers. 



AC 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



335 



and ab equals 20 ; then AB by ab equals 1800 ; 
divided by AC, supposed to equal 22, it gives 
nearly 82 feet as the height of the tree, or DE 
in the diagram. 

In practice, a gang of four men is frequently 
engaged in making the survey. A half chain of 
thirty-three feet is fastened to the belt of the 
chain-man, who is guided by a man with a compass 
in order to make as straight a line as possible 
through the woods. A man on either side of the 
chain-man calipers the trees for a lateral distance 
of thirty-three feet, and calls out the result to the 
chain-man, who makes record of it on a sheet 
especially prepared for the purpose. The chain-man 
also makes note of the direction and size of streams, 
of hills and of inclines that may be of interest or 
use in the harvest. The gang 'proceeds for twenty 
half chains, when an acre has been covered. The 
measured acres are tqual distances apart to the 
right and left of a base line through the tract. 
Sometimes circular areas of such radii as to contain 
a certain fraction or a whole acre, considered to be 
an average of the whole stand, are measured. 

The volume is appro.ximated by multiplying the 
area of the base of the tree at stump height by 
one-half the height. Each cubic foot of saw tim- 
ber will cut out five to seven board feet. About 
eighty-five cubic feet of wood will pile up a stand- 
ard cord of 4x4x8 feet, or about thirty solid 
cubic feet will pile up a cord of sixteen-inch wood. 

As a further means of determining the most prof- 
itable procedure, stem analyses are made by de- 
termining the increase through decades by measur- 
ing the thickness of each ten annual rings, begin- 
ning at the bark. By deducting from the present 
volume that at any year previous, the increment 
during that period is obtained. From the average 
increment of a suificiently large number of trees, 
a reasonably accurate account of what the whole 
area has been doing can be given and a working 
plan laid out. This method will determine for the 
owners whether the area being exploited is large 
enough to keep the mill running indefinitely. p. 
The capacity of mills is usually far too -^ 

large for the area, so that after a few 
years' cut a move must be made or 
the mill go out of the business. 



FeUinj. (Figs. 476, 477.) 

In felling, the tree is 
chipped with the axe 
on the side in the y' 

direction in ,/•' 

which it is ,'' 

to fall, in 



/ 



M=..^: 



B 



order to direct its course. Considerable skill in 
this matter is often necessary in order to place the 
tree where it is wanted on the ground. The cross- 
cut saw is used for the remainder of the cut. 




Fig. 475. 



Diagram showing how to detennine height of 
tree by triangulaticn. 



Fig. 476. Felling a tree. Drawu from a photogr.-ipli 
of a chopper in action. 

beginning on the opposite side from the chipping. 
When the tree is about to fall the workmen should 
step off at right angles to the direction the tree is 
taking, in order to avoid falling limbs that are often 
thrown in the line with the tree. No attemjit 
should be made to drive farm animals from danger 
after the tree begins to fall. Failure to heed one 
or the other of these precautions costs numerous 
lives every year. Care is taken to avoid breakage 
as much as possible and to have the logs in a con- 
venient place for loading. When wood is frozen, it 
is much more brittle than at other times. When 
trees are small enough to permit of it, they are 
cut close to the ground, which makes a saving of 
timber. In felling the large trees of the West, the 
choppers stand on a scaffolding. (Fig. 477.) 

Sawmills. (Pigs. 478-480.) 

The location of the mill is one of the most im- 
portant factors in the harvesting of a forest crop. 
The large mills are always located on a pond, 
stream or lake, in order to provide water for the 
steam boilers and to have water into which the 
logs may be rolled before they are taken into the 
mill. The logs are taken into the mill by means of a 
jack-ladder, — a heavy, endless chain that runs in 
the bottom of a V-shaped groove extending into the 
water, over which logs are floated, — or other suit- 
able conveyance. The small portable mill, which is 
moved about to gather up what the larger mills do 
not take, is located in a position convenient to most 



336 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



of the timber, the water for the 
boiler being supplied from a tank, 
pool or small stream ; and the logs 
are rolled on to the carriage from 
a skidway. The capacity of mills 
varies from one furnished with 
both circular and band saws and 
which runs night and day, cutting 
in twenty-four hours one or two 
hundred thousand feet, to one that 
runs for a longer or shorter period 
during the day, according to the 
demand of the customer and the 
will of the sawyer, cutting a few 
hundred or a thousand feet per day. 
American ingenuity has modified 
machinery to meet the demands of 
the timber in each locality as far 
as possible. On the western coast the trees are so 
large that the machinery used in the East would 
be useless, so the power and capacity has been in- 
creased to meet the demand. Some of the logs are 
so large that they can not be moved and must be 
blasted apart to reduce them to portable or work- 
able size. In such cases the percentage of waste is 
very high. 

Small tools. 

The small tools are few in variety but ample in 
quantity. Each camp is provided with a few pairs 




Harvesting planted Cottonwood. 



The logs were cut out as thinnings. 




Fig. 477. Harvesting the forest crop in western Washington. 
The undercut on a giant ceilar nearly completed; tlie tree 
Tvill soon be felled. 

of skidding tongs, which are similar to ice-ton^s 
but heavy enough to stand the strain of one or 
more teams of horses. They are used to get logs 



out of inconvenient places. Chain is bought by the 
keg and made up by the blacksmith as needed. 
Cant-hooks for rolling logs by hand are always in 
evidence. Cross-cut saws are made ready for use 
by a man who is employed much of the time keep- 
ing them in order. Axes are bought by the dozen. 
A good strong man wants a four- to si.x-pound axe. 
The style known as double-bit is best liked by most 
choppers. The flattened handle and evenly balanced 
blades make guiding easier, and the edge capacity 
is double that of the single-bit or poled axe. 

Transportation to market and mill. (Figs. 481- 
485.) 

Water. — In the New England and lake states 
Water has performed an important part in the 
transportation of logs to the mill. Logs have been 
thrown into the lakes and streams and carried 
many miles, where the lumber was available to 
canal, steam-boat or railway. Often the logs were 
left in the water for months, until some of them 
became water-logged and sank to the bottom. In 
such a bountiful harvest these were but straws and 
were never missed, but now companies are formed 
and rights are purchased for the purpose of raising 
these "dead -heads." The logs are peeled and piled 
on the bank to dry for a year, when they are again 
put into the water and floated to the mill, and 
cut into lumber, which is scarcely inferior to that 
which the logs would have made had they not sunk. 
Hard-wood logs are so heavy that they are not 
often driven for long distances in the water. In 
the southern states, cypress trees are often felled 
into the water and towed or poled to the bank. 
This is known as "jam-sticking." In certain parts 
of the West, wooden chutes, several miles in length 
and furnished with water, are used for running 
railway ties and other timber down the mountains. 

Big wlieels. — Where water is not available, other 
means must be resorted to. In the North, snow 
and ice roads are used in the cold season. During 
open weather in the North, and throughout the 
year in the South and parts of the West, what are 
known as " big w'heels " are used (Figs. 483, 484). 
These wheels are 'said to have been used first in 
Michigan. They are built with a strong axle, the 
wheels standing six to ten feet high. Between the 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



337 



wheels one to several logs are suspended, the rear 
end being allowed to drag. 

Roads. — Fairly good roads are made through the 
woods for a single crop, because a large number of 
heavy loads must be hauled over some of them. 
Swampers cut out the underbrush and clear away 
obstructions, after which grading is done 
if necessary. 

Miscellaneous vieans. — In some mountain- 
ous regions, where rocks do not interfere, 
timber is allowed to slide down the incline 
on the bare ground. In the extreme West 
and Northwest, huge logs are dragged on 
the ground, rollers being supplied to con- 
vert sliding-friction into rolling -friction. 
Cattle, a means of power which has been 
largely used in harvesting crops, are used 
for this purpose because of their strength 
and convenience. In the South, what is 
called "drumming" is employed to a limited 
extent. This appliance consists of a large 
cylinder made to revolve, and which winds 
up a rope or cable, the outer end of which 
is fastened to the log. A much more pow- 
erful and practical method is the steam skidder, 
which, by means of pulleys and a cable, gathers 
the logs from a few thousand feet on eitlier side 
of the track on which it moves and places them on 
the cars, if need be. Temporary tracks of either 
narrow or standard gauge are laid into the woods 
and camps, and when the timber in one place has 
been harvested they are taken up and relaid in an- 
other place. These are contrivances for short 
hauls to get the logs to the steam railway, on 
which they are placed and transported longer dis- 
tances to the mill. 

A great deal of lumber is now kiln-dried either 
after air-drying for a time or fresh from the saw, 
thereby making it fit for use much sooner than by 
air-drying alone. When the lumber is finally ready 
for the wholesale or retail dealer, it i.' again trans- 



ported to the most likely sale-place, so that in any 
up-to-date market we find spruce from Maine, pop- 
lar (whitewood) from the hard-wood belt between 
North and South, yellow pine and cypress from the 
South, cedar and redwood from the West. The 
best grades of American lumber are shared with 





Fig. 479. Portable sawmill. 



Fig. 480. Stationary sawmill. 

other countries. The poorer grades are found on 
the local country yards. 

Wa.^te in lumbering. 

Some thirty years ago only about 30 per cent of 
the available timber of a stand was placed on the 
j'ard. The best and most convenient was taken 
and the remainder left to grow, burn or decay as 
chance might determine. It did not pay in those 
days to be saving. With increased value, however, 
more care is now exercised to cut the crop closer. 
Some timber-land has been cut over for the third 
or fourth time, each time all that was worth har- 
vesting being taken. Virgin stands are now worked 
very clo.se in clean cutting where timber is valu- 
able. All logs down to four inches at the top are 
taken to the mill, where there are two sets of saws. 

As the logs come into 
the mill, the better 
ones are thrown to 
one saw and the 
poorer to the other. 
The better logs nearly 
all make lumljer, while 
the poorer ones are 
mostly cut into four- 
foot lengths from 
which is made wood 
alcohol, acetic acid, 
charcoal and the like. 
In hard -woods, the 
proportion is about 
one cord of wood to 
each thousand feet 
of lumber. 

Where timber is 
valuable for fuel, the 
tops and limbs are 
worked into cord- 
wood to supply local 
demand, and the 



B22 



338 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



brush in some cases is burned to avoid uncon- 
trollable fires. This should be done more fre- 
quently. The Forest Service has made investiga- 
tions along this line and has found that in a cer- 




^^^^iS^l^f^Pi 



Fig. 481 Sorting logs at market Northern Michigan 



feet. By this rule, if a log is twenty inches in 
diameter and ten feet long, it contains 160 board 
feet. The Doyle rule gives less than Scribner's in 
logs up to about twenty-nine inches, and more 

than Scribner's 
above that. 

Cost. 

Other things 
being equal, it 
costs as much 
to harvest in- 
ferior classes of 
timber, like 
beech and ma- 
ple, as it does 
walnut and 
hickory, and 
more than pine 
and cedar; 
hence the cost 
of harvest will 
be higher for 
the inferior 
timbers as com- 
pared with 
their value. 
The cost of lay- 
ing the lumber 



tain locality in Minnesota the co.st of burning the 
brush from pine timber was ten cents per thou- 
sand feet of lumber. In other places it would be 
more or less, depending on conditions. Formerly, 
great vertical cylinders called con.sumers, used for 
burning waste, were conspicuous objects at a large 
mill (Fig. 480), but present economy in some places 
leaves these as monuments to mark a stage in the 
progress in the economical development of timber 
harvesting. On small timber lots there need be no 
waste except the small brush, which should be left 
scattered so that it will decay more readily if it is 
not convenient to burn it. 

Valuation. 

In disposing of a piece of timber, the 
owner should know by what rule the tim- 
ber is to be scaled. There are some fifty 
log rules ; any one of them may be used, 
but comparatively few of them are in 
common use. One rule may be used in 
one locality and a difi'erent one in an- 
other locality. Theoretically, they should 
agree, because no rule can change the 
volume of a log. Logs are usually scaled 
at the small end inside the bark, but the 
practice of scaling in the middle prevails 
in some places. The rules that have 
found most favor are the Doyle, Doyle- 
Scribner, and the Scribner. ' Just how log 
rules are computed is not always easy to ascer- 
tain, but the Doyle rule is so simple that one may 
construct a table any time. It is essentially as fol- 
lows : Reduce the diameter of the log at the small 
end by four inches ; square one-fourth of the re- 



on the yard is frequently one-half the market price. 
There are many factors which must be considered, 
any one or all of which may vary with the kind 
of timber, distance from mill, appliances, kind of 
help, wages paid, and other items. When the pri- 
vate owner can use help during part of the year 
that would otherwise be idle, as on the farm, he 
can deliver the logs to the mill at little e.xpense 
and save that much on his stumpage. 

Harvest time. 
Ripeness and 



fitness determine when to cut. 




mainder and multiply by the length of the log in 



Fig. 482. steam and water transportation. Northern Michigan. 

Basket-willows, hoop-poles, fence-posts, telephone 
and telegraph poles, piles and the like, must be 
harvested when they are the proper size or age for 
the purpose ; but for lumber, the trees should 
stand until the climax of growth is well passed. 
Trees are often swept off just when they are doing 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



339 




Fig. 483. The use of big wheels in harvesting of southern hard-woods. 
The commou method of bringiug in large wliite oak, gum and 
other hard-woods in the tide-water region of Virginia. 

their best. Thi.s is particularly true of white pine, 
for which there is always a demand. This species 
makes its best growth 
from the thirtieth to the 
eightieth year, but good 
pi-ofit on clear stuff in 
the future is often sacri- 
ficed for box material at 
present. Species that are 
prone to iecay while 
standing should be cut 
when in full vigor. The 
owner of small pieces of 
timber will adapt such 
appliances as best suit 
his needs, and choose 
such time or season for 
harvest as will most eco- 
nomically meet his de- 
mands. 

Harvesting the looodlot. 

Much of what has 
been said applies to the farm woodlot. A few facts 
of special significance to the woodlot, however, 
should be pointed out. The farmer very frequently 
finds himself with a poor, thin wood 
crop. The best species have been 
removed, and the crooked and im- 
perfect trees have been left ; and 
this, too, without any justification. 
The main demand on the woodlot is 
for firewood, posts and poles, and, 
occasionally, a little dimension stuff. 
This can all be had to the improve- 
ment of the woodlot, when the har- 
vesting is done judiciously. The 
point to keep in mind in handling 
the farm woodlot is to perpetuate 
it and make it a constant source of 
income. The method of harvesting 
will finally be determined by the 
purpose for which the product is 
desired. 




Fig. 484. Pinelogsready for the road. Northern Michigan 



Clean cutting is admissable only when 
there are a number of mature, valuable 
trees, with little or no undergrowth, and 
when the protection afforded by the woods 
is not important. If the area is to be con- 
tinued as a woodland, then replanting by 
seed or seedlings is resorted to. 

Under other conditions, selection cutting 
should be employed. For firewood, posts, 
poles and similar requirements, the dead or 
dying, slower-growing, undesirable species 
and forest weeds should be removed. For 
dimension stuff, only the mature trees should 
be taken. Care must be exercised in the 
selection of the cutting, in order that the 
conditions for the best growth of the remain- 
ing trees and the re-occupancy of the opened 
spaces may be promoted. It is important 
that the open spaces be filled either by nat- 
ural growth or by planted seedlings. Judg- 
ment is required in the felling of the trees 
to avoid damage to the surrounding trees and to 
the undergrowth. The logs must be snaked out 
where they will least 
harm the seedlings. 

When considerable di- 
mension stuff is removed, 
a portable sawmill may 
be employed and placed 
in or near the woodlot. 
Frequently the logs are 
sledded to the local saw- 
mill. 

In colder regions the 
time for this work will 
be in winter when other 
farm work is not so pres- 
sing and when the logs 
and lumber can be moved 
on sleighs. Whether in 
summer or winter, a pair 
of skidding tongs will 
be found useful for 
rolling up logs, where 
they can be handled with a chain or for dragging 
them out of inconvenient places. A cant-hook is a 
convenience that one can not afford to be without. 




Fig. 485. Car of wbite pine. Grayling, ISIiehigau. 



340 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



Roads should be made with soF>e care because 
nearly all young stuff is killed by driving over it 
a few times, and new growth does not come in for 
many years. Frequently a little drainage of wet 
places will prove very profitable. 

The details of handling team, chain, sleighs and 
trucks can best be learned by experience. 

Marketing timber crops. 

The marketing of timber crops differs from that 
of any other farm product in several particulars. 
Meats are sold by the pound, eggs by the dozen, coal 
by the ton, grain by measure or weight, each hav- 
ing its standard of denomination. Timber crops are 
sold by the tree, acre, thousand-feet board measure, 
cubic foot, pound and even by the sack. The stand- 
ard cord is l!28 cubic feet, or a pile 8x4x4 feet; 




Fig. 486. An improvement thinning in planted white pine. The white 
pines were planted in mixtxire with ash and box-elder, and a partial 
har\'esting of the crop has taken place in which box-elder, .ash and 
poorer pines have been removed. The open .areas jire being filled 
by under-planlings of white pine and hard maple as seen in fore- 
ground. 

but in different localities the cord varies according 
to the uniform length of pieces composing it. Logs 
that will scale a thousand feet will generally make 
a little more than a standard cord of wood. 

A timber crop is an accumulation of annual 
growths, the nature of the plant making it impos- 
sible to market the annual growth each year. If the 
market conditions are not right one year, the crop 
may wait for even a score or more of years, or until 
such time as seems most favorable. The market 
for the crop has its ups and downs, but not nearly 
to the same extent as that of a perishable crop. 
The time and method of marketing will vary with 
the character of the crop itself, which varies in 
volume from the small willow whips only two feet 
in length, to the massive sequoias, the greatest of 
nature's organized products. 

It is to the interest of the purchasing agent to 
buy lumber at the lowest possible price, for a thing 
well bought is half sold. He therefore tries to per- 
suade the owner that his timber is not growing 
very fast, that some trees show evidence of decay 



and death, and that substitutes are on the increase, 
all of which may be true enough and yet not be 
sufficient reasons for making immediate sale. The 
growing rate of timber can be determined as well 
by the owner as by the purchaser. The area of the 
stump of a tree in .square feet multiplied by one- 
half the height gives the approximate number of 
cubic feet in the tree. If, now, the thickness of the 
ten outer rings be determined, and the diameter be 
reduced by double this amount, we can estimate 
the volume of the tree ten years ago. Since the 
height of nearly or quite mature stands varies but 
little, the same height-factor may be repeatedly 
used. About eighty-five of the cubic feet thus de- 
termined, when cut, will make a standard cord of 
wood and other lengths in proportion. The increase 
in volume of saw timber can best be determined by 
cutting some of the most typical average 
trees into logs, and with Scribner's, Doyle's, 
Bauman's, or some other log book in hand, 
figure the board feet at present, and then 
by reducing the diameter by double the 
thickness of the ten outer rings it will give' 
the board feet ten years before. The Wood- 
man's Handbook, Part I, Bulletin No. 36, 
Forest Service of the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, contains over forty 
log rules, besides much other information 
valuable to the man who handles timber. 

It may be expected that under proper 
encouragement the more valuable trees in a 
stand may be made to increase more rap- 
idly than under unmanaged or mismanaged 
conditions. While the rings of one decade 
may measure le!5s than tho.se of a past de- 
cade, the lumber in the larger tree is more 
valuable. Since different kinds of timber 
vary in rapidity of growth, the determina- 
tion of one species will not answer for all. 
Forestry can be practiced in an almost 
ideal way on the farm woodlot of five to 
fifty acres. Unless the quantity to be dis- 
posed of at one time is very small, one 
should know where the best markets are, the same 
as he would for other farm products. There are 
several publications devoted entirely to the lumber 
business. All large cities are great lumber mar- 
kets. Chicago is a great pine market and St. Louis 
leads in hard-woods. It is quite possible for the 
forest owner to post himself on prices and pros- 
pects of market and crops by reading quotations 
and by correspondence with dealers. If he has a 
good article, it will sell almost any day. If one firm 
does not handle the goods he has to dispose of, it 
will usually direct him to parties that do. Expert 
advice can be secured for the asking of the official 
forester of the timber -owner's state or of some 
other. Such advice is usually given free of charge 
as long as there is no considerable expense of time 
and travel incurred. Personal inspection and con- 
sultation may be had at nominal cost. At all events, 
whatever plan of .sale is adopted, the timber-owner 
should know whether selling for a lump sum, by 
the thousand, by the acre or by the cord, will bring 
him the most satisfactory returns. 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



341 



The portable sawmill has done much to relieve 
the market of waste material. It is practicable 
only where there are several hundred thousand feet 
to be sawed. It should be a means of securing 
the highest price, since there is no expense of 
transporting almost worthless material in the form 
of sawdust and slab. However, what is waste today 
may be a valuable product tomorrow. There is 
now a market for both chestnut bark and wood for 
tannin, thus utilizing the whole tree. The tops of 
the trees not suitable for saw-timber are used by 
alcohol plants. In some places sawdust is an article 
of commerce. The discarded tops and butts of 
white cedar are now collected and made into 
shingles as far as the condition of the timber per- 
mits. Half-decayed pine logs and .stumps are sawed 
into four-foot wood and shipped to brick and tile 
factories, or for use in other industries 
where wood fuel is preferable to coal. The 
logs that have lain on the bottom of lakes 
and streams for a score or more of years, — 
the remnants of a past harvest, — are now 
being raised and placed on the market. 

Kinds and grades of timber products. 

Willows for basketry must be marketed 
every year, or they become too large and 
too much branched. The bundles are easily 
handled and can be loaded on hay-racks like 
sheaves of grain and hauled to the basket 
factory or transportation medium. The 
price to the grower will depend very 
largely on the quality of crop and prox- 
imity to the place of manufacture. The 
whips should be two to eight feet long, all 
of one season's growth. The marketing of 
this crop differs from that of most others 
of its class in that there is only one use to 
which it is put and only basket factories 
buy the product. There are at present few 
basket factories in the United States, but since 
nearly all hand work is required the grower could 
without much outlay establish his own factory and 
to a large extent control the market for his crop. 

The splint basket mills are le.ss expensive to 
establish than sawmills and are frequently built at 
some railway station, where the product can easily 
be shipped away. The timber is cut into veneers, 
and all waste is used for fuel to run the machinery. 
The mills use up the remnants of a stand of tim- 
ber, as the requirements are so moderate that 
crooked and knotty timber of many species can be 
profitably employed. 

The market for small birch, elm, black ash and 
hickory poles for half-round split hoops has practi- 
cally pa.ssed. There is, however, some demand for 
hickory and white o?.k butts, twenty-eight to 
forty-two inches long and at least four inches in 
diameter at the small end, for pick and other 
handles. When trees of these species and others 
are to be placed on the market, the owners should 
corre.5pond with the manufacturers of such tools. 
If these companies can not use the material, they 
will inform the owner where such materials can 
be marketed. Small-sized soft-wood trees will find 



most profitable sale for paper pulp in regions 
where this material is used. Sticks four inches or 
more in diameter and four feet long bring three 
to five dollars per cord delivered at the mill. If 
not used for pulp they will be in demand for fruit 
packages. Poplar and basswood in eight-foot 
lengths are most profitably disposed of for porch 
columns. Hard-woods and some conifers of better 
class than for basket stuff — straight trees to 
twenty-four inches in diameter on the stump, — 
are now pi'ofitably dispo.sed of for piling, and the 
longer and straighter the better. Even such com- 
mon woods as beech, black a.sh, maple and tama- 
rack are now used for this purpose, but are not so 
good as oak and cedar. 

Second-growth white ash and hickory always 
find a ready market for handle stuff. Cedar is 




Fig 487 Harvesting a woodlot of mixed hard woods in southern Con- 
necticut. The quantity of timber renlnvtMl m a heavy iiiipruveinent 
cutting is sliown by the piles of wooil. Only the post trees of de- 
sirable species have been left. The original stand was dense. 

easily marketed in any size from posts three inches 
in diameter at the small end. As this timber is 
very light, it is often profitable to transport it on 
water even of small streams. As the tree gener- 
ally grows in swampy situations, it is best pre- 
pared for market in winter and tran-^iported in 
spring. It is necessary first to peel the bark with 
draw knives. Trees large enough for telephone 
poles command high price. The available quantity 
is now so small in the East that poles are being 
shipped from as far west as Idaho to supply 
eastern markets. 

Chestnut not suitable for poles is now sold for 
tannin, thus making use of what otherwise might 
be wasted. 

The uses of trees large enough for sawed lum- 
ber are very numerous. Chairs, coaches, tables, 
tanks, beds, boxes, shingles, spokes, floors, frames, 
and a long list of articles of familiar and common 
use are examples. 

Hard maple of the best quality should be mar- 
keted for flooring, but if no mill for its manufac- 
ture is at hand, it can be used for medium- 
priced furniture and other commodities, such as 
shoe lasts, boot-trees and fuel. The intrinsic value 



842 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



of this wood is such that it should command a 
much higher price than at present. 

White ash has long been the common wood for 
ball bats, but now maple, beech and black ash are 
all used for low-priced goods of this class. 

Immense quantities of all the cheaper grades of 
timber are used for dry barrels and a large num- 
ber of articles classed as "pail stuff." 

Elm has experienced a rapid and steady increase 
in price as its possibilities have become better 
known. It is now used for a large part of the 
cheaper grades of furniture. When steamed it 
bends readily, and for this reason is largely 
used for flat hoops. Attention was drawn to 
the possibilities of all the elms when it was 
discovered that rock elm is an excellent wood 
for the manufacture of wood-rims for bicycles. 
The quantity of rock and red elm is very limited, 
but the supply of white elm, in spite of the 
fact that the timber decays readily and does 
not grow rapidly, is holding out well, probably 
because it withstands exposure well and frequently 
occupies land that is not well adapted to cultiva- 
tion or grazing. Small trees, four to twelve inches 
in diameter, are sometimes sold for hubs. This 
requires the sacrifice of young, growing stock, 
which, under most circumstances, would best be 
left in the stand. It may be stated in this connec- 
tion that the pepperidge of the North, which is 
the black gum of the South, of suitable size, would 
better be used for hubs than for any other purpose. 

Because of wind-shake and other defects, hem- 
lock is uniformly used for dimension stuff. Al- 
though not a flrst-class lumber, there is steady 
demand for it at reasonable prices. 

With the increased value of wood has come a 
substitute of the poorer sorts, where formerly only 
the better quality would answer. Not long since, 
black walnut was considered the only wood suit- 
able for certain kinds of furniture. This has been 
replaced almost entirely by oak ; but now oak is 
increasing in value to such an extent that some 
other wood must soon take its place. The art of 
veneering is helping to extend the use of the more 
valuable woods. Tables, desks, doors, and other 
articles of common use, are now made of hemlock 
and veneered with yellow pine, oak, or some other 
wood susceptible of a high finish. Consequently, 
timber good enough for work of this nature can be 
placed on the market almost any day at a good 
price. The owner of a fine specimen of white oak 
has been offered one hundred dollars for the tree 
on the stump, which was more than the value of an 
acre of the land on which the tree was growing. 

Three-fourths of our timber product is from cone- 
bearing trees. A large proportion of this is pine. 
The extensive tracts of timber, composed largely 
of cone-bearing trees, are owned by men of large 
means, companies or corporations, but the.se or- 
ganizations have not yet gained such control of 
supplies but that the owner of a small patch of 
pine, if it is properly managed and marketed, may 
realize rich returns from the crop. Stands that 
twenty years ago brought two dollars and a half 
per acre now bring a hundred or more. In Michi- 



gan, white pine is now worth ten dollars to twenty- 
five dollars per thousand feet on the stump. In 
Fig. 484 is seen a load of pine logs starting for 
market. The logs in the booms shown in Fig. 481 
are mostly pine and hemlock. The car shown in Fig. 
485 is loaded with 35-foot white pine logs, except 
a small Norway pine log (Pinus resinosa) on top. 

Development in lumbering industries. 

Some classes of timber have doubled in price in 
five years, while others have taken twice as long 
to experience a like increase in price. In spite of 
the many sub.stitutes for wood, its consumption is 
increasing at the rate of about 3 per cent per 
capita per annum, the quantity now used being 
about three hundred and fifty cubic feet per capita 
in America ; and forty cubic feet in Germany and 
fourteen cubic feet in England, where substitutes 
for wood are largely employed. 

That the demand for timber will continue to 
increase can not be doubted when we are reminded 
that, besides consumption for many other purposes, 
in lumber and pulp timber alone we clear an area 
of good virgin forest every year as large as the 
states of Connecticut and Rhode Island ; for boxes 
and crates, 50,000 acres ; for matches, 400 acres ; 
for shoe-pegs, 3,500 acres of good second-growth 
hard-wood ; for lasts and boot-trees, 10,000 acres ; 
while for fuel we require 17,971,200 acres, or four 
and one-half times the area of Connecticut and 
Rhode Island. These are examples of large and 
small consumption, the intermediate uses being 
almost indeterminate. 

The adaptation of the inferior woods to new 
uses has led to the convenience of a local though 
small market, where a timber-owner may dispose 
of material that he does not need or which is ill 
adapted to his purpose, and at the same place he 
may secure building materials that better meet his 
requirements. The dift'erence in price of that sold 
and that purchased is necessary, considering the 
perishable and combustible character of the goods, 
the long hauls, and the freight rates, all of which 
must ultimately be met by the consumer. 

Literature. 

Nearly all forestry books contain advice on har- 
vesting. Following are a few useful references : 
Schlich, A Manual of Forestry ; Gayer, Forstbe- 
nutzung, eighth edition ; Ribbentrop, Forestry in 
British India ; Nisbet, The Forester, Vol. II ; 
C. A. Schenck, Forest Utilization ; William F. Fox, 
A History of the Lumber Industry in the State of 
New York, Bulletin No. 34, United States Forest 
Service ; J. E. Defenbaugh, History of the Lumber 
Industry of America. The Woodsman's Handbook, 
Part I, Bulletin No. 36, Bureau of Forestry, Wash- 
ington, D. C; Forest Mensuration, by Henry Solon 
Graves, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1906 ; 
Rules and Specifications for the Grading of Lum- 
ber, Bulletin No. 71, Forest Service, United States 
Department of Agriculture ; Grades and Amount 
of Lumber Sawed from Yellow Poplar, Yellow Birch, 
Sugar Maple and Beech, Bulletin No. 73, Forest 
Service. 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



343 



Insect Enemies of Woodlot Trees. Figs. 488- 
491. 

By A. D. Hopkins. 

The insect enemies of trees in the woodlot differ 
with the section of country and the kind of trees rep- 
resented. In the New England states, the woodlot 
may consist of almost pure stands of white pine, 
mixed spruce, pine, birch and the like, maple, oak 
and hickory ; farther south it may consist of pure 

stands of scrub 
pine, pitch pine, 
black locust, or 
mixed hard-wood, 
yellow poplar, 
walnut, beech, 
chestnut ; i n the 
south Atlantic 
and gulf states it 
may be loblolly 
or long-leaf pine, 
sweet gum or 
mixed hard- 
woods ; n rt h of 
the gulf states it 
may he mixed 
hard-woods, with 
oak, hickory, lo- 
cust, box elder or 
Cottonwood pre- 
dominating; in 
the Rocky moun- 
tain region it may 
be pine, spruce, 
aspen or cotton- 
wood ; toward the 
Pacific coast, 
scrub oak, live oak, pine or redwood ; in the North- 
west it will consist of a different class of trees, 
growing under very different conditions from those 
found in any other section of country. 

Each tree and each section of the country has its 
peculiar class of insects, requiring special methods 
of control. It is readily seen to be impracticable 
to discuss in a short treatise even the more impor- 
tant insect enemies of the farmers' woodlots in all 
sections of the country. If we take one section, 
however, we may give some general information 
on the character and extent of the depredations by 
a few of the principal and more widely distributed 
enemies, and methods for their control. 

Enemies of a special section. 

In the section east of the Mississippi river and 
north of the gulf states, the average insect losses 
affecting the medium- to large-sized hard-wood 
trees of the woodlot and small forests evidently 
equal, or even surpass, the average losses to the 
same class of timber by forest fires. The hickory 
bark-beetle has killed a large percentage of the 
hickory ; the black locust has been so badly dam- 
aged by the borer that in some sections where the 
conditions are otherwise most favorable for the 
growth of this valuable tree, it is rendered practi- 
cally worthless ; the heart-wood of some of the 




Fig. 488. Work of the hickory bark- 
beetle on surface of wood beneath 
the bark: a. primary gallery; &, 
larval mines. 



finest specimens of oak and chestnut is often so 
badly damaged by timber worms that it is value- 
less for anything but fuel or rough boards. While 
the pines and spruces suffer more perhaps from 
fire than from insects, especially the young growth, 
there are certain insects, as the white pine weevil, 
which often cause serious damage. Thus we see 
from these four examples alone that the insect 
problem is by no means the least important to be 
considered by the farmer in the management of his 
woodlot. 

There are also local problems, like those pre- 
sented in Massachusetts and adjoining states by the 
gypsy moth and brown-tail moth, which are already 
demanding attention through federal, state and 
private effort and the publication of information. 

Controlling special cases. 

It may appear at first that the problem of con- 
trolling the more common and widely distributed 
insect enemies of forest trees is difficult and expen- 
sive, when, in fact, it is often just the reverse. A 
few special cases are cited to demonstrate this 
point. 

The hickory bark-beetle (Seolytus guadrispinosus) 
is a short, stout, shining, black or brownish beetle, 
averaging about one-eighth of an inch in length, 
which attacks the medium to large hickory trees 
in the spring and summer, and girdles them by ex- 
cavating egg galleries and larval mines (Fig. 488) 
under the bark. The undeveloped brood passes the 
w i n t e r i n the 
bark, and the 
matured brood 
of adults flies in 
May to August 
to continue the 
depredations. To 
control an out- 
break of this 
pest it is neces- 
sary that all, or 
at least a large 
percentage of the hickory 
trees within a radius of a 
few square miles that die 
from any cause in the sum- 
mer, be felled and utilized for 
fuel, or other purposes, or be 
burned, to kill the over-win- 
tered broods. The work must 
be done in the period begin- 
ning with about the first of 
October and ending with the 
first of May. To prevent 
further trouble, living hick- 
ory trees for any purpose 
should be cut in the spring 
and summer, so that the tops 
and unused parts of the 
trunks may be utilized by the 
beetles as breeding places 
and thus serve a s traps, 
when they can be destroyed 
the following winter by 






Fig. 489. Locust borer 
iCytlpne robiniiFi. 
Upper figures, mature 
beetle: left, male; 
right, female. Lower 
figures, the larva, 
showing dorsal view 
on left and lateral 
view on right. (Up- 
per figures enlarged 
slightly less than one- 
half : lower figures 
slightly more than 
one-half.) 



344 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



burning. [For further information, see Yearbook, 
United States Department of Agriculture, 19Q8, 
pp. 314-317.] 

The locust borer (Cyllene robinim, Fig. 489) is 
a whitish, elongated, round-headed grub, which 
hatches from an egg deposited by a black-and 
yellow-striped long-horned beetle, found on the 
trees and on the flowers of goldenrod from August 
to October. The eggs are deposited in August and 
September in the outer bark on the trunks and 
branches, and the young larvte pass the winter in 
minute hibernating cells between the outer corky 
bark and the living bark. In the spring they bore 
through the inner bark and enter the wood. Their 
presence is indicated in May, June and July by the 
boring dust lodged in the bark and around the 
base of the infested trees. 

The young hibernating borers may be killed from 
November 1 to April 1 by spraying the infested 
trunks and branches with kerosene emulsion, one 
gallon to two gallons of water. The older borers, 
after they have entered the wood, may be destroyed 
in May to July by cutting out the worst infested 
trees and burning them or immersing them in 
streams or ponds. The cutting of locust for any 
other purpo.se, however, should be done between 
November 1 and April 1, so that the removal of 
the bark from the utilized part of the trunk and 
the burning of the tops will kill the young borers 
before they enter the wood. New plantations 
should be made where the locust is naturally free 
from general injury, and seed for the purpose 
should be from trees which show the least dam- 
age. [For additional 
information, see Bul- 
letin No. 58, Parts I 
and III, and Circular 
No. 83 of the Bureau 
of Entomology, 
United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture.] 
The oak timber 
worm (Eupsalis ini- 
nula) is a slender, 
whitish, cylindrical 
grub or worm, less 
than an inch in 
length, with the seg- 
m e n t s toward the 
head much enlarged, 
and the last abdomi- 
nal segment smooth 
and rounded. These 
worms hatch from 
eggs deposited in 
wounds in the bark 
and wood of living 
trees, and at first 
bore almost invisible holes directly into the wood. 
The burrows are enlarged and extended in all 
directions through the heart-wood until the larvte 
have attained their full growth. (Fig. 490.) They 
then transform to adults within their burrows 
and emerge the ne.xt spring or summer to repeat 
the cycle in the same wounds or in the wood of 



dead trees, stumps and logs, either standing or 
felled. An axe wound in a large healthy tree 
may result in attack by this insect, and later 
the entire heart-wood become perforated with so- 
called pinhole defects. Wounds made by lightning 




Fig. 490. Pinholes in oak, the 
work of the oak timber worm. 




Fig. 491. Pinholes in chestnut, the work of the 
chestnut timber worm. 

or other cause may result in the wood of the 
entire trunk being thus rendered worthless for 
stave timber, clapboards or first-class lumber. 
This insect breeds in great numbers in the stumps 
of dead trees and in the stumps and logs of 
felled trees, and is ever ready to attack living 
trees wherever a slight wound in the bark offers 
an opportunity. To avoid the attack of this in- 
sect on living trees, all injured or dead hard- 
wood trees, as well as the logs of felled ones, 
should be promptly utilized or burned, and newly 
felled trees should be cut very close to the ground 
and the brush tops burned over the stumps. Indeed, 
the disposal of all places for the breeding of this 
insect will always be an important feature in the 
management of American hard-wood forests and 
farmers' woodlots. [For additional information, 
see Yearbook, Department of Agriculture, 1903, 
pp. 323, 324 and Bulletin No. 35, West Virginia 
Agricultural Experiment Station, p. 294.] 

The chestnut timber worm {Lymexylon sericeum) 
is somewhat similar in general form to the pre- 
ceding, but is at once distinguished by the dark 
brown, horny plate with toothed edges on the last 
segment of the body. It hatches from an egg 
deposited by an elongated, brownish beetle clothed 
with fine silky hairs. The habit of this borer is 
practically the same as the oak timber worm, 
except that it is found principally in chestnut, 
though it sometimes infests red oak and white oak. 
It is exceedingly destructive to the heart-wood of 
old chestnut trees (Fig. 491), and never fails to 
enter the slightest wound in the bark on the trunks 
and around the bases of the dead branches of liv- 
ing trees. It also breeds in dead or felled trees. 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



345 



stumps, and the like, so that the method of control 
is practically the same as that recommended for 
the oak timber worm, especially as applied to 
chestnut and red oak. 

General advice. 

It should be remembered that after a tree is 
once attacked and seriously injured by one or more 
of these wood-boring insects, nothing can be done 
to repair the damage, and that therefore preven- 
tion is of primary importance. Thus it will be 
seen that the control of an outbreak of any of the 
principal insect enemies of the woodlot involves 
the adoption of methods of management by which 
the utilization of the infested trees at the proper 
time will destroy the insects and bring about the 
desired results with little or no additional expense, 
and this is to be supplemented by other features 
in the management which will prevent future 
trouble. 

Some of the rules of general application are as 
follows : 

Fell and utilize or destroy, in the fall or winter, 
all dying or recently dead trees before the broods 
of destructive enemies have had time to develop 
and emerge ; utilize or destroy all tops, large 
branches, and logs from living trees cut the pre- 
vious winter, spring and summer, and burn the 
brush over the stumps. 

Avoid injury of any kind to the bark and wood 
of living timber, especially of oak and chestnut. 

Cut and utilize the old trees which show evi- 
dences of deterioration, and those which have been 
injured by lightning, storm or other causes ; and 
if the trees are infested by destructive insects, do 
the work in the fall and winter. 

Forest and Timber Diseases. Figs. 492-497. 
By Hermann von Schrenk. 

The diseases which affect forest trees manifest 
themselves in various ways, depending on the part 
of the tree which is attacked. Diseased trees may 
be recognized by the yellowing or other discolor- 
ation of their leaves, a much reduced growth of the 
trunk and branches, the dying of the tops, the ap- 
pearance of swellings on leaves or branches, and 
by the growth on trunks or branches of punks or 
toadstools. A diseased tree forms less wood than a 
healthy one, and in many cases decays at the heart, 
(Fig. 492), with a resultant total destruction of 
the wood, and ultimate death. 

Trees are liable to become diseased from the first 
year on. They are most liable during the latter 
part of their life. A number of fungi attack seed- 
ling trees and cause their death, by strangling them 
or by killing the young leaves. As the trees grow 
older, the destruction of certain branches and leaves 
may not have any very serious results ; but after 
they have reached a period of maturity, they 
become more subject to disease, because larger 
branches will be broken off ; and more wounds are 
made in old trees than in young ones. Practically 
all kinds of trees are subject to disease, and some 
more than others. The redwood, cypress and the 



various cedars are comparatively free from disease ; 
so, also, are trees like the red gum, sycamore and 
sassafras. The oaks, beech, birch and other hard- 
woods are rarely attacked when young, but become 
very liable to disease after they have reached the 
age of fifty years or more ; the same is true of 
pines, firs and spruces. 

Causes of disease, and points of attack. 

Diseases of forest trees may be due either (1) to 
unfavorable conditions of soil and climate, or (2) 
to parasitic enemies, as insects, fungi and higher 
plants. Wet, soggy soil will produce stag-headed 
trees ; excessive quantities of sulfur gas in the air 
will result in a discoloration of the foliage of the 
entire tree, and frequently in its ultimate death. In 
dry years there will be very much less disease than 




Fig. 492. Section showing how fruiting body of wood-destroy- 
ing fungus grows, and the resulting internal rot. 

in years of heavy rainfall. Trees that are grown 
very close together will be much more subject to 
disease than those that are farther apart. Wood- 
lots in which all of the trees are of one kind will 
be much more liable to disease than woodlots in 
which different kinds of trees are grown. In seed- 
beds, diseases will be favored by poorly drained 
soil and by excessive mulching. Thrifty trees will 
always be very much less subject to disease than 
weak ones. 

The diseases due to fungi can be divided into 
(1) diseases of the living parts, and (2) dis- 
eases of the dead parts. The diseases of the living 
parts affect the leaves, the younger branches and 
the smaller roots, and a thin layer of the body 
of the tree, including the most recently formed 
wood and the inner bark. The diseases of the 
dead parts affect the older wood of the trunk, 
roots and branches, known as the "heart-wood." 
The fungi that cause disease of the living parts 
bring about local or general disturbances, which 
at first weaken the tree and may ultimately kill 
it ; those that attack the heart-wood bring about 
the decay of the heart-wood, resulting in the loss 
of wood, and when the decay goes far enough, 
in the weakening of the tree so that it is easily 
broken off. 



346 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 




Nature of the disease fungi and their action. 

Fungi are a low class of plants, consisting of 
fine threads, called hyphce, many hyphae forming 
the mycelium. The mycelium grows in the dead or 
living parts, extracting certain food substances 
therefrom. After varying 
periods, fruiting bodies are 
formed, which develop 
spores. These fruiting bod- 
ies have various shapes, 
varying from microscopic 
structures to the large 
punks or toadstools so com- 
monly found on older trees. 
The spores are discharged 
into the air, and are dis- 
tributed from one tree to 
another by the wind ; they 
are also carried from tree 
to tree by insects, rain, or, 
when the fungi grow under 
the ground, by burrowing 
animals, such as moles and 
mice. 

When the fungus causes 
a disease of the leaves or 
branches, the spores usu- 
ally germinate directly on 
the leaves or branches, the 
fungus penetrating into the 
living tissue, and growing 
there. When the fungus 
attacks the heart-wood of 
the tree, the spore must get 
into some wound. During 
the early life of the tree 
these wounds are very few in number, but as a 
tree grows older many wounds are formed, and 
the tendency to close these wounds, either by the 
formation of callus or by the exudation of gum 
or resin, is very much reduced. Wounds are made 
by deer and other browsing animals, by wood- 
peckers, but chiefly by the breaking off of large 
branches by the wind or snow. Wherever a wound 
is made, the spores from numerous wood-rotting 
fungi enter and germinate, and the mycelium of 
the fungus grows down into the heart-wood of 
the tree. When it has reached the heart-wood, it 
grows both up and down in the tree trunk, and 
results in the partial or total destruction of the 
wood, as shown in Figs. 492, 493 and 494. When 
a sufficient amount of nutritive material has been 
absorbed from the trunk, a punk or toadstool forms 
on the outside, bearing new spores, as shown in 
Fig. 492. Fig. 497 illustrates a different type of 
injury. It shows the way in which mistletoe forms 
a " bird's-nest " on lodge-pole pine. 

The fungi that attack leaves and branches are 
rarely present in sufficient number to kill a large 
tree, although they may stunt its growth. They 
are very much more dangerous to extremely young 
trees. The so-called "damping-off" fungi belong 
to this group, and they are particularly active in 
seed-beds. As the tree grows older, the wood-rotting 
fungi become more important, and the older the 



Fig. 493. Effect on wood 
of red spruce by the 
mycelum of Pohjitot-us 
borealis. (Pigs. 493,494 
are ad.apted from Bul- 
letin No. 193, Cnrnell 
Experiment Station.) 



tree gets the more liable to disease it becomes. 
For most kinds of trees, a certain age usually will 
mean an almost certain attack by one or the other 
of the wood-rotting fungi, and it is generally well, 
when such trees are used for lumber, to cut them 
shortly after this age has been reached. For pines 
this may be about eighty to one hundred years. It 
is the latter class of fungi that are of particular 
interest to the lumberman and forester. 

Some of the important fungi which produce 
disease in forest trees are the red heart fungus 
{Trametes pini, Fig. 496), found on all coniferous 
trees; the false tinder fungus {Polyporus igniarius. 
Fig. 49.5), found on beech, apple, oak, poplar and 
other hardwoods, where it produces a white, soft rot 
of the trunk ; the sulfur mushroom, which causes a 
brown rot of many coniferous trees, and also of 
oak, walnut, cherry and other deciduous trees. 

The fungi that attack hewn timber and produce 
decay belong to a separate group. The factors 
which favor their development are, a certain 
amount of heat, oxygen, water and food supply. 
Dry wood will last very much longer than green 
wood. A post set in the ground with its bark 
removed will outlast one with the bark on. Sap 
wood is very much more liable to attack than 
heart-wood. The rate at which different kinds of 
wood will decay differs, and woods are accordingly 
classed as long- and short-lived. Long-lived woods 
are such as white oak, cypress, cedar, chestnut and 
redwood ; and short-lived woods are such as fir, 
hemlock, beech, red oak, gum and the soft pines. 




Fig. 494. Disintegration of wood by Polyporus borealis 

Prevention of disease. 

In forest trees. — The prevention of diseases in 
forest trees is more or less difficult. The best 
method of keeping a tree healthy is to remove those 
conditions which favor disease. Trees should be 
grown in well-drained, carefully prepared soil, free 
from previous fungous contamination. Seed-beds 
in which a disease has started should be sprayed 
with Bordeaux mixture. Trees that become dis- 
eased because of the attack of fungi on their 
leaves or younger branches should likewise be 
sprayed with various fungicides, notably Bordeaux 
mixture; this will prevent all mildews and blights, 
to a greater or less degree. For fungi that attack 
the heart-wood, careful attention to wounds is 
advisable. Wherever a branch is broken or sawed 
off, the exposed surface, wherever practicable, 
should be coated with some antiseptic substance, 
preferabl^r coal-tar creosote that has been heated. 
All wounds should be carefully trimmed, so as to 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



347 



facilitate the healing process. In large forest 
tracts measures of this kind may not yet be prac- 
ticable, and in such cases the only preventive 
measure is to destroy the source of infection, as 

far as pos- 
sible. On 
limited 
areas it is 
possible to 
remove the 
punks or 
fruiting 
bodies of 
the w d- 
destroying 
fungi and, 
better still, 
to cut down 
all trees 
which show 
any signs of being dis- 
eased. A careful weed- 
mg out of diseased trees 
will remove the source 
of infection for the 
other trees, to a very 
large e.xtent. 

Ill hewn timber. — The 
decay of cut wood may 
be retarded or pre- 
vented by various 
means. The easiest way 
to prevent the develop- 
ment of the fungi is to 
" treat " all wood which 
is exposed to atmos- 
pheric agencies. Charring will frequently be found 
useful. For getting longer service out of wood, it 
should be chemically treated by painting with some 
preservative, such as carbolineum or coal-tar creo- 
sote. Care should be taken, however, that only 
absolutely dry wood is painted. Timber immersed 
in a solution of one part of corrosive sublimate to 
150 parts of water will be proof against the attack 
of decay-producing fungi for many years. The best 




Fig. 495. Tinder fungus (Po!i/- 
porxfs iijniai'ius) on beech 
lOE. The extern.il part of 
the fungus is shown be- 
low; the heart- rot injury 
above. 





■i'llS^f^:^. 



Fig. 496. Red heart disease of Douglas spruce (.Trametes Dini). 



preservative is undoubtedly coal-tar creosote, which 
can either be painted on the wood or be pressed 
into it by various mechanical devices. 

Literature. 

The following are some of the more important 
books and papers relating to the diseases of 
American trees and timber : G. F. Atkinson, Studies 
of Some Shade Tree and Timber Destroying Fungi, 
Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletin 
No. 193 (1901); E. M. Freeman, Minnesota Plant 
Diseases, Chapters on Diseases of Timber Trees 
(190-5); Galloway and Woods, Diseases of Shade 
and Ornamental Trees, United States Department 
of Agriculture, Yearbook 1896, p. 237; Robert 
• Hartig, Diseases of Trees (1894); F. D. Heald, A 
Disease of Cottonwood, Nebraska Agricultural Ex- 
periment Station, Bul- 
letin No. 19 (1906); 
Perley Spaulding, A 
Disease of Black Oaks, 
Report Missouri Bo- 
tanical Garden (190.5) ; 
the following by Her- 
mann von Schrenk: A 
Disease of Taxodium, 
and of Libocedrus, Re- 
port Missouri Botan- 
ical Garden, No. 11 
(1899); A Dis- 
ease of the 
Black Locust, 
Report Mis- 
souri Botan- 
ical Garden,^.^j£=^5! 
No. 12 (1901);*^ 
The Bluing and Red 
Rot of the Western 
Yellow Pine, Bu- 
reau of Plant In- 
dustry, Bulletin 
No. 36 (1903); Dis- 
eases of New Eng- 
land Coniferous 
Trees, Division of 
Vegetable Physiol- 
ogy and Pathology, 
United States De- 
partment of Agriculture, Bulletin No. 25; Fungous 
Diseases of Forest Trees, United States Department 
of Agriculture, Yearbook, 1900; Two Di.seases of 
Red Cedar, Division of Vegetable Physiology and 
Pathology, United States Department of Agricul- 
ture, Bulletin No. 21; A Disease of White Ash, 
Bureau of Plant Industry, Bulletin No. 32 (1903); 
Decay of Timber, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bulle- 
tin No. 14; Diseases of the Hardy Catalpa, Bureau 
of Forestry, Bulletin No. 37; Diseases of the 
Redwood, Bureau of Forestry, Bulletin No. 38; 
Seasoning of Timber, Bureau of Forestry, Bul- 
letin No. 41; C. S. Sargent, Silva of North 
America (has numerous notes on fungous and 
insect diseases of trees); C. Freiherr von Tubeuf, 
Diseases of Plants, Longmans, Green & Co., New 
York (1897). 







Fig. 497. Mistletoe forming "bird's 
nest" on lodge-pole pine. 



348 



FRUIT-GROWING 



FRUIT-GROWING 



FRUIT-GROWING. Figs. 498-.505. 

No branch of American agriculture has shown a 
more complete adaptation to modern demands and 
conditions than fruit-growing : it has become a 
large-area and real farm enterprise ; the field prac- 
tices have been completely changed within a score 
of years ; the products have come to be of national 
importance. Persons now purchase farms for the 
sole purpose of raising fruit on them ; and on 
mixed-husbandry farms the orcharding part has 
taken on a broader and freer spirit, and is not 
merely an isolated or incidental part of the farm 
scheme. In other words, fruit-growing has assumed 



Where one would best engage in fruit-growing 
is a question difficult to answer. Once the Editor 
knew ; but after he went away from home he 
began to doubt, and now he has no opinion. Fruit- 
growing is no longer confined to a few areas here 
and there. It is practicable in many regions that 
have been considered to lie outside the "fruit 
belts." Wherever any fruit has been grown suc- 
cessfully, it can in all probability be grown again. 
Sometimes a region that has not been exploited for 
any kind of fruit may afford excellent natural adap- 
tabilities. The choice of a location is usually deter- 
mined by the general region in which one desires 
to live ; then the intending fruit-grower can make 




Fig. 498. Clean culture in an apple orchard. Ontario tj-pe of tree. 



commercial significance, and it must now be con- 
sidered in any fair discussion of farm management. 
That this has not always been true, is shown by 
the literature of fruit-growing. The older books 
are mostly a reflection of fruit-gardening, dealing 
with varieties and with small special practices. 
Within the past few years the writings have had a 
larger sweep, conceiving of fruit-growing in much 
the spirit that we conceive of grain-growing or 
live-stock-raising. The personal fruit-garden, as an 
amateur adjunct to a home, has been relatively 
neglected. Just now, however, there is a revival 
of the amateur interest in fruit-growing, express- 
ing itself as a reaction from the commercial busi- 
ness, and as a result of the suburban and country- 
home movement. While the practices in these two 
types of fruit-growing are similar in principle, 
the types themselves are quite distinct. One is a 
broadly agricultural type ; the other is a fancier 
and connoisseur type. 



inquiries as to the parts of the region that are 
best adapted. 

Tlw Jarm plan. 

The farm management phase of fruit-growing 
has received little careful study. The orchard occu- 
pies the land for years. Usually the man who likes 
to grow fruit does not care much for live-stock, — 
the two businesses require different mental atti- 
tudes. It is a question whether the relative lack of 
live-stock in fruit-growing communities is not a 
serious disadvantage, not only in relation to main- 
taining productiveness of the land, but to the 
developing of general rural activities. It is a ques- 
tion, also, whether labor, teams and implements 
could not be more economically utilized by some 
corollary system of simple field-farming. As at 
present conducted, orcharding is not a self-con- 
tinuing or self-regulating busine.ss in the sense that 
good rotation-farming is ; that is, there is no regu- 



FRUIT-GROWING 



FRUIT-GROWING 



349 



lar provision for utilizing the land after the orchard 
is removed. The grower usually does not lay out a 
plan of land management, one item in which is the 
growing of orchards. In the case of apples, the 
life of the orchard is so great, at least in the east- 
ern states, that the grower feels that he is planting 
for a lifetime, and he leaves succeeding questions 
to those who may come after him. Even apple 
orchards may be retained too long for profit, how- 
ever ; and peaches, plums and some other fruits are 
not too long-lived to form part of a rotation plan. 
The rotation farmer may lay out a cour.se that is 
not expected to mature within twenty years (pages 
95, 96). Small-fruits are well adapted to rotation- 
ing. In fact, careful rotation is the very best 
means of keeping in check certain difficult diseases 
and pests of strawberries, raspberries and black- 
berries. The rotation may be between different 
kinds of fruits themselves, or between fruits and 
field-crop courses. The point is that fruit-growing 
practice ought not to be completely isolated from 
general farm management plans. 

Aside from a rotation of fields, it is often advis- 
able to lay out a rotation of crops in the orchards 
themselves when the trees are young. Such rota- 
tion practice would reduce the great amount of 
tillage labor by keeping part of the area always 
in clover or other sod, would correct the faults of 
a continuously recurring treatment, would guard 
against neglect, and would allow of a somewhat 
definite plan of work for some years ahead. The 
rotation should be short and should contain the 
maximum of tilled crops. A three-year course 
might fit the conditions well, for it would be adapted 
to the varying early stages of orchards, and would 
correspond with normal strawberry rotations and 
even with the best practice in raspberries. One 
to four three-year courses could be run in orchards 
before the trees are large enough to interfere, 
depending on the land, the kind of fruit and the 
distance apart. A three-year course for young 
orchards should preferably have two tilled crops 
and one legume or sod crop ; as (1) potatoes, roots 
or truck-crops, (2) corn, (.3) crimson clover or 
vetch in fall or spring ; or, again, as (1) corn, (2) 
cotton, (3) cowpea or velvet bean. Sometimes it 
may be allowable to run only one tilled crop, in 
which case the potatoes-wheat-red clover may 
be useful. Care must be taken to see that first 
attention is given the trees, and this should call 
for manure or fertilizers with one or more of the 
courses. 

Rotation, between the fruit plantations them- 
selves, may be very desirable in some cases. If one 
has a hundred-acre farm on which he wishes to 
make a specialty of peaches, he might set aside 
six fields of ten acres each, and set them in twelve- 
year rotations or blocks, planting a new orchard 
every three years. In this way there would always 
be a new orchard coming into bearing, the grower 
could apply the experience of one orchard to the 
succeeding one, and he could prepare the land 
thoroughly in advance of each setting. This pre- 
paring of the land is exceedingly important in most 
cases and is usually neglected. It often should 



include thorough under-drainage. The following 
display shows how this plan would work out. The 
heavy figures show orchards in bearing ; it will be 
seen that there are always three orchards in bear- 
ing after the plan is in full working maturity. It 
is assumed that six years intervene between the 
plantings on the same ground. The letters a, b, c 
show how the elements in a three-course crop-rota- 
tion would combine with the orchards, if it is 
assumed that it would be safe or desirable to crop 
the orchard lightly for the first three years. The 
blank or treeless years would be used in general 
field-crop practice. It must be understood that 
this plan is not recommended, but is given to illus- 
trate the discussion and to suggest a line of study: 

Rotation Scheme of Peach Orchards. 
Heavy figures represent bearing years. 



First 


Second 


Third 


Fourth 


Fifth 


Sixth 


orchard 


orchard 


orchard 


orchard 


orchard 


orcliard 


IDOOo 












19016 












1902c 












1903 


1903a 










1904 


19046 










1905 


1905c 










1906 


1906 


1906a 








1907 


1907 


19076 








1908 


1908 


1908c 








1909 


1J09 


1909 


1909a 






1910 


1910 


1910 


19106 






1911 


1911 


1911 


1911c 








1912 


1912 


1912 


1912b 






1913 


1913 


1913 


19136 






1914 


1914 


1914 


1914c 








1915 


1915 


1915 


1915a 






1916 


1916 


1916 


19166 






1917 


1917 


1917 


1917c 


1918(1 






1918 


1918 


1918 


1919ft 






1919 


1919 


1919 


1920c 






1920 


1920 


1920 


1921 


1921a 






1921 


1921 


1922 


19226 






1922 


1922 


1923 


1923c 






1923 


1923 


1924 


1924 


1924a 






1924 


1925 


1925 


19256 






1925 


1926 


1926 


1926c 






1926 


etc. 


etc. 


etc. 









Tillage. 

In the great majority of cases, tillage for at 
least a part of the life of the orchard gives more 
satisfaction than continuous sod. This is because 
tillage aids in making plant-food usable and it helps 
to save the moisture and to keep down weeds. On 
steep and rough lands, clean tillage may not be 
desirable, both liecause of its cost and the exposure 
of the surface to washing. In lands or regions that 
are naturally well supplied with moisture, tillage 
may not be needful. Like all other agricultural 
practice, tilling of orchards is a local question ; 
but the presumption is that tillage is needed, and 
exceptions must be explained. The fruit in well- 
tilled orchards is likely to be later in maturing 
than in comparable unfilled orchards, and to have a 



350 



FRUIT-GROWING 



FRUIT-GROWING 



lower color ; this is indication of the effect of 
tillage in maintaining vegetative activity by keep- 
ing up the supply of food and moisture. The fruit- 
grower should learn to regulate his tillage as 
carefully as he does the application of manure, in 
order to secure the maximum of benefit and the 
minimum of disadvantage. 

The perfecting of many wide-sweep surface- 
working tools has made the tilling of orchards 
comparatively simple and easy. The purpose of 




Fif, 499 A modern commercial peach orchard Gicrgn 

these tools is to maintain the surface mulch. 
When an orchard is well established, it is usually 
not necessary to plow deep, at least not if the 
original preparation has been good. Spring-plowing 
in bearing orchards may be necessary in order to 
break the soil and to make surface tillage possible, 
or to turn under a cover-crop ; but if the soil is 
naturally loose and there is no herbage to be cov- 
ered, it may be unnecessary to invert the soil ; the 
surface-working tools may be set at work before 
the land becomes hard. Usually a spading-harrow 
or cutaway of some kind will first be needed, 
or, if the soil is crusted and weeds have got a 
start, a shallow-working gang-plow may be used ; 
thereafter, spring-tooth and spike-tooth harrows, 
smoothing-harrows and weeders may be employed. 
Fall-plowing is sometimes advisable, particularly on 
hard lands, that the weathering may aid in the 
breaking down of the soil ; in such case, the fnr- 
row-slice should better not be turned flat (at least 
not unless there is much herbage or manure on the 
land), but left more or less broken or on edge. The 
surface-working tools may be applied to this open 
land early in the spring before it hardens. 

In the old days, orchards were mostly in sod. 
Fifteen years ago the importance of tillage began 
to be very strongly emphasized. This gospel has 
thrown into strong contrast the value of various 
kinds of sod - treatment for special cases. Sod- 
treatment of orchards is now often spoken of as 
the "mulching system." There is no uniformity 
and little system in these practices, however. In 
some cases, the "system" is merely to leave the 
orchard in sod and to sell the hay ; in other cases, 
the sod is merely pastured ; in others, the grass is 
mown and allowed to decay on the ground ; again, 
not only is the grass allowed to lie but straw may 
be added and commercial fertilizers and manure 
applied. It is, therefore, impossible to discuss the 



mulch method without knowing just what the 
practice is. It is apparent that these must be local 
practices. Some of them often give excellent 
results. 

Cover-crops. 

The present-time tillage practice in orchards 
assumes also a cover-crop. This cover-crop is usu- 
ally grown in late summer and fall, when tillage is 
least needed. The chief value of the cover-crop is 
to supply humus, in this regard taking the place of 
stable manure, which usually cannot be had in 
quantities for large orchard areas, since stock- 
raising and fruit-growing are not often practiced 
equally on one farm. In young orchards it is 
possible to make cover-cropping a part of a rotation 
plan. [See the article on Cover-crops, page 258.] 

Almost any quick-growing crop that produces 
abundant herbage may be u.sed to advantage as a 
cover. A covering of weeds is often better than 
bare ground. In general, tillage is given early in 
the season. By midsummer or early fall, the cover- 
crop is sown, the land then being in good tilth. 

Cover-crops are of two main groups, — those that 
survive the winter and grow again in the spring ; 
those that are killed by frost. The former are usu- 
ally to be preferred, as they are likely to produce 
more herbage, and more completely to occupy the 
land with roots, and they may better prevent deep 
freezing, washing, and waste of rainfall. The dis- 
advantage is that they delay all the plowing till 
spring, and there is a temptation to let them grow 
too late in spring, thereby using too much soil 
moisture, and reducing the chance of a satisfactory 
preparation of the land. Some of the frost-killed 
crops may have greater effect on the land than is 
to be expected from the mere bulk of the herbage 
that they produce ; this is particularly true of 
buckwheat. Following are some of the leading 
cover-crops mentioned or recommended for fruit 
plantatio-ns (the leguminous or nitrogen-gathering 
species being starred) : 

Living over winter. 

*Clovers 

*Hairy or winter vetch ( Vieia villosa) 

*Sweet clover (little used) 

Winter rye 

Winter wheat 

Killed by freezing. 

*Cowpea 

*Soybean 

*Velvet bean 

*Pea 

*Bean 

*Beggarweed 

*Spring vetch ( Vicia saliva) 

Rape 

Turnip 

Oats 

Barley (little used) 

Buckwheat 

Maize 

Millet (little used) 



FRUIT-GROWING 



FRUIT-GROWING 



351 



m£ 



When orchards are carrying a full crop, it may 
be impossible to sow a cover-crop' early enough to 
enable it to make much headway before winter 
sets in. In such cases, rye is about the only re- 
course, for it may be sown very late, and it will 
make rapid growth in the earliest days of spring. 
Even if it does not germinate in the fall, it 
will probably come up in the spring and do 
well. A little fertilizer drilled in with the 
rye usually will cause a great gain in the 
growth of herbage. Rye will thrive fairly 
well even with very indifferent preparation 
of the land, and therefore is a most useful 
cover-crop on lands that are not yet well 
subdued. 

To insure a heavy cover, the seeding 
should be thick. Of some covers, the seed 
is expensive and often difficult to secure in 
;';ood quality. The grower may find it good 
practice to reserve one corner or side of a 
field for the gathering of seed. This can be 
readily done with winter vetch, crimson 
clover and the cereals. Following are aver- 
age quantities of seed to sow per acre for 
heavy cover-crops in fruit plantations : 

Barley 2-2J bus. 

Beans li-2 bus. 

Beggarweed 5-8 lbs. 

Buckwheat li bus. 

Clover, red 10-15 lbs. 

Clover, mammoth 15-20 lbs. 

Clover, crimson 15-20 lbs. 

Cowpea li-2 bus. 

Maize 2-3 bus. 

Millet li bus. 

Oats 2-3 bus. 

Pea 2-3 bus. 

Rape 2-5 lbs. 

Rye li-2 bus. 

Soybean 2-4 pks. 

Sweet Clover 10-12 lbs. 

Turnip 4 lbs. 

Velvet bean 1-4 pks. 

Vetch IJ bus. 

Wheat 2-2i bus. 

Alfalfa (20 to 24 lbs. to the acre) is sometimes 
used as a cover-crop in orchards, being plowed a 
year from sowing or allowed to remain for a longer 

period. Vari- 
1^^^^^ ^ ^^^^^j^ ous combina- 
tions or mix- 
tures are also 
used; as mam- 
moth clover 6 
lbs., alfalfa 
10 lbs., turnip 
2 to 3 oz.; al- 
falfa 6 lbs., 
crimson clo- 
ver 6 lbs., al- 
sike clover 3 
lbs. .strap-leaf 
turnip 2 to 3 oz., all sown in midsummer ; cow- 
peas in drills and cultivated, and rye, rape or tur- 
nips added at the last cultivation ; winter vetch 



1| bus., rye i bus.; cowpea 14 bus., red clover 
6 lbs.; oats 2 bus., peas 2 bus. 

Fertilizing. 

The special needs of fruit-bearing trees and 
bushes in the way of fertilizers have not yet been 



%- 








Fig. 500. California walnut orchard, 
showing clean ciUtivation. 



Fig. 501. Orchard tillage. Peach trees heavily cut back after the 
loss of the frnit-erop by a freeze, in order to renew the tops. 

worked out. It is probable that practices will be 
greatly modified when fundamental studies are 
made. The current advice, given in the publica- 
tions of the past ten years, holds good so far as 
our knowledges goes. Stable manure is of first 
importance in most cases, because of its humus- 
forming materials ; when this cannot be had, 
cover-cropping is all the more necessary. As for 
commercial fertilizers, the conclusions derived from 
general-crop studies are applied to orchards. The 
orchard must be fed liberally if profitable results 
year by year are to be expected. Because orchards 
will bear now and then without fertilizing, seems 
to afi'ord an excuse for not fertilizing. Muriate of 
potash 200 to 300 pounds, acid phosphate (availa- 
ble) of equal or greater quantity, and nitrate of 
soda 100 to 200 pounds (or its equivalent in green- 
manures) afl^ord a standard application per acre 
annually for good orchards in full bearing, when 
combined with good tillage. 

Pruning. 

To reduce the competition between branches, to 
open the plant to light and air, to facilitate spray- 
ing, tillage and other care, pruning is necessary 
in all bush-fruits and trees. In the bush-fruits, 
old canes must be removed and new vigorous ones 
allowed to take their place ; the bearing canes 
may need to be headed back to keep them within 
bounds. How much to prune fruit trees depends 
on the species, age and the locality. More pruning 
is needed in some localities than in others. In the 
hot, bright sunny regions of the plains very open- 
headed trees are liable to sun-scald. As a general 
statement, it may be said that trees should be 
pruned with as much pains and regularity as they 
are tilled or sprayed. The best season for the main 
pruning is late winter or very early spring. The 
branches should be cut close to the trunk, as long 
stubs do not heal readily and rot is likely to set 
in. We need fundamental studies of the effects of 



352 



FRUIT-GROWING 



FRUIT-GROWING 



pruning ; it is not unlikely that some of the cur- 
rent teaching is erroneous. 

Special risks. 

The great impediments and risks in the growing 
of fruits are these: (1) hard winters; (2) frosts; 
(3) insects ; (4) plant diseases. To these must be 
added the climatic risks that are common to all 
agriculture, as too much or too little rainfall, 




Fig. 502. Clean culture in a peach orchard. The Michigan type of tree. 



hail-storms, destructive winds. Every experienced 
fruit-grower is aware of the mental attitude that 
he must take toward these four impediments, but 
for the novice the.se attitudes may be briefly stated. 
(1) Hard winters are beyond control ; the fruit- 
grower calculates on this risk when he chooses the 
region in which he shall set his plantation ; he 
chooses hardy varieties ; he then endeavors to 
have his ground well drained, if he is in a cold 
climate, so that there is no standing water, to en- 
able the tree roots to strike deep, and to produce 
such a condition and depth of soil as will hold 
much moisture and thereby prevent dry-freezing ; 
he plans his tillage in such a way that the trees go 
into the winter with well-matured wood ; in cer- 
tain orange-growing regions, slat sheds are built 
over the trees. (2) Light frosts may sometimes be 
prevented on small areas [see Vol. I, pp. 540, 589], 
but in general they are beyond control, and the 
grower calculates on the probability of them when 
he chooses the particular site or exposure of his 
plantation. (3, 4) For most insects and diseases 
there are now preventives, remedies, or even speci- 
fics; the grower keeps himself informed and armed ; 
it is a question largely of business organization, that 



takes in a situation and then brings to bear the 
means to meet it ; reading a half-dozen books and 
all the special bulletins he can get is not too great 
a personal sacrifice to make in order to be pre- 
pared to meet the enemy. [See the articles on 
insects and diseases, pages 35-53.] 

Varieties. 

The question of varieties is one of the most 

important in the 
whole round of 
fruit-growing, and 
also one of the 
most difficult of 
solution. A mistake 
in the varieties 
may prevent any 
profit or satisfac- 
tion in the planta- 
tion. Two elements 
in the problem are 
the choice of varie- 
ties, and the means 
of securing them 
true to name. The 
choice of varieties 
is largely a personal 
and local question, 
to be determined 
after careful study 
of the farm and 
the market. The 
producing of trees 
true to name is the 
nurseryman's re- 
sponsibility. This 
responsibility is 
grave, and it should 
be rigidly enforced 
by public sentiment. 
A new attitude toward varieties is now develop- 
ing : there are varieties within varieties. That is, 
minor strains and adaptations of varieties may be 
of the greatest value, particularly when the grower 
expects to reach a good market under his own name. 
Thus, a single bush of raspberry or blackberry of a 
given variety may exhibit features that make it 
superior to all others in the field ; such plant should 
be propagated for the owner's planting. It is illog- 
ical to expect the best results from promiscuous 
cions or buds of any variety of apple or pear or 
orange. As there are trees of individual excellence, 
so it may be expected that cions from those trees 
will tend to perpetuate those excellencies. There 
has therefore arisen a desire among fruit-growers 
who plan to produce a superior product to top-graft 
their young trees with cions from known parents. 
It is of little consequence that this method does not 
produce what may be called new varieties : it prob- 
ably aids in producing plants of given efficiency. 
Every good fruit-grower, as well as every good 
grain-farmer or cotton-planter, now becomes con- 
sciously a plant-breeder, as the good stockman has 
always been an animal-breeder. [See the article on 
Plant-breeding, page 57.] 



FRUIT-GROWING 



FRUIT-GROWING 



353 



Cost. 

The cost of setting up a fruit-growing 
business depends on many circumstances and 
conditions, chiefly on whether the fruit is 
destined for the general trade or the fancy 
trade and whether clean tillage is practiced. 
The present-day fruit-grower is a man who 
invests confidently and heavily in apparatus 
and supplies ; and this is characteristic of 
the present tendency in American agricul- 
ture. Better and heavier horses, stronger 
and more powerful tools and machines, 
heavier fertilizing, more thorough-going 
methods, are among the things that are 
to save farming from weakness, desul- 
toriness and incompetency. 

The e.xperience of growers is the only 
safe guide. The intending fruit-grower 
should visit representative fruit-farms to 
determine these points. Estimates of act- 
ual fruit-growers are given on pages 
187-193 in Volume I. As a further con- 
tribution, two statements from successful 
men are now added. 

The first of these statements is from a 
thorough-going fruit-grower in western 
New York who practices very clean 
tillage: "The expense and equip- 
ment on a 100-acre fruit-farm de- 
pends very much on the kind and 
varieties of fruit and whether the 
sod-and-mulch method or thorough 
tillage is practiced. I am a strong 
advocate of thorough tillage, cover- 
crops and commercial fertilizers; and 
one can readily figure that such a 
system involves considerably more 
e.xpense than the mulch systems. After 
nearly ruining a ten-acre apple orchard 
by the sod-and-mulch method and then 
bringing it back into very profitable bear- 
ing by changing to thorough tillage, 
cover - crops and fertilizers, one can 
scarcely wonder why I speak so strongly 
in regard to this method of handling an 
orchard. 

"The expense of tilling and caj-ing for 
one hundred acres of fruit divided into 
forty acres of apples, forty acres of 
peaches and pears and twenty acres of 
grapes, will run about as follows : It 
would require eight good horses ; four 
plows ; two spring-tooth harrows ; 
one double-action cutaway harrow ; 
one solid disk-harrow; one Planet Jr. 
orchard cultivator ;' two-horse culti- 
vator, on wheels; one spike -tooth 
iron - frame lever harrow ; one duck- 
tooth wood-frame Waterport cultiva- 
tor, with extension arm; one Syracuse 
grape-hoe with spring-tooth attach- 
ment ; one land roller, preferably 
steel ; one pivot-axle two-horse culti- 
vator; two Planet Jr. one-horse culti- 
vators ; one gas power sprayer ; one 




Fig. 

Pruning 

hand 

most 




503 

tools. The saws and 
shears (3,4,6) are the 
useful of these tools. 



potato and vineyard sprayer ; one three- 
horse fruit wagon, capacity 8,000 pounds ; 
one two-horse fruit wagon, capacity 4,000 
pounds ; one two-horse fruit wagon, capacity 
2,000 pounds ; three grub hoes ; six common 
hoes; three pruning - saws ; three pruning- 
shears ; one grain-drill with fertilizer attach- 
ment ; one Calhoun grass-.seeder ; one fruit- 
packing hou.se centrally located, with the 
necessary picking-baskets, bushel crates and 
grape-trays and sorting tables; rubber 
stencils and many small supplies ; six good 
men, including foreman. 

"As to the amount of money necessary 
to conduct such a plant, much will depend 
on the soil, climatic conditions and 'nerve' 
of the man at the helm. I have found 
that it does not pay to be niggardly in 
regard to putting money into such an 
enterprise, as our balance sheet proves." 

The second statement is by a successful 
grower in central Kan.sas, on the moist, 
loose bottoms of the Arkansas river, who 
does not practice clean tillage: "There 
are about one hundred acres in my apple 
orchard, and it is therefore easy to give 
an idea as to what will be necessary 
in the w ly of horses, tools and labor 
to work luch an area. At the present 
age of tl e orchard, say twelve years, 
one heavy team of horses will do all 
the disking and surface harrowing, 
as well as pulling the power sprayer 
and the loose brush from the orchard. 
One good heavy team will do all the 
work for a 100-acre orchard satis- 
factorily, at least in the way we 
work them here, in an orchard with prac- 
tically all winter varieties. Taking care 
of fruit in the fall makes it necessary to 
hire teams to haul fruit back to the farm 
to store, as well as to help haul the loose 
fruit in the orchard to the shed, which 
will require about one team. In other 
words, two good teams will haul empty 
boxes to the orchard and return them 
filled with fruit to the shed. 

"My idea of tools in working an orchard 
after it has attained the age of ten or 
twelve years is simply a disk-harrow or 
possibly a harrow provided with hori- 
zontal knives. One man beginning March 
1 with one good team will do all the 
cultivating, haul all brush, pull the 
power sprayer and do any mowing of 
weeds that may be necessary. In a 
100-acre orchard, his labor should 
be supplemented by that of three to 
spray the trees. 

"The crops of corn raised between 
the young apple trees will amply 
take care of any expense in raising 
this orchard to the bearing age. The 
first year one would not lose any 
corn, the second year only one row. 



B23 



354 



FRUIT-GROWING 



FRUIT-GROWING 



the third year possibly two rows, the fourth year 
not over three rows, the fifth year about the 
same, and so on till the end of the seventh year. I 
would cease cropping ground entirely and expect 
to get some returns the eighth year. 

" As to profits to be derived from the orchard, I 
can only give my experience in the Arkansas 
valley. When my 2,000 apple trees were nine 
years old, the crop netted $90 per acre. Next 
year we did not spray and lost half the crop 
by codlin-moth. The third year we sprayed part 
of the trees four times and part twice, and the part 
sprayed four times (these trees being twelve years 




Delivering peaches to cars in New York. 



old) dropped scarcely any fruit and it packed 
over 75 per cent No. 1 ; these are now bringing 
$1.25 per bushel. The better parts of the orchards 
netted $150 per acre. We figure that spraying, 
picking, sorting, packing, hauling to storage and 
loading in the car cost us, including the package, 
thirty-five to forty cents per bushel box, with labor 
at $1.75 to $2 for an average picker. In this lo- 
cality, wheat on the same kind of land might aver- 
age twenty bushels to the acre and the average 
price be about sixty cents. Some land will produce 
thirty to fifty bushels." 

Market problems. 

In a general article, it is impossible to give spe- 
cific practical advice on the harvesting and market- 
ing of fruits, for the practices diff'er with each 
fruit and sometimes with the community. Yet it is 
possible to make statements of points of view. 

If a crop is worth raising with much labor and 
care, it is equally worth marketing. It is perhaps 
unusual that one man is equally competent in the 
growing and the selling. The professional sales- 
man seems to be a necessity. He can usually 
market the products more effectively and cheaply 



than the general grower can. This may or may 
not apply to the grower of very choice and special 
products, that are used by a particular and per- 
sonal trade : in such cases, the grower may put his 
products directly in the consumer's hands. 

Much is said about the necessity of growing a 
fancy product, but this carries with it the condition 
that there are special means of marketing it. An 
unusually goed article of fruit, put on the general 
market, usually does not pass under the owner's 
name or mark, and it is likely to be lost in the 
commoner grades ; or if better prices are realized 
on the open market, the dealer may be the one 
who receives most of 
the extra reward. The 
value of grades that 
are much above the 
general market stock 
is secured when tho 
grower can make a 
sale while his name is 
still associated with 
the product. If there 
is profit in growing 
very special-class fruit 
for limited markets, 
there is also profit in 
growing staple kinds 
for the staple prices, if 
one can cheapen and 
economize the cost of 
production and if he 
has sufficient quantity 
to give volume to the 
business. 

The above consider- 
ations determine very 
largely the question of 
the size and style of 
package. That is, the 
package is not fundamental ; it is incidental to 
the kind of market that is to be reached. With 
the increasing demand for high-class products, the 
small, carefully graded package is coming into 
greater use. It is true, also, that the attractive- 
ness of the package will stimulate sales, but, as 
already indicated, this advantage accrues to the 
grower chiefly when he has his own hand on the 
marketing of his products. 

Merchandizing of all kinds has established new 
ideals and developed new values by the attention 
that has been given to grading and packing. It is 
not many years ago that boots and shoes were 
shipped in bulk in large cases. The small package 
is now a feature of trade ; and each package con- 
tains only one grade of goods. Before the fruit- 
grower can establish a special market, he must 
develop a clear conception of grades. Usually, 
only two grades are made in fruits, — the salable 
and the unsalable. Of the salable part we may 
yet make two to four grades in some kinds of 
fruits. A first-class grade comprises only fruits 
that are physically perfect and are typical of the 
kind. First-class fruits are always in demand, 
whatever the state of the general market; and 



'y^m. 



FRUIT-GROWING 



FRUIT-GROWING 



355 



some one should be able to find the customer who 
wants it. 

It has become a trite thing to say that care 
should be exercised in picking and marketing, not 
to injure the fruit ; but recent investigations have 
given such advice new significance. The work of 
Powell and others in California, and similar in- 
vestigations in other parts, have shown that a good 
part of the losses in oranges and other fruits in 
shipment is due (1) to bruises and cuts on the 
fruits, and (2) to failure to cool the fruits quickly 
after they are picked or packed. This is rational 
when it is considered that the organisms of decay 
enter at the bruised and 
broken places, and a 
high or even ordinary 
temperature encourages 
the organisms to grow 
rapidly. This subject is 
discussed in the succeed- 
ing article. The whole 
subject of cooling, stor- 
ing and handling fruits 
must soon receive radi- 
cal attention. 

Literature. 

There are now many 
good books on fruit- 
growing, presenting the 
subject from ditferent 
points of view and for 
the ditferent fruits. 
Mention of some of them 
will be found in May- 
nard's article on Farm 
Garden, page 273. Some 
of the current books 
covering the general 
field are: Thomas, Amer- 
ican Fruit Culturist ; 
Budd and Hansen, American Horticultural Manual 
(Vol. II is devoted to Systematic Pomology); Green, 
Amateur Fruit-Growing (with special reference to 
cold climates); Wickson, California Fruits ; Bailey, 
Principles of Fruit-Growing. The progressive fruit- 
grower will need the discussions in experiment 
station bulletins, transactions of horticultural 
societies, and the agricultural press. 

Handling and shipping fruit. 

By G. Harold Powell. 

A fundamental principle for the fruit-handler 
and shipper to appreciate is that a fruit is a living 
thing, that it passes through a life-history and 
finally dies from old age when it has completed its 
chemical and physiological changes, and that it 
may die prematurely from the attack of some dis- 
ease. Some of the diseases, like the bitter-rot and 
the scab of the apple, affect it while it is on the 
tree, while others, like most of the soft rots of the 
apple, pear, orange and small-fruits, are acquired 
after the fruit is harvested. Diseases of the latter 
class generally attack it through abrasions or 



other physical weaknesses of the skin caused by 
rough handling. It is especially important to 
appreciate the effect of breaking ihe skin of a 
fruit and of shipping fruit that is attacked by in- 
sects or fungi, as the large commercial losses that 
occur annually in the storage and .shipment of 
fruits are related primarily to these defects. 

}\nien to pick. 

Most fruits should not be picked until they have 
reached a stage of hard ripeness. If picked earlier, 
the flavor is insipid, the color dull, and the whole- 
someness and commercial value are impaired. Fruit 




505. Packing peaches in Michigan. 



picked when immature does not keep so well as 
when more nearly ripe. The seeds of the apple and 
the pear should have turned brown, the apple and 
the stone fruits should be highly colored but still 
hard, and the small-fruits well colored but firm 
when picked. The pear should be picked as soon as 
the seeds turn brown, but before it shows ripeness 
in the color. Lemons are picked when they have 
reached a desired size, irrespective of color, and 
the green fruit is colored in curing. Oranges 
should reach full color, and should have attained 
good quality before picking. It is a common prac- 
tice early in the season to pick the orange while 
the color is still green, and to color it in a room 
by heat and moisture from oil stoves with water 
pans over the flame. The practice of picking fruits 
in an immature condition that are to be eaten out 
of hand is to be strongly condemned, as it injures 
the reputation of the fruit to have green specimens 
in the hands of the consumer. 

Handling the fruit. 

It is diflicult to give specific advice on the care 
that is necessary in fruit-handling. To be able to 



356 



FRUIT-GROWING 



FRUIT-GROWING 



handle fruit carefully is inherent in the labor and 
in those who direct and advise it. A clumsy- 
handed individual never makes a good picker or 
packer, nor can the full efficiency of a labor force 
be attained without a high-class foreman or man- 
ager. The cause of bad handling frequently has its 
roots in the system of labor management. Contract 
labor, piece-work in picking, packing, and in other 
handling operations, is fundamentally weak, as it 
encourages large outputs, irrespective of the qual- 
ity of the work. Labor paid by the day is likely to 
be more efficient, provided it has competent super- 
vision. More fruit is injured by careless handling 
than fruit-growers suspect. Apples generally show 
at least 10 per cent of the fruit with the skin 
broken by dropping it into baskets or on the piles, 
or by rough handling in other respects. Peaches 
and the small-fruits are usually injured to a greater 
extent, and 2 to 60 per cent of the oranges often 
have the skin cut by the clippers in severing the 
fruit from the branch. 

It is even more difficult to give specific advice 
regarding the details of fruit -handling. A few 
definite matters may be brought to the reader's 
attention. The stem should be left on all fruit 
when it is picked ; lay it carefully in the picking 
receptacle, and pour it out with equal care. Place 
it in the shipping package gently, pack it firmly to 
prevent movement in transit, but be careful not to 
bruise the fruit in covering the package. Caps and 
cushions on apple barrels prevent injury, and a 
fruit-wrapper is a mechanical protection against 
bruising. Caution the pickers, especially, about 
pressing the fingers against the tender fruits, such 
as the peach or the small-fruits, or light-colored 
fruits like the Yellow Bellflower or Rhode Island 
Greening apples. It discolors the fruit, but may 
not cause decay unless the skin is broken. Pick 
the larger fruits in baskets or pails. Do not use a 
picking-bag for these fruits, except for the citrus 
fruits, as the fruit is more likely to be injured. 
Caution the pickers against striking the fruit on 
the spurs or branches in taking it out of the trees. 

Place the fruit in the shade as soon as it is 
picked, and leave it exposed to the cool night air 
before packing, if the fruit is picked after ten 
o'clock in the morning. The fruit picked early in 
the morning may be packed at once, or quickly 
stored, if designed for cold-storage. The tempera- 
ture of the fruit may be 10° to 30° cooler in 
the morning than at midday. This represents the 
measure of cooling that takes place in one to five 
days in transit in a refrigerator car. The use of 
the night air for cooling is especially adapted to 
the Pacific coast and to high altitudes, where there 
is a wide difference between the temperature of 
night and day. 

Draw the fruit to the packing -house or to the 
shipping point on spring-wagons, and provide each 
wagon with a tarpaulin, if the fruit has to be 
drawn some distance in the sun. There may be a 
difl'erence of 5 per cent of decay in Florida oranges 
drawn on spring-wagons and on wagons without 
springs. 

After the fruit is picked, ship it or store it in 



the quickest possible time. The ripening processes 
progress with a bound as soon as the fruit ia 
picked, especially in hot weather. A cool tempera- 
ture checks the ripening and retards the develop- 
ment of the diseases. Do not pile apples in the 
orchard either before or after packing for any 
length of time, and do not allow the fruit to remain 
in the packing -house, except in cool weather. 
Rough handling, coupled with a delay in shipping 
or storing the fruit, causes more of the large com- 
mercial losses in storage or in transportation than 
all other factors combined. 

The ■packing-house. 

A large fruit-farm should be equipped with a 
packing-house so arranged that the fruit is un- 
loaded from the field at one end or side of the 
house, and is taken out after packing at the other 
end or side. Packing -tables should be placed 
lengthwise between the entrance and exit to avoid 
carrying fruit around the tables. The house should 
be provided with doors and windows which can be 
opened at night. Small-fruits may be packed in 
temporary sheds in the field. Apples and pears that 
are to be shipped at once may usually be packed 
more cheaply in the orchard, on temporarily 
erected platforms and sorting devices. It is an 
advantage to have the sorting-tables on wheels if 
the work is done in the field. Fruit that is to be 
wrapped and packed in boxes, or is to be put up 
with special care, can usually be handled best in a 
packing -house. The packing -house may be part 
of a storage-plant or may be erected separately. 

The fruit package. 

It is wise for the average fruit-grower to use 
the type of package and to follow the general style 
of packing employed in the packing of fruits in his 
neighborhood. Special types of packages are appli- 
cable to a special trade, but it does not usually pay 
to introduce a new package or method of packing 
in the general trade unless the fruit can be shipped 
in large quantities, and can be skilfully advertised. 
The fruit trade is conservative and suspicious in 
its attitude toward innovations. Buyers become 
used to a certain style of package and packing for 
the fruits of a region. They calculate the charges 
of cartage, storage and other things on these types 
of packages, and they do not like to adopt a new 
method of reckoning. A slight change in the design 
of the label on an established brand of oranges 
from California has been known to cost the shipper 
several thou.'^and dollars before the error could be 
rectified. This attitude of the fruit trade is due, in 
no small measure, to the large extent of dishonest 
packing and grading, leading the buyer to suspect 
that a new package or label or method of pack- 
ing is a new way of deceiving the purchaser. The 
grower who ships to the general market will make 
the greatest progress by improving the grade of 
the fruit and the uniformity of the pack. The 
grower who ships to a special trade may use any 
type of package that is attractive. He may wrap 
the fruit, embellish it with tinsel, or fix it up in 
any other way that gives artistic effect. 



FRUIT-GROWING 



GINSENG 



357 



Grading. 

The grading of American fruits is in a chaotic 
condition. There is no uniformity in the principles 
or practices of fruit-grading. All fruits should be 
graded at least into sound and imperfect fruit. 
There is a large demand for low grades of fruit 
among the poorer classes, and there is no objection 
to the sale of low grades, provided the grade is 
plainly designated on the package, and the fruit is 
not unwholesome. The sound fruit may be still 
further graded into several classes, depending on 
the relative color, perfection and size of the fruit. 
In packing in boxes, each of the grades should be 
sized accurately, and the number should be desig- 
nated on the end of the package. If there is not a 
large quantity of the higher grades in the sound 
fruit, all of it may be marked under a brand known 
as "orchard run," which usually means that the 
unsound fruit and culls have been eliminated. The 
oi'chard-run grade is in common use among apple- 
packers in the East, who eliminate the imperfect 
and the smaller sizes of perfect fruit, marking the 
grade as No. 1. Small-fruits can be graded into 
different sizes if there is sufficient variation in 
the size. 

Selling. 

It is a good policy for the average fruit-grower 
who does not grow large quantities of fruit to sell 
it on the tree, in the package, or on an f. o. b. 
basis, unless he belongs to an organization that has 
a marketing system developed, or has unusual 
facilities for posting himself on the condition of the 
crop and the market. If he does not care to sell, 
he may store it for a possible rise in price later on. 
There are many variations in the method of selling 
fruit that cannot be discussed in this article. It 
may pay the grower who has large quantities of 
fruit to handle it through a commission merchant. 
A firm should be selected that is reliable, and the 
grower generally should ship to no one else in the 
same market. If he has lai-ge quantities of fruit, 
he may be able to arrange with the merchant to 
handle his fruit exclusively. The fruit can then be 
advertised, the merchant can circularize the trade, 
or make known the virtues of the fruit in other 
ways. In shipping fruit to commission merchants, 
the grower should not lose sight of the fact that a 
large proportion of the commission merchants of 
the country have become fruit-dealers, and that 
they sell their own fruit in competition with the 
fruit that is consigned to them. The highest re- 
turns are probably received by those who are suc- 
cessful in developing a special trade among retail 
grocerymen, private individuals or other special 
customers. The success of a special trade depends 
primarily on the man who attempts to develop it. 
A high grade of fruit packed attractively and with 
scrupulous honesty has to be supplemented by per- 
sonal qualities in the grower to enable him to im- 
press on a customer the superior merits of his fruit. 

Shipping. 

The quick-ripening fruits that are to be shipped 
some distance should be forwarded in refrigerator 



cars in hot weather. This applies to the stone 
fruits, the small-fruits, grapes and the early varie- 
ties of apples and pears. It applies also to the 
fruits of all kinds of the Pacific coast except the 
citrus fruits, provided they have been handled in 
perfect condition. In cool weather the fruits can 
be shipped in special ventilator cars, or in refrig- 
erator cars operated as ventilators, if the car is 
needed to protect the fruit against the cold. The 
carrying quality of all fruits is improved by cool- 
ing them to about 40° before loading. It requires 
several days in transit to reduce the temperature 
to 40°. If the fruit can be cooled, it can develop a 
higher color before picking, and the market area 
can be greatly extended. 

GINSENG, AMERICAN. Panax quinquefolium, 
Linn. Araliacem. Figs. 506-510. 

By B. L. Hart. 

Ginseng is a small perennial herb, the thickened 
roots of which are used medicinally by the Chinese 
and Koreans. Although long known in China, the 
plant was first described and named botanically 
from North American specimens by LinnEeus 
in 1753, as Panax quinquefolium. In 1843 the 
Chinese plant was separated by C. A. Meyer as 
Panax Ginseng. Later, these plants were trans- 
ferred to the genus Aralia as A. quinquefolia, 
Decne. & Planch., and A. Ginseng, Baill. By some 
authorities the oriental P. Ginseng is considered 




Fig. 506. The ginseng plant in bloom. It be.irs three leaves 
about one foot from the ground, each with five leaflets 
(wlience the name fiuinquefvlium). 

to be only a geographical form of one cosmopolitan 
species, P. quinquefolium. The word ginseng is 
said to signify "man plant" in the Chinese; and 
the roots are apparently employed on the old 
doctrine of signatures, which assumes that plant 
forms resembling human organs, are specifics 



358 



GINSENG 



GINSENG 




Fig. 507. Dry ginseng roots. 
One-third natur;il size. 



for the ills of those organs; and, as the roots of 
ginseng often resemble the form of a man, they 
are therefore specific for the ills of man. 

When the plant is old enough to produce fruit it 
is rather conspicuous and is easily recognized, but 

until three or four 
years old it is not 
usually very promi- 
nent. The seedlings 
at first somewhat 
resemble newly 
sprouted beans, in 
that they send up 
two cotyledons, and 
from between them 
a stem with two 
minute leaves. 
These enlarge until 
the plant has at- 
tained its first sea- 
son's growth (about 
two inches). The 
work of the plant 
during the first 
year is to develop 
the bud at the 
crown of the root, 
which is to produce 
the next season's stem and leaves. In autumn the 
stem dies and breaks off, leaving a scar, at the side 
of which is the solitary bud. In the spring of the 
second year this bud produces a straight, erect 
stem, at the top of which the one to three branch- 
like stalks of the compound leaves appear. Three to 
eight leaflets are developed, which usually rise not 
more than four inches from the ground. The third 
year eight to fifteen leaflets may be put forth, and 
the plant may attain a height of eight inches. In 
succeeding years the plant may produce three, 
sometimes four or even five leaf- stalks three or 
four inches long, each bearing five thin leaflets 
palmately arranged, two of them an inch or two 
long, the remainder three or four inches, egg-shaped 
in outline, with the broad end away from the stem, 
abruptly pointed and saw-toothed. 

At a point where the leaf-stalks meet, the main 
axis is continued into an erect flower-stalk, two 
to five inches long, bearing in early July, or in late 
June, a number of inconspicuous, yellowish green 
flowers. These are soon followed by the fruit, 
which develops rapidly, remaining green until the 
middle of August, when it begins to turn red, 
becoming scarlet and ripe in September. The ber- 
ries, which have the taste of the root, are the size 
and shape of small wax beans, and contain two 
or occasionally three seeds each. No seed is pro- 
duced the first year, and only an occasional berry 
on extra strong plants in the garden in the second 
season. It is only the third season that the plants 
produce seed in any quantity. Plants in cultivated 
beds produce more freely than those in the forest. 

History. 

American ginseng was discovered near Montreal, 
Canada, in 1716, by Father Laftau, a missionary 



among the Iroquois Indians. Soon the French began 
collecting it, through the Indians, for export to 
China. The demand thus created was so large that 
ginseng presently became an important article of 
commerce in Canada. It was not until 1750 that 
ginseng was found in the more southern colonies 
of New England. In 1751 it was found in central 
New York and at Stockbridge, Mass. It was also 
found plentifully in Vermont at the time of the 
settlement of that state. 

Ginseng in its wild state grew abundantly in the 
hard-wood forests of a large part of the United 
States, and was dug in quantities sufficient to sup- 
ply several hundred thousand pounds of the dried 
or prepared root each season. In the past few 
years the supply of forest root has greatly dimin- 
ished, the result of so many persons being engaged 
in hunting for ginseng in the summer months and 
the vast extent of timber land that has been 
cleared for pasture. The early collectors gathered 
only such roots as they thought had grown to mar- 
ketable size, but in the past twenty years practically 
no attention has been given to the age or size. 
Digging the root before the seed had an opportun- 
ity to ripen contributed much to the almost total 
extinction of the forest root, with the result that 
the garden cultivation of ginseng has been largely 
engaged in to supply the Chinese markets. 

Ginseng has been grown under cultivation in 
America for the past twenty years, and it has been 
fully demonstrated that the plant can be raised 
successfully provided the necessary requirements 
are furnished. 

Culture. 

Ginseng is propagated from the seed produced 
in the small berries which ripen during the early 
part of September. Eighteen months are required 
for these seeds to germinate, and during this time 
they must not be allowed to dry. When the ber- 
ries are gathered, they should either be planted at 
once or be stored in four times their bulk of clean, 
moist sand. A tight wooden box will answer the 




Fig. 508. Ginseng plants coming up. 

purpose for storing, but, as mice are very fond of 
ginseng seed, the top should be covered with a 
wire screen. The box containing the seed may be 
stored in a cool cellar during the stratifying 
process, which requires twelve months. During 
this time great care should be exercised in keeping 
the sand continually moist ; if the sand gets dry, 
the seed will generally become moldy very soon, in 
which case it should be separated from the sand, 



GINSENG 



GINSENG 



359 



thoroughly washed and repacked in new sand that 
has never been used for this purpose. The sand 
should be passed through a fine-meshed sieve before 
using, then when the seeds are wanted it may be 
sifted, making a very easy way of separating it 
from the seed. 

After storing for ten or twelve months, as de- 
scribed, the outside shell will begin to crack on a 
large percentage of the seed, when it is ready for 
planting. Some growers advocate planting the seed 
as soon as harvested ; others advise burying it in 
the open ground for the first twelve months ; but 
the writer has devoted a great deal of time and 
study to stratifying seed and thinks that the above 
method will give by far the best results. 

This is the Korean method of caring for ginseng 
seed: Remove the pulp or berry from the seed. 
Wash clean, place in thin cloth bag, and store in 
dry, cool cellar, until ready to plant. Soak the seed 
in blood-warm water (98°-100°) for seventy-two 
hours and immediately plant. Will grow in five to 
ten days. Seed may be planted the ne.xt year after 
it is harvested, or kept for any number of years. 
It is planted in May only after danger of frost is 
past. 

Seed-beds. — The beds for the seed should not be 
over four feet wide, as this is the most convenient 
width for weeding and working. They should be 
raised several inches above the level to supply good 
drainage, and surrounded by six-inch boards to 
prevent washing. Walks between beds may be six- 
teen or eighteen inches wide. 

In preparing the seed-bed, the soil should be 
worked very fine ten to twelve inches deep. The 
seed may be sown either in drills two inches apart 
each way or scattered broadcast. The latter 
method requires much less labor than the former 
and, if the seeds are scattered evenly, will be 
found to give as good results. When drilled in, it 
will be sufficient to place the seeds one inch apart, 
if they are to be transplanted the first season. 
Some growers do not transplant till the second sea- 
son's growth has been completed. There are 7,000 
to 7,.500 seeds in a pound ; southern seed will some- 
times go ten thousand or more to the pound. After 
the seeds are sown, they should be covered with one 
inch of fine, rich soil. If the natural soil is a rich 
loam, light or sandy, it will answer the purpose, 
but if it is of a heavy texture a liberal quantity of 
leaf-mold or other light soil that is well supplied 
with decayed vegetable matter should be added. 

September and October are the best months for 
sowing the seed. After the planting, no work is 
needed until the folhnving spring, with the excep- 
tion of giving the beds a light mulching of buck- 
wheat straw or forest leaves to protect them dur- 
ing the winter. In early spring the mulching 
should be entirely removed before the plants make 
their appearance, which is in the early part of 
May. 

In the growing season the beds must be kept 
free from weeds and allowed a free circulation 
of air, to keep the plants strong and healthy. In 
early autumn the seedling roots may be planted 
in permanent beds or left for another season's 



growth. Either method is practicable, as either 
one- or two-year-old roots are desirable for trans- 
planting. 

Permanent beds. — In locating permanent beds, 
ground should be chosen that slopes sufiiciently 
to carry away the surface water. An eastern or 
northern exposure will be found the most desirable, 
as the garden is much more protected from the 
direct rays of the sun than with a southern or 
western slope. The garden should be located where 
it can have a free circulation of air ; high ground, 
entirely away from buildings, is preferred. 

In preparing permanent beds, the soil should be 
mellowed to a depth of twelve to fourteen inches ; 
the beds should be raised four to six inches above 
the level, and surrounded with four- or six-inch 
boards, the same as the seed-beds. Ginseng will 
grow in almost any kind of soil, but unless it is of 
proper texture, the growth will be so slow that it 
will take several years to develop the roots to a 
marketable size. A light, deep, rich, well-drained 
soil that is supplied with decayed vegetable matter 
should be selected, — a soil that will not bake and 
crack or become firm and hard after heavy rains. 
New or sod ground is much preferred to land that 
has been tilled for several years, and, in case such 
soil cannot be had, leaf-mold, swamp-peat or light 
woods dirt should be added in liberal quantities. 

September and October are the most favorable 
months for planting the roots, although they may 
be grown successfully when planted in the early 
spring. In planting permanent beds, none but 
healthy roots should be used. They should be dug 
carefully to avoid cutting or bruising, and great 
care should be taken not to injure the bud at the 
neck of the root, as this will set the plant back one 
season's growth and, in some cases, will entirely 
destroy the plant. The roots may be planted in 
rows four to five inches apart each way. The bud 
at the top of the roots should be covered two to 
two and one-half inches. 

Subsequent eare. — After the planting is completed, 
very little care is required with the exception of 
keeping the weeds out and harvesting the seed 
when ripe. The plants begin bearing seed when 
three years old, generally averaging twenty seeds 
to the plant, increasing to seventy-five to one 
hundred at five or six years old. Plants growing in 
their wild state seldom produce more than fifteen 
or twenty seeds in a season, regardless of their 
age. 

Under proper cultivation, the root matures at 
five years old at least, and is then in its be.st con- 
dition for marketing. It should be harvested in 
October, care being taken not to cut or bruise it. 
The roots may be washed with a soft brush, not 
scrubbed until perfectly clean, but simply to re- 
move the clots of dirt. Then they are ready for 
drying. When only a few pounds are to be dried, 
they may be placed about the stove or dried in the 
sun and air ; when large quantities are to be dried, 
evaporators can be used. Evaporators never should 
be run at a temperature of over 85° or 90°. When 
the roots are thoroughly dry, they are ready for 
market. In case the grower does not dispose of 



SGO 



GINSENG 



GINSENG 



them at once, they should be placed in sacks or 
boxes and stored in a cool, dry place. 

Shading. 

The natural home of ginseng is in the still, 
shady forest, protected from heavy winds and the 
direct rays of the sun during the growing period. 
In autumn it is furnished with a mulching of leaves 
to protect it in the best possible way from becom- 
ing injured by frost during the winter. Nature 
supplies these protections for the plant in its 
native home, and the cultivator must furnish these 
requirements in order to grow the plant success- 
fully. When the beds are placed where they do not 
have natural shade from trees, artificial shade must 
be substituted. When ginseng is cultivated in the 
open field, the grower will find that supplying a 
proper degree of shade is one of the most difficult 
problems, and, as the locality has a great deal to 
do with the degree of shade necessary, it is very 
difficult to advise a certain kind of shade that will 
give the best results under all circumstances. 
After a careful test, the writer has concluded that 
more failures in ginseng-culture have been due to 
supplying too much shade rather than too little. 
Some very successful results have been secured by 
shading with brush, but as this requires a great 
deal of repairing it can hardly be recommended as 
a practical method. Screens built of common plas- 
ter lath or slats can be used to advantage, as will 
be seen in Figs. 509, 510, which give an idea how 
to construct a ginseng arbor. 

When this style of arbor is used, the laths in 
overhead screens should not be more than three- 
fourths of an inch apart, while the laths in panels 
around the garden should not be closer than two 
inches ; and the panels should be arranged so that 
they may be taken down in wet weather to allow 
the air to circulate freely, thus guarding against 
fungi and blight diseases affecting the plant. For 



extent for the past several years, and recommends 
it as being superior to other styles. 

With complicated arbors, sometimes the drip is 
very injurious to the plants during heavy storms, 




Fig. 509. A ginseng arbor with seed-beds. 

top shade, the laths may be woven with galvanized 
wire with a common fence-weaving machine, and 
will be found cheap and practicable. The writer 
has used this style of shading to a considerable 




Fig. 510. Ginseng arbor with mature plants. 

and with this style of shading this difficulty is 
overcome almost entirely. 

Enemies. 

Wilt. — The older ginseng plants are subject to a 
wilt-disease, from a fungus belonging to the genus 
Acrostalagmus. The leaves lose their turgidity and 
droop down against the stalk, which retains its 
upright position. The remedy is to dry the affected 
roots and to remove the soil from the infected beds, 
and to grow only vigorous roots for seed, which 
are more resistant. 

The seedlings are also subject to wilt from vari- 
ous causes. Sometimes the lower end is attacked 
by rot, — "end rot," as it has been called, — causing 
the root to shrivel and the leaves and stalk to 
wilt. The disease seems to be associated with 
improper moisture conditions, and ventilation and 
drainage are recommended in its control. 

Millipedes frequently cause the seedling to wilt 
and die, by eating the roots and parts of the stem 
underground. The millipedes are trapped by laying 
boards on the surface of the ground, under which 
they gather. It is also suggested that they may 
be destroyed by scattering pieces of potato poisoned 
with ar.sonic, as they attack potatoes readily. 

Altcrnnria blight is one of the worst enemies of 
the ginseng-grower. It manifests itself by a spot- 
ting of the leaves. In the morning the spots look 
as though they had resulted from drops of scalding 
water, the di.seased leaf-tissue being dark green and 
watery. AVhen the diseased parts have become 
dried by the sun, the spots are yellowish and papery, 
the centers becoming brittle and easily broken out 
when handled. The leaves soon hang limp and dead 
from the stalks. Moist or rainy weather with high 
temperature seems to be most favorable to the 
rapid development of the disease. The disease may 
be prevented by a thorough application of Bordeaux 
mixture. The most certain method is to spray the 



GINSENG 



GINSENG 



361 



ground thoroughly with a strong solution of copper 
sulfate (two pounds copper sulfate, ten to fifteen 
gallons water), before the plants come up. As soon 
as the plants begin to appear, spray thoroughly 
with Bordeaux mixture. As the plants come up 
unevenly, it may be necessary to spray daily till all 
are up, after which thorough spraying every ten 
days or two weeks until the seed-heads begin to fill, 
will be sufficient. When the seed-heads are filling, 
they should be sprayed once or twice to protect 
them from the form of the disease known as blast. 

Soft rot of the roots is indicated by premature 
coloring of the foliage. The leaflets become bronze 
and then show a reddish coloration, followed by the 
wilting and death of the top. The roots rot, and 
become sticky, mushy and ill-smelling. This disease 
is destructive only in wet soils. Normally it is harm- 
less, becoming parasitic on the roots only when 
their vitality is reduced by excessive moisture. 
The only remedy is thorough drainage. 

Rot of stems and roots causes the stem to fall over 
from the weakening at its base, while the roots 
became soft and pulpy. The disease may be recog- 
nized by the large black knots on the base of the 
stem or on the roots. Thorough ventilation and 
careful drainage are recommended. 

Nematode root-galls. — The nematode worm attacks 
ginseng plants, especially those in gardens near 
woodlots. The largest knots seem to be formed on 
the main roots. The galls may reach a large size, 
and rapidly rob the plant of its vitality and reduce 
the value of the roots. The most effective remedy 
is to remove the garden to an unaffected place, and 
to be careful not to transfer any of the worms or 
eggs from the old garden. Seeds or unaffected 
roots should be used to start the new garden. 
Freezing and drying of the ground are both destruc- 
tive to the worms. If the soil can be steam-steril- 
ized, the worms and eggs will both be killed. 

Snails eat the foliage and stems of young plants. 
A good method of extermination is to trap with slices 
of turnip or lettuce leaves. These may be placed 
about the garden and turned over from time to 
time, and the snails killed. With the aid of a lan- 
tern they may be gathered at night from the foli- 
age. Carbon bisulfid has been used with good ef- 
fect, especially by applying along the boards, which 
afford an excellent hiding place for the snails. 
Care must be exercised not to have the carbon bi- 
sulfid very strong. Air-slaked lime applied to the 
soil is said to give good results. 

A discussion of these pests is to be found in Cor- 
nell Bulletin No. 219, "Diseases of Ginseng," by 
James M. Van Hook, from which these notes are in 
part adapted. 

Medicinal properties. 

In this country ginseng is considered of little 
medicinal value. The root is mildly aromatic and 
slightly stimulant. The Chinese and Koreans, how- 
ever, place a high value on it, and regard it as 
a panacea. In Korea, the cultivated ginseng is 
smaller than the wild or mountain ginseng, the 
root of which attains a length of a foot or more 
and a diameter of an inch and upward. It is said 



that when this wild root is administered the patient 
loses consciousness for a time, and for about a 
month is tortured by boils, eruptions, sleeplessness 
and other ills. Rejuvenation then begins, the skin 
becomes clear, the body healthy, and the person 
will live (such is the belief) exempt from diseases 
for many years. The Chinese consider that it acts 
as a preventive by toning up the system. 

The root appears to be differently employed 
according to the source from which it is secured, 
probably partly on real and partly on fictitious 
grounds. There are said to be three ways of tak- 
ing ginseng, viz., as pills, confection and infusion. 
Its medicinal value is thought to be diminished by 
a steaming process to which it is frequently sub- 
jected for the improvement of its color. It appears 
to be given the character of a confection by steep- 
ing in honey or by the use of sugar. 

Markets and marketing. 

Ginseng roots are purchased by raw fur dealers 
in New York and other large cities. Many of these 
dealers issue price-lists, which are mailed to grow- 
ers and collectors from July to December. These 
buyers either dispose of their holdings to Chinese 
representatives or export directly to Hong Kong, 
which is the principal port for American goods 
entering China. There the roots are handled by 
Chinese merchants who purchase in large quanti- 
ties to supply the retailers, from whom the con- 
sumers buy. That there is a demand for American 
root in China is certain. The native supply is lim- 
ited, and it is to this country that China must look 
for a large share of the ginseng she uses. The 
market for the past two years has preferred that 
the roots be not washed with a brush, but that 
they be cleaned by a strong current of water 
thrown on them, as from a hose. 

The market price of ginseng fluctuates more or 
les.s, chiefly because of trade conditions and the 
rise and fall in silver. In the years 1905 and 190G, 
cultivated ginseng was subject to great variation 
in price, even being refused at one time. Prior to 
this very high prices had been paid. Leading New 
York dealers, who furnish the prices quote'd below, 
say the business is still in a transitional state, 
which will probably last two or three years, until 
growers produce the medium -sized, ringed, dark, 
uniform roots in demand among the Chinese. In 
the spring of 1907 when these statements were 
made, prices for American wild root in New York 
city ranged from $6.35 to $7.2.'> a pound, and those 
of cultivated, from $5.75 to $6.40. 

Literature. 

Kains, Ginseng : Its Cultivation, Harvesting and 
Market Value, Orange Judd Co., New York (1904); 
An Experiment in (jinseng-Culture, Pennsylvania 
State College Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 62 ; 
Ginseng : Its Nature and Culture, Kentucky Ex- 
periment Station, Bulletin No. 78 ; I>iseases of 
Ginseng, New York (Cornell) Experiment Station, 
Bulletin No. 219 ; Pennsylvania State Department 
of Agriculture, Bulletin No. 27 ; Missouri Experi- 
ment Station, Bulletin No. 69 ; Division of Botany, 



362 



GINSENG 



GRAIN 



United States Department of Agriculture, Bulletin 
No. 16 ; Daily Consular Reports for 1905, Nos. 
2162, 2284, 2287, Department of Commerce and 
Labor, Washington D. C; Monthly Reports of 
Exports and Imports, Department of Commerce 
and Labor (secured from Bureau of Statistics, 
Washington, D. C). 

GRAIN: Shipping, Grading and Storing. Figs. 
511-514. 

By a S. Scofield. 

Before the middle of the last century, much the 
larger part of the grain produced in the Lhiited 
States was hauled to the mill by the farmer, and 
was either sold to the miller or ground for a toll 
charge and the product disposed of by the owner 
afterward. The high specialization of milling pro- 
cesses, involving more expensive milling plants, 
the rapid extension of grain-producing areas, and 
the development of railroads that offered a ready 
means of transporting grain long distances from 
the farm to the mill, have all taken place since 
1850. The geographical separation of the grain- 
field and the mill has necessitated the development 
of a commercial system of moving grain from the 
farm to the mill, of storing it en route or at desti- 
nation, and of classifying or grading it so that 
similar kinds may be kept together in transit and 
in storage. 

In order to meet the needs that have arisen with 
the rapid development of grain production and 
milling in this country, American methods of hand- 
ling, grading and storing grain have become more 
complicated and extensive than those of any other 
country. 

Shipping and handling grain. 

Instead of hauling his grain to the mill, the 
farmer now hauls it to the nearest railway station 
where there is an elevator or storage house, at 
which it is weighed and graded ; and the farmer 
either takes his pay for it on the basis of the day's 
quoted price, or accepts a storage receipt which 
states the quantity and grade of the grain deliv- 
ered. This storage receipt may be converted into 
cash at any time on the basis of the ruling market 
price, subject, of course, to discounts for storage 
and insurance charges. 

From the country elevator, the grain is shipped 
in carload lots to central milling or distributing 
points, where it is usually unloaded for storage in 
large elevators, and from which it may be with- 
drawn as needed, for either shipment or manufac- 
ture. The machinery for moving grain in bulk has 
been developed to such a degree of efficiency that 
grain can be unloaded from a car or vessel and 
placed in storage in an elevator for a quarter of a 
cent a bushel. Machinery for cleaning and other- 
wise improving grain in large quantities has also 
been brought into use, so that the farmer no longer 
finds it profitable to attempt to clean his grain 
before marketing it. 

Nearly all the grain marketed in the United 
States, east of the Rocky mountains, is handled in 



loose bulk after leaving the farmers' hands. It is 
stored in large bins in elevators and hauled from 
place to place in tight bo.x-cars. This feature is 
unique to the American grain business. In all 
other parts of the world grain is handled almost 
exclusively in sacks. Owing to the fact that it is 
impossible to keep small lots of grain separate 
when handled in bulk, it has been necessary to use 
a system of classification or gi-ading by which like 
kinds and qualities can be kept together and recog- 
nized as having a certain market value. 

Grading and inspecting grain. 

Like the custom of handling grain in quantity 
without sacking, the system of classifying and 
grading grain for commercial purposes is unique 
to the American grain trade. This practice was 
probably initiated by boatmen along the Chicago 
river in carrying grain from Illinois farms to 
Chicago. With the development of railroad traffic 
in the upper Mississippi valley, the movement of 
grain to Chicago and similar manufacturing and 
distributing points caused this custom of classifi- 
cation to spread rapidly. It soon came to be recog- 
nized as a part of the business of the trade and 
was very quickly put on a semi-official basis. Rules, 
or descriptions of grades, were made out and men 
were employed to do the inspecting and grading 
professionally. 

Complaints of irregularities and injustices from 
various sources resulted in the tran.sfer of the con- 
trol of inspection and grading from the commer- 
cial organizations to official state organizations in 
some of the western states. Illinois, Minnesota, 
Missouri and Kansas have long had state laws and 
state commis.sions to conduct the work of inspect- 
ing and grading, as well as weighing, while Wash- 
ington and Wisconsin have laws and commissions 
for the control of certain features of this work. 

The actual work of grain inspection and grading, 
as now practiced, is much the same whether under 
state control or under the control of commercial 
organizations. There are two methods of doing 
this work : one is by what is known as track in- 
spection and the other is office inspection, while 
sometimes a combination of the two is used. 

Track inspection. — When the inspection is done 
on the track, a deputy inspector, with one or two 
assistants, goes into the railroad yards early in the 
morning every working day and opens such cars of 
grain as he finds there destined for his market, the 
names and numbers of these cars usually being 
furnished by the railroad companies. Each car is 
opened by one of the assistants and a sample of 
grain is taken from it with a special sampling tube 
and examined by the inspector, who determines tie 
grade, tags the car with name and number of the 
grade, and closes it again, noting for his daily 
report the number of the car and the grade 
assigned. When the grain is destined for sale on 
the market, a sample is usually taken from the car 
and sent to the consignee for his information. In 
some markets practically every car is sampled and 
the sample sent directly to the trading floor, where 
it is shown for the information of buvers. 



GRAIN 



GRAIN 



363 



Office Inspection. — When office inspection is made, 
deputies are sent to tlie tracks in tlie early morning 
to secure samples from the cars destined to the 
marltet, and the samples are sent to the chief in- 
spector's office and the grade determined on the 
basis of the sample. Some kinds of grain, notably 
flax, are almost always given office inspection, since 
it is difficult to determine the grade satisfactorily 
with the hasty inspection on the track. 

Grading rulcg. — The rules for grades of grain 
are much the same in all American grain markets. 
There are slight variations from place to place, and 
some markets have more grades or different grades 
than others. The following samples of the grade 
rules for corn, now in use in one of the important 
markets, give a fair idea of the nature of such 
rules : 

Nn. 1 Yellow Corn. — Shall be yellow, sound, dry, 
plump and well cleaned. 

No. 2 Yellow Corn. — Shall be three-fourths yel- 
low, dry, reasonably clean but not plump enough 
for No. 1. 

No. 3 Yellow Corn. — Shall be three-fourths yel- 
low, reasonably dry and reasonably clean, but not 
sufficiently sound for No. 2. 

No. 1 While Corn. — Shall be sound, dry, plump 
and well cleaned. 

No. 2 Wliite Corn. — Shall be seven-eighths white, 
dry, reasonably, clean, but not plump enough for 
Nol. 

No. 3 Uliite Corn. — Shall be seven-eighths white, 
reasonably dry and reasonably clean, but not suffi- 
ciently sound for No. 2. 

No. 1 Corn. — Shall be mixed corn, of choice 
quality, sound, dry and well cleaned. 

No. 2 Corn. — Shall be mixed corn, dry and rea- 
sonably clean, but not good enough for No. 1. 



eral interpretation, and it must rest with the chief 
inspector as to just what shall constitute the actual 
grade limits. The deputy inspectors are therefore 
guided in their judgment by the chief inspector, 




^^ -"^-^^■»;,.-.t..3- 



Fig. 511. View of the interior of a grain warehouse on 
the Pacific coast, showing the grain in bags. 

No. 3 Corn. — Shall be mixed corn, reasonably 
dry and reasonably clean, but not sufficiently sound 
for No. 2. 

No. 4 Corn. — Corn that is badly damaged, damp 
or very dirt}', shall be graded no higher than 
No. 4. 

It will be observed that these rules are very brief 
and rather indefinite and are thus capable of lib- 




Fig. 512. View of the interior of a large terminal elevator, 
showing the spouts leading from the scale hoppers on the 
floor above to the bins below. 

and he is usually guided by the commission or 
committee which has the matter in charge at each 
market. When either party to a transaction in 
which a grain grade is involved is dissatisfied with 
the decision rendered, it is usually possible to ap- 
peal from the deputy inspector's decision and secure 
a ruling from the chief inspector or from a board 
of appeals. These appealed decisions constitute the 
unwritten law of the grain inspection department. 

Importance of grading and inspecting. — The chief 
function of grain grades, and consequently of grain 
inspection, is to permit price quotations on grain 
and to permit trading for future delivery. Were 
grain grades not in use it would be difficult to 
quote prices that had any meaning, and also to 
make transactions for future delivery of grain, 
and consequently grain inspection and grading is 
a very important feature of the grain business, 
since both transactions are a very large part of it. 
It is customary to establish in each market a cer- 
tain grade for each important cereal that is known 
as the "contract grade," and in all deals and price 
quotations this grade is the one used, unless other- 
wise specified. 

Ins])cction tests arid inethods. — In order to be most 
efficient, grain inspection must be exact and uni- 
form, and every effort is made by those in control 
of this work to secure the greatest accuracy and 
uniformity possible. Many attem])ts have been 
made to provide for more accurate methods of 
inspection and grading than those now in use. A 
chondrometer, or apparatus for determining the 
weight per bushel of grain, has been in common u.se 
with inspectors for many years. More recently, 
the inspection of flax has been greatly improved 
by a system of percentage grading, by which the 
foreign material and imperfect grains are sepa- 
rated from a sample and their percentage deter- 
mined by weight. Still more recently, various at- 
tempts have been made to determine accurately the 
percentage of moisture in corn, since it has been 



364 



GRAIN 



GRAIN 



found that moist corn deteriorates rapidly in transit 
and storage, and it is difficult to estimate its mois- 
ture content accurately when it is either frozen or 
very cold, which is often the case. In grading bar- 




^y//;^/.' ' 




^^^^^'^0ri^v^0i^\ms ^'^'^ r'^^ v^'^'^^ ' '^^^ ' *^^^^ ^' ^^ ^''^ ^^ '*^ 




Fig. 513. Grain elevator built entirely of steel, consisting of a series of tanks, with the transfer- 
belt sheds above and the hoisting and cleaning machinery in a structure at the end. 



ley for brewing purposes, attempts have been made 
to determine the percentage and uniformity of 
germination of samples, since this is one of the 
most important factors in determining its value to 
brewers. Owing to the fact that the grain trade 
demands rapid inspection and grading, so that the 
grades of the previous day's receipts may be 
available in time for the 
day's business, it has not 
been practicable to u.se 
many of the more accu- 
rate tests that are known 
for determining quality 
in grain. 

On the Pacific coast 
grain is handled almost 
entirely in bags, instead 
of in loose bulk. This 
necessitates some difi'er- 
ent methods of work in 
inspection and grading 
and different types of 
storehouses and waj's of 
handling grain. For pur- 
poses of inspection, it is 
customary to draw a 
sample from each bag 
and base the classifica- 
tion on the composite 
sample resulting. The 
term "grading," as ap- 
plied to grain, has a diff- 
erent meaning on the 
Pacific coast from what it 
has in the eastern part of 
the country. In the West 

it is applied to the practice of mixing together 
grain of different qualities to produce a mi.xture 
that will meet a certain prescribed standard. This 
practice has also given rise to other trade customs, 



particularly to the use of type samples, which are 
furnished by traders who have grain to sell, and 
serve as a basis tor transactions, instead of the 
commercial grades, as used elsewhere. A type sam- 
ple in very common 
use is what is known 
as the " F. A. Q. sam- 
ple," which means 
Fair Average Qual- 
ity sample, which is 
made up early each 
season after the crop 
is ready for the mar- 
ket by getting repre- 
sentative samples of 
grain from the differ- 
ent parts of the pro- 
ducing regions, and 
this sample or grade 
is used as a basis 
for price quotations 
and future delivery 
sales, very much 
as the so-called con- 
tract grade is used 



\>.^^ 



in the prevailing eastern markets. 

Storing and storehouses. 

The storehouses used for grain on the Pacific 
coast have not been so highly specialized as those 
in the Mississippi valley and eastward. The .sacked 
grain is stored in cheaply constructed warehouses 




Fig. 514. View of a large terminal elevator, showing the long sheds leading from the elevator 
to the water front. Tliose slieds slielter large traiisfer-ljelts which carry 1,'riiin from the 
tlevalur to the loailiiig chutes. 

and moved from place to place or loaded and 
unloaded by hand trucks. (Fig. .511.) 

The warehouse, or elevator, as it is called, in 
which loose bulk grain is ordinarily stored east of 




Plate XII. Three important grasses of the northeastern region— timothy, June-grass, and Canada blue-grass 
(the last, Foa cumpressa, being the small stiffer panicHs in the lower left-hand corner] 



GRAIN 



GRASSES 



365 



the Rocky mountains, is a highly specialized type 
of builiing. (Figs. 512-514.) It consists essen- 
tially of a series of bins set close together, with 
hoisting, weighing and distributing machinery 
located above, and with cleaning machinery and 
loading devices below. Formerly these elevators 
were built almost entirely of wood, often covered 
with corrugated metal. More recently they are 
being built of steel, of concrete and of tile, so as 
to render them more nearly fireproof. 

When grain is received at an elevator it is 
hoisted at once to the top, usually by means of 
long belts which carry iron buckets or scoops. 
These buckets dump the grain into receiving bins, 
from which it is drawn into the hoppers of scales 
for weighing. The weighing of grain in elevators 
has been developed to a very high degree of accu- 
racy, so that it is possible to weigh a thousand 
bushels at a time with an error of less than one- 
tenth of one per cent. After the grain is weighed, 
it is drawn from the scale hoppers into the storage 
bins, which stand below the scales ; or, in some of 
the modern storehouses, as, for example, the one 
shown in Fig. 513, it is drawn out onto a broad 
transfer belt, which is simply a rubber-coated can- 
vas belt, from three to four feet in width, which 
runs over concave pulleys in such a way as to 
carry grain on its upper surface. When it is desired 
to clean grain or to load it out of an elevator, it 
may be drawn out of the storage bins from the 
bottom ; if it is desired to move it from one part 
of the elevator, it is drawn out on the transfer belt, 
which runs below the bins, and is carried from one 
point to another, to be hoisted again and emptied 
into another bin at the top. In this way bulk grain 
is handled very rapidly and very cheaply. It is pos- 
sible, for instance, to move 15,000 to 20,000 bushels 
of grain in an hour over a single tran.sfer belt fifty 
inches wide. 

From the standpoint of their relations to the 
public, there are two general types of elevators, — 
the so-called public warehouses and the private 
warehouses. In view of the fact that grain in 
storage represents an investment of capital that is 
not active or bearing interest, it is often desirable 
to use it as a basis for loans of money. In order 
that the amount and quality of the grain thus 
stored may be given an official guarantee, there 
are, in the larger grain markets, registered or 
public warehouses in which any person may store 
grain of any grade that will not deteriorate during 
a reasonable period of time. The grower, owner or 
broker may receive from the elevator manager a 
certificate of storage which states the amount and 
quality of grain stored, and this may be certified 
to by an official, representing the local grain trade 
organization or, in some cases, the state grain 
commission, and when so certified this certificate 
serves as collateral for loans. In this way, stored 
grain is relieved from bearing at least a part of 
the interest on the inve.stment which it represents. 
Elevators in which the grain is stored merely for 
cleaning purposes or for immediate transfer are 
not registered and they are known as private 
warehouses. 



L itcrature. 

The reader should consult Lyon and Montgomery, 
Examining and Grading Grains (1907), Ginn & Co., 
for student laboratory methods ; Hunt, Cereals in 
America (1904), Orange Judd Co.; Cobb, Grain 
Elevators, Department of Agriculture, Sidney, New 
South Wales, Miscellaneous Publications, 452 ; Bul- 
letin No. 41, Bureau of Plant Indu.stry, United 
States Department of Agriculture, The Commercial 
Grading of Corn, by the author. See also references 
to literature under the specific grain crops. 

GRASSES. Poacece or Graminem. Figs. 515-565. 
By A. S. Hitchcock. 

Annual or perennial herbs with characteristic 
narrow leaves and round or flattened, jointed, 
usually hollow stems. In the bamboos, the stems 
are woody and may reach the height of one hun- 
dred feet or more. The stems or culms are solid at 
the nodes or joints and usually hollow between, 
but may be pithy, as in the Indian corn and other 
large species. The basal part of the leaf envelops 
the stem, forming the sheath. The blades are 
parallel - veined. The flowers are incon.spicuous, 
solitary or several together in spikelets, and these 
spikelets variously arranged in spikes or panicles. 
The flowers have no proper perianth but are in- 
cluded between scales in two ranks. A spikelet 
consists of a short axis bearing at the base two 
empty scales or glumes (empty glumes of some 
authors) ; above these are one or more flowers, each 
in the axis of a scale called the lemma (flowering 
or floral glume of some author-s) ; between the flower 
and the axis is a two-keeled scale, the palea. 

The flower consists of a pistil and usually three 
stamens. The pistil consists of a one-celled ovary 
and two styles and feathery stigmas. The seed is 
usually grown fast to the pericarp, forming a 
grain, and it may also be closely united with the 
lemma and palea, as in the oat. The spikelet is 
one-flowered in Agrostis and Fhleum, several-flow- 
ered in P6a and Triticum. In some genera, such 
as Panicum, the lower lemma is empty or contains 
only stamens. The spikelet appears then to have 
three empty glumes. The inflorescence or flower- 
cluster is a spike in wheat and a panicle in the oat, 
while in timothy (Phleum) the panicle is so con- 
tracted as to appear as a spike. The glumes and 
lemmas may bear bristles or awns on the tip or 
back, as in barley. The staminate and pistillate 
flowers are in separate parts of the same plant 
(moncBcious) in corn, and may even be in separate 
plants (dioecious), as in Buff'alo grass and Texas 
blue-grass. 

Plants often produce creeping stems below the 
surface of the ground, by which they spread and 
form a sod. These rootstocks resemble roots but 
are jointed like stems and bear scale-like leave.s. 
Familiar examples are Johnson - grass and blue- 
grass. Perennial grasses which do not bear root- 
stocks tend to grow in bunches or tussocks, and 
are known as bunch-grasses. Orchard-grass is of 
this kind. 

This article is restricted to a botanical discussion 



366 



GRASSES 



GRASSES 



of the grasses. In some cases reference is made to 
special articles on the individual grasses for the 
cultural notes. For cultural notes on all others the 
reader should consult Spillman's article on Meadows 
and Pastures. 

KEY TO GENERA 

A. Spikelets dorsally compressed, with one perfect 
flower, sometimes a staminate flower helow the perfect 
one, falling from the pedicels entire, either singly, in 
groups or together with joints of an articulate rachis : 

Flowers unisexual ; staminate spike- 
lets in a terminal panicle, pistil- 
late spikelets in axillary fascicled 
spikes more or less enveloped in 
large bracts (husks): 
Pistillate spikes compound ; grains 
in several to many rows about a 

thickened axis (cob) 1. Zea 

Pistillate spikes simple, breaking 

into joints at maturity .... 2. Euchlaena 
Flowers perfect, or staminate and pis- 
tillate together in same inflores- 
cence : 
Glumes hardened ; lemma and palea 
very thin ; 
Spikelets all perfect, enveloped in 
long hairs, forming a dense silky 

panicle 3. Saccharum 

Spikelets of two kinds, — the per- 
fect sessile, with a staminate 
one pedicellate on either side . 4. Sorghum 
Glumes thin, lemma and palea 
hardened ; spikelets all perfect : 
Spikelets not sunken in notches of 
the axis : 
Involucre none : 
Inflorescence spicate : 
Spikes digitate ; spikelets lan- 
ceolate 5. Syntherisma 

Spikes racemose ; spikelets 

nearly circular 6. Paspalum 

Inflorescence paniculate : . . . 7. Panicum 
Involucre of bristles below the 
spikelet : 
Grain enclosed in lemma and 

palea at maturity 8. Chaetochloa 

Grain globose, forcing open 

lemma and palea at maturity 9. Pennisetum 
Spikelets sunken in notches of the 

flattened corky axis 10. Stenotaphrum 

AA. Spikelets laterally compressed, one to many-flow- 
ered, the rachilla usually articulated above the glumes 
which remain on the pedicel after the florets have fallen ; 
(glumes deciduous in Oryza, Alopecurus and Holcus). 
Spikelets not disposed in alternate 
notches on opposite sides of a flat- 
tened rachis : 
Stamens 6 ; glumes minute . , . .11. Oryza 
Stamens 3 ; glumes more than half 
as long as florets: 
Perfect floret 1 in each spikelet : 
Fertile floret awnless, with 2 
sterile lemmas below, falling 
attached to it: 
Sterile lemmas minute, awnless 12. Phalaris 
Sterile lemmas larger than the 

fertile one, awned 13. Anthoxanthum 

Fertile floret awnless ; a stami- 
nate, awned one below, not 
falling attached 14. Arrhenatherum 



Fertile floret awned or awnless, 
no sterile floret below : 
Inflorescence a dense cylindri- 
cal spike-like panicle : 
Spikelets small ; glumes longer 
than the very thin lemmas : 
Glumes abruptly aristate ; 

lemma awnless 15. Phleum 

Glumes not aristate ; lemma 
awned on the back ... 16. Alopecurus 
Spikelets about 1 cm. long ; 
glumes and lemma chartace- 

ous, sub-equal 17. Ammophila 

Inflorescence an open panicle . 18. Agrostis 
Inflorescence of slender spikes, 

digitate at summit of culms . 19. Cynodon 
Perfect florets two to many in each 
spikelet : 
Plant velvety ; spikelets falling 

from the pedicel entire ... 20. Holcus 
Plant not velvety ; glumes per- 
sistent on the pedicel : 
Florets exceeded by the papery, 

striate glumes 21. Avena 

Florets not exceeded by the 

glumes : 

Spikelets flattened, in dense, 

one-sided clusters at the 

ends of the few panicle 

branches 22. Dactylis 

Spikelets not in one-sided 

clusters : 

Inflorescence a dense spike ; 

spikelets of two forms, the 

fertile surrounded by sterile 

ones 23. Cynosurus 

Inflorescence an open or nar- 
row panicle ; .spikelets all 
alike : 
Lemma keeled ; awnless, 

often cobwebby at base . 24. Poa 
Lemma convex ; never cob- 
webby : 
Apex of lemma entire ; 

acute or awned .... 25. Festuca 
Apex of lemma two- 
toothed, awned just be- 
low the apex or awnless ; 
grain adherent to the 

palea 26. Bromus 

Spikelets sessile in alternate notches 
on opposite sides of a flattened 
rachis, forming slender or dense 
spikes : 
Joints of the rachis with one spike- 
let each : 
Placed edgewise on the rachis ; 

glume 1 27. Lolium 

Placed with one side against the 
rachis ; glumes 2 : 
Glumes bristle-like, one-nerved . 28. Secale 
Glumes lanceolate to ovate ; sev- 
eral-nerved : 
Rachilla not articulated ; florets 

persistent ; lemma ovate . . 29. Triticum 
Rachilla articulated above the 
glumes and between the flo- 
rets, which fall separately ; 

lemma lanceolate 30. Agropyron 

Joints of the articulate rachis with 
2 or 3 spikelets each ; glumes 
bristle-like 31. Hordeum 



GRASSES 



GRASSES 



367 




1. Zea (Latin name for spelt). A genus of 
grasses represented by a single American species 
known only in cultivation. Flowers monoecious, the 
staminate borne in large termi- 
nal panicles (the tassel), and the 
pistillate borne in the axils of 
the leaves in several rows on a 
thickened axis (the cob), and en- 
closed in several large foliaceous 
bracts, the whole constituting 
the ear. The greatly elongated 
styles project from the tip of 
the ear and form the silk. 

Mays, Linn. Indian Corn. 
Maize. (Fig. 515.) A well-known, 
large, annual grass with broad 
leaves, extensively cultivated for 



Fig. 5)5. Indiancorn 
(.Zea Mails). A, 
Pistillate spik e- 
let, openeil, with 
second glume cut 
olf to sliow lemma 
(Howeringelume). 
Italea and ovary; 
B, st.imiuate 
spikelet. 



forage and grain. 
The origin of the 
cultivated varieties 
of corn is uncertain 
but must be Ameri- 
can, and was prob- 
ably in the tableland 
of Mexico or Central 
America where it 
has been cultivated longest. It has been sug- 
gested that it may have originated from EuMmna 
Mcxkana, which it much resembles in habit, but 
differs from in having the several pistillate spikes 
united in a compound inflorescence or ear. [See 
Maize.l 

2. Euchlaena (Greek, cm, well, and chlaina, 
mantle, alluding to the large glumes). A genus of 
grasses represented by a single Mexican species. 
Flowers monacious, the staminate in panicled 
racemes terminating the stalks, the pistillate in 
jointed spikes fascicled in the leaf axils, each spike 
more or less enveloped in foliaceous bracts. Zea 
(Indian corn) differs from this chiefly in having 
pistillate flowers arranged in several rows on a 
single axis or " cob." The varieties are recognized 
by some authors as species. 

Mexicana, Schrad. (Reana luxnrians, Dur.). Teo- 
sinte. (Fig. 516.) A tall annual with long, broad 
leaves, resembling Indian corn in habit, native of 
Mexico and Central America, and cultivated in the 
southern states for forage. [See Maize and Teosiiite.] 

3. Saccharum (Greek for sugar). A genus of 
grasses containing about a dozen species, all but 
three of which are confined to the tropics of the 
Old Woria. Tan grassea with usually large, termi- 




Fig. 516. Teosinte (.Euchleena 
Mexicana) . 



nal, spreading panicles, the small spikelets sur- 
rounded by long silky hairs. Spikelets usually in 
pairs at the joints of the articulated rachis, one 
sessile and the other pediceled, one-flowered, with 
a sterile lemma below the fertile flower. 

officinarum, Linn. Sugar-cane. (Fig. 517.) Stem 
tall and stout, panicles ample, silky. Cultivated in 
all tropical countries for the production of sugar. 
Native country unknown, but probably southwestern 
Asia. Propagated by cuttings of the stem, as the 
flowers very rarely produce seed. [See Sugar-canei] 
4. Sorghum. A genus of about thirteen species 
of grasses, including the cultivated sorghum and 
allied forms, many of which are considered as dis- 
tinct species by some authors. Spikelets in threes 
in a panicle ; the central spikelet sessile, containing 
a single perfect flower with a sterile lemma above 
the glumes ; the lateral spikelets pediceled and 
staminate or neuter. 

Halepenae, Pers. (Andropogon Halepensis, Brot.). 
Johnson - grass. (Fig. 518.) A coarse perennial 
with extensively creeping rootstocks ; stems usually 
8 to 5 feet high ; leaves one to two feet long, one- 
half inch wide ; panicle open and spreading, six to 
twelve inches long. Native of the warmer parts of 

the Old World but 
well established in the 
southern half of the 
United States, where 
it is cultivated for 
forage. In many parts 
of the South it has 
become a pernicious 
weed, especially in 
the black lands of 
Texas. This species is 
thought to be the 




Fig. 517. Sugar-cane (Soccftarttm 
officinarum) . 

original of the cultivated 
sorghum. 

rnlgare, Pers. (Andropo- 
gon Sorghum, Brot.). Sor- 
ghum. (Fig. 519.) Differs 
from the preceding in its 
larger size, annual roots 
without rootstocks, and 
usually large fruit and 
seed. The panicle varies 
much in shape in the different varieties. This is the 
species usually referred to as "millet" in China. 
[See Sorgh urn.] 

5. Syntherisma (Greek, crop-making). A genus 
of grasses of about forty species, mostly tropical, 




Fig. 518. Johnson -grass 

iSorsjhum Halepense). 



368 



GRASSES 



GRASSES 




Fig. 519. Sorghum 
iSorghuin vithjare). 




Fig. 520. 
Crab-grass (Suntherisma 
sanguinalis). A very 
common weedy grass. 



, 521. Water-grass (Paspa- 
Imii iliUttitlttiii). 



Fig. 522. Para-grass 
{Panii'uiit molle). 



with spikelets similar in structure to tho-se of 
Panicum but arranged in one-sided, more or less 
digitate spikes. Considered by many as a section 
(Digitaria) of Panicum. 

sanguinalis, Dulac. Crab-grass. (Fig. 520.) A 
well-known annual weed common in cultivated soil, 
especially in the South. A native of the Old World. 
The stems reach a height of three feet and are 
branching. They are pros- 
trate at the base and root 
at the lower nodes. 

6. Paspalum (Greek name 
for some gra.ss, probably 
millet). A genus of grasses 
containing about one hun- 
dred species, in the warmer 
regions of both hemispheres. 
Spikelets one-flowered, 
plano-convex or flattened, 
elliptical or circular in out- 
line, sessile or short-pedi- 
celed, arranged singly or in 
pairs in a one-sided spike. 
Lower glume small or obso- 
lete, upper glume and sterile 
lemma similar in length and 
texture, membranaceous; 
fertile lemma indurated. 
Spikes single or in pairs at 
the apex of the long pedun- 
cle, or racemosely distrib- 
uted along the upper part. 

dilatatum, Poir. Water- 
grass. (Fig. 521.) A rather 
coarse, leafy perennial, 
growing in clumps two to 
five feet high ; spikes two 
to ten; spikelets hairy. 
Produces many succulent 
Fig. 523. Guinea-grass l^^sal leaves. A native of 
(Ponicum maximum). Brazil, from whence it was 




introduced into this country ; now well established 
in the gulf states, where it is looked on as a native 
gra.ss. 

7. Panicum (Latin name for P. Italicum). A 
large genus of annual or perennial grasses, con- 
taining probably 500 or 600 species, mostly trop- 
ical, represented in the United States by about 130 
species, particularly abundant in the southeastern 
states ; a few occur as far north as Canada. 
Spikelets one-flowered, usually awnless, in one- 
sided spikes or in more or less dift'use panicles ; 
lower glume usually small ; upper glume and sterile 
lemma membranaceous, the latter sometimes with 
stamens ; the fertile lemma and palea indurated. 

molle, Sw. Para-grass. (Fig. 522.) A rather 
coarse, reed-like perennial, four to six feet high, 
with hairy nodes and narrow lax panicles, six to 
eight inches long; producing 
extensively creeping woody 
runners which root at the 
nodes. Native of South 
America, where it is culti- 
vated as a forage grass. It 
is also cultivated in the West 
Indies and Mexico and to a 
limited extent in southern 
Florida and Texas. 

naxivuim, Jacq. Guinea- 
grass. (Fig. 523.) A coarse 
perennial, growing in dense 
tufts to the height of as 
much as ten feet, and pro- 
ducing creeping rootstocks. 
Inflorescence a large, loose 
panicle ; lemma transversely 
wrinkled. Native of tropical 
Africa, but extensively cul- 
tivated in tropical America 
as a forage plant. Somewhat 

• T7<i -J I i •!! i. Fig. 524. Hog or broonr 

grown m Florida, but will not ^ ,„„ ^jy^^ , ^,_. 
withstand frost. This should mm mUiaceum). 




GRASSES 



GRASSES 



369 



not be confounded with Johnson- grass, which it 
resembles somewhat in appearance. It is not so 
hardy as Johnson-grass, and is less troublesome. 
It furnishes much of the roughage found on the 
markets in the West Indies. 

miliaceum, Linn. Broom -corn Millet. Hog 
Millet. (Fig. 524.) A rather coarse annual, two 
to four feet high, with hispid sheaths and large, 
drooping panicles. A native of the Old World, 
where it has been cultivated since prehistoric 
times. Cultivated in Europe and Asia for 
forage and also for the seed, which is used 
for food. In this country it is cultivated to 
a limited extent for forage. This is the 
true millet of the Old World. In the United 
States the name millet is given to Chatochloa 
Italica. (Because of its quick growth it is 
adapted to the North, and is grown some- 
what extensively in the Dakotas. It is much 
more drought-resistant than the other 
millets.) [See Millet and Meadows and 
Pastures.] 

Cms -gain, Linn. Barnyard Grass. 
(Figs. 525 and 526.) A common annual 
weed probably introduced from Europe, though 
some forms are native in the United States. 
Differs from the other species in having awned 
spikelets, for which reason some authors refer it 
to the genus Echinochloa. Inflorescence a raceme 
of short spikes. Certain forms of this species 
are sparingly grown in this country under 
the name of Japanese barnyard millet. /• 
These and the form cultivated in Asia 
for the grain are sometimes known 
as Panicumfrumentaceum, and 
are shorter-awned than the 
common forms. 

8. Chaetochloa (Greek, 
bristle-grass). A genus of 
annual or perennial 





grasses of about forty 
species, found in the warm 
regions of both hemispheres. 
Spikelets with the structure of 
Panicum, but interspersed with rough- 
ened bristles which usually extend be- 
yond the spikelets. Inflorescence a dense, 
cylindrical spike. Also known as Setaria. Sev- 
eral species are common weeds in cultivated 
soil, e. g., C. viridis and C. glauea (Fig. 527), 
foxtail or pigeon-grass. 

Italica, Scribn. Millet. Hungarian -grass. 
(Fig. 528.) A coarse annual with thick green 
or purple spikes, cultivated for forage, espe- 
cially in the region of the Great Plains. Native 
of the Old World. Also called Bengal-grass. 
[See Millet and Meadows and Pastures.] 

9. Pennisetum (Greek, feather bristle). A genus 
of annual or perennial grasses comprising about 
forty species, found in the tropics of both hemi- 
spheres, but more especially the eastern. Spikelets 

B24 



as in Panicum, but surrounded by a clustei tr" 
bristles which fall from the axis with the spikelet 
(except in the cultivated form). Inflorescence a 
raceme or spike. 

spicatum, R. and S. (Pennisetum typhoideum. 
Rich.; Penicellaria spicaia, Willd.). Pearl mil- 
let. (Fig. 529.) A tall, coarse, annual grass, 
resembling sorghum, but having a dense cylin- 
drical inflorescence six to fourteen inches in 
length and an inch or less in diameter. The 
origin of pearl millet is unknown, but it has 
been cultivated in tropical Africa and Asia 
for an indefinite period for forage and for 
the seed, which is used for food. It is now 
cultivated in the United States to some ex- 
tent for forage, and the seed is some- 
times sold under the name of Pencilaria 
and Mand's Wonder forage plant. For 
further account, see United States 
Department of Agriculture, Farmers' 
Bulletin, No. 168. [See Millet.] 

10. Stenotaphrum (Greek, narrow 

trench, alluding to cavities in the 

rachis). A genus of grasses of three 

or four species, found in the tropical 

regions of both hemispheres. Spikelets as 

in Panicum, but sunken in the cavities 

of the one-sided broad axis, forming short 

spikes. 

secundatum, Kuntze (S. Am.ericanv.in, Schr.). 
St. Augustine Grass. (Fig. 530.) A creeping 
grass with flat stems and obtuse leaves, found 
in the southern states, mostly near the coast, 
as far north as South Carolina. The flowering 
stems may be as much as a foot high. 
The plants root readily at the 
nodes and form a thick sod, 
1 hence the grass is 
especially valuable 
for lawns or for 
holding em- 
Fig. 525. "^-x bankments, 

Barnyard grass 
{Panicum Crus-galli), 
Common awned form. 



both in sandy and in mucky soil. The American 
plant is considered distinct from the Asiatic [S. 
dimidiatum, Kuntze). It is known locally as 
Charleston lawn grass and mission grass. 

11. Oryza (Latin name for rice). A genus of 
grasses comprising about six species, occurring in 
the tropics of both hemispheres. Aquatic plants 
with flat leaves and terminal panicles. Spikelets 
one-flowered, strongly flattened laterally; glumes 
much shorter than the spikelet. 

saliva, Linn. Rice. (Fig. 531.) An annual grass, 
native of southeastern Asia and extensively culti- 
vated in the warmer regions of both hemispheres 
for the grain, which is used for food. [See Rice.] 
12. Phalaris (Greek, shining, referring to the 
seed). A genus of grasses of about a dozen species, 
mostly in southern Europe, but five in North 
America. Inflorescence a spike-like panicle. Spike- 
lets one-flowered, strongly flattened latterly, artic- 





GRASSES 



iM 



Fig. 526. 
Japanese barnyard 
miileti Panicutn 
Crus-gatli). 



im 




FiK. 530. St. Augustine grass 
iStenotaphrum secundatum). 



Fig. 528. Common millet or 
Hungarian-grass {Cha'toch- 
loa llatica). 



Fig. 527. 

Yellow foxtail 

(Chcetochloa glauca). 



ulated above the usually wing- 
keeled glumes. Below the lemma 
are two narrow or bristle-formed 
scales, which represent rudimen- 
tary flowers or sterile lemmas. 
Fertile lemma hard and shining in 
fruit and closely enveloping the 

'If V ^'''*'"- 

(I '^^ arundinacea, Linn. Reed 

Canary-grass. (Fig. 532.) A 
perennial grass from a creep- 
ing rootstock, growing to the 
height of two to four feet, 
with a narrow, branched 
panicle. Native in the north- 
ern half of the United States and also in 
Europe and Asia, where it occurs in wet 
meadow land. It is an important hay plant 
in the northern part of the Great Plains 
region and to the eastward perhaps more 
especially. A variety with striped leaves 
is cultivated for ornament under the name 
of ribbon-grass. 

Canariensis, Linn. Canary-grass. (Fig. 
533.) An erect annual, with a compact, 
ovoid spike or head about an inch long. 
A native of the Old World, but introduced 
in waste places in America and also occa- 
sionally cultivated for its seed, which is 
used for bird-food. 
13. Anthoxanthum (Greek, yellow flowers). A 
genus of three or four species of European grasses, 
one of which is occasionally cultivated in this 
country as a forage grass. Spikelets one-flowered, 
with two unequal glumes, two narrow scales repre- 
senting rudimentary flowers or sterile lemmas, and 
a perfect flower with a lemma shorter than the 
glumes. Aromatic annual or perennial grasses, 
with contracted, spike-like panicles. 

»doratum, Linn. Sweet Vernal-grass. (Fig. 534.) 



A perennial sweet-scented 
grass, native of Europe, but 
now introduced and widely 
distributed in the northern 
half of the United States. It 
H'eiiiiisi'tmn jg rarely grown in mixtures 

spiciUunt). » *', ^ .^ . 

for meadows ; it imparts a 
odor to the hay. It is an inferior fodder 



|\ 



sweet 
plant. 

14. Arrhenatherum (Greek, arrhen, masculine, 
and ather, awn, referring to the awned staminate 
flower). A genus of six species of perennial 
grasses native of the Old World. Spikelets two- 
flowered, the lower staminate, the lemma bearing 
a twisted and geniculate dorsal awn, the upper per- 
fect and short-awned or awnless. Inflorescence a 
narrow panicle. 

elatius, Beauv. Tall Oat -grass. (Fig. 535.) A 
tufted grass, two to five feet high, sparingly cul- 
tivated for hay. 

15. Phleum (Greek name for a kind of reed). 
A genus of annual or perennial grasses native in the 
temperate regions of both hemispheres. Spikelets 
one-flowered, laterally compressed -keeled, the thin 
lemma shorter than the glumes. Inflorescence a 
a dense cylindrical spike-like panicle terminating 
the culm. 

pralense, Linn. Timothy. (Fig. 536.) Native of 
Europe and extensively cultivated in the cooler 
parts of North America as a forage plant. A short- 
lived perennial with erect stems and bulbous, 
thickened base. In New England this is often 
known as Herd's-grass. 

16. Alopecurus (Greek, fox-tail). A genus of 
annual or perennial grasses of about twenty species, 
found in the temperate regions of both hemispheres. 
Spikelets one-flowered, laterally compressed, ciliate 
along the keels of the glumes, lemma awned from 
the back ; palea usually none. Inflorescence a 
dense cylindrical or ovate, spike-like panicle. 

prateiisis, Linn. Meadow Foxtail. A hardy peren- 
nial grass from a creeping rootstock, with leafy 
stem and cylindrical panicles. Occasionally grown 
in meadow mixtures on wet land in northeastern 
United States. 

17. Ammophila (Greek, sand-loving). A genus of 
grasses of one or two species, occurring on the 



GRASSES 



GRASSES 



371 



sandy seashore of Europe and America. Spikelets 
one-flowered, rather large and chartaceous ; rachilla 
prolonged as a bristle behind the palea. Inflores- 
cence a narrow, spike-like panicle. 

armaria. Link. Beach-grass. (Fig. 537.) A 
coarse perennial with rigid culms, long, tough, 
involute leaves and extensively creeping root- 
stocks, native along the sandy shores of the Great 
Lakes and on the Atlantic coast as far south as 
North Carolina. Much used in Europe to bind shift- 
ing sand, and recently used for the same purpose 
in this country, notably at Golden Gate Park, San 
Francisco, and on Cape Cod. Propagated by trans- 
planting young plants. [For further information, see 
United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau 
of Plant Industry, Bulletins Nos. 57 and 65.] 

18. Agrostis (Greek name for a kind of grass). 
A genus of grasses including about one hundred 
species, mostly perennials, distributed over the 
entire globe in the cooler parts. Spikelets one-flow- 
ered, the lemma shorter than the glumes and often 
awned from the back ; palea small or wanting. In- 
florescence a panicle, varying from contracted and 
spike-like to very open and dift'use. 

alba, Linn. Red -top. (Fig. 538.) An upright 
perennial with short root.'stocks and moderately 
open and spreading panicles. Palea one-half to 
two-thirds as long as the lemma. This species is 
variable. One form (var. vulgaris, Thurb.; A. vul- 
garis. With.) is more tufted and has more delicate 
culms and panicles. This form is more frequently 
found in lawns and open woods. It is sometimes 
awned. A variety of A. alha, with more contracted 
panicles and with extensive stolons, is cultivated 
as a lawn grass under the name of creeping bent. 
It is especially useful in the Middle Atlantic states, 
where it is too warm for blue-grass and too cold 
for Bermuda. In England, A. alba is called Fiorin 
and bent-grass ; in parts 
of the South it is known 
as Herd's grass. 



canina, Linn. Rhode Island Bent. (Fig. 539.) A 
delicate perennial resembling the smaller awned 
forms of A. alba vulgaris, but the palea is want- 
ing. Much of the seed sold under this name is A. 
alba vulgaris. 

19. Cynodon (Greek, dog-tooth). A genus of 
four species of perennial grasses in the tropical 
regions of both hemispheres. Spikelets one-flow- 
ered, awnless, sessile, in two rows along one side of 
a slender axis, forming unilateral spikes which are 
digitate at the apex of the culm. 

Dactylon, Pers. {Capriola Dactylon, Kuntze). Ber- 
muda-grass. (Fig. 540.) Stems extensively creeping 
and rooting at the nodes, or in cultivated or sandy 
soil forming stout flattened rootstocks. On poor 
soil the leaves are short and the growth low, but 
in moist, rich soil it may grow tall enough for hay. 
Very common in the southern states, where it is 
the most valuable grass for summer pastures. It is 
also useful for lawns and for holding embankments. 
In cultivated fields it becomes a pestiferous weed, 
and is then often called wire-grass or joint-grass. 

20. Holcus (Greek name for a kind of grass). A 
genus of annual or perennial grasses containing 
eight species in Europe and Africa. Spikelets two- 
flowered, the lower perfect and awnless, the upper 
staminate and awned. Inflorescence a dense termi- 
nal panicle. 

lanatus, Linn. Velvet-grass. (Fig. 541.) Velvety- 
pubescent throughout. It is generally considered 
a weed, and finds use as a forage crop only in 
parts of the Pacific northwest, notably about Puget 
Sound. 

21. Avena (Latin name for oats). A genus of about 
fifty species of grasses in the temperate regions of 
the Old World, a few in America. Spikelets large, 
two- to six-flowered ; glumes membranous, longer 
than the flowers; lemma with a dorsal, twisted 
awn (or in cultivated forms straight or absent). 
Inflorescence a spreading panicle. 




Fig. 531. 

Rice ( Oryza 

sativa). 



Fig. 532. 

Reed canary-grass 

{Fhalaris arundi- 

nacea). 



Fig. 533. 
Canary-grass 

[Phalaris 
Canariensis) 



Fig. 534. 

Sweet vernal-grass 

iAnthoxaiithuiii 

odoratum) . 



Fig. 535. 

Tall oat-grass 

{A-rrhenatherum 

elatius). 



Fig. 536. 

Timothy iPhleum 

pratense). 



372 



GRASSES 




Fig. 541. 

Velvet-grass 

{Holcus latiatiis). 



Fig. 538. Red-top {Agrostis alia). 



Fig. 537. Beach-grass 

(Ammophila arenaria). 



Fig. 539. 

Rhode Island 

Bent-grass 

( Agrostis 
caiiinn) witli 
spikelet sliow- 

iug awu. 



Fig. 540. Bermuda-grass 
{Cynodon Dactylon), 



% '^i\m 





Fig. 546. Texas blue- 
grass ( Poa arach n if era) , 
pistillate plant. Stiiiui- 
iiate panicle and pistil- 
late spikelet enlarged. 



Fig. 545. 
Crested dog's- 
tail {Cynosuriis 

cristatits). 
Cluster of ster- 
ile and fertile 
spikelet en- 
larged. 



Flfi. 543. Wild oats {Avena fatiia) 



Fig. 544. Orchard-grass 

{Dactylis glomerata). 



Fig. 547. Canada blue- 
grass {Poa conipressa). 



Fig. 548. "Wood 

meadow-grass 

{Poa uiinuralis). 



GRASSES 

sativa, Linn. Oat. (Fig. 542.) An annual with 
nodding spikelets and many-nerved glumes, the 
awns of the persistent lem- 
mas straight or wanting. A 
common grain thought by 
many to have originated 
from the wild oat (A. fattia, 
Linn., Fig. 543), which differs 
in having a geniculate and 
twisted awn, and a deciduous 
lemma more or less covered 
with red- brown hairs. The 
wild oat is abundantly intro- 
duced on the Pacific coast. 
A variety (.4. fatiia gla- 
brata, Peterm.) is cut for 
hay in Washington, and 
this and an allied species 
(A. barhata, Brot.)are used 
for pasturage in Cali- 
fornia. [See Oats.'] 

22. Dactylis 
(Greek, finger). A 
genus of grasses com- 
prising one species or 
several closely allied species, 
native in the northern part of 
the Old World. Spikelets three- 
to five-flowered, in dense fasci- 
cles, these forming a glomerate 
panicle, spreading in flower but 
contracted in fruit. Glumes one- 
to three-nerved, the lemma five- 
nerved. 

glomcrafa, Linn. Orchard- 
grass. (Fig. 544.) Commonly 
cultivated in the northern states 
for forage and extensively es- 
caped in waste places. It is of 
considerable importance in Ken- 
tucky, southern Indiana, Ten- 
nessee, North Carolina, western 
Virginia, West Virginia and 
Maryland. 

23. Cynosurus (Greek, dog's- 
tail). A genus of four or five 
species of grasses found in the 
north temperate regions of the 
Old World. Spikelets of two 
forms in small fascicles, these 
forming a dense, spike-like pan- 
icle ; terminal spikelets of the 
fascicles two- to four-flowered, 
perfect, the lower spikelet 
sterile, consisting of many 
linear one-nerved glumes. 

cristatus, Linn. Crested Dog's- 
tail. (Fig. .545.) A perennial 
grass, one to two feet high, with 
fine and chiefly radical leaves. 
Occasionally sown in grass mix- 
tures but without much forage value. 

24. Poa (Greek, for fodder). A genus of about 
125 species of grasses, chiefly in the cooler regions 
of both hemispheres. Spikelets two- to six-flow- 



GRASSES 



373 




Fig. 549. Blue-grass 
or June-grass {Poa 
I'ratensis). 



ered, the uppermost flower more or less imperfect : 
glumes one- to three-nerved, keeled ; lemma keeled^ 
five-nerved, awnless. Inflorescence a more or less 
spreading panicle. Annuals or perennials. 

arachnifera, Torr. Texas Blue-grass. (Fig. 546.) 
A dioecious perennial grass with running rootstocks. 
The staminate and pistillate panicles are distinctly 
different in appearance, owing to the fact that the 
lemmas of the staminate spikelets are smooth while 
those of the pistillate spikelets are densely long 
woolly, which character at once distinguishes this 
species. 

compressa, Linn. Canada Blue-grass. (Fig. 547.) 
A perennial with scattered, flattened stems, six to 
twenty inches high, from creeping rootstocks which 
form a strong turf. Panicle comparatively small 
and narrow. Because of the characteristic shape of 
the stem it is called flat-stem in the middle Alle- 
ghany region. In New England and in some other 
localities it is known as blue-grass, but this name 
should be restricted to Poa pratensis. It is also 
sometimes called wire -grass. The foliage has 
a peculiar blue -green color. It is a native of 
Europe and of the northern part of America. 

nemoraUa, Linn. Wood Meadow-grass. (Fig. 548). 
A tall perennial (one to three feet) with open spread- 
ing panicle, four to six inches long; spikelets 
mostly two- to three-flowered, lemma webby at base, 
keel and marginal nerves pubescent, intermediate 
nerves glabrous and obscure; ligule very short. 
This European species is occa- 
sionally cultivated as a meadow 
grass or in mixtures, and has 
escaped in the northeastern 
states. It is adapted to shaded 
situations. Probably not na- 
tive. 




Fig. 550. Detail of blue-grass 
flower {Poa pralmsis). 1, 
spikelet: 2, floret openeci: 
fl, florets; g, ghimes; pd, 
pedicel; st, stamen; a, 
anthers: /. filaiuents; s, 
stigrnns; p.palea: ?, lemma; 
o, ovary: r, rachilla. 



Fig. 551. Kentucky 
blue-grass or June- 
grass il'oa praten- 
sis). 



pratensis, Linn. Kentucky Blue-grass. (Figs. 
549-551.) A perennial grass growing in tufts, but 
producing abundant rootstocks by which it soon 
forms a firm sod. Panicles spreading but not dif- 
fuse, two to five inches long. Spikelets mostly 
three- to five-flowered ; lemma much as in the pre- 
ceding, but the intermediate nerves more promi- 
nent. A valuable grass, native in the northern 
part of both hemispheres and widely cultivated for 
pasture and lawns. It does not thrive in the South. 



374 



GRASSES 



GRASSES 



triflora, Gelib. (P. serotina, Ehrh.). Fowl Meadow- 
grass. (Pig. 552.) This grass clcsely resembles P. 
nenoralig. It usually grows taller and has a larger 
panicle. Probably the best character to distinguish 
between the two is the ligule, which in triflora 
is about three millimeters 
,lf|f (one -eighth inch) long, 




Fig. 553. Rough-Stalked 
Fig. 552. Fowl meadow-grass meadow-grass (I'oa Fig 
(Pon triflnnij and enlarged trinalis) and enlarged 
spikelet. spikelet. 

while in nevioralis it is scarcely measurable. This 
species is native in the northern part of America 
as well as in Europe. It has been incorrectly re- 
ferred to P.flava, Linn. Sometimes known as false 
red-top. 

trivialis, Linn. Rough -stalked Meadow-grass. 
(Fig. 553.) In general appearance much resembling 
P. pratciisis, but usually with a larger and more 
spreading panicle. It differs in the absence of well- 
developed rootstocks, in the sheaths rough to the 
touch (hence the common name), and in the glabrous 
marginal nerves of the lemma. Occasionally grown 
in mixtures for meadow.s. A native of Europe but 
escaped from cultivation in the northeastern states. 
It is adapted to shaded situations. 

25. Festuca (Latin, straw). A genus of about 
eighty species of mostly perennial grasses, scat- 
tered over all parts of the globe but chiefly in tem- 
perate regions. Spikelets several-flowered, glumes 
narrow and acute ; lemmas rounded on the back, or 
keeled at apex, often awned from the tip, faintly 
three- to five-nerved, rather hard in texture. In- 
florescence from a narrow raceme to a spreading 
panicle. 

elatior, Linn. Tall Fescue. A tall grass (three 
to four feet) with large flat leaves, large but rather 
narrow panicle and large, five- to ten -flowered, 
awnless spikelets (about one-half inch long). Native 
of Europe and cultivated for forage. Frequently 
escaped from cultivation. A smaller form (var. 
;)ratois)"s. Gray (Fig. 5.54); E. prafmsis, Hnds.), with 
narrower panicle of fewer spikelets, is more com- 
monly cultivated under the name of meadow fescue, 
and is a more valuable agricultural grass. Some- 



times called Randall grass. The tall fescue makes 
a ranker growth than the meadow fescue. 

ovina, Linn, Sheep's Fescue. (Fig. 555.) A low 
tufted perennial without rootstocks having numer- 
ous very narrow, wiry basal leaves, narrow panicles, 
and short-awned lemmas. A variable species, native 
of temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. 
Much valued in Europe as a pasture 
grass, especially for sheep, but little 
grown in this country. Varieties or 
closely allied species of this go under 
the names of various-leaved fescue (F. 
hetcrophyUa), hard fescue (F. durius- 
cula), and fine leaved or slender fescue 
(F. tenuifolia). 

rubra, Linn. Red Fescue. (Fig. 
556.) Resembles F. ovina, but usually 
larger and with a more spreading 
panicle. Distinguished chiefly by the 
presence of short rootstocks or creep- 
ing bases of the stems, which are 
often red in color. Some varieties are 
native along the Atlantic coast and in 
the western mountains. 

26. Bromus (Greek name for oats). 
A genus of about one hundred species 
of annual or perennial grasses, mostly 
of the north temperate zone. Spikelets 
several-flowered ; lemmas rounded on 
the back or sharply keeled, five- to 
nine-nerved, two-toothed at the apex 
and awned from between the teeth, or sometimes 
awnless. Inflorescence a panicle of rather large, 
erect or pendulous spikelets. Leaves flat. Our 
native species are all perennial. Several annuals 
introduced from Europe are troublesome weeds, 
such as cheat or chess (B. secalinus). 



. 554 

fescue ( /■ 
pratensis). 



Meadow 




Fig. 555. 
Sheep's fescue 
{Festuca ovina) 



Fig. 556. 

Red fescue 

(Festuca rubra). 



Fig. 557. Brome glass 
{Bromus incrmis). 



inermis, Leyss. Russian Brome grass. (Fig. 557.) 
An erect perennial two to five feet high, with strong 
creeping rootstocks and a loose, open panicle four 
to six inches long. Spikelets scarcely flattened, 
erect, about an inch long, awnless. Native of 



GRASSES 



GRASSES 



375 



Europe, but recently introduced into this country 
and proving a valuable forage grass in the North- 
west, from Kansas to North Dakota and Washing- 
ton. Called also smooth, Hungarian, Austrian and 
awnless brome grass. 

seealinus, Linn. Chess. Cheat. (Fig. 558.) _ An 
annual, one to three feet high, with open panicle, 
smooth sheaths and short-awned spikelets. A com- 




Fig. 558. Chess or cheat {hromus seealinus). 
Common in wheiit fields. It was once sup- 
posed that wheat turned to chess. 

mon weed introduced from Europe but cultivated 
for forage in Oregon and Washington. A closely 
allied species (B. racemosus commutatus) is common 
and can be distinguished by the pubescent sheaths 
and the less rigid and turgid lemma, especially in 
fruiting spikelets. The idea that chess may turn 
into wheat is now one of the curiosities of agricul- 
tural tradition. 

unioloides, H. B. K. Rescue-grass. (Fig. 559.) A 
tall annual (one to three feet) with an open panicle 
of broad, much-flattened, nearly or quite awnless 



spikelets. Native of South America. Cultivated in 
the southern states for winter forage. Also called 
arctic-grass, Schrader's brome-grass, Australian 
brome and Australian oats. 

27. Lolium (the old Latin name). A genus of 
six species of grasses in northern Europe and Asia. 
Spikelets several-flowered, solitary and sessile on 
alternate sides of the rachis, placed with the edges 
again.st the axis, forming a two-rowed spike. 

mulfiflorum. Lam. (L. Italiniw, A. Br.). Italian 
Rye-grass. (Fig. 560.) A short-lived perennial or 
scarcely more than a biennial. Spikelets with awns 
about as long as the lemma. On the Pacific coast 
sometimes called Australian rye-grass. 

perenne, Linn. Perennial Rye-grass. (Fig. 56L) 
Similar to the preceding, but somewhat more per- 
sistent and with awnless spikelets. Long cultivated 
in England, where it is highly esteemed as a forage 
grass. 

28. Secale (Latin name for rye). A genus of 
grasses containing two species, one of which is 
widely cultivated. Native in the 
Old World. Spikelets two-flow- 
ered, solitary and sessile, alter- 
nate on opposite sides of a con- 
tinuous rachis, forming a dense 
terminal spike. Glumes narrow 
and pointed ; lemmas keeled, 
five-nerved, long-awned from 
the apex. 

cerea/c, Linn. Rye. (Fig. 562.) 
A well-known cereal in common 
cultivation in all cool climates. 
[See Rye.] 

29. Triticum (Latin name 
for wheat). A genus of ten or 
twelve species of the Mediter- 
ranean region. Spikelets two- 
to five-flowered, solitary and 
sessile, alternate on opposite 
sides of the rachis, forming a 
dense terminal spike. Glumes 
ovate, three to many-nerved. 
Annuals. 

sativum, Lam. (T. imlgare, 
Vill.). Wheat. (Fig. 563.) 
A common grain, long cul- 
tivated and existing in well- 
marked races and numerous 
varieties. The spikelets may 
be awned (bearded) or awnless 
(smooth). [See nTieaL] 

30. Agropyron (Greek, 
wheat-grass). A genus of about 
thirty-five species of perennial 
grasses, distributed in all tem- 
perate climates. Spikelets 
three- to several-flowered, soli- 
tary and sessile at each joint 
of the axis, forming a terminal 
spike. Glumes narrow and 
pointed. Difl'ers from Triticum 
in the shape of the glumes and 
in having the lemma deciduous ^e. seo^ ?^^^Tt7^ 
with the grain to which it ad- muinfiorum). 




Fig. 559. 
Rescue-grass 

iBromus unioloides). 




376 



GRASSES 



GRASSES 



heres. Commonly called wheat-grasses. In native 
meadows in the Northwest several species are util- 
ized, especially A. occidciUale, Soribn., called blue- 
stem and blue-joint in the Rocky mountain region 
(not the blue-stem of the prairie states, 
Andropogon fiir- 
ca^Ms,Muhl., norof 
Minnesota, Cala- 
magrostis Cana- 
densis), and the 
slender wheat- 
grass of Montana 
and Washing- 
ton (A. tenerum, 



FiE- 561. 
Perennial 
rye- grass 
(Loiium 
perenne). 




Fig. 562. Rye (Secale 
ccreale). 




Fig. 563. Wheat (Triti- 
cum sativu7n). 



Vasey). The seed of the latter 
is now a commercial article. 

repens, Beau v. Quack-grass. 
(Figs. 159, 564.) A perennial with 
a creeping, several-jointed root- 
stock. Culms may reach four feet 
in height. Leaves numerous and 
linear; spikes six to twelve inches 
long, erect ; spikelets on opposite 
sides of a jointed and grooved 
rachis, erect, four- to eight-flowered. Glumes acute 
or short-awned ; lemmas smooth ; palea acute or 
slightly rounded. Also called couch-grass, twitch- 
grass and quitch-grass. 

31. Hordeum (Latin name for barley). A genus 
of about si.xteen species of grasses in both hemi- 
spheres. Spikelets one -flowered, two to three 
together at each joint of the articulated rachis, 
forming a dense terminal spike. Glumes two, nar- 
row or bristle form. 

vulgare, Linn, (or H. sativum, Jess.). Barley. 
(Figs. 287, 565.) A well-known cereal cultivated in 
all cool climates. There are normally three spikelets 
in a group at each node, each with its pair of awn- 
like glumes ; each lemma also long-awned. If all 
three spikelets are developed and form grains, six- 
or four-rowed barley is produced, according as the 
lateral spikelets on each side form two distinct 
rows or are coalesced into one. In two-rowed barley 
the lateral spikelets are staminate and do not form 
grains. The grain in most varieties adheres to the 
lemma in threshing, but in the naked barleys it 
falls out. Beardless barley is a form in which the 
awns are short and much distorted. [See Barley. 
Authorities differ in practice as to use of the two 
specific names ; either is allowable.] 



Literature. 

The following is a list of the more important 
recent works treating wholly or in part of North 
American gras.ses. In addition, there are numerous 
local floras, monographs and technical articles in 
botanical journals that are not readily acce.ssible 
to the general reader. Manuals and general works : 
Heal, Grasses of North America, Vol. II, 1896 ; 
Britton, Manual of the Flora of the Northern States 
and Canada (1901), Second edition, 1905 ; Britton 
and Brown, An Illustrated Flora of the Northern 
United States, Canada and the British Posse.ssions, 
Vol. I, 1896 ; Chapman, Flora of the Southern Uni- 
ted States, Third edition, 1897 ; Coulter, Manual of 
the Botany of the Rocky Mountain Region, 
1885 ; Gray, Manual of the Botany of the 
Northern United States, Sixth edition, 1890 ; 
Haekel, The True Grasses, translated from the 
German by Scribner and South worth, 1890 ; 
Small, Flora of the Southeastern United States, 
1903; Watson, Geological Survey of California, 
Botany, Vol. II, 1880 (the grasses are by Thur- 
ber); Monographs and special papers, United 
States Government pub- 
lications : Hitchcock, 
North American Species 
of Agrostis, Bureau of 
Plant Indu.stry, Bulletin 
No. 68, 1905; Hitch- 
cock, North American 
Species of Leptochloa, 
Bureau of Plant Indus- 





Fig. 564. Quack-grass 

{Auropyron n'pens). 

try. Bulletin No. 33, 1903; 

Merrill, The Native Species 

of Chffitochloa, Division of 

Agrostology, Bulletin No. 21, 

1900; Merrill, The North 

American Species of Spartina, 

Bureau of Plant Industry, 

Bulletin No. 9, 1902 ; Piper, 

North American Species of 

Fe.stuca, Contributions from 

National Herbarium 10, No. 

1, 1906; Scribner, American Grasses, I, Division of 

Agrostology, Bulletin No. 7, 1900 ; II, Division of 

Agrostology, Bulletin No. 17, 1901 ; III, Division 

of Agrostology, Bulletin No. 20, 1900; Shear, A 

Revision of the North American Species of Bromus 

Occurring North of Mexico, Division of Agrostology, 

Bulletin No. 23, 1900; Vasey, Illustrations of North 



Fig. 565. 
Six-rowed barley (Hor- 
deum vitlyare). 



HEMP 



HEMP 



377 



American Grasses : Vol. I, Grasses of the Southwest, 
1891; Vol. II, Grasses of the Pacific Slope, 1893, 
Division of Botany, Bulletin Nos. 12 and 13. 

HEMP. Cannabis saliva, Linn. Urticacece. Figs. 
566-571. [See also Fiber plants.] 

By J. N. Harper. 

An annual dioecious plant, reaching a height of 
ten feet and more, grown for its long bast fiber, 

and for its seeds. 
Staminate flowers 
drooping in axil- 
lary panicles, hav- 
ing five sepals 
and five stamens ; 
pistillate flowers in 
short spikes, with 
one sepal folding 
about the ovary. 
Leaves digitate, 
with five to seven 
nearly linear, 
coarse-toothed leaf- 
lets. Hemp is prob- 
ably native to cen- 
tral Asia. 



The figures for hemp 
(1900) are aa follows : 



in the Twelfth Census 




Fig. 566. Hemp. Staminate flower- 
cluster: o. pistin.'ite and b. stam- 
inate flowers; c, pistiUate flower 
cluster at left. 



Hislory. 
Hemp 



has been 
cultivated for cen- 
turies as a fiber plant. It was grown by the early 
Greeks and probably by the ancient Egyptians. It 
has been grown in this country for about 130 years, 
the seed having been brought from France. During 
this time, its cultivation has been confined chiefly 
to about twelve counties in central Kentucky, in 
what is known as the blue-grass region. 
For the last forty or fifty years, however, 
the industry has spread into a number of 
other states, notably Missouri, Illinois, 
Nebraska, Oklahoma, Minnesota, New 
York and California. Notwithstanding 
this extension of the industry, nine-tenths 
of the hemp crop of America is still grown 
in Kentucky. 

During the years it has been grown 
in Kentucky, probably no other crop has 
brought an equal revenue. A few years 
before the Civil War it contributed more 
to the wealth of central Kentucky than 
all other crops combined. At that time, 
Kentucky produced annually 38,000 tons, with a 
gross receipt of $2,280,000. During the war the 
industry declined but revived a few years later, 
and again declined owing to the use of iron and 
jute in the bagging of cotton. Hemp is now used 
largely for making burlap, twine and Carpet warp. 

Production. 

According to the Twelfth Census there were in 
1899, 964 farms producing hemp, with an average 
acreage of 16.6 and a total acreage of 16,042. The 
average production per acre was 732 pounds, worth 
$34.06, or 4,6 cents per pound. 





Acres 


Pounds 


Value 


Arkansas . . . 


1 


420 


$20 


California . . . 


500 


620,000 


45,000 


Illinois .... 


783 


515,400 


21,784 


Missouri .... 


10 


2,000 


100 


Kentucky . , . 


14,107 


10,303,560 


468,454 


Nebraska . . . 


638 


305,400 


10,752 


Pennsylvania . . 


3 


3,850 


228 




16,042 


11,750,630 


$546,338 



Culture. 

Tlie soil. — While hemp will grow on almost any 
land containing a large amount of humus, it does 
best on well-drained Silurian limestone soils. In 
Minnesota it thrives on drift soils. The moisture 
content is the important factor. The soil should be 
prepared thoroughly by breaking with a turning 
plow, plowing about si.\ to eight inches deep, and 
by repeated harrowings and rolling. 

Hemp grows so tall and dense that it kills weeds 
by smothering them better than any other farm 
crop. A good growth of hemp is effective in killing 
even Canada thistle and quack-grass. It leaves the 
soil in e.xcellent condition for any succeeding crop. 

Seeding. — The best results are secured by sow- 




Fig. 567. Hemp: pistillate or seed-bearing part. 

ing with a seven-inch wheat drill, running it both 
ways. The seed is sown at the rate of one bushel 
per acre. It is sown about two inches deep. After 
sowing, the land should be rolled. Hemp should 



378 



HEMP 



HEMP 



not be sown very thick, because in thinning itself 
it will crowd out many plants and the size of the 
hemp stalks will not be uniform. The best fiber is 
obtained from stalks about one-half inch in diam- 
eter; if a thin 
stand is se- 
cured, the 
stalks fre- 
quently will 
grow to be 
three-fourths 
of an inch in 
d ? a m e t e r . 
Hemp drilled 
in gives a 
much more 
uniform stand 
than when 
sown broad- 
cast, because 
all of the seeds 
are placed at a 
depth to have 
sufficient mois- 
germination, and the 
Repeated experi- 




Fig. 5o8. Hemp; staimnate flowers indi- 
cate time for harvest. 



ture to insure immediate 

young plants get an even start- 

ments have shown that it does not pay to till hemp 

that is intended for fiber. 

The earlier the seed is planted in the spring the 
more assurance there will be of a good crop. 
Hemp requires a large amount of moisture and 
should be high enough to shade the ground and 
thus con.serve all water that may fall in the early 
summer. The average time of planting for eight 
years at the Kentucky Experiment Station was 
April 25. The young plants began to come up in 
about one week's time. 

It has been found by long experience that the 
seed that gives the best results is secured from 
China. The Kentucky Experiment Station has 
tested the value of a number of Japanese varieties, 
but none has given as good results as those from 
Chinese seed. The first year the imported seed is 
planted the yield is much less than it is in succeed- 
ing years. Growers say that after the Chinese hemp 



^m!m^- 



Fig. 569. Shocking hemp. 

has been grown for a number of years it degener- 
ates and they seek newly imported seed. There are 
no well marked varieties. 

Seed -growing. —The hemp that is planted for 
seed is sown on the river-bottoms. A narrow strip 
along the Kentucky river produces nearly all of the 




hemp grown in America for seed purposes. About 
two quarts per acre are sown. This is often planted 
in hills, seven feet apart, in rows six to eight feet 
apart. About four stalks are permitted to grow to 
the hill. This hemp is carefully cultivated and 
kept free from all weeds and gra.sses. The seed is 
used in the making of oils for paints, for bird and 
poultry food, and various other purposes. The 
yield of .seed is fifteen to thirty bu.shels to the acre. 
As much as forty dollars per acre is often realized 
from hemp seed. The seed must not be stored in 
bulk or it will heat. 

Fertilizers. — The Kentucky Station has experi- 
mented for a number of years on the use of com- 
mercial fertilizers on hemp, and the results show 
that, by the use of 160 pounds of nitrate of soda 
per acre, three to four hundred pounds more fiber 









^"^zj&X^ 



Fig. 570. Stack of hemp. 

can be grown to the acre than on unfertilized land. 
When 160 pounds of nitrate of soda and 160 
pounds of muriate of potash are used together, at 
least four to five hundred pounds more fiber are 
secured than on the unfertilized areas. Acid phos- 
phate does not show a material increase. Nitrate 
of soda gives better results than does sulfate of 
ammonia or dried blood. The prime requirement is 
for nitrogen, and it .should be furnished by apply- 
ing commercial fertilizers, or by barnyard or green- 
manures. A leguminous crop can be alter- 
nated with the hemp, and in parts of the 
South this can be done in the same year. 

Cutting and handling. 

The first blossoms appear about the first 
week in .July, and hemp sown April 25 will 
be ready for cutting about the first of Sep- 
tember. Most of the hemp grown in Ken- 
tucky is still cut by hand by means of a 
knife made especially for this purpose. 
However, much has recently been cut by 
especially designed machinery. The yield 
from the handout field is greater than that 
from the machinery-cut field, and some farmers 
maintain that there is enough difference to make 
up for the greater expen.se. The heaviest fiber is 
found on the internode next to the ground, and if 
the stubble is left any length, a great quantity of 
fiber is lost. It usually costs about one dollar per 



HEMP 



HEMP 



379 



acre to cut by machinery and three dollars per 
acre to cut by hand. 

After the hemp is cut, it is spread evenly over 
the ground, the butts being placed down the hill 
if there is a slope. The stalks are placed in par- 
allel lines. In about one week it is sufficiently dry 
to rake up into small bundles. These bundles are 
tied with small stalks of hemp and are placed in 
shocks (Fig. .569) or stacks (Fig. .570). The Ken- 
tucky Experiment Station has shown that it pays 
to stack the hemp, as the loss of fiber is not so 
great and the quality is much improved. Stacked 
hemp rets more evenly and ■ makes a much better 
fiber than when shocked. In the latter case, too 
much of the outer layer sunburns and over-rets. 
The shocks are liable to blow down, greatly to the 
damage of the crop. The shocked hemp, however, 
is much less expensive to handle and can be spread 
out at difl:erent periods, so that the quantity retted 
at one time can be controlled. 

If the hemp is allowed to remain on the ground 
too long after cutting, it will sunburn and the 
quality will be destroyed. It requires considerable 
judgment to stack hemp to avoid the sunburn. 
Care should be taken not to stack it before it is 
sufficiently dry, as it will heat in the stack with 
much injury to the quality. 

Retting. — About the middle of November or the 
first of December, the hemp is taken from the 
stack and spread over the ground as before stack- 
ing, to ret, a process which separates or liberates 
the bast. If the weather conditions are favorable, 
it will ret in about two months sufficiently to break. 
Ideal weather conditions for retting are alternate 
freezing and thawing, with an occasional snow that 
does not remain long on the ground. Early and 
late retting are not so good as winter retting ; and 
hemp retted during heavy freezes is much better 
than when rain-retted. After the hemp has retted 
sufficiently to allow the fiber to break readily from 
the hards (or "hurds"). it should be placed in shocks 
to prevent further retting. The artificial methods 
of retting have never been completely successful. 

Breaking. — The fiber is removed or extracted 
from the other tissue by the process of breaking. 
Most of the hemp of Kentucky is still broken by 
the old-fashioned hand-brake that has been in use 
for more than one hundred years. Large sums have 
been spent in trying to devise machinery for this 
operation, but so far most of the attempts have 
failed. Within the last year or so, however, ma- 
chines have been designed that promise successfully 
to break the hemp. 

Marketing. 

After being broken in the field, the hemp is tied 
up in hanks of six to eight pounds. These are put 
in about 1.50-pound bales, which are taken to the 
market, where the hemp is rehandled by the dealer. 
The rehandling consists in running the hemp 
through hackles of various degrees of fineness. The 
hackled hemp is shipped directly to the twine 
manufacturer. The best hemp fibers, which are 
water-retted, come from abroad, especially from 
Italy and France. 



Returns per acre. 

Sufficient seed to sow an acre costs about $3 ; 
the breaking of the land costs .$1.25 ; harrowing, 
50 cents ; breaking and rolling, 50 cents ; drilling 
the seed, 50 cents ; cutting, $3 ; tying and .shock- 
ing, $1.25 ; spreading, 50 cents ; taking up and 
shocking, 50 cents ; putting in stacks, $1 ; break- 
ing, $1 per hundred, or about $15 per acre, thus 
making the total cost $27 per acre. Twelve hun- 
dred pounds is considered a good crop, and 1,800 
pounds is often produced. The average price is 
about five cents per pound, making a gross income 
of $60 to $90 per acre, or a net income of $33 to 
$63 per acre. 

Enemies. 

The hemp plant is subject to few enemies. There 
is a parasitic plant that is causing a great deal 
of damage to the crop in central Kentucky. This 
parasite belongs to the broom rapes. It has been 
discussed in several bulletins issued by the Ken- 
tucky Station. Cutworms and a small Hy (Pegemyia 
fuscieeps) sometimes damage it seriously. 

Methods employed in Nebraska, California and 
Minnesota. 

At Havelock, Nebraska, where hemp follows 
hemp or a crop leaving the soil in equally good 
condition, the land is prepared and the seed sown 
and covered at one operation. A traction engine 
draws a gang of plows followed by a harrow, then 
a special drill and a second harrow to cover the 
seeds and settle the soil. The hemp is cut with 




Fig. 571. Hemp-cleaning machine in operation 
in Kentucky. 

ordinary mowing machines with an attachment 
to throw the stalks smoothly in the direction the 
machine is going. The stalks lie where they fall 
until retted. They are then raked up with horse- 
rakes and taken to the power brake, consisting of 
fluted rollers followed by beating wheels, which 
prepares the fiber in the form of long tow. In Cal- 
ifornia hemp is cut with special sell^-rake reapers, 
bound and set up in shocks, until conditions are 
favorable for retting. It is then spread for dew- 
retting and afterward broken on the Heaney hemp 
brake, similar to the one at Havelock, making long 
tow. At Northfield, Minnesota, hemp is cut by self- 
binders of special construction and, after curing in 
the field, is water-retted in tanks and broken by 
machinery, producing a light yellowish fiber some- 
what like Italian hemp. 



380 



HOPS 



HOPS 



Literature. 

M. Molliard, Experimental Investigations on 
Hemp, Bui. Soc. Bot., France, 50, 1903; Viner, 
Experiments with Hemp, Khozyaene, 1901, No. 47, 
48 ; Rev. in Zhur. Opuitn. Agron. (Jour. Expt. 
Landw.), 3 (1902), No. 2, pp 248-249 ; Dewey, The 
Hemp Industry in the United States, United States 
Department of Agriculture, Yearbook 1901, pp. 
541-554; Boyce, Hemp, — a Practical Trea- 
tise on the Culture of Hemp for Seed and 
Fiber, with a Sketch of the History and 
Nature of the Hemp Plant, Orange Judd 
Company, New York, 1900. 



in e.xtremely hot weather, sometimes increasing in 
length as much as a foot a day. The stems cling 
closely to a pole or string and, when once well 
started, will follow it with very little trouble. The 
growth is almost wholly increase in length until 
the beginning of the flowering period (mid-July in 



HOPS. Humulus 
Urticacecc. Figs. 



Lupulus, 
572-576. 



^"^"- -==J 



By Jared Van Wagenen, Jr. 

A perennial twining herb produ- 
cing burs or "hops" that are used in 
the making of beer. It has long 
shoots often reaching twenty-five to 
thirty feet in a season; rough hairy, 
the stems having minute prickles 
pointing downward ; leaves ovate 
or orbicular-ovate in general outline, 
deeply three-lobed (sometimes fi ve- 
to seven-lobed), or the upper ones not lobed ; mar- 
gins strongly and uniformly dentate ; petioles long; 
staminate flowers in panicles two to six inches 
long ; hops (mature pistillate catkins) oblong or 
ovoid, loose and papery, straw-yellow, often two 
inches or more long, glandular and odoriferous. 
The hop has a tough, fibrous inner Ijark and a color- 
less juice which makes an 
indelible stain on white 
fabrics. The stems climb 
as much as thirty feet high 
by the beginning of the 
flowering period, lengthen- 
ing from a well-marked 
terminal "head," and nor- 
mally twining by rotating 
spirally around their sup- 
ports, "clock-wise" or "fol- 
lowing the sun." The hop 
is dioscious, i. e., the pistil- 
late and staminate flowers 
are borne on separate 
plants. The fruit may be 
regarded as a compact cat- 
^ kin, largely made up of the 
axis together with the 
large foliaceous bracts, 
each of which is covered 
at its base by a yellow, 
granular, resin-like mate- 
rial called lupulin. This is 
the essential principle in 
the hop, and imparts the 
bitter taste to beer. There 
are also a few seeds, although seed-production is 
irregular and scanty, a large proportion of the fer- 
tile flowers failing to mature seed. The plant is 
unusually drought-resistant and grows most rapidly 








Fig. 573. Hop. Pistillate 
flowers ill clusters or 
catkins, and an indi- 
vidual flower. 



Fig. 572. Hop. 

Staminate or male flower cluster 

and individual flower. 



New York), after which short compound lateral 
branches are thrown out from the axils of the 
leaves, on which the flowers appear and the plant 
ceases to "run." Botanically, the hop is closely 
related to hemp and is included in the great nettle 
family. 

Geographical distribution. 

There are few plants that are more widely grown 
than the hop. It is native in Europe and is 
reported from practically every European country 
and from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Tas- 
mania and other countries. In the United States, 
where it has been an important crop in certain 
sections for at least a century, its commercial pro- 
duction is limited to four states, in the order named: 
Oregon, California, New York and Wa.shington, 
although at times it has been grown in Wisconsin, 
Michigan and Vermont. The relative importance 
of the crop in New York seems to be on the decline 
while it is increasing in the West, owing to the 
better climatic conditions and cheaper methods of 
production. The wild form of the plant, which dif- 
fers considerably from the cultivated hop, although 
easily recognizable, is found along certain alluvial 
creek-bottoms of the northeastern United States. 

The United States Department of Agriculture 
makes no official estimate of production, but by 
the be.st obtainable statistics, in the five years 
ending with 1905, the total production of the 
United States has ranged between 39,000,000 and 
51,000,000 pounds. In the same series of years 
about 20 per cent of the crop has been exported. 
The United States returns less than one-fifth of the 
world's total production. 

Culture. 

Soils. — The hop seems to adapt itself readily to 
a wide variety of soils, provided only that they are 
well drained. In parts of the East it is grown 



HOPS 



HOPS 



381 



extensively on rich alluvial creek-bottoms and on 
poor sandstone hills. A rich sandy loam that is 
moist, but not wet, is preferable. The commercial 
value of the cured hop depends very largely on its 
color, a bright straw-color being the ideal, and 
this will not be secured on soils in which nitrogen 
is too abundant. A slight elevation, protected from 
north and northwest winds, and sloping toward the 
east or southeast, is preferable. 

Manures. — In starting a hop-yard in the East 
a liberal dressing of twelve to twenty tons of farm 
manure per acre is frequently applied. After the 
crop is established, the general method of manuring 
is by applying a good-sized forkful of stable manure 
on the crown of the plant in the fall, thus serving 
the two-fold purpose of fertilizing and a protective 
mulch. In the spring it is worked into the soil 
about the hill. Sometimes manure is used between 
the rows with good results. The large amount of 
nitrogen in farm manure has sometimes caused 
excessive leaf -growth and a green, undesirable hop. 
This has led some of the best growers to alternate 
the manure with applications of commercial fertil- 
izers, especially those containing a large percent- 
age of potash, as wood-ashes. So far as quality is 
concerned, it is wisest to depend at least partially 
on commercial manures. Good quality has been 
secured from broadcasting one ton per acre of 
wood-ashes in the fall, and applying 500 pounds of 
ground bone at the iirst hoeing in the spring. The 
largest yields, however, seem to follow the applica- 
tion of the manure to the hills in the fall, assisted 
by an application of commercial fertilizer at the 
first hoeing in the spring. Possibly the highest 
yield per acre and the best market quality are not 
compatible. In the richer and newer soils of the 
West little attention is yet paid to fertilizing. 

Propagation. — Hops are always propa- 
gated from cuttings of the underground 
stems, called "roots." These are grubbed 
from the runners of estab- 
lished hills and cut into 
pieces having two to six 
" eyes" each, and four to eight 
inches long. They are set 
out in spring as early as pos- 
sible, at the rate of two to 
four pieces in a hill, the 
pieces being six to eight 
inches apart in the hill. 
Some growers set the cut- 
tings upright in holes 
punched with a bar. This method is more diffi- 
cult, but is said to give more compact hills with a 
better root system. The tops are brought even 
with the surface of the ground, and they are then 
hilled up two or three inches. The cutting must not 
be allowed to dry out completely. Sometimes, espe- 
cially in the warmer parts of the West, it is nec- 
essary to plant the cuttings as soon as they are 
made, or " heel " them in on moist ground. The 
hills are usually placed about seven feet apart 
each way, which gives 700 to nearly 900 hills per 
acre. Many growers have found it advisable to set 
out about one per cent male plants to cause seed 



production, thus increasing very appreciably the 
weight of the crops. In other cases, no attention 
is paid to the sexes. Roots are commonly sold 
in the East by the bushel, but sometimes by the 
hundred "sets." Their price fluctuates very widely 
and may form a considerable item of expense in 
establishing a new yard. 

Since the hop yields no crop in the East until 
the second year, it is the universal custom to plant 
it with some other crop. Corn is sometimes used, 
letting a hill of hops take the place of every 
alternate hill of corn in each alternate row. Ob- 
jection has been offered to corn for this purpose on 
the ground that it shades the hops too much. Pota- 
toes and beans are used in the same way. This 
permits clean cultivation and good care of the 
young plants. Sometimes the hops are planted as 
usual and then the field is sown with oats, a 
method that has nothing to commend it. The hop 
is a plant that requires clean and exacting cultiva- 
tion. This companion-cropping does not apply in 
California, where the plants get an earlier start, 
being set out in January and February, and pro- 
duce a fair crop the first year. 

A yard commonly attains its best condition two 
to four years after setting, and by careful atten- 
tion and replanting of hills when necessary, it may 
be maintained for ten, and, occasionally, fifteen 
years. Probably six to twelve years may be Laken 
as the average profitable life of a yard when good 
care is given. There is difficulty in getting a new 
plant to grow in the place where an old one has 
died, and when the entire field is plowed 
up and replanted, care must be exercised 




Fig. 574. Hops in fruit. 

These bm-s or strohiles are the mntured 

pistillate catkins shown in Fig. 573. 



:tnd between the 



to have the new rows occupy the 
old ones. 

Pruning. — The roots of the plant require prun- 
ing, or "grubbing," as it is sometimes called, each 
year. The first pruning is given about a year after 
the plants are set out. The dead stump remaining 
from the previous crop, together with about one 
inch of the crown, is cut ott' clean. The shallow 
runners are also cut off" and removed. This opera- 
tion exposes the poor or worthless roots, which 
may be taken up and replaced with healthy ones. 

Cultivation. — So far as cultural implements are 
concerned, no very special tools are required. The 



382 



HOPS 



HOPS 



yard is usually shallow-plowed in the early spring 
with a small one-horse plow, and after that is kept 
clean until midsummer by surface cultivation. 
Various types of cultivators are used. As the sea- 
son progresses, the earth around the plant is gradu- 
ally ridged or mounded up into well-marked 
hills. Some growers assert that high hills aid in 
overcoming the damage from the hop grub. At 
any rate, high hills are a protection to the crowns 
in the winter. There is considerable variation in 
cultural method, but the best growers agree that 
it should be thorough and continued as late as pos- 
sible. A new yard should not be neglected the first 
year, but given the same care as later. 

Training. — One of the most important steps in 
hop-growing is the training. There has been an 
evolution of methods of training. A generation 
ago, when poles were plenty and cheap, the com- 
mon method was to have two good poles to each 
hill and use no twine. A system of stakes about 
seven feet high, with twine strung from one to the 
other horizontally across the yard in both direc- 
tions, was also extensively adopted. In the West is 
employed a method of running twine directly from 
the hills to heavy overhead wires carried on strong 
poles or masts, the so-called "trellis" system. A 
system of setting one tall pole to each hill, and then 
running two strands of twine from a point about 
five feet from the ground to the top of neighboring 
poles, has been rather generally adopted in the 
East. This is known as the "umbrella" system. 

Poles are preferably of cedar and should be 
twenty to twenty-four feet long. They cost about 




Fig. 575. A hop-yard. New York. 

fifteen cents each delivered. They are set in the 
ground in holes about two feet deep, which are 
punched with a special form of bar. It is important 
that this setting be well done, so that the poles do 
not blow over with the load of hops. Usually the 
poles are set as soon as the frost is out of the 
ground, although on some soils they may be set the 
previous autumn. The young vines must be started 
up th3 poles by wrapping them around the poles 



with the spiral curve in the proper direction and 
tying loosely in places. In bright, warm weather 
they will cling and care for themselves after hav- 
ing been started, but in cold, wet periods they 
make much trouble by slipping back and refusing 
to run. They cling to twine and follow it very 
readily if it is nearly perpendicular, but if the 
slope is greater than 45° they will need constant 
training. The tying is largely done by women. 

The question of how many vines to tie to a hill 
is open. The number varies among growers from 
four to perhaps fifteen or more. Successful growers 
recommend six as most desirable, — two up the pole 
and two up each string. Too many vines shade 
the hops and produce an inferior crop. The most 
promising vines are selected from the center of the 
hill. 

Varieties. 

Hops are so strictly a local crop, and the litera- 
ture on the subject is so limited, that the question 
of varieties is not in a satisfactory condition. Indi- 
vidual plants vary, and a rigid selection is not prac- 
ticed. However, three or four distinct types are 
recognized in New York. The most usual and desir- 
able is English Cluster, in which the hops are 
rather small and are borne in compact clu-sters on 
rather short, branched laterals. Pompey is perhaps 
a local name for a type in which the hops are 
much larger and more four-sided, with a tendency 
to be borne more scattering or singly. These two 
forms merge into each other. Humphrey Seedling 
is a variety maturing ten days earlier than the 
standard sorts, valuable chiefly to 
those persons having a larger area 
than can be harvested in the reg- 
ular season. Canada or Canada Red 
is a name given to a late, hardy, 
rough - vined sort. There is no 
doubt that careful, systematic se- 
lection would do much to improve 
the vigor and desirable characters 
of the strains now grown. 

Harvesting. 

Hops should be picked when 
some of the seeds become brown 
and solid, when the end of the cone 
closes, and the hop feels solid and 
somewhat papery-like. The danger 
of loss from mold may make it 
advisable to begin harvesting 
before the best condition is 
reached. Picking generally begins 
the last week in August and should 
be finished by September 20 at the 
latest, otherwise there may be serious damage to 
the crop by mold. 

Hops are gathered very largely by women and 
children, one man, the "box-tender," taking down 
the poles, " sacking " the hops and waiting on four 
pickers. The size of the hop box varies, but usually 
holds either ten or twelve bushels. A picker should 
gather two to five boxes per day. It is very impor- 
tant that the hops be picked reasonably clean, i. e., 



HOPS 



HOPS 



383 



the large, coarse leaves kept out and the clusters 
separated. The cost of picking averages about 
seventy-five cents per hundred pounds of green hops. 

Drying and baling. 

A hop-house or dry-house is a tight building with 
a large heater or furnace, fourteen to twenty feet 
above which is a slatted floor covered with open- 
meshed cloth. On this the hops are spread in a 
layer one to three feet deep, 
and kept at a temperature of 
125° to 200° until sufficiently 
dry, a process that commonly 
requires about twelve hours. 
Ventilation is provided above 
for the removal of the mois- 
ture. During the early part 
of the process, sulfur is 
burned beneath the hops to 
bleach out the green shade 
and to bring them as nearly 
as may be to a straw-color. 
The sulfur also acts as a pre- 
servative. One pound of sul- 
fur will bleach one hundred 
pounds of green hops. The 
hops are occasionally turned 
in order that the drying 
may be uniform. The proper 
curing of hops requires con- 
siderable experience and 
good judgment. 

From the kilns the hops are removed to the cool- 
ing-room, where they are "sweated." Then, by 
means of a hand press they are made up into hard, 
solid bales, about twenty inches square and five 
feet in length, which are sewed up in cloth, and 
which should weigh about one hundred and ninety 
pounds each. A box of hops should weigh thir- 
teen to eighteen pounds when ready to bale. Two 
thousand pounds of cured hops per acre may be 
considered a maximum crop, although half this is 
a satisfactory yield. 



black mold. It is nearly always present to some 
extent, and in hot, damp weather it may spread 
with amazing rapidity, turning the inner part of 
the hop to a black, moldy mass, and ruining the 
crop. There is no remedy beyond planting yards 
in breezy, well-drained places, avoiding too much 
nitrogenous manure, and in harvesting the crop 
promptly when it is reasonably mature. 
The red rust discolors the outer part of the hops, 




The almost exclusive use of hops is in the brew- 
ing of malt liquors, although in this they have 
many substitutes. It is said that there should be 
used about two pounds of hops per barrel of beer. 
Low-grade and very old hops are sometimes "ex- 
tracted," i. e., a decoction or extract of the hops is 
made and shipped in barrels. A few factories have 
been established for this purpose. In the old cook- 
ery, a decoction of hops was used with flour or 
corn-meal in the making of yeast. 

Enemies. 

Weeds. — Hops have no special weed enemies 
beyond those common in other cultivated crops. 
In some soils under careless cultivation, quack- 
grass or couch-grass gains a foothold in the hills, 
but neither this nor the annual weeds are a menace 
to the careful grower. 

Diseases. — There are three serious fungous trou- 
bles, the more important of which is the universal 



Fig. 576. Scene in hop-yard at picking time. New York. 

causing the cured product to look badly, but not 
greatly injuring the quality. This trouble is not 
so common nor so serious as the mold. 

Mildew {Sphcerotheea castagnei) attacks the leaves, 
forming white patches on both sides. In damp 
weather it spreads rapidly over the leaf. It some- 
times is found on the cones late in the season. It 
is controlled by spraying with standard fungicides 
or dusting sulfur on the leaves. It is not regarded 
as a serious pest in the East. 

Insects. — While many forms of insect life abound 
on hops, yet only two can be considered trouble- 
some pests. The hop grub (Hydra-eia immanis), 
does great injury by working in the large suc- 
culent roots that form the crown of the hill, 
often greatly weakening if not entirely killing the 
plant. The eggs are laid on the tips of the new 
plants, and the larva eats into the vine, causing the 
end to drop. Later the larva drops to the ground 
and works up in the .stem. There is no satisfactory 
remedy, but it is considered a good thing to en- 
courage skunks around the yard, as they burrow 
for the grub. They may be gathered from the ends 
of the young plants and destroyed. In extreme 
cases it is advised to put ammonia phosphate or 
wood-ashes about the roots before hilling up. 

The hop-aphis (Phorodon humuli), is always pres- 
ent, often in enormous numbers, but generally 
appears so late in the Ea.st that the crop is nearly 
mature before much damage results. It is very 
remarkable, however, that in 1885 the aphis ap- 
peared in the East much earlier than usual, prac- 
tically destroying the crop in New York state. It 



384 



HOPS 



KAFIR AND DURRA 



is an interesting example of how an insect, ordi- 
narily not serious, may cause the total destruction 
of a crop. The presence of the aphis and the prev- 
alence of the mold seem to have some connection 
with each other. Spraying with whale-oil soap, 
kero,sene emulsion, strong soap-suds or a tobacco 
solution is effective ; but this treatment is not 
practiced in New York. 

Value and cost. 

Hops are generally sold directly to representa- 
tives of jobbers. They are remarkable above all 
other agricultural products for wide and violent 
fluctuations in prices. In 1882, hops were sold 
by growers for at least one dollar and twenty-five 
cents per pound, and at other times they have 
been almost without a quotable value. The gen- 
eral estimate of the cost of growing and harvest- 
ing is about ten to twelve cents per pound, of 
which harvesting is one-half. For the five years 
ending with 1904, the price of "choice" New York 
state hops in New York city, as quoted" in the 
trade journals, ranged between twelve and one-half 
and forty-one cents per pound, these years repre- 
senting a comparatively stable and prosperous 
period of the industry. 

Hop-growing requires a considerable investment 
and working capital. The main items of expense 
are the hop-house, poles, twine, wire (when the 
trellis system is used), fuel, sulfur and baling cloth. 
A large force of dependable labor is required dur- 
ing the harvest season, although thousands of itin- 
erant workers of varying degrees of worth drift 
into the hop districts during this time. 

Literature. 

Myrick, The Hop : Its Culture and Care, Market- 
ing and Manufacture, Orange Judd Co., New York 
city ; Hop Culture in California, Farmers' Bulletin 
No. 11.5, United States Department of Agriculture ; 
Hops, Nevada Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 35. 

KAFIR AND DURRA. Andropogon Sorghum, 

Brot., or Sorghum vulgare, Pers. Graminem. 

Figs. 577-582. 

Strong- growing plants, somewhat resembling 
corn, used for forage and for the grain which is 
borne in the panicle or head. They belong to the 
same species as broom-corn and the sweet or syrup 
sorghums (not sugar-cane), but differ in the less 
saccharine juice and also in characters of the head 
and seed. [See article on Sorghum for further 
botanical discussion and classification, and also for 
comparative economic notes.] 

Although belonging to the same species, kafir 
and durra represent two groups, quite as distinct 
as dent corn and flint corn. The methods of culti- 
vation and handling, however, are very similar, and 
they are therefore treated in a single article to 
avoid much repetition. The kafir group includes 
three varieties : White, Blackhull and Red kafirs, 
with small oval spikelets in erect, cylindrical heads. 
The durra group includes three varieties also : 
Yellow milo (usually known merely as "milo"), 
Brown durra and White durra, the last often called 




Fig. 578. 

Typical head of 

Red kafir. 



Jerusalem corn, rice corn or White Egyptian corn. 
These are characterized by compact, ovate or ellip- 
tical heads, mostly pendent or goosenecked, and 
large, obovate or nearly round spikelets. 

Unfortunately, there is no one common name 
that can be used generically for these maize-like 
plants. " Kafir " is apparently becom- 
ing popular, but it is loosely used. 
These plants are botanically all sor- 
ghums, but with farmers 
the word "sorghum" is 
understood to mean the 
syrup - producing kinds. 
Sorghums are of two 
kinds, — the sweet or sac- 
charine, and the non-sac- 
charine. The non-sac- 
charine sorghums are the 
kafirs, durras and broom- 
corn. The common word 
"corn" has been trans- 
ferred from maize or In- 
dian corn to these kafirs 
and durras in some re- 
gions, and confusion has 
resulted. For this rea- 
son, the compound word 
"kafir-corn" is not used 
in this article, and it 
would seem to be advisa- 
ble to discourage its use 
generally. Furthermore, 
the word maize itself has been transferred from the 
true maize or Indian corn to some of these plants 
as a contraction of "milo maize." The farmers 
of western Texas, and probably of other parts, 
reported "milo maize" as "maize" to the Census 
of 1900. It is said that a considerable part of 
the "milo maize" crop was thus reported as 
"maize." In this article, and subsequently in this 
Cyclopedia, the word milo will be used for " milo 
maize." 

The kafirs come from Natal and the coast region 
of east-central Africa, and the name kafir has come 
with them. Although originally a proper name, it 
now becomes a common class-name and must lose 
its connection with a locality or a people ; there- 
fore it is treated here as a common-language term 
by being printed without a capital initial. Peach 
is a comparable instance ; also timothy, and other 
words. Two varieties of kafir were exhibited by 
the Natal government at the Centennial Exposi- 
tion at Philadelphia in 1876. At least one of 
them was secured by the State Department of 
Agriculture of Georgia, and was grown and 
selected for several years by Dr. J. H. Watkins, 
and was distributed by the Georgia Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, from which the United 
States Department of Agriculture early secured 
the seed. 

The durras come from northern Africa, from 
Morocco to Egypt ; also from southwestern Asia, 
from Arabia to Turkestan. The durras are much 
less grown than the kafirs. In Egypt, the word 
which is here rendered as durra (rendered by others 



KAFIR AND DURRA 



KAFIR AND DURRA 



385 



as dura, durrah, durrha, dourah, doura, dhurra, 
dhoura, dhura) is applied to all tall-growing suc- 
culent crops, whether maize, sorghum, or others, 
and subordinate specific names are used with it to 
designate special kinds. The word milo is a corrup- 
tion of the Latin milium, a name that has long 
been applied to various plants that are commonly 
known as millets. 

Cultivation of kafir and durra. 

By E. G. Montgomery and C. W. Warburton. 

Kafirs and durras all come from rather dry, or 
semi-arid regions. All are considered drought-re- 
sistant, are similar in general appearance, and are 
cultivated principally as forage crops. While the 
kafir is principally grown for forage, it unquestion- 
ably has great value as a grain crop in semi-arid 
regions. In Kansas, in 1899, about one-seventh of 
the acreage was grown for grain, the remainder . 
for forage. 

Habits of growth. 

The plants average four to seven 
feet in height, are erect, with rather 
thick and short-jointed stems, and very 
compact heads ten to twelve inches in 
length. The roots do not e.xtend so 
deep as those of maize, but the root 
system is somewhat more den.se in the 
upper eighteen inches of soil. Few of 
the roots are more than three feet 
deep. Kafir extracts soil moisture to a greater 
extent than maize, because of its long-continued 
growth in the fall. A valuable characteristic of the 
plant in dry regions is its ability to cease growth 
and remain dormant for several weeks during a 
period of drought. When hot, dry winds come, the 
leaves will roll up and the plant may remain with- 



extent. The culture has had rapid development in 
Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and California. Kafir and 
durra are peculiarly adapted to the drier sections 
of these states, owing to their ability to withstand 
hot summer winds and long droughts. They have not 
proved popular north of the 42d parallel, as none 
of the varieties mature satisfactorily that far north, 
while in the more humid regions east of the Missis- 
sippi river other forage crops seem more desirable. 

The culture of kafir probably reaches 1,500,000 
acres at present. Its development was especially 
rapid in the period from 1893 to 1899, when some- 
what dry conditions prevailed in the Great Plains 
region. In that period the production increased in 
Kansas, which has always been its greatest pro- 
ducer, from 46,000 acres in 1893 to 618,000 acres 
in 1899. 

Two state experiment stations have made care- 
ful tests of the grain and forage produced in com- 
parison with maize, with the following results : 





Red k.%flr 


Maize 


Place 


Bus. grain 
per acre 


Tons fodder 
per acre 


Bus. grain 
per acre 


Tons fodder 
per acre 


Manhattan, Kansas, 7 yrs. 

average, 1889-1895 . 
Stillwater, Oklahoma, 4 yrs. 

average, 1900-1903 . 


55.01* 
30.1 


4.71 
2.21 


39.13* 
11.1 


2.41 
0.94 





Fig. 580. 
Yellow milo (or "milo"). 

out growth for weeks. When rains come again, 
growth is resumed normally. If the crop is cut the 
stalks will sprout again, in the South, and produce 
a second and perhaps a third crop. 

Distribution. 

The growing of kafir and durra in the United 
States is very recent, at least to a commercial 

6 25 



* Average for six years. 1894 being excluded. 

The above results were obtained under conditions 
too dry to be favorable for maize, as is indicated 
by the yields. Under conditions most favorable to 
maize, the kafir is usually at a disadvantage. The 
weight of a bushel of kafir is fifty-six pounds. 

Varieties. 

The three principal varieties of kafir are Red, 
White, and Blackhull. The principal difference 
in appearance is in the color of seed and hulls, 
from which the names are derived. White kafir 
usually averages four to five feet in height under 
fair conditions. Red kafir grows six to eight inches 
taller, and yields more fodder and grain. The 
seed-coat, however, has an astringent taste, mak- 
ing it less desirable for stock-food than grain from 
the white variety, which is not astringent. Black- 
hull kafir produces a yield of grain and forage 
about equal to the Red kafir, and the grain is not 
astringent, and therefore is considered by many to 
be the more desirable. 

The leading varieties of the durra group are the 
Yellow milo. Brown durra. White durra or Jeru- 
salem corn (rice corn, Egyptian corn). 

Yellow milo is grown rather extensively in some 
sections, especially in western Oklahoma and the 
Panhandle of Texas. It matures in about two 
weeks less time than kafir, and hence can be grown 
at higher altitudes and farther north than can 
that crop. The grain of Yellow milo is larger and 
more brittle than kafir, and hence is more easily 
masticated by stock. This crop is cultivated in 
every way the same as kafir. It is seldom grown 



386 



KAFIR AND DURRA 



KAFIR AND DURRA 



for hay, soiling or silage, being used almost exclu- 
sively for grain and fodder. The fodder is usually 
considered less valuable than that of either sor- 
ghum or kafir, as the stalks are less leafy, and 
the crop is generally much more mature when cut. 
It is rather moi-e difficult to harvest than kafir, as 




Fig. 581. Field of Red kaflr. 



the heads often turn down and the stalks are not 
uniform in height. Thick planting is advisable, 
using at least five pounds of seed to the acre, as 
the percentage of goosenecked heads will be re- 
duced, and the time of maturity will be more uni- 
form. If planted thinly. Yellow milo stools and 
branches vigorously, and the heads on the various 
suckers do not ripen at the same time as the main 
head. It is most useful in the western part of the 
states of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska ; 
eastern Colorado ; and in New Mexico and Arizona. 
In the warm, dry parts of the small grain-grow- 
ing sections, milo is an excellent crop to plant 
after the cereals are harvested. It may prove of 
value in eastern Oregon and Washington, especially 
if earlier strains can be developed. 

The so-called White milo is an inferior, tall- 
£;rowing true kafir. 

Brown durra is grown rather extensively in 
California under the name Egyptian corn, although 
this latter name is applied to other sorts, especially 
to White durra. It is very similar in many re- 
spects to Yellow milo, but the grain is darker in 
color and the heads are rather more uniformly 
goosenecked. The crop is less valuable than Yellow 
milo, as the grain shatters readily when ripe. Its 
cultivation is in every way the same as that of 
kafir and Yellow milo. 



White durra or Jerusalem corn is little grown in 
this country. The heads are very compact, usually 
turn down, are frequently injured by insects and 
fungous diseases, and the grain shatters badly. 
Any of the three preceding varieties will prove 
more satisfactory than will this sort. Either kafir 
or Yellow milo usually 
proves more satisfac- 
tory than White durra. 

Culture. 

Soils. — Kafir is capa- 
ble of considerable 
adaptation, and seems to 
do equally well on a 
good clay or on a loam 
soil. It succeeds much 
better on a poor soil 
than many other crops, 
but does proportionately 
better on rich land. 

Soil-preparation and 
seeding. — Land is pre- 
pared for seeding in 
much the same way as 
for maize. If the kafir 
is to be grown for grain, 
the land is often plowed 
early in the spring, 
thoroughly worked down 
with harrow and disk 
and planted with a corn- 
planter, using the drill- 
ing attachment. List- 
ing, however, seems to 
b e a more popular 
method in the West, 
especially on warm soils and in late planting. To 
prepare for listing, the land should be disked early 
in the spring to conserve the soil moisture. At 
planting time furrows are thrown out with a lister, 
and the seed drilled in. The rows should be three 
to three and a half feet apart, and the plants three 
to five inches apart in the row. Three to six 
pounds of seed will plant an acre. 

When kafir is grown for forage the land is pre- 
pared and planted in the same way, except that the 
plants should be about one inch apart in the row. 
However, a great deal of kafir forage is raised by 
sowing either broadcast or with a press drill at 
the rate of one to two bushels of seed per acre. 

Kafir should be seeded when the weather is 
warm and settled. If the ground is cold the seed 
may rot. The seed should be kept in a dry place 
over winter, and not in bulk, to avoid heating, 
which destroys the germinating power. Seed from 
long, rather compact heads is preferred. 

The after-care of the crop is essentially the same 
as for maize. Because of the shallow root system, 
the cultivation should not be deep. The first one or 
two cultivations may be given with the sled culti- 
vator or with the spiketooth harrow. Later plow- 
ings may be given with any of the shallow-running 
shovel, sweep, or disk cultivators. Kafir is fre- 
quently planted on freshly broken sod, and in that 



KAFIR AND DURRA 



KAFIR AND DURRA 



387 



case it is seldom cultivated more than once, if at 
all. Under these unfavorable conditions, a good 
crop is frequently made. The crop requires 120 to 
140 days in which to mature. 

Harvesting. 

The grain should be allowed to get fairly mature 
before harvesting ; the stalks may be cut with the 
corn-binder and shocked like corn, or the heads 
may be removed from the standing stalks with a 
header or a sharp knife. If cut in either of the 
latter ways, they should be stored in small piles or 
spread in thin layers until thoroughly cured, as the 
grain heats readily if at all moist. After the heads 
are removed, the stalks may be cut with the corn 
binder for stover, or they may be pastured. If the 
stalks are cut before heading, the heads may be 
removed when the fodder is thoroughly cured by 
laying the bundles on a block and cutting otf the 
heads with a sharp knife, broadaxe or saw. When 
the heads are thoroughly dry, the grain may be 
threshed out by running the heads through an 
ordinary grain thresher. The grain may also be 
threshed out while the heads are still on the 
bundles, by inserting the ends of the bundles in 
the thresher and withdrawing the stalks when the 
grain is removed. The more improved separators 
have a circular saw attached, which removes the 
heads and drops them on the feeding table. If the 
kafir is desired for seed, a part of the concaves 
should be removed from the machine, to prevent 
cracking the grain. A fair yield of grain is twenty 
to forty bushels to the acre, although yields of 
over one hundred bushels have been reported ; the 
fodder crop ranges from one and one-half to four 
tons to the acre. 

Ten Eyck writes as follows on the harvesting of 
kafir : "There are several ways of harvesting kafir, 
the value of each method depending largely on how 
the crop is planted, the condition of growth and 
what is desired of the product. Where kafir is 
grown on a large scale, as in some of the western 
states, it is often harvested with a wheat header, 
the heads being drawn directly to the thre.sher or 



piled in narrow ricks and threshed later. This, 
perhaps, is the best way to handle the crop on a 
large scale, if labor is costly and the fodder cannot 
be used to advantage in the feed-lot. Kafir does 
not need to be harvested at an exact time, as is 
the case with many crops, as the leaves remain 
green and the seed is retained for a considerable 
time after it has matured. Some farmers have a 
home-made implement for cutting the heads from 
the standing crop in the field. This machine con- 
sists essentially of a gear attached to the hind 
wheel of the wagon and connected with an upright 
shaft, at the top of which, in a horizontal plane 
and flush with the top of the wagon, a spindle 
wheel revolves. The arms of this wheel catch the 
kafir and draw it toward the edge of the wagon- 
box, where a sharp knife is fixed so as to cut off 
the heads, which fall into the wagon-box. There 
are several machines made for heading kafir in the 
field. They are simply attachments to any ordinary 
wagon-bed something after the pattern of the 
home-made attachment described above. 

"If the fodder is desired for feed, the crop 
should be cut and shocked the same as corn. It is 
usually satisfactory to use the ordinary corn har- 
vester. Make the bundles small and do not tie them 
too tightly. Place in small shocks (twelve to fifteen 
bundles) so made that free ventilation will be 
allowed underneath. The shock should be firmly 
tied around the top to prevent the bundles falling 
over, which they are very likely to do, as nearly 
all the weight is at the extreme top. The kafir may 
be left in these small shocks until required for 
feeding throughout the fall and winter. Good re- 
sults have been secured by feeding kafir whole and 
on the stalk, but it is considered preferable to feed 
the grain and fodder separately." 

Composition. 

Kafir contains a higher percentage of starch 
than maize, but less oil and protein. The following 
table, giving the composition of kafir, is compiled 
from Farmers' Bulletin No. 37, of the United States 
Department of Agriculture : 



Food Constituents in Kafir. 





In fresh or air-di-y materijil 






Water 


Ash 


Protein 


Fiber 


Nitroeen- 
free extract 


Fat 


Authority 


Kafir (whole plant, 
green) 

Kafir (whole plant, 
green) 


Per (!ent 
76.13 

76.05 


Per cent 

1.75 

1.44 


Per cent 

3.22 
2.34 


Per cent 

6.16 
8.36 


Per cent 
11.96 
11.41 


Per cent 
0.78 
0.40 


Pennsylvania Station 
New York Cornell Station 


Average .... 


76.09 


1.60 


2.78 


7.26 


11.69 


0.59 




Kafir fodder (whole plant) 
Kafir fodder (without 

heads) 

Kafir (mature head) . . 

Kafir seed 

Kafir flour 


10.94 

8.67 
16.23 

9.31 
16.75 


5.48 

7.14 
2.02 
1.53 
2.18 


3.31 

4.89 
6.92 
9.92 
6.62 


30.37 

28.02 
6.79 
1.35 
1.16 


47.40 

49.75 
6.5.18 
74.92 
69.47 


2.50 

1.53 
2.86 
2.97 
3.82 


North Carolina Station 

Kansas Station 
North Carolina Station 
Kan.sas Station 
North Carolina Station 



KAFIR AND DURRA 



KALE 



Uses and value. 

In Africa the grain of kafir is used as human 
food. In the United States, however, it is little 
used in this way, most of it being fed to stoclc, 
either as grain or as forage. Working horses may 
be fed the grain threshed or in the head, but for 
idle horses and colts better results can be obtained 
by feeding grain and stalks together. The grain 









'r^^^'mmm 




tp^-nw 



Fig. 582. BlackhuU kaflr. Planted June 13 on flooded ground. 
Photograplied 101 days later. First rod of four rows here 
shown averaged 79 stalks per row. Kansas. 

should be threshed and ground for feeding as a 
fattening ration to cattle, but for dairy cows and 
young stock the fodder may be used. The meal is 
much used with skim-milk for feeding to calves. 
For hogs, the grain should be ground and fed in 
troughs, using water or skim-milk to moisten the 
meal. Best results may be secured by feeding the 
meal with alfalfa hay or skim-milk, or by feeding 
when the hogs are on alfalfa pasture. For sheep, 
the whole grain, ground grain, or fodder may be 
used. The whole grain is excellent for poultry. 

The grain is similar in composition to corn, but 
is slightly higher in starch content and lower in 
protein. In feeding tests it has never been found 
quite equal to corn. The fodder is considered equal 
to corn stover. 

Care must be exercised in feeding the young 
growth, as it has been found that prussic acid devel- 
ops when the growth is checked. Under certain 
conditions, young growths of all sorghums may be 
poisonous. Frost and extreme drought are supposed 
to develop the poison by checking the growth, 
resulting in the action of an enzyme on a glucoside 
normally present in the plant. 

LUerainre. 

Farmers' Bulletins Nos. 37 and 288, United States 
Department of Agriculture ; Kansas Experiment 
Station, Bulletins Nos. 56, 93, 127 ; Nebra.ska Ex- 
periment Station, Bulletin No. 77 ; Oklahoma Ex- 
periment Station, Bulletin No. 35. 

KALE FOR STOCK-FEEDING. Brassica olera- 
cea, var. acephala, DC. Crucifei-ce. Figs. 583, 584. 

By H. W. Smith. 

The kales (or borecoles) are leafy, headless forms 
of the cabbage species. Some of them are grown 
in vegetable gardens for "greens." The purple and 
curled-leaved kinds are very handsome plants. The 
stock-feeding or forage kinds are mostly taller, 



with heavy, rank foliage. Kales are little grown 
in this country for forage. It is doubtful whether 
they will ever attain great prominence here. 

The thousand-headed kale furnishes a large quan- 
tity of very nutritious fodder for fall and early 
winter, helps to prolong the season for green fod- 
der, is a good soiling crop, and partially replaces 
silage in the early winter. It is hardier "than most 
varieties of the cabbage family and less subject to 
disease and insects. In this respect it differs from 
the Scotch and curled varieties, which are really 
kitchen-garden subjects. 

Culture. 

Kale will grow on any soil of normal fertility, 
but it does best on warm, well-drained soil.<<, such 
as sandy loams. The application of manure and 
fertilizer, especially nitrogenous fertilizer, will 
profitably increase the yield on most soils. To get 
the best results with the application of nitrates, 
two or three applications should be made during 
the season. Kale is a rank feeder, and does well 
on land that has been heavily manured the pre- 
vious season. 

The culture is similar to that of the large varie- 
ties of cabbage (which see). At the North, for 
garden use the plants may be started in the hotbed 
and transferred to the coldframe, not only to 
lengthen the growing season but to enable them to 
escape the attacks of the cabbage root-maggot. The 
plants should be set in rows three feet apart and 
about two feet apart in the row, depending on the 
variety. For forage, the seeds would need to be 
planted directly in the field. Thorough cultivation 
and clean culture during the early growth is essen- 
tial, but later the plants cover the ground and 
require no further 
attention. 

Storing. 

The young plants 
are sensitive to se- 
vere frost, but the 
old plants will with- 
stand a heavy freeze. 
Thus they can be left 
in the field till win- 
ter sets in and can 
be kept through the 
winter like cabbage. 
The writer has found 
the following method 
of -storing very satis- 
factory with a small 
quantity : Tight bar- 
rels are filled with 
the plants, which should either be run through a 
cutter or be cut up partially with a sharp spade 
so that they pack closely in the barrel. Salt is 
sprinkled in with the plants, and when they are 
thoroughly packed water is added to fill any spaces ; 
the barrel is then covered. Kale thus packed will 
be well preserved if kept cold. For feeding, they 
would better be used green, as gathered from the 
field, or else stored loosely in a shed. 




Fig. 583. 
Thousand-headed kale. 



KALE 



KOHLRABI 



389 



Because of the high nutritive value of these 
plants, they should be fed carefully and never be 
used to make the bulk of the ration. All kinds 
of stock are fond of kale. Remarks on the feeding 
value of kohlrabi (see succeeding article) apply 
more or less closely to kale. 

Encnieg. 

The cabbage root-maggot is the worst pest in the 
growing of kale, and, indeed, of any of the cabbage 
family. When this fly is abundant, it is some- 
times advantageous to sow a few cabbages in 
the field or transplant them to the field before 
setting out the main crop ; then when the fly 
has deposited her eggs on these, they may be 
destroyed by applying kerosene oil directly to 
the plants and soil. The writer has found that 
thousand-headed kale is not so seriously attacked 
as curled kale or cabbage. 

The cabbage worms, as a rule, do not seriously 
attack this crop, but when they do they are easily 
destroyed by spraying on a warm, dry day with a 
solution of pyrethrum. 

Jersey kale. Fig. 584. 

A tall-growing collard, grown in the island of 
Jersey for stock feed, from which place it has been 
introduced into California. At the California sta- 
tion it produced green feed at the rate of sixteen 
tons per acre, and started again quickly after cut- 
ting. It seems to have value as a summer and fall 
feed for poultry as well as for stock. It requires 
an abundance of moisture, and does well under 
irrigation. It is hardy, and will thrive for several 
years if the ground does not freeze in winter. The 
leaves frequently attain a breadth of twenty-eight 
inches. There is very little available experience 
with this plant in North America. 

In the island of Jersey, the leaves are broken 
from the main stem for feeding to pigs and cattle, 
leaving pronounced scars on the stem. It is the 
third year, often, before the plant blooms, and by 
this time the stiff stem may be ten feet or more 
high. The stems are much used in the Channel 
islands for the making of canes and sticks to sell 
to tourists. 



KOHLRABI FOR STOCK-FEEDING. Brassica 
oleracea, var. caulorapa. Cruciferce. Fig. 585. 

By J. W. Gilmore. 

Kohlrabi is valuable for stock-feeding, not only 
because it contains a considerable amount of nutri- 
ents, but because these nutrients are in a highly 
palatable and digestible form. In the latter respect 







\^WF' 




Fig. 584. The tall kale, "cow cabbage" or "Jersey cabbage 
o{ tbe Channel islands. 



Fig. 585. Kohlrabi. On the left, tankard form and ooarse 
top: on the right, globe form and short top, 

the dry matter which it contains compares favor- 
ably with concentrated feeds from cereals. As an 
offset to these qualities, however, are the facts that 
it is rather high in water content, thus necessita- 
ting feeding it with dry grains or roughage ; and 
that it is more expensive to grow per unit of area 
than corn. 

Kohlrabi for stock-feeding may be considered as 
a concentrate from the standpoint of the 
high digestibility of its nutrients and the 
large amount of net available energy de- 
rived from them. But, in common with other 
food products of this class, as mangels, 
turnips and rutabagas, it is so watery and 
succulent that it can not be fed in suflicient 
quantities to supply the amount of nutrients 
required. Hence it is a part of rational 
practice to feed it with grain of suflScient 
quantity and quality to make up a balanced 
ration for the purpose for which it is fed. 
It is not, therefore, the intention to recom- 
mend kohlrabi as a substitute for silage, 
or even to be fed with it, but it may be 
desirable to grow and feed it when condi- 
tions of soil and climate prevail that do not 
permit the production of corn. It is ex- 
tremely desirable that all domestic animals 



390 



KOHLRABI 



KOHLRABI 



Carter's Model 
White Vienna 
Goliatli ... 



have some form of succulent food, especially in the 
winter, and kohlrabi is one means of supplying this 
need. 

The American farmer has an 

antipathy for that kind of labor 
which brings into action and 

strain the muscles of the back. 

For this reason, the tendency to 
grow kohlrabi for stock-feeding 
where corn and some of the 
roots can be grown is not 

strong. However, kohlrabi does 

fit into into a cropping system 

for this purpose very admirably where it may be 

grown also for market purposes. If our system 

of agriculture becomes more intensive, perhaps 

kohlrabi will find a more welcome place in the 

rotation. 

Composition and yield. 

The composition of kohlrabi is very much the 
same as that of mangels, as shown by the following 
table compiled from results of analyses in Norway, 
where these plants are grown extensively for 
stock-feeding : 



mainly for table use. The three varieties grown 
recently at the Cornell station for stock-feeding 
have given the following statistical results : 



No. of seeds 
per lb. 



129,200 
113,700 



Yield per acre 



Tons 

23.0 
21.6 
18.1 



Yield dry 
matter per acre 



Tons 
2.10 
2.40 
1.61 



Dry matter 



Per cent 

9.13 

11.10 

8.91 





Kohlrabi (avei-age 38 samples) 


Mangels (average 46 samples) 




Composition 


Yield per acre 


Composition 


Yield per acre 




Per cent 


Lbs. 


Per cent 


Lbs. 


Dry matter . . . 


11.67 


4,300.00 


14.31 


7,416.16 


Protein 


1.26 


46-1.44 


1.35 


699.64 


Fat 


.20 


73.72 


.15 


77.74 


Crude fiber . . . 


1.18 


434.95 


.96 


497.52 


Ash 


.65 


239.60 


.99 


513.07 


Sugar 


5.94 


2,189.48 


8.35 


4,327.39 


Other substances . 


2.12 


781.43 


2.52 


1,306.09 



Yield per acre : kohlrabi, 18.43 tons ; mangels, 25.914 tons. 



It will be noticed that the kohlrabi is deficient 
in two e.ssential matters, namely, yield per acre 
and dry matter content. Both of these are serious 
defects, as they embody the main qualities for 
which any forage crop may be grown. Dry matter 
content is the most important consideration, yet in 
kohlrabi this is above the general average of the 
production of dry matter in corn in the New Eng- 
land states. At the Cornell station, several varie- 
ties of kohlrabi for three years yielded a minimum 
of 3,570 pounds of dry matter per acre, a maxi- 
mum of 4, .540 pounds, and an average of 4,040 
pounds. The yield of grain from flint corn in the 
same seasons was about two thousand pounds per 
acre, while the yield of dry matter in silage from 
dent corn was about four thousand pounds per 
acre. Thus it is seen that the yields are satis- 
factory, but the principal drawback remains in 
the large amount of hand labor required in its 
production. 

Varieties. 

Not many varieties of this crop have been de- 
veloped, and those which have been grown are 



Other varieties which have givfen good results 
in Canada are Purple Vienna and Short-top White. 

Cultural vicihods. 

Soil. — Kohlrabi will grow and develop on a great 
variety of soils and under varying conditions of 
rainfall. In general, however, loams with a good 
supply of organic matter and good drainage, insur- 
ing a constant supply of moisture, are best adapted. 
In 1905, at Cornell, a rather stiff clay produced 
2L5 to 23.7 tons per acre for difl'erent varieties. 
Especially essential is a well-prepared seed-bed in 
order that germination may be 
quick and uniform, and that the 
plants may be invigorated by a 
good supply of moisture and 
plant-food. 

Seeding. — Good seed is of 
prime importance. At present 
most of the seed is imported at 
a cost of about two dollars per 
pound, while in England it sells 
for one-half to one-fourth that 
price. A germination test 
should be made early in the 
season. The seed is sown at the 
rate of four or five pounds per 
acre. 

Early sowing is necessary. In one year the three 
varieties mentioned above were sown on May 9 and 
again on June 14. The results were in favor of 
early sowing by about three tons of fresh sub- 
stance, and about one-fourth ton of dry matter per 
acre. Kohlrabi, like its relative the cabbage, re- 
quires a long growing period for a maximum yield, 
though such might not be desirable when grown 
for table use. The seed should be sown in drills 
twenty-four to thirty-six inches apart, similar to 
the manner of sowing turnips. Rows wide apart 
facilitate much in the use of horse implements in 
tillage. 

Ferliliziiig. — If by weakly plants or tardiness of 
growth the food supply seems to be lacking, this 
may be added along the row in the form of nitrate 
of soda or guano. On most soils the plant responds 
well to rotted manure applied before planting, or 
to a complete fertilizer rather rich in phosphoric 
acid and potash, at the rate of 300 to 500 pounds 
per acre. 

Subsequent care. — It is during the early stages 
of growth that most labor and care must be 
expended on the crop. When well up, the plants 



KOHLRABI 



LEGUMES 



391 



should be thinned by chopping to eight or ten inches 
in the row. After the plants are well established 
and weeds are destroyed, it is necessary only to 
cultivate shallow at intervals of a fortnight or so 
for the purpose of stirring the surface and keeping 
the land in good tilth. 

Harvesting and storing. 

Kohlrabi is usually allowed to remain in the 
field until frost, as light frosts do not injure it and 
during the latter part of summer and early fall it 
grows some and ripens. Sometimes, however, it is 
pastured in the field by swine or sheep. The fact 
that it stands out of the ground gives it an advan- 
tage for this purpose. If pulled, however, for im- 
mediate feeding, the leaves should be left on, as 
the;;e are nutritious and palatable and add two to 
five tons per acre to the yield. If it is to be stored, 
the leaves should be removed, and the roots also if 
|they cannot bo freed from dirt. 

Kohlrabi may be stored either in a cellar or a 
rpit. The essentials of a good storage cellar are 
drainage, ventilation and that it be frost-proof. 
With these supplied, kohlrabi is not hard to keep. 
If stored in a pit, the pit should be located on a 
well-drained piece of ground. Two layers of straw 
should alternate with layers of earth for covering. 
Ventilation should be arranged at intervals in the 
top of the pit. The pit should not be opened for 
any length of time on warm days after the winter 
has set in. 

EnemivK. 

Kohlrabi is attacked by the same enemies as 
cabbage, which see. 

Feeding. 

The product should be fed early in the season. 
If left until late, it dries, becomes pithy, stringy 
and sometimes hollow. For ordinary feeding, kohl- 
rabi should be cut into pieces or slices ; for pigs 
and poultry, however, it may be fed whole. It is 
most economically fed with grain. Thirty to fifty 
pounds make one feed for a thousand-pound animal. 
There is no record of its having given a flavor to 
milk when fed to cows, but it .should not be about 
the milk-room at milking time. No trials are 
reported of its having been fed to horses. 

Literature. 

From the kitchen-garden or horticultural point 
of view, many of the gardening books may be con- 
sulted. [For American forage-crop experiments, see 
Cornell Bulletins Nos. 243, 244.] 

LEGUMES. (Figs. 5S6-592). 

The leguminous plants have lately come into 
great agricultural prominence because of the power 
that some, perhaps all, of them have of fixing the 
free atmospheric nitrogen contained in the soil, and 
thereby enriching the land in this valuable element 
when they decay, to the great advantage of plants 
that do not possess this power. These are plants 
of the great natural family, Leguminoste, which 



contains several thousand species in all parts of the 
world, some of them being great trees, as mahog- 
any, locust, Kentucky coffee-tree. Some of them 
bear very gaudy flowers, pla- 
cing them among the most 
showy of all plants, as, for ex- 
ample, the royal poinciana of 
the tropics. The essential 
botanical characteristic 
that distinguishes the 
LeguminosEe from other 
plants lies in the struc- 
ture of the fruit. It is the 
kind of fruit known to 
botanists as a "legume," 
being a simple pistil 
ripening into a dry pod 
that opens on both su- 
tures and bears a row 
of seeds on the ventral 
side. The bean (Fig. 
586) is a typical exam- 
ple. The most typical 
of the Leguminosae 
have a papilio- 
naceous or but- 
terfly-likeflower, 
as in the peas 
and bean.s, the 
corolla having 
an upper mostly 
broad andascend- 
ing part called 
a standard, two side-pieces called wings, and two 
other petals below, united into a keel (Fig. 587). 
The stamens are usually ten, and in the greater _ 
part of the common species these form a tube about 
the pistil, one of them, however, being free. The 
Mimosa or acacia sub-family has regular (not papil- 
ionaceous) flowers and few or many stamens, but 
it agrees with the other members of the family in 
the legume. The leaves of practically all legumes 
are compound; but in some of the acacias they are 
reduced, on mature plants, to phyllodia (expandei- 
petioles). 

The field crops belonging to the LeguminossB 
may be found in this 
Cyclopedia under the arti- 
cles alfalfa, beans, beg- 
garweed, ber§eem, clover, 
cowpea, forage, lespedeza, 
lupine, medic, melilotus, 
pea, peanut, sainfoin, ser- 
radella, soybean, spurry, 
velvet bean, vetch. Other 
leguminous plants are 
mentioned in the arti- 
cles on cover-crops, dyes 
and medicinal plants ; 
also on meadows and 
pastures. Many species 
are grown in greenhouses and open gardens 
for ornament. The mo.st popular is the sweet- 
pea. The everlasting flowering pea is an old 
favorite. 





Fig. 587. A papilionaceous 
flower ( sweet - pea ) . s. 

st:in(lnl*il; t(\ n\ wings; 
k, keel. 



392 



LEGUMES 



LEGUMES 



Legume Root-tubercles. (Figs. 588-592.) 

By George F. Atkinson. 

The legume root-tubercles, or "nodules," are 
small galls on the roots of leguminous plants, which 
are caused by the activities of minute bacteria 

present in the soil 
wherever leguminous 
plants grow. The galls 
vary in form on dif- 
erent species or gen- 
era, being oval on the 
red clover, rounded 
and slightly lobed on 
the soybean, cylindri- 
cal or club - shaped, 
simple or branched 
once or twice, on the 
vetch (Vicia sativa), 
or many times dichot- 
omously branched 
into a rounded mass, 
as in Medicago den- 
ticulata. They are 
whitish or of a pale 
flesh-color, sometimes 
sordid brown in age. 
They occur on the 
roots of nearly all 
leguminous plants, 
but are absent on 
some, as, for example, 
on the honey locust (Gleditschia iriaeanthos). 

History of the study of root-tubereles. 

While the history of the study of these root- 
tubercles of leguminous plants is extremely inter- 
esting, reference can be made here only to a few 
of the diverse views which have been entertained 
as to their nature, origin and significance. Some of 
the early observers thought that they were galls 
produced by insects, or by eel-worms. By others 
they were regarded as lateral roots with dwarf 
growth, or swollen lateral root organs for the 

purpose of absorbing 
food, while others 
held that they were 
lenticels which played 
some physiological 
role in the life of the 
^ plant. They were also 




Fig. 588. Root nodules. Red clo- 
veriTrifoliutn pratense). One 
and one-foui'th times uaturul 
size. 




thought by others to 
be imperfect buds 
which could repro- 
duce the plant. They 
were classed as fungi 
of the genus Sclero- 
tium by some, or as 
pathological out- 
growths. Since Wor- 
onin, in 1866, discov- 
ered in the nodules bacteria-like bodies, which he 
thought to be the cause of their formation, the 
theory has been generally accepted that they are 
galls produced by the presence of fungi or bac- 



Fig. 589. Root nodules of alfalfa 
I clustered on small side root- 
lets in this case) . Two-thirds 
n.'itural size. 



teria, which enter through root-hairs and stimulate 
the tissues of the root to the production of an 
abnormal rootlet, which is called the tubercle or 
nodule. 

The organism enters near the tip of the root- 
hair and stimulates the latter to curl into the form 
of a shepherd's crook. It travels down the interior 
of the root-hair in the form of a homogeneous 
strand, as seen in fresh preparations. In sections 
of young galls this strand is seen branched through 
the tissues from its point of entrance from the 
root-hair. These strands pass through the cell- 
walls by minute perforations and then enlarge 
again in the cell-lumen. Often the strand swells 
into a large body in the cell, with irregular pro- 
jection.?, which led some to think that the bacteria- 
like bodies found in abun- 
dance at a later stage were 
budded off from these swel- 
lings. These strands present 
in the young tubercles led 
a number of students to be- 
lieve in the fungous nature 
of the organism, perhaps 
related to the smuts ; but 
especially by some it was 
considered to be one of the 
slime -molds similar to the 
Plasmodiophora brassicm, 
which causes the "clubfoot " 
of turnip, cabbage, radish 
and certain other crucif- 
erous plants. For this rea- 
son Schrceter, a German 
botanist, named it Phytom- 
yxa leguminosarum, and this 
seems to be the earliest sci- 
entific name. More recent 
investigations seem to show 
that the organism is one of 
the bacteria. Many bacteria 
form gelatinous masses of 
individuals, which take on 
various shapes often char- 
acteristic of the species. 
Especially on cultures on 
solidified artificial media are 
these colonies of various 
shapes very characteristic. 
The.se gelatinous masses are 
known as zotiglcea. These 
strands, then, which are so 
characteristic of the younger stage of the tubercles, 
are zoijgkea. Frank, another German botanist, was 
one of the first to demonstrate this feature of 
the organism, and it is now generally accepted, 
although difl'erent views are held as to the mor- 
phology of the bacterium. He named the organism 
Rh izobium Icgum inosarum. 

The study of the organism in pure culture began 
with Beijerinck in 1888, who named it Bacillus 
radicicola, thus discarding the earlier specific name. 
He discovered, beside the rod-like form which is 
abundant in the old tubercles, and previously named 
"bacteroids" by Woronin, a very minute motile 




Fig. 590. Root nodules. 
Soybean ((ili/cine his- 
pida). One- half nat- 
xu-al size. 



LEGUMES 



LEGUMES 



393 



form. These two forms of the organism are now 
generally recognized. The minute motile form is 
about 1 !>. long by 0.2 m in width (/i is a micron 
or TTrVff of a millimeter). This is the form which 
enters the root-hairs, multiplies and travels in 
the strand-like zoiigloea into the root where the 
gall or nodule is stimulated. Because of this motile 




Fig. 591. Root nodules. Black medic (Jfedtcajo iiip«iina). 
Two and one-half times natural size. 

form, Moore has recently changed the name to 
Pseudomonas radicicola, though the relation of the 
cilia to the organism is not very clearly known, in 
consequence of which there may be some. uncer- 
tainty as to the appropriateness of this name. The 
larger rod-like form is 1.5 /j. to 5 ij- long by 0.6 ij. to 
2.0 M in width. These are the " bacteroids." They 
are usually rod-like, but often branched forms 
occur which are Y- or X-shaped, or even sometimes 
more complicated in form. These bacteroids or 
rods which are found in such large numbers in the 
old tubercles are abnormal, or involution forms. 
It is thought by some that the Y and X forms are 
the result of branching, perhaps a false branching 
caused by division of the rods, several rods being 
held together within a gelatinous sheath. It is 
well known that these " bacteroids," or dead invo- 
lution forms of the organism, are rich in proteid 
matter. The host plant, which is the legume, has 
the power of dissolving these and of absorbing the 
nitrogenous matter from the tubercles and using it 
as food. 'When the tubercles die, some of them are 
emptied into the soil, and the minute motile form 
also escapes, thus keeping the soil inoculated with 
this organism where legumes are growing. 

miy legumes are valuable in soil-enrichment. 

It has long been known that certain leguminous 
crops like peas, clovers and alfalfa, were better 
crops for the enrichment of the land in nitrogenous 
food when plowed under than the cereals or grasses. 
A series of investigations, notable among which 
may be mentioned those of Hellriegel and Willfarth 
in Germany, Lawes and Gilbert in England, and 
Nobbe, Hiltner and others in Germany, led to the 
clear demonstration that (1) in a soil possessing 
all the constituents of plant-food except nitroge- 
nous substances, if the soil were sterilized and then 
inoculated with a Sltrate from garden soil, legumes 



would flourish and produce an abundance of seed, 
and the tubercles would be present on their roots ; 
(2) in similar sterilized soil, not inoculated with a 
filtrate from garden soil, legumes would develop 
no tubercles and the plants would develop only so 
far as the nitrogenous food stored in the seed per- 
mitted them ; (3) in a similar soil, even if inocu- 
lated with a filtrate from garden soil, the cereals 
and grasses would make only a feeble growth ; (4) 
in similar soil, inoculated with pure cultures of the 
legume tubercle organism, the tubercles are formed, 
which demonstrates that the tubercles are caused 
by the bacteria ; (.5) there was an increase in ni- 
trogen in the plants with tubercles over those with 
no tubercles ; the soil also increases in nitroge- 
nous content where legumes with tubercles are 
grown; (6) races of the bacterium occur, since 
inoculations from pure cultures of the bacterium 
from pea tubercles will not produce tubercles on 
cytisus, robinia, trifolium, serradella and others, 
while they will on the pea, lupine and others, and 
vice versa. 

The fact that the nitrogen content of soils poor 
in nitrogenous plant-food is increased by the 
growth of leguminous plants, was used in support 
of the early theory that green plants assimilate 
the free nitrogen of the air, a theory which was 
shown to be unfounded by Boussingault more than 
sixty years ago. The fact that all other green 
plants except the legumes could not fix the free 
nitrogen of the air, and the latter could fix it only 
when the tubercles were present, led Frank to 
assert that the presence of the bacteria in the 
tubercles stimulated the legumes to assimilate the 
free nitrogen from the air through their leaves. 
It has since been shown that this is not the case, 
that when the tubercles are present on the roots, 
and the roots are supplied with air deprived of 
free nitrogen, no nitrogen is fixed by the legumes. 
On the other 
hand, it has been 
shown by Maze 
and others that 
under proper 
cultural condi- 
tions the tuber- 
cle bacteria on 
artificial media 
fix (by assimila- 
tion') free nitro- 
gen from the air. 
That they do fix 
free nitrogen 
from the air, 
when in the tu- 
bercles of the 
legumes under 
normal c o n d i - 
tions, is abun- 
dantly proved, 
thus confirming the results of empirical observa- 
tions, that leguminous plants grown in soils poor 
in nitrogen flourish and sometimes have a larger 
content of nitrogenous substance at maturity than 
they could have obtained from the poor soil; that 




fiFi!ff\ 



Fig. 592. Root nodules. Vetch {Vicia 
villosa). Two-tliirds natural size. 



394 



LEGUMES 



LEGUMES 



soils poor in combined nitrogen are enriched in this 
substance when crops of legumes are grown on 
them, even though the crop of vines and seed is 
removed, because of the large amount of fixed ni- 
trogen in the bacteroids still within the tubercles 
in the soil; while with the cereals and grasses the 
nitrogen content of the soil is decreased. This 
explains why it is that leguminous crops are more 
important for green-manuring than the cereals and 
grasses when there is need of an increase of com- 
bined nitrogen. 

Races of nodule bacteria. 

While the nodule bacteria are widely distributed 
in the soil, the fact that there are several different 
races which dwell in the roots of certain genera 
of hosts, which cannot attack the roots of others, 
explains why it is that the bacterial races to which 
certain genera of legumes are susceptible, are not 
present in all soils, especially in soils where these 
hosts do not grow, while other races are present 
in those soils. This is shown in the case of the pea 
and lupine organism, which will not attack the 
roots of cytisus, robinia, trifolium, serradella and 
others, as shown above. It is also shown by ex- 
periences with the soybean from Japan. When 
the seed of this bean was planted in America and 
Europe, no nodules were developed on the roots. 
It was only when soil from Japan, in which the 
soybean had grown, was imported and mixed with 
soil in which the soybean was planted, that the 
nodules were developed. This organism of the soy- 
bean nodules was thus considered by Kirchner to 
be a different species and was named Ehizobac- 
terium Japonicum. 

Besides the distinct races which cannot infect 
certain genera of hosts, there are probably sub- 
races or initial races which can infect a wide range 
of genera, but, by being confined to a limited num- 
ber or to single genera for several years, infect 
certain genera much more readily than others. 

Soil inoculation. 

This leads to an important method in practice, 
i. e., the inoculation of soils with the specific 
organism to which the legume which it is 
desired to grow on the particular plot of ground 
is susceptible. This method has been developed by 
the United States Department of Agriculture, 
especially through the work of Moore and Keller- 
man, and by some of the experiment stations. It 
consists in obtaining pure cultures of the needed 
different races on a medium poor in nitrogen com- 
pounds so as to create a state of nitrogen hunger 
in the organism, which makes it more likely to 
attack the roots of the legumes than organisms 
which have a nitrogen surfeit of food. Pure cul- 
tures were distributed, after being dried on cotton, 
or other suitable material, to the planters, who 
place them in a quantity of liquid nutrient media 
for a day or so in order to multiply the germs. 
This liquid is then .scattered on the soil, or, better, 
the seed is sprinkled with the infusion before 
being planted. Under certain conditions this prac- 
tice, or some modification nf it, promises good 



returns, especially in soils poor in nitrogen, where 
the crop in question has not grown for several 
years or where for any reason the specific organism 
for the specific crop is absent, or present in small 
numbers. When the specific organism is present in 
quantity or in soils already rich in nitrogenous 
plant-food, the increase in the crop is slight or nil 
as a result of inoculation of the soil. 

A method has not yet been perfected for sup- 
plying and applying cultures of the germ which is 
reliable under all circumstances, due to deteriora- 
tion or contamination of the organisms in cultures, 
either because of fault, careless or unscrupulous 
methods on the part of manufacturers, or to imper- 
fect methods of multiplying the organism at the 
farm and of inoculation of the seed and soil. With 
some crops it is now a practice to transport the 
organisms with the soil in which the specific crops 
have been grown, for inoculation of soils. In this 
method, however, there is danger of the transpor- 
tation of the germs of fungus and bacterial diseases, 
which may be present in the soil. [Soil inoculation 
is fully discussed by Lipman, Vol. I, pages 447- 
450.] 

Relation between nodule bacteria and their host. 

The relation which exists between the nodule 
bacteria and their host is an intere.sting one. The 
bacteria can live in the soil for several years with- 
out the presence of the legume host, — how long is 
not known. Nor is it known what permanent bene- 
fit the organism derives from its association with 
its host. There is at least a temporary gain by the 
rapid increase in the number of bacteria which are 
formed within the nodule, but the larger number 
of these become surcharged with the nitrogen 
which they fix, pass into abnormal and involution 
forms and die. It may be, however, that the living 
ones which escape again into the soil form an in- 
crease over what the increase would be in the soil, 
and also that the association with the legumes may 
give them new vigor. The host benefits by the 
as.sociation from the increased nitrogeneous sub- 
stance placed at its disposal. This is abundantly 
shown by experiment where there is an increase in 
size and product when the organism is present over 
that under the same conditions w-hen the organism 
is absent. The few cases which have been observed 
under experimental conditions where the bacteroids 
assume a firm condition so that they cannot be dis- 
solved by the host, cannot be taken as proof against 
the general and almost universal benefit derived by 
the host from the association with the bacteria, ex- 
cept when the soil is already very rich in nitroge- 
neous plant-food. Even under these conditions, 
although the number of nodules is smaller than in 
nitrogen-poor soil, there may be an increase of 
nitrogen in the plant, though no increase in the 
crop. It cannot be denied, therefore, that there is 
a mutual benefit derived from this association of 
the bacterium and the legume in the nodules. The 
bacterium lives within the nodular root, and thus 
the nodules are endotrophic mycorhiza. 

This relationship of the bacterium and the legume 
is a good example of what is ordinarily called sym- 



LEGUMES 



LESPEDEZA 



395 



biosis, a living together. The term is now gener- 
ally applied to those cases of symbiosis where there 
is a mutual benefit to the symbionts. This special 
kind of symbiosis is often called mutualistic or 
reciprocal symbiosis to distinguish it from those 
cases of symbiosis existing between a strict para- 
site and its host, which is called antagonistic sym- 
biosis. Disjunctive symbiosis has reference to the 
relation of flowers and insects in pollination, while 
contact symbiosis has reference to the relation 
between the bacterium, Clostrydium pasteurianum, 
and certain low, blue-green algie in the soil, the 
alg;e supplying the bacterium with carbohydrates. 
These carbohydrates supply the Clostrydium with 
the energy which enables it to assimilate free 
nitrogen. 

Some have raised an objection against the use of 
the term symbiosis applied to the relation of the 
nodule bacterium and the legume, on the ground 
that the bacterium is a parasite, that certain cells 
in the tubercle are destroyed, and that it is difficult 
to see what benefit the host can derive from an 
association with a parasite which destroys some of 
its cells. It is beyond contradiction, however, that 
leguminous plants do benefit fi-om this association, 
in the fixed nitrogen which they are able to absorb 
from the dead bacteroids in the nodule, except 
perhaps in soils already rich in nitrogenous plant- 
food, under which condition it is known that few 
nodules are formed, while in soils poor in nitroge- 
nous plant-foods many nodules are formed and the 
legume profits to a great extent from the symbiosis. 
The parasitism is confined to the nodular roots or 
mycorhiza. This nodule serves a useful purpose for 
the legume, and the fact that its formation is 
caused by a parasite, and that some of its cells die, 
does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that the 
legume does not benefit by the association. Other 
normal organs of the plant, as leaves, perform 
special and important work for the plant, and later 
die. But the good they have served the plant more 
than balances the loss of the part or the death of 
its cells. 

It has also been recently stated that since the 
early relation of the bacterium in the nodule is 
that of a parasite, this relation cannot be symbiosis 
in the sense in which DeBary used the term. Now, 
DeBary distinctly says in his "Die Erscheinung der 
Symbiose," 1879 (the following is a translation), 
"The best known and most exquisite phenomenon 
of symbiosis is complete parasitism, i. e., that 
arrangement by which an animal or plant goes 
through its entire vegetative process on or in 
another organism belonging to a difl'erent species. 
The latter serves the parasite exclusively as a 
dwelling place and furnishes it with its entire food 
material ; it is in every sense of the word its host." 

Literature. 

H. Marshall Ward, some recent publications 
bearing on the question of the souices of nitrogen 
in plants. Annals of Botany, 1, 32i5-357 (1888); 
Atkinson, The Biology of the Organism Causing 
Leguminous Tubercles, Botanical Gazette, 18, 157- 
266, plates 12-15 (1893); Moore, Soil Inoculations 



for Legumes, Bulletin No. 71, Bureau of Plant In- 
dustry, United States Department of Agriculture 
(1905); Pfeffer, Physiology of Plants, 1, 393-403 
(1900). The literature referred to in these works 
will supply other references. Germ life in the soil 
is discussed at length in Vol. I, Chapter XIII, of 
this Cyclopedia, and should be read in this connec- 
tion. Additional references to literature are given 
there. 

LESPEDEZA. Lespcdeza striata, Hook and Arn. 
Leguinin.oivc. (Japan clover, Japanese clover, 
King-grass, Hoopcoop.) Figs. 593, 594. 

By Samuel M. Bain. 

An annual forage plant with stems diffu.sely 
branched, decumbent, or erect when crowded, three 
inches to two feet or more in height, subpubescent; 
leaves three-foliolate, leaflets oblong-obovate, peti- 
oles very short ; peduncles very short, one- to five- 




Fig. 593. Japan clover {Lespedeza striata). 



flowered; flowers appearing singly in axils of leaves; 
corolla purple ; pod small, little exceeding the 
calyx. In the vegetative state the plant is easily 
confused with Trifulium procumbens (low hop- 
clover). They may be readily distinguished when 
in flower, however, as the latter produces much 
smaller yellow flowers in true heads. 

Distribution. 

Lespedeza, or Japan clover, as it is more com- 
monly known, is supposed to have been introduced 
accidentally into South Carolina, where it was first 



396 



LESPEDEZA 



LESPEDEZA 



observed in 1849 near Charleston. It came from 
China or Japan. It spreads rapidly, and has already 
made its way over the entire tSouth, as far north as 
Kentucky and Virginia, westward to Arkansas and 
eastern Texas. It is especially adapted to the Gulf 
and South Atlantic states, as it requires a warm 
climate and a long season of growth ; it has not 
succeeded north of the Ohio river. It is vigor- 
ous, and will hold its own against weeds, and is 
said to crowd out Bermuda-grass and nut-grass. It 
should not be allowed, therefore, to gain a foothold 
in permanent grass-lands. On the other hand, it 
causes no trouble as a weed in cultivated areas. 

Chemical composition. 

Its chemical composition as found in Mississippi 
(Tracy) and Alabama (United States Department 
of Agriculture) is as follows : 



especially in thin upland soils not too densely 
wooded. McCarthy (North Carolina Bulletin No. 
133) found a large-leaved variety of Japan clover 
(L. striata, var. lata) to be superior in some 
respects to the common form. 

Culture. 

Soil. — Lespedeza is successful on a wide range 
of soils, but does best on argillaceous lands. It is 
notable for its ability to thrive on all kinds of soil 
under greatly varying conditions. It prefers a 
moist situation but not a wet one. 

The extent of soil preparation may vary widely. 
The seeds will germinate and establish them.selves 
on hard ground. Very often shallow stirring of 
the soil is all that is needed to secure a crop. 
Careful preparation, however, makes a large crop 
more certain. Potassium fertilizers are said to aid 





Water 


Crude protein 


Fat 


Nitrogen-free 
extract 


Crude fiber 


Ash 


Mississippi 

Alabama 


Per cent 

13.99 

9.13 


Per cent 
12.62 
13.70 


Per cent 
2.64 
3.99 


Per cent 

40.76 
47.52 


Per cent 
24.44 
21.55 


Per cent 

5.55 
4.11 



Related spcies and varieties. 

Two species of Lespedeza, aside from L. striata, 
have been tested in this country, namely, L. bicolor 
and L. sericea. The former was introduced in 
recent years by the United States Department of 
Agriculture. It is less branched than L. striata, 
and more erect, reaching a greater height. Its 
usefulness has not yet been determined, but it gives 
promise of having much value under special condi- 
tions. Besides the.se, a number of other species 
occur in various parts of the country, and contrib- 
ute largely to the value of the native pastures, 




Fi?. 594. Harvesting lespedeza hay. 



the growth of the crop in the more northern 
regions of its production. 

Seeding. — Japan clover is not commonly sown, 
as it has become naturalized throughout a consider- 
able part of the South, and comes in of itself by 
dropping its seed, which germinates the following 
spring. It may be seeded to advantage, however, 
and in parts of Louisiana and elsewhere sowing is 
the practice when it is desired to secure a stand of 
lespedeza. It is sown at the rate of ten to twenty 
pounds per acre in the spring after all danger of 
frost is past, though it is occasionally fall-planted. 
The latter is not to be 
advised e.xcept in the 
extreme South, as the 
plant will not stand 
frost. A stand may be 
secured by scattering 
the manure of live- 
stock fed on the hay 
or green forage con- 
taining ripe seed. The 
same result is secured 
by allowing stock the 
free range of an ad- 
joining field which it 
is desired to seed. It 
will generally be most 
satisfactory to sow the 
seed when a hay crop 
is desired. If the hay 
crop is to be continued 
on the same land, disk- 
ing the meadow and 
re-seeding is sufficient. 
If the crop reaches 
maturity, enough seed 
may shatter out to in- 
sure the next crop. 



LESPEDEZA 



LUPINE 



397 



The seeding also may be done in the spring in any 
of the small grains, and preferably harrowed in ; 
and the seed has been used successfully in grass 
mixtures for pastures. 

Lespedeza should occupy the land for two to four 
years. It can follow cotton or any other late fall 
crop. 

Harvesting and uses. 

Hay. — For hay, Japan clover should be cut 
before it is over-ripe ; a good practice is to mow 
when about half of the lower crop of seed has 
matured. This provides for reseeding the next 
year on the same field, or by spreading the manure 
as above suggested. When the saving of seed is no 
object, the plants should be cut when in full bloom. 
On good land one to three tons of hay per acre 
will be secured. The hay may be cocked after 
thorough wilting on the day it is cut ; one or two 
days in cocks is sufficient before final storage. It 
should be handled carefully to prevent loss of 
leaves. Tracy found lespedeza, with cotton seed as 
the grain feed, to be the cheapest milk-producing 
ration. The hay commands a ready sale in the 
market. On the hill lands near Baton Rouge, 
Louisiana, it is one of the leading hay crops. 

Seed. — For seed production, half-ripe hay maybe 
threshed with a loss of value to the hay, or the 
seed may be gathered from siftings of the hay. To 
get the most seed, however, the crop should stand 
until a large part of the seeds are ripe. The self- 
rake reaper is used for harvesting, although the 
mower can be used when the stems are sufficiently 
erect. 

Pasture. — Lespedeza aflFords valuable pasturage 
for cattle, horses, hogs or sheep, though they must 
be accustomed to it in order to relish it. By some 
it is considered the best pasture plant for the 
poorer clay soils of the cotton-belt. As it will not 
start till the soil is warm, the pasturage will seldom 
be available before May. Under favorable moisture 
conditions it will continue until frost. It can be 
planted to advantage in all permanent pastures, 
where it will reseed itself if not pastured too 
closely. 

Soil renovation. — Lespedeza is a valuable reno- 
vator of poor lands, ranking with the other legumes 
in this regard. It is frequently used to fit poor, 
waste lands for exacting crops. 

Enemies. 

Lespedeza is almost devoid of serious enemies in 
the way of weeds, insects, or parasitic fungi. It 
combats successfully almost all the weeds. A 
species of Colletotrichum (a fungus) has been found 
on it in Tennessee, but as yet it has caused no 
serious injury. 

Literature. 

Dodson, Louisiana Station, Bulletin No. 72, 
Second series, 1902 ; McCarthy, North Carolina 
Station, Bulletin No. 70, 1890, and No. 133 ; Shaw, 
Clovers, New York Citv ; Tracy, Mississippi Station, 
Report No. 1, 1888 ; Report No. 3, 1890 ; Bulletin 
No. 20, 1892. 



LUPINE (Lupinus). Leguminosw. Fig. 595. 

By H. N. Vinall. 

A large group of leguminous plants mostly con- 
fined to western North America, a few species 
occurring in eastern United States, in the southern 
states and in the Mediterranean region, some of 
them valuable for green-manuring and forage. 
Upwards of one hundred species are found in the 
western United States. Most of the species are her- 
baceous annuals or perennials, although a few are 
shrubby. The agriculturally valuable species are 




Fie. 595. Yellow lupine {Ltipinus luteua). 

all annuals. Those most cultivated are native of the 
Mediterranean region. All are showy plants with 
conspicuous flowers in terminal racemes or spikes, 
borne on long peduncles. The flowers are blue, 
white or yellow, or a union of these, papilionaceous 
and free-blooming. The leaves are usually digitate, 
with five to seventeen entire leaflets. 

Lupines are grown primarily as a green-manure 
crop. Their great value for this purpose depends 
on their ability to thrive on poor sandy soils and 
on their high nitrogen content. In Europe, large 
tracts of sandy soils have been brought into con- 
dition for profitable cultivation by green-manuring 
with lupines and fertilizing with phosphates and 
potash salts. As a forage crop, the cultivated 
lupines are of no great importance, and are but 
little used for this purpose. All of the species are 
rather coarse for fodder. 

Lupines are but little cultivated in the United 
States. In Europe and North Africa there are four 
species in cultivation, namely, the white (L, 



398 



LUPINE 



MAIZE 



albus), the yellow (L. luteus, Fig. 595, adapted from 
Botanical Magazine), the blue (L. hirsiitus), and 
the Egyptian (L. termis). Of these, the yellow 
lupine is used most extensively, the blue and white 
lupines being next in importance. In parts of the 
West, a number of species, notably L. leueophi/Uus 
and L. sericeus, grow wild in great luxuriance and 
are cut for hay. The numerous American native 
species are of considerable value on the ranges, 
many of them being eaten readily both by sheep 
and cattle. Some danger attends the feeding of 
this hay, e.specially to sheep, owing to the pres- 
ence of a poisonous alkaloid in the seed. [Consult 
Vol. III.] 

The cultivated lupines have been tested at many 
of the American experiment stations, mostly with 
decidedly unsatisfactory results. Only on the Pacific 
coast have the cultivated lupines appeared at all 
promising as green-manure crops, and even there 
other legumes are more satisfactory. Up to the 
present time, none of the species has become espe- 
cially valuable in the United States. It is not at 
all unlikely, however, when it shall become prof- 
itable to build up some of the sandy soils in the 
West, that one or more of the European species 
may prove valuable. One of the species, native to 
California (L. affinis), has been grown there as a 
green-manure crop and compares favorably with 
the European species. 

Culture. 

Soil. — A sandy, well-drained soil is essential, as 
the plants will not grow on wet land, and are par- 
ticularly averse to limestone soils. Their greatest 
value is on poor, sandy soils that will not grow 
anything else. On the other hand, it was found at 
the California station that lupines would tolerate 
much more lime on clay soils than on sandy soils. 
It is said that the large blue lupine (L.pilosus, var. 
ccendcus) and the pink lupine (L. pilosus, var. roseus) 
are adapted to limestone soils. 

Fertilizers. — Potash salts give the most beneficial 
results, although the addition of phosphates with 
the potash is profitable. Superphosphates have 
given detrimental results and should not be applied 
to the soil on which the lupines are to be sown. 

Seeding. — Lupine seed is usually sown at the 
rate of eighty to one hundred pounds per acre in 
drills ten to fifteen inches apart. If broadcasted, 
nearly double this quantity is required. The .seed 
should be sown after the ground is warm, the early 
part of May or ,Iune being the usual time. The 
plants grow rapidly and are ready to plow under 
in the early part of August, by which time they 
will have developed seed and will contain the maxi- 
mum amount of nitrogen. 

Place in the rotation. — If used in a rotation, espe- 
cially on lands that are being built up, it is prefer- 
able to follow lupines with winter rye. In this case, 
at least a month should be allowed to elapse after 
the lupines are plowed under, before the rye is sown. 

Utilizing the crop. 

The native American species are pastured 
throughout the growing season. If cut for hay, 



it should not be harvested until the pods have 
ripened and burst open and scattered their .seed. 
This occurs the latter part of August or first of 
September. 

The seed of the cultivated species is very rich 
in protein and is used in Europe to some extent 
as feed. The feeding value is much lessened by 
the presence of a bitter alkaloid which is injurious 
to animals, especially to sheep. Before feeding 
the seed, it is necessary to remove some of the 
alkaloid by soaking or boiling. One method is to 
boil the seeds for one hour and then to wash them 
for twenty-four hours in running water. This re- 
sults in a loss of about one-sixth of the dry, 
principally non-proteid matter. The disembittered 
seed is then fed in much the same way as oil 
cake. 

MAIZE, OR INDIAN CORN. Zea Mays, Linn. 
Graniinca;. Figs. 596-G48. 

By John W. Harshberger. 

Maize or Indian corn is a grass that is grown 
both for its grain and its herbage, which are used 
for food. The grain is used whole or ground, 
and in various preparations for both human and 
stock-food. The herbage is a forage used for soil- 
ing, silage or as dried 
and cured fodder. 
Various manufac- 
tured products are 
made from maize. 
The plant is annual, 
dying each year, even 
in its original semi- 
tropical home in 
Mexico. It is the 
most important and 
most distinctive 
American crop. The 
word "maize" is de- 
rived from the Hay- 
tian word "mahiz," 
the name by which 
Indian corn or maize 
was called when Co- 
lumbus found it growing on the island of Hayti. 
Mahiz, or marisi, is said to be an Arawak Indian 
word of South American origin. In North America 
the word "corn," used generically in England for 
bread grains, more particularly for wheat, is em- 
ployed specifically for maize. The "word has no 
other application than to maize in this country. 
It is common, however, to speak of the plant as 
Indian corn. 

Origin of maize. 

The writer has presented elsewhere the proofs 
of the Mexican origin of maize [see Literature, 
page 427]. Maize relates itself botanically to a na- 
tive Mexican grass, teosinte (Emhlcena Mcxicana, 
which see), and fertile hybrids of this grass and 
maize are known, producing a plant described by 
Watson as Zea canina. From the peculiar beha- 
vior of these hybrids, the writer has suggested 




Fig. 596. Botanical parts of the 
kernel o£ maize and its integu- 
ments, a. embryo; /v, iiijitxire 
oviiry: c. second glume; (/. first 
Elnme; e. palea: f, lemma; g, 
sterile palea. 




Plate Xrv. Types of maize 
Upper row, left to right— Mixiz Gigante from Mexico, Lai ge-cobbecl Course Yellow Dent. Cob-pipe, Reid Yellow Dent, Leamiug 
Yellow, Riley Favorite, Boone County Wliite. Minnesota Li. ISfcond ro^c— North Dakot:i tiojden Dent, Golden Ideal, Golden 
Eagle, A Red Dent. Hybrid I'Jl), Hnnter White Dent, Pod-Corn. Third row — Klesh-eolored Flint. Variegr.ted Flint. Yankee Corn, 
Sturges' Hybrid. Hickory King. Triumph Flint, White Flint, Gelui, Early Tuscarora, Variegated type of Mexican June, North- 
■western Dent. Bottom row— Stowell Evergreen, Country Gentleman, Crosby, Black Mexican. Quincy Early Market, Red Rice 
Pop, White Kice Pop. Blue Pop. two strains of White Pearl Pop, strains of Yellow Pearl Pop (last three). 



MAIZE 



MAIZE 



399 



that our cultivated maize is of hybrid origin, prob- 
ably starting as a sport of teosinte, which then 
crossed itself with the normal ancestor, producing 
our cultivated corn. This is speculative, but there 




Fig. 597. 



Types of kernels of corn. 1, 2, Wliite dent kernels of poor shape 
view of tliin ;ind tliick kernels: 4. edge view of thin and thick kernels; 5-7, tiour 
corn of Fern: S. Tuscarora or flour corn; 9-12, sweet corn; 13. Golden Pearl pop- 
corn; 11. white rice popcorn; 15, white flint; 16, 17, yellow flint; 18-23, white dent: 
24-28, yellow dent. Long, wedge-shaped kernels like 9 and 25 permit of much 
grain in proportion to cob. (Hartley.) 

cannot be any doubt that the close relationship of 
maize and teosinte points the way to the determi- 
nation of the botanical characters of the original 
wild corn plant. Recently, Montgomery has sug- 
gested a theory as to the nature of the maize ear, 
in which, in conclusion, he states "that corn and 
teosinte may have had a common origin, and that 
in the process of evolution the cluster of pistillate 
spikes in teosinte were developed from the lateral 
branches of a tassel-like structure, while the corn 
ear developed from the central spike. It is probable 
that the progenitor of 
these plants was a 
large, much-branched 
grass, each branch be- 
ing terminated by a 
ta.ssel - like structure, 
bearing hermaphro- 
dite flowers." [See lit- 
erature references at 
end of article.] 

The Zea canina of 
Mexico (fir.st described 
in 1890, by Watson) is 
of great interest in 
studying the origin of 
corn. Bailey experi- 
mented with this plant 
and made hybrids with 
forms of cultivated 
maize. Without com- 
mitting himself as to 
the origin of Zea 
canina itself, he made 
the following observa- 
tions (Cornell Bulletin 
Pij, 5g3_ No. 49, 1892)_ on its 

Pod or biusk com. possible relations to 



Indian corn (subsequent experiments have not been 
published): 

"It may be worth while to inquire whether this 
Canina corn still retains a specific identity, whether 
it really is a distinct species 
from the common corn, Zea 
Mays. For myself, I am 
strongly of the opinion that 
it is not a distinct species. I 
am rather inclined to think, 
with the native Mexicans and 
Professor Duges, that it is the 
original form of Zea Mays, or 
at least very near it. It ex- 
plains many points in the evo- 
lution of Indian corn. Some 
varieties of sweet corn occa- 
sionally produce rudimentary 
multiple ears, and this Canina 
seems to tend to lose them 
under cultivation. The ten- 
dency of cultivation in all 
plants i s to develop some 
fruits or some organs, rather 
than all fruits or all organs. 
The suckering habit has been 
discouraged in the selection 
of corns. The tendency to sucker, the tendency to 
produce tassels on the ends of ears, the profuse 
drooping tassels of many little-improved varieties, 
the predominance of flint corns northward and 
of dent or pointed corns southward, the occurrence 
of many curious and aboriginal corns in the Aztec 



28 

3, end 





Fig. 599. Swan river corn, grown at Minitonas, Manitoba. 

region — all these become intelligible if Zea canina 
is the original of Indian corn." 

Botanical eharaeters. 

Roots. — The roots of maize are of two kinds : (1) 
Those that are formed when the kernel germinates, 
which develop into the strong underground feed- 
ing roots ; (2) those that develop in a circle from 
the lower nodes of the stem, and serve primarily 
as prop or supporting roots. Before these adven- 
titious aerial roots reach the soil, they are covered 
by a copious mucilaginous material, which probably 
prevents dry air and dry winds injuring the 
important growing apex. Later these air roots 
absorb water ard plant-food from the soil into 
which they penetrate. 

Stevi. — The stem of corn, known botanically as a 
culm, is divided into nodes (knots) and internodes 
(straight stem parts). The internodes differ from 
those of most gra.sses by being solid instead of hol- 
low. The basal part of each of the lower leaf 
sheaths is provided with a ring of soft tissue, wh-icb 



400 



MAIZE 



MAIZE 



consists of cells capable of rapid growth. Hence 
the base of the sheath is ready at any time to 
grow, and if the plant is blown over by the wind, 
growth takes place, and the plant is thus assisted 
into an upright position. Another point of interest 
is that a number of the internodes are alternately 
grooved or flattened. Those persons who have 
made a "corn-stalk fiddle" will remember that it 
was this peculiar flattening, which accommodates 
the ears, that rendered possible the manufacture 
of the crude musical instrument. The sap bundles 
of the corn stem are isolated and of the closed 
collateral tyi)e. 

Leaves. — The leaves of corn are two-ranked ; that 
is, they alternate on opposite sides of the stems. 
Each leaf may be divided into three parts, — a 
sheath, which is open along one side, a ligule, or 



f^^ 



keep the leaf- blade perfectly flat. In hot, dry 
weather, water is lost from these cells and the 
leaf-blade rolls up and thus protects itself against 







Fig. 600. High northern corn. Cross between large yellow 
flint and Improved Learning corn ; four years crossing. 
Wakefield, twenty milts north of Ottawa, Canada. 

membranous outgrowth at the top of the sheath, and 
the blade. The ligule has been appropriately called 
the rainguard, as it acts in such a way that rain- 
water with dust particles held in solution, which 
runs down the grooved surface of the 
leaf, runs oft' on either side on reach- 
ing the ligule and does not run into 
the space between the stem and 
sheathing base, where dirt might other- 
wise easily accumulate. The folds in 
the margin and base of the leaf, which 
are formed becau.se the edge grows 
more rapidly than the middle, are in- 
genious natural or mechanical contri- 
vances to ease the strain on the leaf- 
blade when the wind blows. If a 
microscopic section is made of the 
leaf -blade, peculiar fan-shaped cells are 
found distributed in the upper epider- 
mis between the prominent parallel 
veins. These are bulliform cells and in 
ordinary weather absorb water and 




Fig. 601. Ears from the stalks shown in Fig. 60O. 

desiccation and controls the normally high rate of 
transpiration, or water loss. 

Flowers. — The flowers of maize are arranged in 
clusters in two difl'erent parts of the plant. The 
male (staminate) flowers together form the termi- 
nal tassel of the plant, while the female (pistillate) 
flowers (Fig. 515) are placed on the cob, sur- 
rounded by the husks in the axils of the lower, or 
usually the middle leaves of the stem. The stami- 
nate flower cluster is known as a panicle of spike- 
lets. Each ultimate division of the tassel (pani- 
cle) is a spikelet. Each spikelet consists of two 
dry scales (lower glumes) .subtending two flowers 
of three stamens each. Each staminate flower is 
surrounded by a flowering glume (lemma) and a 
palea on the inside. When the anthers are mature, 
they dangle at the ends of long filaments, and thus 
the dry, smooth pollen-grains are consigned to the 
wind. The pistillate flowers are placed in even- 
numbered rows on the fleshy axis known as the 
cob. Each spikelet on this axis consists of two 
flowers, subtended by two glumes more or less 
horny or leathery. One pistillate flower is abortive 
and is represented solely by a flowering glume and 
a palea, while the other pistillate flower, with sub- 
tending, flowering glume and palea, has an ovary 
surmounted by a long, hairy style, showing, under 
the microscope, two longitudinally directed vascu- 
lar bundles. Each style, or thread of silk, is hairy, 
to entrap the round, smooth pollen-grains, which 




Fig. 602. Early - maturing low -growing corn adapted to North Dakota and 
the northern states. It may yield forty or more bushels per acre. (Hartley.) 



MAIZE 



MAIZE 



401 




Fi£. 603. 



Hopi com grown by the Pueblo Indians. (From specimens in the United 
States Xationiil Museum 



i.) 




are produced in very great numbers, as many as 
18,000,000 by a single plant. The pollen begins to 
be shed one to three days before the silk emerges 
from between the husks, and continues to fall for 
eight days, more or less, although the silk is pol- 
lenized usually on the first day of its appearance. 
The egg apparatus in the ovule of maize consists 
of three cells, and in the center of the embryo-sac 
is an endosperm nucleus. The fertilization of the 
egg cell results in the formation of the corn em- 
bryo, while the double fertilization of the endo- 
sperm nucleus by the second sperm nucleus pro- 
duces an immediate efl'ect on the color of the 
reserve food stored about the embryo. This imme- 
diate effect of the pollen on the offspring kernels 
is called xenia. 




Fig. 605. The sexes ; pistil- 
late spike or ear, stami- 
Qate panicle or tassel. 

B26 



Fig. 606. Ears too high on the 
left; on the right, ears well 
placed. 



Kernels. — The caryopses or 
kernels of corn (Fig. 596), re- 
sulting from the act of fertili- 
zation, are arranged in even- 
numbered rows on the fleshy 
axis, or cob, surrounded by the 
husk. Each husk represents the 
sheathing leaf base and the 
outer ones are usually tipped by 
a green, rudimentary leaf-blade, 
which occasionally displays a 
ligule. The outer, innermost husk 
is two -keeled, like a sled with 
runners, and thus it accommo- 
dates itself to the flattened or 
hollowed -out stem surface. 
Occasionally smaller ears are 
enclosed by the outer husks, so 
that the ear together with the 
husks is to be regarded as a 
short, axillary, branch bearing 
reduced leaves and flowers. 

Each caryopsis has two distinct coats, viz., the 
ovarian wall and the seed-coats. On microscopic 
section, the cell layers composing the ovarian wall, 
or pericarp, and the extremely thin seed-coats are 
distinctly visible. The reserve food in corn is horny 
proteinaceous material and mealy starch, while 
the embryo itself contains the largest amount of 
oil. The proteinaceous and starchy reserve foods 
comprise the albumen, which touches the embryo 
on the whole of one side, where the scutellum is 
found. The corn embryo, chit or germ, consists of 
the radicle surrounded by a root-sheath, or coleo- 
rhiza, a short hypocotyl from which arises the suck- 
ing organ, or scutellum, and a single cotyledon 
that surrounds several tightly-rolled plumular 
leaves. The epidermal cells of the scutellum 
secrete an enzyme which transforms the reserve 
food into a usable form when the embryo begins to 
grow. 

In germination, the radicle protrudes first by 



Fig. 604. 
Squaw com grown 
in Manitoba. Sec- 
tion at a shown 
below. 



402 



MAIZE 



MAIZE 



breaking its way through the coleorhiza, which 
remains as a circular collar about its upper part, 
and then the plumule elongates. The cotyledon re- 
mains yellowish green and membranous, while the 
leaves enwrapped by it elongate and assume a 
bright green color. Coincident with this develop- 
ment of the plumule, a considerable number of 
secondary adventitious roots arise, so that the 
primary root soon loses its identity. 

Classification of species-groups or " agricultural 
species." 
Several well-marked agricultural races of Indian 
corn may be distinguished. The asterisk (*) indi- 
cates Mays understood. The classification is that 
of Dr. E. L. Sturtevant: 

(1) Zea canina, Watson. Maiz de Coyote, a re- 
puted wild form from Mexico. The writer has abun- 
dantly proved that this so-called wild species is a 
hybrid of the fourth or fifth generation produced 
by crossing teosinte and the black Mexican corn. 

(2) Zea * tunicata. Pod Corn. In this group each 
kernel is inclosed in a pod, or husks .surround it, 
and the ear thus formed is inclosed in husks. 
Originally it was probably derived from Argentina 
in South America. (Fig. 598.) 

(3) Zea * everta. Pop Corn. This species-group 
is characterized by the excessive proportion of the 
corneous endosperm and the small size of the ear 
and kernel. The best varieties have the corneous 
endosperm throughout, which gives the property 
of popping. Probably cultivated by the Indians. 

(4) Zea * induraia. Flint Corn. A species-group 
recognized by the occurrence of a starchy endo- 
sperm, inclosed in a corneous endosperm, which 
varies in thickness in different varieties. First 
mentioned by Cartier in 1535 and Heriot in 1588. 

(5) Zea * indentata. Dent Corn. A group recog- 
nized by the presence of corneous endosperm at the 
sides of the kernel, the starchy reserve food ex- 




tending to the summit. By the drying and shrinkage 
of the starchy endosperm, an indentation is formed. 
Cultivated as poketawes by the Powhatan Indians. 

(6) Zea * amylacea. Soft Corn. These corns are 
recognized by the absence of a corneous reserve 
food. The mummy corns of Chili and Peru belong 
to this class. 

(7) Zea * saecharata. Sweet Corn. A well-defined 
species-group characterized by the translucent, 
horny appearance of the kernels and their more or 
less crinkled, wrinkled or shriveled condition. The 
first sweet corn cultivated in America was derived 
from the Susquehanna Indians in 1779 by Captain 
Richard Begnall, who accompanied General Sullivan 
on his expedition to subdue the Six Nations. 

(8) Zea * amylca-saceharaia. Starchy-sweet Corn. 
The external appearance of the kernel is that of a 
sweet corn, but examination shows that the lower 
half of the kernel is starchy, the upper half horny 
and translucent. May it not be due to xenia ? 
This species is ba.sed on three varieties found in 
the San Pedro Indian collection of Dr. Palmer, sent 
to Dr. E. L. Sturtevant in 1886. 

Maize is exceedingly variable in every part. 
Therefore it adapts itself to great numbers of uses 
and to wide ranges of territory. Some of the 
forms of it are shown in the half-tone plate and 
also in Figs. 597-613. 

Maize-Growing. 

By C. P. Hartley. 

The corn crop is preeminently the most valuable 
crop of the United States. Through this crop there 
is derived each year from the soil of the United 
States a value of more than a billion dollars. If 




Fig. 607. Ear of corn, sbowing tendency to laminate. 



Tig. 608. Corn triplets. 




MAIZE 



403 



Fig. 609. A large, heavy ear. 

the hay crop, though made up of crops of several 
distinct plants, be considered as a single crop, it is 
but one-half as valuable as the grain alone of the 
corn crop. Corn holds first place in the list of 
crops, hay second, cotton third and wheat fourth. 
North America produces four times as much corn 
as the remainder of the world. As continents, 
Europe stands second. South America third and 
Africa fourth. As a corn-producing country the 
United States has no rival ; Argentina stands sec- 
ond, Hungary third and Italy fourth. 

If the corn crop of the United States for 1906 
had been placed in wagons, fifty bushels per load, 
and allowing twenty feet of space for each wagon 
and team, the train of corn would have reached 
nine times around the world at the equator. 

Below are arranged the states of the United 
States in the order of the total amount of corn 
each state has produced in the five years 1902 to 
1906, and again arranged according to the average 
yield per acre for the ten years 1897 to 1906. The 
figures are averaged from the reports of the Bureau 
of Statistics of the United States Department of 
Agriculture: 

Average Corn Yields for Five Years, 1902-1906. 

Bushels 

Illinois 342,115,835 

Iowa 301,666,176 

Nebraska 239,835,262 

Missouri 210,082,426 

Kansas 183,490,628 

Indiana 165,666,854 

Texas 123,454,407 

Ohio 112,675,444 

Kentucky 91,957,099 

Tennessee 78,578,391 

Indian Territory 53,216,199 

Pennsylvania 52,337,590 




Rg. 610. A good short, erect ear. 

Average Corn Yields for Five Years, 1902-1906- 
Continued. Bnshels 

Wisconsin 49,339,658 

Arkansas 47,665,325 

Oklahoma 47,548,686 

South Dakota 45,942,636 

Georgia 45,565,769 

Minnesota 43,101,849 

Michigan . . . . ; 42,549,489 

Virginia 42,537,934 

Alabama 39,531,578 

North Carolina 39,263,224 

Mississippi 35,000,660 

Louisiana 23,543,048 

Maryland 20,934,903 

South Carolina 20,777,740 

West Virginia 20,404,238 

. New York 18,1.38,662 

New Jersey 9,422,171 

Florida 6,259,542 

Delaware 5,577,944 

Colorado 2,496,071 

North Dakota 2,462,990 

Connecticut 1,920,575 

California 1,795,668 

Vermont 1,764,520 

Massachusetts 1,518,261 

New Mexico 945,294 

New Hampshire 803,600 

Oregon 449,199 

Maine 432,140 

Utah 320,660 

Rhode Island 317,845 

Washington 250,283 

Arizona 188,428 

Idaho 151,417 

Montana 85,842 

Wyoming 58,001 



404 



MAIZE 



MAIZE 



AvEiRAGE Production of Corn Per Acre for Ten 
Years, 1897-1906. Bushels 

Connecticut 36.00 

Massachusetts 35.55 

Maine 35.13 

Pennsylvania 35.04 

Ohio 34.91 

New Jersey 34.60 

Vermont 34.53 

Indiana 34.47 

Illinois 34.02 

Wisconsin 33.64 

New Hampshire 33.56 

Iowa 32.49 

Maryland 32.26 

Michigan 32.05 

Rhode Island 31.83 

New York 30.37 

California 29.72 

Minnesota 29.44 

Missouri 27.98 

Idaho 27.83* 

Nebraska . 27.71 

Delaware 27.63 

Indian Territory 27.21* 

South Dakota 26.55 

West Virginia 26.40 

Kentucky 25.98 

Wyoming 24.91 

Utah 24.53 

New Mexico 24.50 

Oregon 24.34 

Oklahoma 23.78* 

Arizona 23.48* 

Tennessee 22.43 

Kansas 22.08 

Montana 22.01 

North Dakota 21.87 

Virginia 21.30 

Washington 21.07 

Colorado 19.86 

Texas 19.03 

Arkansas 18.78 

Louisiana 16.76 

Mississippi 15.22 

North Carolina 13.70 

Alabama 12.99 

Georgia 10.56 

South Carolina 9.81 

Florida 9.43 

*Average production of corn for sis years, 1901-1906. 

The following table of corn production in Canada 
is taken from the Canada Year Book for 1905. It 
is for the census year of 1901, being the crop of 
1900. It is seen that very little corn is grown 
except in the province of Ontario. Quebec stands 
second, far behind Ontario, but much in the lead of 
the other provinces, where corn is unimportant. 

1901 Acres Busliels in the ear 

Canada 360,758 25,875,919 

British Columbia . . 51 1,849 

Manitoba 62 1,944 

New Brunswick ... 259 12,509 

Nova Scotia .... 177 9,358 

Ontario 331,641 24,463,694 

Prince Edward Island 37 834 

Quebec 28,506 1,384,331 

The Territories ... 25 1,400 

From the statistics of the last four census years 
it is seen that the production of corn is rapidly 
increasing. The figures are for all Canada: 



1871 3,802,830 bus. 

1881 9,025,142 bus. 

1891 10,711,380 bus. 

1901 25,875,919 bus. 

History. 

In the early writings and history of both North 
and South America, the importance of maize is 
recognized and frequent mention is made of it. 
However, these early writings 
mention it as a well-known plant, 
so that descriptions of it are few 
and nothing positive appears re- 
garding its origin or the char- 
acter of the plant when it was 
first utilized by the native in- 
habitants of America. We know 
that there were different kinds 
of maize in America at the time 
of its discovery. It is probable 
that such diiferent kinds of corn 
as pod, flour, flint, dent, sweet, 
and pop of various colors, ex- 
isted at that time. It is certain 
that by seed selection, preserva- 
tion and cultivation the settlers 
of America have improved these 
dift"erent types. 

De Candolle states positively 
as follows : "Maize is of Ameri- 
can origin and has been intro- 
duced into the Old World only 
since the discovery of the New." 
Edward Enfield, in his book on 
Indian corn, published in 1866, 
is positive that maize is of 
American origin and states, "If 
any further evidence were want- 
ing on this point, it may be 
found in the impossibility that 
a grain so nutritious, prolific and valuable, so ad- 
mirably adapted to the wants of man, could have 
existed in the eastern world before the discovery of 
America without coming into general use and mak- 
ing itself universally known. Had this cereal ex- 
isted there at that period, it would have made its 
own record too clearly and positively to leave any 
doubt on the subject.'' Harshberger states, "The 
evidence of archaeology, history, ethnology and 
philology points to southern Mexico as the primal 
habitat of this great New World cereal." [See pre- 
ceding article.] 

The earliest explorers and settlers of all parts of 
the New World found maize in a state of cultiva- 
tion and the principal food of the Indians. Thus, in 
Pickering's Chronological History of Plants this 
statement is made : "About 1002 A. D., Thorwald, 
brother of Leif, wintered in Vinland . . . and on 
an island far westward saw a wooden crib for 
corn." Columbus, in a letter to Ferdinand and Isa- 
bella, dated May 30, 1498, speaking of his brother, 
says, "During a journey in the interior he found a 
dense population entirely agricultural, and at one 
place passed through eighteen miles of corn-fields." 

In Prescott's Conquest of Mexico, mention is 




Fig. 611. 

A weU-formed ear 

of dent corn. 



MAIZE 



MAIZE 



405 



made that Cortez, on his march to the city of Mexico 
in 1519, passed " amidst iiourishing fields of maize." 
The historian, Torquemada, has extracted the par- 
ticulars of the yearly expenditures of the Mexi- 




Fig. 612. Good com tips. The nose or end is well 
covered with kernels. 

can Palace. One item is 4,900,300 fanegas, or 
490,030,000 pounds, of maize. 

In 1539, De Soto, in Florida, speaks of Indian 
villages surrounded by extensive fields of corn. In 
one instance he narrates that his army passed 
through continuous fields of maize for two leagues. 
In one place they found 500 measures of ground 
maize, besides a large quantity of grain. 

The Puritans, in King Philip's War in 1675, "took 
possession of 1,000 acres of corn, which was har- 
vested by the English and disposed according to 
their direction." In 1680, La Salle found stores of 
corn in Illinois that the Indians had placed under 
ground for seed and subsistence. In his expedition 




Good com butts. 



-4jL 



against the Seneca Indians, Marquis de Nouville 
says, "On the 14th of .luly, 1685. . . . We remained 
at the four villages of the Senecas ten days. All the 
time we spent in destroying the corn, which, includ- 



ing the old corn that was in cache, which we 
burned, was in such great abundance that the loss 
was computed at 400,000 minots, or 1,200,000 
bushels." This was in Ontario county, New York. 

Place of corn in American agriculture. 

From the time of the early settlements, when 
maize saved the colonists from starvation, till the 
present, this crop has held an important place, not 
only in American agriculture, but in the develop- 
ment and progress of this country. Other crops 
are of vital importance in certain limited sections ; 
so is the corn crop ; but in addition to this it is of 
considerable importance in almost every part of 
America. To a greater extent than perhaps any 
other plant, it has become adapted to various en- 
vironments. For the various latitudes from Canada 
to the equator there are strains more or less per- 
fectly adapted which lend themselves readily to 
further improvement and better adaptation. Suited 
to the short seasons 
of the far North are 
strains that mature in 
seventy or eighty 
days and grow but 
three or four feet tall 
(Fig. 602), while in 
the southern part of 
the United States 
(Fig.626), in Mexico, 
Central America and 
South America, there 
are strains that reach 
a height of twenty 
feet or more and re- 
quire half a year in 
which to reach ma- 
turity. 

The hard, smooth 
flints, mostly yellow 
flints and sweet corns, 
are generally grown 
in New England, the 
small early yellow 
dents and reddish dents in the northern states, 
large-eared white and yellow dents of the one-ear- 
to-stalk strains in the central states, and white 
dents partly of the strains that produce two or 
more ears per stalk in the southern part of the 
United States. 

Because of the need of a cultivated crop that 
can be used in rotation with small grains, corn is 
now extensively grown in Minnesota, North Dakota 
and elsewhere, where but a few years ago all atten- 
tion was given to the growing of small grains, 
and corn -growing considered impracticable and 
unprofitable. The soils of the Pacific slope are also 
showing the exhaustive efl'ect of one-crop farming, 
and corn for rotation is meeting with favor. Crop 
rotation is sure to replace the practice of summer 
fallowing, or resting the land. By early planting, 
some of the earliest maturing strains can be grown 
to maturity before the dry season has continued 
sufficiently long to prevent growth. 

Although produced so much more extensively 




Fig. 614. Method of supporting 
seed corn in storage. (Uolden.) 



406 



MAIZE 



MAIZE 



than other grains, corn does not figure so promi- 
nently in our export trade. Nearly all of it is fed 
to stock on the farms where it is produced. Only 
4 per cent of the amount grown in the United 
States is shipped to other countries as corn and 
corn meal. It is used for the most part on the 




Fig. 615. Examining the germination box to see how the com 
is sprouting. It is not enough th.it tlie liernels simply 
sprout: tiiey should show strong germination. (Hoiden.) 

farms for fattening cattle and hogs for exportation 
and home use. It is well for the future of American 
farming that this custom prevails so generally. A 
removal of the corn from the farms would much 
more quickly deplete their fertility. The feeding 
of it on the farms is the chief means of retaining 
their fertility. 

Consideration of the seed. 

In order to produce a successful corn crop it is 
necessary that attention be given to the selection 
of seed the fall previous to the year in which the 
good crop is expected. The opinion is rather prev- 
alent that if a good stand is obtained, it matters 
little by what method the required number of stalks 
is secured. The stand is sometimes obtained by 
planting a larger number of kernels per hill than 
the number of stalks desired. This method is not 
advisable for two principal reasons : First, such a 
method is sure to result in an uneven distribution 
of the plants in the field ; and second, if the seed 
germinates poorly, so that it is necessary to plant 
more than the number expected to grow, it is cer- 
tain that the seed that does grow will have been 
reduced in vitality by the same conditions that 
caused the other grains to fail. 

One endeavoring to produce successful crops of 
corn must bear in mind that within each kernel is 
a partially developed corn plant differentiated into 
the part that grows into the stalk and that which 
develops into the roots. This partially developed 
plant necessarily endures the condition to which 
the seed ears are subjected during the winter. 
The best condition under which it maintains its 
vitality is that of dryness and an even temperature. 
It is not sufficient to make sure that the corn is 
once dried in the fall and then placed in a position 



where it will be subjected to damp atmosphere and 
extremes of temperature. If but a few bushels of 
seed are recjuired, a very convenient method of dry- 
ing it thoroughly is by means of twine and a well- 
ventilated loft or shed in which to hang the strings 
of ears. About a dozen or twenty ears can be tied 
on one string, placing the ears several inches apart 
on the string so they will not touch. (Fig. 614.) If 
such strings can be hung in a place that will re- 
main dry and at a comparatively uniform temper- 
ature, they may be left in this position until plant- 
ing time approaches. However, rather than subject 
such strings to the atmosphere of damp days and 
changes in temperature, it is better to take them 
down after the ears are thoroughly dry and place 
them in an attic or living-room of a dwelling or 
some building in which the temperature will remain 
rather constant and the atmosphere dry. 

If it is necessary to dry large quantities of seed 
ears, gently sloping floors or shelves made of one- 
and-one-half- or two-inch slats, with an inch and 
a half between the slats, can be constructed in a 
dry room heated by stoves so arranged that the 
warm air will ascend between the slats and escape 
by means of ventilators provided near the roof. 
The object of the sloping floors is to provide an 
easy means of moving all of the ears by withdraw- 
ing a part of them from the lower ends of the 
floors, causing the others to roll down a little dis- 
tance. Such movement enables the ears to dry on 
all sides. On these floors the seed ears are put only 
one or two ears deep. 

Seed corn should never be placed in tight boxes 
or barrels until thoroughly dry or until the mois- 
ture content is reduced to 10 per cent or less. 
When dried to this extent, seed can be tightly 
bo.xed with safety, provided the boxes are kept in 
a dry place. In order to guard against the weevil 
and the grain moth, it is well to place about a 
pound of naphtha or moth balls with every bushel 
of ears. Well-dried seed has been pre.served in this 
way for four years without impairing its germi- 
nation to any extent, while equally well-dried seed 




Fig. 616. Six kernels taken from each of three ears of com and 
tested in the germination box. No. 1, three swelled but 
sent out neither rnot nor stem sprouts: other three sent 
out wp.tk stem sprouts but practically no root sprouts. 
No. 2. all si.x kernels gave strong, even germination: this 
is a good seed ear. No ^. all weak germinators: such e:irs 
should never be planted. (Hoiden.) 



MAIZE 



MAIZE 



407 



suspended in sacks in a loft has deterio- 
rated greatly in that length of time. 

At the present time, germination tests 
of each ear to be used as seed are being 
advocated very strongly by experiment 
stations and corn-breeders, and the prac- 
tice is being followed by the most enter- 
prising and successful corn-growers. 
There can be no doubt that there is 
great benefit in testing each ear to be 
used as seed, provided the supply of seed 
did not mature properly or has not been 
preserved in the best way. By means 
of a large number of germinating bo,xes, 
the germinating power of individual ears 
can be tested without much expense of 
money or time. It should be remembered 
that a good-sized ear of corn will plant 
a tenth to an eighth of an acre, and each 
ear that is found to germinate feebly 
saves the planting of that much ground 
to seed that would be sure to return but 
a small yield. 

It is a fact that the average corn- 
grower plows, harrows, plants and cul- 
tivates one -fourth to one -third of his 
corn acreage without receiving anything 
for his labor. This is because of the 
vacant hills, and hills that do not contain 
the number of stalks that the fertility 
of the soil demands. By not making sure 
of the perfect germination of every ear 
of corn used as seed, corn - growers not only are 
losing the use of one-fourth of their land, but are 
expending labor on the land without any returns. 
Many have become so accustomed to seeing very 
poor stands that if three-fourths of a proper stand is 

obtained they 
are of the 
opinion that 
they have 
secured a 
good stand of 
stalks. 

The testing 
of each indi- 
vidual ear 
must not be 
taken as a 
remedy for 
the neglect of 
seed preser- 
vation. N 
amount o f 
seed - testing 
in the spring 
can make 
good seed of 
that which 
has been 
poorly p r e - 
served. Al- 
though there 
Fig. 618. Root system of a com plant may be found 
Jour feet tall. in a lot of 





Fig. 617. Gennination box ready for ezamination. Notice the contrast 
between the kernels from ears 1 and 3: also between 32 and 34. 
(P. G. Holden, Iowa.) 



poorly preserved seed certain ears each kernel of 
which will grow, it should be remembered that 
the same conditions that have caused other ears of 
the lot to fail to germinate, have weakened the 
vitality of those that do germinate. They do not 
germinate so strongly nor produce so well as they 
would have done had they been better preserved. 
Some tests of well-preserved seed in comparison 
with that kept in cribs have shown that the one 
factor only, of pre.servation, is re.sponsible for a 
difference in yield of si.xteen or more bushels per 
acre. The important feature of these tests consists 
in the fact that the increased production of well- 
preserved seed is not due to its better germination 
or a better stand of stalks in the field, but to the 
fact that the stalks are more vigorous. While a 
test of the germinating power of each individual 
ear is very profitable, with a supply of seed con- 
taining some ears that do not germinate perfectly, 
it is more profitable to select and preserve the 
seed in such a way that it will contain no such 
ears. Of course, as a safeguard, it is advisable to 
test one hundred or more ears of seed selected and 
preserved in the best way possible, but as it is 
usually found that the seed so preserved germi- 
nates perfectly or nearly so, it is often found use- 
less to make the test of each ear of the lot. 

Another very important factor in securing the 
proper stand of stalks is the grading of the seed 
ears. They should be selected or graded to a uniform 
size of kernel, and this is readily done before the 
ears are shelled. No corn-planter can drop the 
proper number of kernels in each hill unless the 



408 



MAIZE 



MAIZE 



kernels are uniform. The ears should always be 
nubbed, that is, the very small kernels at the tip 
and the large, thick kernels at the butt should be 
discarded. It is advisable, even when large quan- 




Fig. 619. ' ' Sweeps ' * used in cultivating growing crops— one- 
horse cultivators. It is necessiiry to drive across the field 
two or more times to cultivate one row. (Hartley.) 

titles of seed are needed, to shell the seed by hand 
and in a small receptacle where the kernels from 
each ear can be e.xamined before they are placed 
with the general supply. If the corn is variable 
as to width of kernel, it is best to divide the seed 
into two or more lots and change the adjustment 
of the planter in changing from one lot of .seed to 
the other. No careful corn-planter will begin 
planting his crop until he has ascertained that his 
planter works satisfactorily on the grade of seed 
that he expects it to plant. 

Culture. 

Choice of land. — A very large part of the land 
at present planted to corn in the United States is 
too poor for profitable corn-growing, and should 
not be planted to corn until improved. The plant- 
ing of such land to corn keeps both the land and 
its owner in an impoverished condition. If corn- 
growing must be practiced in a .section having such 
a poor soil, it is better to withhold the planting of 
corn until the land can be improved by the appli- 
cation of humus and the growing and plowing 
under of green crops, preferably legumes. The 




Fig. 620. steel frame staUj-cutter. 

planting of corn year after year on the same land 
is a bad practice in any section, even though the 
ground be very fertile. River bottom that over- 
flows occasionally, and on which sediment is de- 



posited, is the only kind of land that will stand 
continuous cropping with corn, and even here it 
may sometimes be inadvisable. 

Maintaining soil fertility. — For good results, 
the corn plant requires a fertile soil, a soil of 
greater fertility than that required by many other 
farm crops. Good seed, good land and good culture 
are the essentials of a good corn crop. Unlcs:, 
nature has supplied the farmer with a fertile farm, 
the easiest of the.se three essentials to obtain i.4 
good seed, and unfortunately it is the e,ssential in 
which most growers make the greatest mistake. 

New lands are usually good corn soils, and they 
are generally well supplied with humus or vege- 
table matter. Lands that have been cropped con- 
tinuously for years, most of the humus having 
been destroyed, become hard and the soil particles 
pack together closely. Such a condition indicates 
that the soil requires humus or vegetable matter, 
and the conditions of such a soil can be very 
greatly improved by the application of coarse 
manures and the plowing under of large quantities 
of vegetable matter in the form of corn stalks, 
grain stubble, clover, and the like. The addition of 




Fig. 621. Combined sulky lister and planter. 

such material to soil almost invariably increases 
the yield of corn. Ten to twenty tons of farm ma- 
nure per acre each year or two will retain most 
soils in a condition that will make possible the 
growing of good corn crops. Excessive applications 
of farm manure may result in decreased yields the 
first year after the application, especially if the 
season is dry. 

Most impoverished soils respond to a greater or 
less extent to the application of commercial fertil- 
izers compo.sed of phosphoric acid, nitrogen and 
potash. The proportion of these elements must be 
varied to suit the requirements of the particular 
soil to which they are applied, and the most satis- 
factory way of determining the requirements of 
the soil is by actual field te.sts. Much of the im- 
poverished soil of the ea.stern part of the United 
States responds readily to applications of phosphoric 
acid. There are peaty swamp soils which, though 
apparently very fertile, produce two or three times 
as much corn per acre by the application of jiotas- 
sium chlorid. With the exception, however, of par- 



MAIZE 



MAIZE 



409 



ticular cases in which the application of a few 
elements to the soil in rather moderate quantities 
greatly increases the corn crop, the production of 
corn on impoverished soils by means of commercial 
fertilizers is not profitable. 

It is usually advisable to apply the commercial 
fertilizers to a small grain crop grown in rotation 
with corn. Such an application of fertilizers will 
usually assist in obtaining a good stand of clover 
or grass which is to follow the small grain crop. 
Whenever possible, the land should be kept busy 
growing legumes or grasses that can be plowed 
under, and, briefly speaking, this is the best fertil- 
izer for corn crops. When corn is to follow wheat, 
it is usually advisable to sow with the wheat or 
in early spring clover or some similar crop that 
can occupy the land from the time the wheat is 
removed until it is ready for corn. Some of the 
most successful farmers always sow clover with 
their winter wheat, when the land is to be planted 
in corn the next spring. 

If found advisable to use commercial fertilizers 
for corn, it should not be placed in the hills with 

the kernels. It 
may be injuri- 
ous to the ger- 
mination of 
the kernels or, 
at any rate, it 
is not at the 
base of the 
stalks that the 
feeding roots 
of the corn 
plant are 
found. At the 
time of tassel- 
ing and silking 
the roots of the corn plant are well distributed 
throughout the soil to a width and depth of three 
or four feet. For soils that are very porous, or 
when very soluble fertilizers, such as sodium 
nitrate, are used, it is thought best to make the 
application but a short time before the plants 
begin to tassel and form ears. (Fig. 618.) 

Preparing the seed-bed. — Whenever possible, and 
it should be made possible in most cases, it is advi- 
sable to have the corn crop follow a hay crop. With 
a very few e.xceptions the sod should be broken in 
the fall. Double cultivators, two-row cultivators, 
or implements especially designed for the work can 
be used in the spring to tear up the decayed sod 
and place the seed-bed in a well-pulverized condi- 
tion. Disk-harrows are often used to advantage 
for this work. Fall-plowed land is usually found 
in the spring to contain more moisture and yet 
have a drier surface than other soils. 

For very level land, and land that is likely to 
remain very wet during a part of the growing 
season, a method of preparing the seed-bed should 
be adopted that will permit of some drainage for 
the young plants. A very good method for such 
soils is to throw up the land by back furrowing 
into beds about eight feet wide. When pulver- 
ized, the rows can be planted four feet apart, plac- 




Fig. 622. Cultivating young corn with 
a two-horse cultivator. (Hartley.) 



ing a row on either side and near to the water 
furrows. In this way the young plants will have 
drainage and the surplus water can remain in the 
water furrows. For very sloping or hilly land, the 
plowing and planting should be done along the 




Fig. 623. The right way to cultivate— shallow and 
not too near the stalks at this stage. 

hillside or around the hill. In fact, if the soil is 
inclined to wash, permanent terraces should be 
maintained at intervals along the hillsides, so con- 
structed as to maintain the same level throughout 
the field. No soil can be improved in fertility or 
kept in a fertile condition if much erosion is 
permitted. 

Planting. — The method of planting must be 
adapted to the section of country in which the 
work is done. It is well recognized that for sec- 
tions where very dry weather is likely to prevail 
during the growing season, listing is best. This 
method consists of planting the corn in the bottom 
of a deep furrow or ditch. In many cases the en- 
tire process of planting is performed by one opera- 
tion, and without any previous preparation of the 
land. It is usually best to prepare the land by 
means of thorough plowing and then adopt some 
method of listing that will place the young plants 




Fig. 624. The wrong way to cultivate — too close and deep. 
Deep cultivation injures the roots and lessens the yield- 
ing ability. 

in a furrow, so that the soil can be gradually 
worked to them as they grow. Some corn-planters 
accomplish this by marking off deep furrows and 
running their drills or check-rowers in the furrows. 
A simpler method is to attach to the check-rower 
or corn -planter disks which will throw out the 



410 



MAIZE 



MAIZE 



furrow just ahead of the shoe of the drill which 
places the kernels in the soil. On heavy lands in 
wet climates, it may be best not to plant in 
furrows. 

There is but one principal plan to be considered 
in deciding whether the corn should be planted in 
checks, so as to admit of cultivation in two direc- 
tions or dropped one kernel in a place. This con- 
sideration is that of keeping the corn free from 
weeds. On river-bottom land and land that is foul 
with weed seed, it is usually best to plant in 
checks, otherwise hand -labor will be required in 
hoeing out the weeds. As the corn roots distribute 
themselves through the soil for a distance of three 
or four feet, there is no great advantage in having 
the plants stand one in a place. 

Repeated tests have shown that for middle 
Georgia the best time for planting is March 15 to 
20 ; for central Illinois, May 11 to 18; central Indi- 
ana, May 1 to 11; central Kansas, the iirst week in 
May; South Dakota, May 10 to 20; but these dates 
are only the average for a number of years, and 
the advancement of the season must each year be 
taken into consideration and the planting done 
when the soil can be put in good condition, and 
when it has become warm enough to insure prompt 
germination of the seed. The old saying that it is 
time to plant corn when the oak leaves reach the 




625. Corn smut. (Page 414.) 



size of a squirrel's ear or the dogwoods are in 
blossom, is as definite a date as it is possible to 
establish. 

The rate of planting is also a point that must be 
settled for each locality and each particular soil. 
For very fertile soil the usually adopted distances 



are 3J x 3J feet, with three kernels per hill. When 
planted at this rate, the stand in the fall should 
average at least two and one-half stalks per hill, 
and, with this stand, yields of one hundred bushels 
and more per acre are possible. 






\ 




r '"'S* ^^l ^1 




Fig 626 Late maturing taU growing co n charac- 
teristic of the southern states. (Haitlcy.) 

The amount of moisture as well as the fertility 
of the land are matters that must be considered in 
deciding the rate of planting. If the stalks stand 
thickly in the rows the crop will suffer more from 
dry weather than if there is a thinner stand. In 
some sections where the soil is light, and dry 
weather is usual during the growing season, best 
results are obtained by having the rows four feet 
apart, with one stalk every three feet in the row. 
When such thin planting as this is necessary, it is 
preferable to plant the corn-rows far enough apart 
so that peanuts, cowpeas, or .some other such crop 
can be planted between the rows. In the leading corn 
states, where the greater part of the land planted 
to corn is rather fertile, the mistake is made of 
planting the corn too thickly on the poor land. Ex- 
perience has taught the corn-growers that live in 
localities where all of the soil is light, that thin 
planting is necessary, and the mistake of planting 
too thickly is not so common as in sections where 
the greater part of the land is fertile. The result 
of planting too thickly is to reduce the size of the 
ears and the production of grain, and to increase 
the amount of forage. 

The rate of planting field corn varies from six 
quarts to one bushel. For silage, nine to eleven 
quarts are planted. 

Cultivation. — Two principal results to be at- 
tained in giving corn good cultivation are, first, 
the prevention of the growth of weeds, and, second, 
the retention of soil moisture. 

It is always much easier and more satisfactory 
to prevent the growth of weeds or destroy them 
soon after the seeds germinate than it is to attempt 
their destruction after they have attained a firm 
foothold. Wide weeders and harrows with slant- 
back teeth are very good implements for prevent- 
ing weeds getting a start ahead of the corn. As 
they are rather light, and it is not desirable that 
the teeth penetrate the ground more than an inch, 
very wide ones can be used and a good deal of land 
passed over in a day. 



MAIZE 



MAIZE 



411 



aajjiMtii^ *i 'l*^..-:^' ^^'^^-^^^^^ 








Fig. 627. Corn-harvesting scene near Belleville, Kansas. 

Weeders are most advantageous on light lands 
between the planting and the time the corn comes 
up. When the corn reaches a height that will not 
permit of the use of weeders or harrows and it be- 
comes necessary to use cultivators, fenders should 
be attached to the cultivators so that the young 
plants will not be cov- 
ered by clods or in- 
jured. In many sec- 
tions, surface cultiva- 
tors are used very 
successfully. These 
cultivators have hori- 
zontal knives that 
scrape only about an 
inch under the surface 
of the ground and cut 
off any weeds that have 
started. In some in- 
stances, when the corn 
is young and the 
ground has become 
water -soaked by ex- 
cessive rains, it is ad- 
visable to give deep 
cultivation to facili- 
tate the aeration of the soil. As nearly as pos- 
sible a thorough shallow cultivation should fol- 
low every heavy rain. If the ground is left in a 
cru.sted condition the moisture passes rapidly into 
the air, while the formation of a dust-blanket will 
retain the moisture for the use of the plants. The 
mistake is often made of delaying the cultivation 
until a large part of the moisture has escaped. 
If the ground has become hard, and cru.sted and 
dry, it is usually better to defer cultivation until 
a rain occurs, as a cultivation when the ground is 
dry and hard will cause it to break up in large 
hard clods and will hasten evaporation rather than 
prevent it. The writer has seen many fields of corn 
ruined by being cultivated at the wrong time that 
would have produced good crops if the cultiva- 
tion had been given at the proper moment. Even 
after the corn has become too large for the use 
of the double cultivator, it is often advisable to 
restore the dust mulch by means of one-horse 
cultivators. 

Harvesting. — In the northern and north-central 
parts of the United States, where corn is grown 
extensively, a large part of it is harvested by 



Fig. 628. 



means of corn-binders or corn-shockers. In the 
extreme northern part, where the stalks make but 
a very short growth, wheat-harvesters are some- 
times used for harvesting the corn, but such a 
practice is not to be advised, because the binder is 
not made for such heavy work. On very rich soil 
in the southern states the stalks grow too tall 
to admit of a satisfactory use of corn-binders, and 
such corn is usually cut by hand or the ears jerked 
from the stalks. For many years it has been the 
custom in the southern United States to obtain 
forage by stripping the blades by hand from the 
standing stalks (Fig. 629), but the scarcity of 
manual labor makes this practice unprofitable. 

In the leading corn-growing states, the great 
bulk of the corn is husked by hand in November 
and December. Large quantities are husked from 
the shocks in the field, while a greater quantity is 
husked from the standing stalks and thrown into 
wagons that precede the buskers in the field. A 
high sideboard or throw-board is placed on one 
side of the wagon-bed 
to catch the ears and 
cause them to fall into 
the wagon. 

Implements. 

There has been a 
gradual evolution in 
regard to the machin- 
ery used, both in cul- 
tivating and in har- 
vesting corn, and the 
tendency is to advance 
to larger and more 
effective machinery 
that takes the place 
of manual labor. From 
one - horse cultivators 
that require that the 
field be crossed at least 
twice for the cultivation of a single row (Fig. 
619), an advance was made to the double cul- 
tivator or two-horse cultivator, which completes a 
row each time the field is crossed (Fig. 622). At 
the present time two-row cultivators are used very 
satisfactorily in connection with corn planted by 



Cutting corn with the harvester with bundle- 
carrier attachment. Louisiana. 




Fig 629 



Com topped and stripped of blades Cowpeas town 
at last cultivation (Hartley ) 



412 



MAIZE 



MAIZE 



two-row corn-planters. When so planted, each pair 
of rows is at every point the same distance apart, 
so that a man can cultivate two rows as easily as 
one. For cultivating listed corn, three-row disk- 
cultivators are sometimes used, which completely 
cultivate three rows each time the field is crossed, 
four horses being used. These cultivators are pro- 
vided with sufficient play so that the di.sks of the 
cultivator are guided by the ridges made at the 
time the corn was planted. 

Corn-huskers and shredders are now growing in 
favor, which strip the husks from the ears and at 
the same time tear or chop the fodder into very 
fine particles. In this condition the fodder is fed 
with less waste. Corn-picking and husking ma- 
chines designed to gather the ears from the stand- 
ing stalks, husk them and deliver them into 
wagons driven by the side of the machine, are used 



of corn oil, valued at $1,467,493 ; the next year 
the exportation amounted to 3,222,875 gallons, 
valued at $998,618; in 1905, 3,108,917 gallons, 
valued at $890,973 ; for 1906 the exports of this 
product reached a value of $1,172,206. 

Some of the leading products made from the 
grain of maize other than those mentioned are 
glucose, dextrine or American gum, alcohol and 
whiskey, starches, both edible and laundry, grits, 
hominies and a great variety of table products. 

Enemies. 

While this crop is preyed on by numerous ene- 
mies, such as rodents, crows, insects and fungous 
diseases, there are but few that sometimes destroy 
the whole crop. 

Root-worm. — The corn root-worm is one of the 
most injurious corn pests. At times its depreda- 




kii-^'-C^'i^^^ 



Fig. 630. Com haryest scene in the middle West. Preparing for wheat. 



to some extent and will probably be improved so 
that they will be more generally employed. 

Corn products. 

To a very slight extent compared with the 
amount of corn grown, the parts of the corn plant 
other than the grain are used in making various 
manufactured products. The silks are used as a 
filter, husks for the making of mattresses, the pith 
of the stalk for the packing of coffer-dams of battle- 
ships, the outer part of the stalks for the making 
of pyroxylin varni-sh and paper, cobs for the mak- 
ing of corn-cob pipes. The leaves and husks are 
ground finely and mixed with corn oil-cake to form 
a feed for chickens and cattle. So varied are the 
products obtained from different parts of this plant 
that one factory alone manufactures forty -two 
distinct products. 

Corn oil as extracted from the germs, usually by 
hydraulic pressure, is one of the most valuable 
products obtained from corn. It is used for culi- 
nary purposes and is vulcanized as a substitute for 
India rubber. About 75 or 80 per cent of the corn 
oil manufactured in this country is exported. In 
1903 the United States exported 3,778,935 gallons 



tions become very apparent and entire fields are 
destroyed, but generally its injuries are moderate 
and widely distributed, so that the corn crop is cut 
short by millions of bushels and the cause not 
known or realized. The larva of the corn root-worm 
that does injury in the southern states is a slender, 
thread-like, yellowish white worm with a brownish 
head. It is about one-half inch long. Plants injured 
by this root-worm usually show one or more small 
round worm-holes just below the surface of the soil 
near the upper whorl of roots. Because it often 
begins its destruction as soon as the young plants 
begin their growth, it is commonly called the "bud- 
worm." 

The corn root-worm of the leading corn-produc- 
ing states differs slightly from the southern corn 
root-worm. The larva is smaller, four-tenths of an 
inch long. The eggs hatch in the soil and the 
worms mine longitudinally either up or down 
through the corn roots. The adult does not possess 
the twelve black spots of the southern root-worm 
but is of a uniform grass-green color, and feeds 
mostly on the pollen and silks of the corn plant. 
While the green beetles do some damage by gnaw- 
ing on the silks, it is in the larval stage that this 



MAIZE 



MAIZE 



413 



insect destroys the corn crop to the greatest 
extent. 

Cutworms.— There are many different species of 
cutworms, and the life-history of the different 
kinds differs considerably. They destroy some young 
corn plants in almost every corn-field and occasion- 
ally destroy entire crops. Such destruction is most 
likely to occur when old meadows or pastures are 
plowed in the spring and planted in corn. Early 
fall-plowing is very effective in preventing de- 
struction of corn by cutworms. They can be pois- 
oned by scattering about the 
field bran to which has been 
added Paris green and molas- 
ses in about the proportions 
of thirty pounds of bran, one 
pound of Paris green, two 
quarts of molasses and enough 
water to moisten the bran. 
Succulent clover or alfalfa 
can be sprayed thoroughly 
with Paris green, then cut 
and scattered in small quan- 
tities where the worms are 
most destructive. Often when 
the entire field is severely 
attacked it is best to disk or 
till the ground, then wait a 
week or two and plant again. 
The writer has seen fields 
treated in this way in which 
the first planting was entirely 
destroyed and the second 
planting uninjured, resulting 
in a big yield of corn. 

Webworms. — If the destruc- 
tion is the work of sod web- 
worms, it is not advisable to 
plant the field a second time 
till late in May, on the 40th 
parallel, as the worms begin 
to pupate at that time. Web- 
worms are easily distinguished 
from cutworms by being 
much smaller, about one-half 
inch long. They eat the 
young plants but usually do 
not cut them entirely off as 
do cutworms. Like the cut- 
worms, they pass the days under clods near the 
base of the young plants. They are enclosed in 
a silken web, the web having small particles of 
earth attached. 

Chinch bugs and grasshoppers often enter corn- 
fields in great hordes from adjoining fields. When 
wheat is harvested, chinch bugs may enter adjoin- 
ing corn-fields in suflicient numbers to destroy the 
corn crop. If the work is begun in time, they can be 
trapped successfully as they are about to enter the 
corn. A strip ten feet or more wide should be 
plowed, disked and harrowed into a dusty condi- 
tion. Through this strip one or more dusty fur- 
rows or ditches should be made by dragging a 
log back and forth. If well made, the dusty sides 
of the ditch will prevent the bugs from escaping, 



and the digging of holes at intervals in the ditch 
will cause them to be caught in large quantities in 
the holes. They can then be killed by pouring 
kerosene on them. Should a rain interfere with the 
preservation of the dusty trenches, a strip of coal- 
tar can be substituted to prevent the bugs enter- 
ing the corn. [See page 42.] 

If begun in time, grasshoppers can be prevented 
entering the corn by frequent use of wide catchers. 
These are drawn rapidly around the field or over 
adjoining meadow or stubble. Early morning is 




Fig. 631. 



Husking com in the field by hand. The old way, and still 
toUowed in very many parts of the country. 

the best time. As the grasshoppers take wing, the 
canvas comes in contact with them and they fall 
into the pan. They can be caught in large quanti- 
ties and furnish good food for poultry, especially 
turkeys. If used for this purpose, water, rather 
than kerosene, should be placed in the pan of the 
catcher. 

Crows take warning readily and will not trouble 
a field for several days after a few of them have 
eaten grains of corn that have been soaked in a 
strychnine solution. Alcohol dissolves strychnine 
more readily than does water. The corn should be 
soaked in the strvchnine solution for a day or two 
and placed about the field soon after the corn is 
planted and before the crows begin pulling up the 
young plants. 



414 



MAIZE 



MAIZE 



Corn smut (Ustilago zcm) does some injury to 
almost every corn-field. It reduces the total yearly 
corn production of the United States by perhaps 
2 per cent, or, in other words, reduces the in- 
come from our farms twenty million dollars 
each year. Treatment of the seed is of no 
avail. The brown or black spore clusters that 
form in huge masses on difl^erent parts of the 
corn plant contain millions of spores which do 
not affect other plants directly, but which 
carry the fungus through the winter and 
grow in manure or decaying vegetation, form- ,^4 
ing other spores which start the disease in the '^-^ 
next year's crop. They gain entrance at any 
point where the tissue is tender and growing, 
and especially easily where the tissue is 
broken. The best known means of prevention 
is burning the infected plants and crop rota- 
tion. Corn-stalk manure should not be applied in 
the spring to land that is to be planted with corn 
that season. (Fig. 625.) 

Remedies. — It is very fortunate that crop rotation 
and fall-plowing, two of the leading features of 
good soil treatment, should also be the best-known 
methods of preventing depredations from the most 
destructive corn pests. Depredations from cut- 
worms, webworms, corn root-worms, wireworm.s, 
the corn root-louse, stalk-borers, corn bill-bugs, and 
corn smut are prevented successfully by crop 
rotation and fall-plowing. 

Maize-Growing for the Silo. [See also Silage.] 

By Jared Van Wagenen, Jr. 

The ensiling of cattle foods may be defined as 
the preservation of green or moist forage products 
by packing them in bulk in such a way that the 
subsequent heating shall expel the air and check 
the processes of decay, so that the forage will re- 
main green and succulent and wholesome, and be 
practically unchanged after the first fermentation 
has run its course. The success of the process de- 
pends partly on the fact that the heat of the initial 



The history of ensiling in Europe and America 
aff'ords an excellent example of the evolution of 
agricultural methods. At times the practice has 
been subjected to sweeping condemnation and at 





Fig. 632. A harvest of 10,000 bushels of corn, on farm of H. 
B. Woodbury near Cawker City. Kansas. The product 
of 200 acres. 

fermentation is so great that many of the germs 
of decay are killed, and partly to the oxygen, 
which is entangled in the mass, being replaced by 
the carbonic acid gas that is formed and that acts 
as a bar to further changes. 






Fig. 633. Old-fashioned rail corn-cribs. 

other times it has suffered from over -zealous 
friends. The idea has been prominently before the 
agricultural world for twenty -five years, and 
ensiling may now be said to have become a settled 
practice in all dairy-farming, and to a less extent 
in beef- and sheep-feeding operations. Its highest 
development has been reached in those dairy com- 
munities which lie in the northern part of the 
corn-belt. 

Corn as a silage crop. 

The corn plant, with its large, solid, succulent 
stalks which do not air-dry easily but which ensile 
very readily, is preeminently the silage plant, and 
throughout the great dairy sections of the North 
most of the corn is handled through the silo. At 
one time or another ensiling has been recommended 
as a method of handling all the following crops -. 
Corn, clovers, alfalfa, meadow gra.sses, cowpeas, 
soybeans, Canada field -peas, sorghum, sunflower, 
millet, and, in fact, all crops used for forage, apple 
pomace, beet pulp, and canning -house refuse of 
various kinds. These have been ensiled with more 
or less success, but never with advantage over 
corn. Sometimes some of them are used to advan- 
tage with corn, as the last cutting of alfalfa. But 
corn has been and is likely to continue to be the 
peer among crops for the 3ilo. It loses somewhat 
in feeding value when put in the silo, but with 
proper care the loss need be very little, — 4 to 8 
per cent of the dry matter. In any event, it is less 
than when the fodder is cured in the field. 

Silo construction. 

It is of interest in this connection to mention 
briefly the evolution of silo construction. In its 
earliest development in Europe, the silo took the 
form of stacks of wet grass or ricks covered with 
earth. In the United States it was first a walled 
pit in the earth and later a masonry structure 
above ground, and it was thought essential, after 
filling, to weight the mass very heavily, often with 
stones or barrels of sand. These methods have now 
only historical interest. The wooden silo may be 
said to have passed from a square or rectangular 
structure, built like a barn frame, having double 
boarding with tarred paper between, to a cribbed- 
up hexagon or octagon, and then to a structure of 



MAIZE 



MAIZE 



415 




Fig. 634. 
One-hole coni-sheller. 



thin boards bent around a circle of studs, every 
board forming a hoop, — the so-called Wisconsin 
idea. Now the silo almost universally has taken 
the form of a tank-like vessel built of wooden 
staves, usually two inches thick, tongued and 
grooved and drawn tight together by round iron 
hoops fitted with devices 
for shortening them as 
may be necessary. There 
is every indication that 
this represents the final 
step in the evolution of 
the silo, and that in its 
l'"'Sll % V i'iv // essential character this 
|p3l!l' V \\JAi/ will remain the perma- 
nent form. Possibly as 
the years go by, the 
difliculty in securing 
suitable lumber may re- 
sult in the general adop- 
tion of concrete, built in 
cylindrical form, with 
heavy wire or light iron 
rods laid in the mold to 
strengthen it. 
Hemlock, pine, cedar and cypress are all used 
extensively in silo con.struction. The cypress is 
doubtless best, but its price is rapidly making it 
almost prohibitory. We have not as yet much data 
regarding the life of the stave silo, but even hem- 
lock endures for as much as fifteen years, providing 
the silo stands empty during the warm months, in 
a dry, airy place. When filled and kept for sum- 
mer feeding, thus remaining damp, its life is 
greatly shortened. 

Cultural methods. 

Varieties and quantity of seed. — The best varie- 
ties of corn and the thickness of planting for 
silage are a somewhat different problem from 
when the ripe grain is the only object. When the 
crop is intended for the silo, the feeding value of 
the stalks is no less important than that of the grain, 
and the question really resolves itself into : What 
varieties and how much seed will afford the great- 
est quantity of digestible nutrients per acre ? In 
general we may say that the best condition of the 
crop for the silo does not demand complete ripe- 
ness, so that it is advisable to use one of the larger 
and later varieties of corn even in the North, as 
this y/ill give greater tonnage. Thus, near the 
northern limit of the corn-belt, where only the flint 
type of corn is raised for grain, it is generally 
best to plant one of the dent varieties for the silo. 
Usually it is best to plant the largest variety of 
corn that will become reasonably mature in the 
locality. 

The same line of reasoning applies to the ques- 
tion of the thickness of the stand. Many more 
stalks will be advisable for silage than when the 
crop is raised for the grain alone. In fact, the 
Illinois station arrived at the conclusion that the 
greatest amount of nutrients would be secured 
when the corn was planted so thickly that the ears 
were choked down to not more than half their 



natural size. Under Illinois conditions the most 
sound grain was secured by a seeding of about ten 
thousand stalks per acre, but for silage purpcses 
at least twice as many are advisable, or say a 
stalk every seven inches when planted in rows 
three and one-half feet apart. This number would 
be supplied by seven to nine quarts of seed per 
acre, provided germination were perfect and no 
plants were destroyed ; but the writer, after con- 
siderable e.xperience in growing corn for the silo 
on high lands in eastern New York, has arrived at 
about eleven quarts of seed per acre, preferring to 
err on the side of too thick planting rather than 
long unoccupied spaces. This, of course, provides 
for a considerable margin for poor seed, and the 
cutworm and the crow. 

Method of seeding. — Corn for silage is usually 
drilled in with a regular one-horse corn drill, one 
row at a time, or with a common eleven-hoe grain 
drill, with all the hoes but two removed. This 
implement will do very satisfactory work, planting 
two rows at a time, about forty -two inches 
apart. 

Manuring. — The silo is an outgrowth of the 
dairy industry, and wherever it is found large 
quantities of stable manure are available. The 
almost universal practice is to grow corn on sod 
ground — old meadows — to which manure has been 
applied in the preceding winter months. 

Rotation. — Generally the sjiecial dairy-farmer 
employs a rota'tion of corn for the silo, oats and 
grass, the seeding being made with the oats, and 
the mowing kept for two or more years. 

Companion cropping. — It has long been realized 
that the most .serious defect of the corn plant is 
that it carries too small a percentage of protein to 
give the best results in feeding, and eff'orts have 
been made to grow other crops in combination with 




Fig. 635. A mounted corn-sheUer. 

the corn to be cut into the silo with it. Cowpeas 
in the South and soybeans in the North have some- 
times been planted with the corn, and they have 
resulted in an increase of the total food constitu- 
ents per acre and at the same time have given a 
product of greater value for milk production. This 
is a very suggestive field for experimentation. 



416 



MAIZE 



MAIZE 



Subsequent care. — The subsequent culture of corn 
for silage is essentially the same as when the crop 
is grown for ripe grain. Inasmuch as more seed 




Fig. 636. Skeleton view of a corn-cleaner. 

per acre is used and it is planted in drills instead 
of hills, greater use can be made of such cultural 
devices as the smoothing harrow and the 
various weeders, because the destruction of 
an occasional corn plant is a less serious 
matter. 

Harvesting and en- 
siling. 

Corn should be 
put into the silo a 
few days before 
complete maturity. 
In general, the 
proper stage will 
have been reached 
when the lower 
leaves of the plant 
are turning yellow 
and some of the 
earlier ears are den- 
ted. It is possible to 
make good silage 
from corn that is 
fully ripe, but the 




Fig. 637. Sectional view of a cylinder com-sheller. 



coarser parts of the stalks are less palatable and 
the grain may be so hard that much of it will pass 
through the animal undigested. On the other hand 
there is no other stage in the 
growth of the corn plant when 
the quantity of nutrients is being 
increased so rapidly as during the 
ten days just preceding full ma- 
turity, and the ensiling of corn 
too early results in very serious 
loss. Probably it will be better to 
err on the side of too great ma- 
turity than to put the corn in the 
silo too green. 

While there is doubtless one 
best time to put corn into the 
silo, yet there is fortunately a 
considerable range of conditions 



within which corn may be ensiled with excellent 
results. If put in very immature and without par- 
tial drying, it will become excessively acid and will 
sometimes develop disagreeable liavors. It is a 
mistake to ensile corn in this condition, for the 
amount of nutrients is very much less than at a 
later period. Sometimes, however, it may be neces- 
.sary to handle late corn in 
this condition when frost is 
at hand. For example, south 
of Penn.sylvania, in the truck- 
ing and canning sections, ex- 
cellent crops of silage corn 
are often secured after a crop 
of garden peas, but the corn 
may lack maturity when frost 
comes. Corn that is over-ripe 
or even badly frosted and 
dried will make good silage 
if there is a fair amount 
of moisture remaining. The 
less water in the corn when 
cut, the more serious the surface loss will be. 
When very dry, silage is almost free of acid, but 
it tends to spoil by white mold. It molds 
a long way down from the surface and near 
the corners of a square silo, or where, for 
any reason, it fails to pack tightly. 

Corn has occa- 
sionally been put 
into the silo with- 
out any shredding, 
by laying the stalks 
compactly, shingle 
fashion. It is pos- 
sible to make a very 
finequality of silage 
in this way, but the 
care and difficulty, 
both in putting in 
and in feeding out, 
has led to the aban- 
donment of the 
practice. The corn 
is nearly always cut 
or shredded into the 
silo. Ordinarily, the 
finer it is cut the better the results, owing to the 
more intimate mixture of the grain and leaves 
and the more compact settling. 




Fig. 638. Skeleton view of combination force feed sheller. 



MAIZE 



MAIZE 



It is not a vital matter whether a silo is 
filled hurriedly in a day or two, or more 
gradually in a week or ten days. A silo which 
has been filled very quickly will begin to 
settle rapidly almost at once, and in the next 
ten days or two weeks will go down perhaps 
20 per cent of its total depth. Hence the 
slow filling, giving an opportunity fur the 
silage to settle, results in getting much more 
food in the same cubic space. 

Covering. — The best way to cover a silo 
is to begin to feed out of it the day it is 
filled. In this way, surface loss will be almost 
wholly avoided. When this method is not 
feasible, it will be necessary to cover the 
silage with some material, otherwise the 
upper foot or more will spoil. Any kind of 
straw or chaff well wet down, swamp grass, 
green buckwheat-straw or even sawdust, will 
do nicely. Possibly it will be just as well to 
snap off the ears of the last two or three loads of 
corn and let the stover act as a cover. Sometimes 
no covering is put on, but in.stead the top layer is 
thoroughly wet down. This results in tlie rapid fer- 
mentation of the surface few inches, making an 
air-tight covering for the silage 
below. The watering is done at 
the rate of two to two and one- 
half gallons per square foot of 
surface. 

Harvesting machinery. — The 
corn harvester or binder in its 
present form has been in use 
about ten 3'ears, and its use is 
becoming well-nigh universal in jj 
handling the crop for silage. It 
is drawn by two or three horses. 
It cuts the corn and binds it into convenient sized 
bundles for feeding into the cutter. Under favor- 
able conditions a machine should handle five to 
eight acres per day. In a recent season the writer 
u.sed 118 pounds of twine, worth say $13, in bind- 
ing an estimated crop of 300 tons of silage. The 




Fig. 639. 



Corn husker and shredder at work. 







Fig. 640. Use of conveyor in making silage 




Fig. 641. Dse of the conveyor in filling an outside silo. 
B27 



harvester, on the whole, is exceedingly satisfactory 
in its operation. By a system of carrying chains 
and devices for straightening up the stalks, it is 
able to cut and bind corn even when it is badly 
lodged and tangled. The advantage lies not only 
in the labor saved over cutting 
with corn-knives, but to an even 
greater extent in the subsequent 
loading on wagons and feeding 
into the cutter. 

The machinery for cutting 
silage and elevating it into the 
silo is of two distinct types. In 
one, the cut material is elevated 
by means of a running elevator 
of sprocket chains, bearing 
wooden slats or sheet-iron buck- 
ets, which carry the corn away from the knives. 
The other type is known as the blower or pneu- 
matic elevator, in which the cut forage is blown 
into the silo through a sheet-iron pipe by a very 
powerful blast of air, generated by a fan or by 
blades fastened to the head to which the knives 
are bolted. The first type is the earlier one. 
Its disadvantage is that to set up and adjust 
the slat carrier for a tall silo is rather diffi- 
cult. Its advantage lies in the fact that it 
can be operated with much less power and at 
greatly varying speeds. A six or eight horse- 
power engine will generally be ample. The 
advantage of the blower type lies in the fact 
that it is very much more quickly set up, and 
that the corn can be taken care of in the silo 
more easily, as it is a more uniform mixture 
of the leaves and heavier parts of the plant. 
Its disadvantage is that very much more 
power is required and the speed must not fall 
below a certain minimum or the machine will 
clog. The blower type is steadily becoming 
the more popular in silo districts. 

Place of silage in the ration. 

The question of feeding silage belongs more 
especially to the domain of animal nutrition. 
However, it may be said in passing that about 



418 



MAIZE 



HAKb 



fifty pounds daily may be regarded as the maximum 
ration of silags for a cow, and this amount is rather 
more than is usually fed. The writer thinks that 
a silo filled with good corn in the month of Sep- 
tember offers by far the most satisfactory solution 
of the problem of feeding a cow during the months 
of summer drought. If the dairyman has in mind 
some summer feeding to supplement the pa.stures 
(and he should expect to do this to some extent), 
he will need about five tons of silo capacity for 
each cow. The tables of capacity provided by 
manufacturers are fairly dependable. Under ordi- 
nary field conditions, the yield of silage will range 
from eight to twenty tons per acre. Silage may 
make up the larger part of the roughage, but some 
hay should be provided in addition. It is now an 
established fact that liberal rations of good silage 
are not incompatible with the health of the herd 
and with milk of the very highest standard of 
purity and flavor. It is not easy to over-emphasize 
the usefulness, not to say the virtual necessity, of 
the silo in successful dairying. Its greatest advan- 
tage in feeding lies not in the fact that animals 
do better on silage than on dry corn fodder, but 
more especially in the saving of labor. The silo 
ranks with the centrifugal separator in its efl:ect 
on dairying. 

Popcorn. Zea {Mays) everta. Graminem. Figs. 
642, 643. 

By J. G. Curtis. 

The popcorns are a special group of flint corns 
used for " popping," as the name suggests, for eat- 
ing out of hand or in confections. They are char- 
acterized by the small size of the kernels and their 
excessive hardness, and by the excessive proportion 
of the corneous endo.sperm or horny substance con- 
tained in the kernels, which in turn contains a 
large percentage of moisture and gives the kernels 
the property of popping or turning almost com- 
pletely inside out on the application of heat. In 
structure and composition popcorn varies but little 
from ordinary flint and dent corns, but since it 
yields so much less it is never grown for market 
as a stock-food. The stalks of popcorn are con- 
siderably smaller than those of field corn and vary 
in height from four to twelve feet, with a general 
average of about eight feet. In color they are 
usually rather lighter green than the flint corns, 
but may vary through all the shades of green, and 
even to a very dark red in some instances. 

The actual popping of the kernels has been 
shown to be due to the expansion of moisture in 
the starch-cells, the application of heat converting 
the moisture into steam, making the cell-walls give 
way and causing an explosion with suflicient force 
to alter the entire form and texture of the kernel. 

The value of popcorn lies almost wholly in its 
tendency to pop completely into a large, irregular, 
flaky mass, since this is the only form in which it 
has a suflicient value as an edible product to make 
it worthy of cultivation. While in popping it loses 
in weight about 10 per cent, due to the evaporation 
of moisture by the heat employed, it should in- 



crease in bulk in the ratio of at least sixteen tc 
one, and under the best conditions as high as 
twenty to one. There are several factors which 
control this result, such as the even application of 
heat and the condition of the corn. It may be too 
damp or too dry for best results, and since the 
moisture content is high when the corn is harvested, 
it is usually held over one season before marketing. 

Distribution. 

Popcorn is grown successfully throughout the 
northern half of the United States wherever other 
corn can be grown, and to a small extent on the 
heavier soils of the Piedmont section of the south- 
ern states. However, there has been a wide change 
in the methods of producti-on within the last quar- 
ter-century, and whereas it was at one time planted 
in nearly every garden throughout New York and 
the New England states, it has gradually come to 
be a sort of special farm crop grown in a com- 
mercial way by men who have found it profitable 
and have made the growing, handling and market- 
ing of the crop a special study. This change is also 
coincident with the development of certain parts 
of the Middle West which, because of soil and cli- 
matic conditions, have proved especially adapted to 
the growth of the crop. The great bulk of the crop 
is now grown in Iowa, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin 
and Nebraska. 

Some idea of the magnitude which the business 
hag attained in certain favored localities can be 
gained from the statement that from one shipping 
point in Iowa in 19(15 there were shipped more than 
three hundred car-loads of popcorn. 

Varieties. 

There are about twenty-five different varieties 
of popcorn, but these are simply variations of the 
two distinct types or classes known as rice corn 
and pearl corn. (Fig. 643.) The rice corn has kernels 
more or less pointed, with the outer coat, where 




Fig. 642. Three stages in the possible development of rice 
popcorn from the wild Mexican podcorn. A, Wild Mexi- 
can podoorn; B, stage of piirtiiil development- 0, modern 
white rice popcorn. 

the silks were attached, continued into a sort of 
spine, which may either stand almost erect or may 
be depressed by the crowding of the husk on the 
ear. The pearl corn has kernels rounded or flattened 
over the top and very smooth, the point of the 
attachment of the silk being lower down on the 
same side of the kernel as the germ. These two 



MAIZE 



MAIZE 



419 




Fig. 643. Popcorn 
of white pearl: 
white rice. 



A, Typical ears 
B, typical ears of 



classes may be divided into early, medium and late, 
and these again into white, yellow, and colored (not 
yellow). 

All of these varieties cross with each other so 
readily that it is difficult under ordinary methods 

to keep a vari- 
f^\ ^ ety strictly to 
.SJato/, any given type. 
The different va- 
rieties of both 
the rice and 
pearl corn may 
vary as to color 
through the 
several shades 
of white, amber, 
yellow, red and 
black, also red 
and white 
striped. 

Some of the 
best known 
white rice varieties are the Monarch Rice, Snowball 
and Egyptian. Of the white pearl varieties, the 
Common White Pearl, Mapledale Prolific and Non- 
pareil are standard varieties. Of the yellow pearl 
varieties, the most valuable are the Queen Golden 
and Dwarf Golden, each of which has a yellowish 
color when popped and has the taste peculiar to 
yellow corn. The black varieties are grown only 
in a small way as novelties, and the same may be 
said of the Golden Tom Thumb, which is a dwarf 
yellow variety that is so small that it has no 
value except as a curiosity. 

Two typical varieties or groups may be described 
as follows (Illinois Experiment Station, Bulletin 
No. 13): White rice: Stalk 7 to 8 feet high, 
rather short-jointed, leafy, dark green ; tassel long, 
slender, with few branches, drooping ; suckers 
many, growing to about half the size of the parent 
stalk ; very few husk blades. Ear 3 to .5 feet from 
the ground, strongly tapering, dull white, with a 
white cob 5 to 7 inches long, 1.3 to 1.75 inches in 
diameter ; cob .65 to .8 inches thick ; kernels 
rounded over the butt of the ear and usually filling 
out the tips ; rows of kernels fourteen to twenty, 
regular pairs of rows not very distinct. Kernel 
pointed, the tip being continued into a spine which 
is either depressed or nearly erect, .15 to .2 inches 
wide, .3 to .35 inches deep. White rice corn was 
ripe enough to cut in 132 days from planting. A 
single plot yielded in 1889 at the rate of 86.3 
bushels per acre. This difl'ers from Monarch rice 
in having a shorter ear with a greater number of 
rows of kernels, and the kernels more slender. 

White pearl : Stalk 7 to 8i feet high, rather 
large ; blades large, dark green ; tassel long, with 
few branches, drooping ; suckers many, reaching 
about three-fourths of the size of the parent stalk. 
Ear 3.5 to 4.5 feet from the ground, nearly cylin- 
drical, clear white, with a white cob 6 to 8 inches 
long, 1 to 1.4 inches in diameter ; cob .55 to .65 
inches through ; kernels even at the butt ; tip 
usually well filled ; rows of kernels ten to fourteen, 
regular. Kernel .2 inches broad, .25 inches deep, 



very smooth, somewhat flattened over the top. One 
plot of white pearl with 88 per cent of a full stand 
yielded forty-one pounds of ears, or at the rate of 
46.1 bushels per acre. The ears are long, slender 
and smooth. It ditt'ers from the common white in 
having longer and more slender ears and in making 
a much smaller growth of stalk. It was ripe enough 
to cut in 125 days from planting. 

Culture. 

Soil. — Any well-drained fertile soil, except a 
low peat or muck soil, is suitable for the growth 
of popcorn. A muck soil usually has an excess of 
nitrogen during the warm weather in the latter pai't 
of the season, which tends to cause too much 
growth of stalks at the expense of well-developed 
ears. This, of course, can be overcome to some 
extent by liberal applications of potassic and phos- 
phatic fertilizers, which will furnish the plant a 
better balanced food-supply ; but since this ten- 
dency to run largely to stalk is general with pop- 
corn under the best conditions of fertility, it is 
obvious that planting it on muck soil vi'ould in- 
crease the fault. 

Fertilizers. — Whether the soil is sand, gravel, 
loam or clay, it must have a sufficient quantity of 
available plant-food elements to give the best re- 
sults. In furnishing any or all of these, one should 
remember that they are not needed to grow any 
specific crop, but rather to overcome deficiencies 
of available plant-food in that particular type of 
soil. All of these types of .soil are u.sually lacking 
in available nitrogen unless w'ell supplied with 
humus, and it should be supplied in large applica- 
tions of organic matter, either in stable manure or 
by the use of cover-crops ; and even then there will 
be a deficiency of available nitrogen early in the 
season, which should be supplied by a broadcast 
top-dressing of nitrate of soda, at the rate of one 
hundred to two hundred pounds per acre. The 
application is made when the corn is two or three 
inches high. 

For best results, the mineral elements, phosphorus 
and potassium, should also be applied at the rate 
of 400 pounds of acid phosphate (14 per cent avail- 
able) and 100 pounds of sulfate of potash (50 per 
cent actual) per acre ; these to bo mixed together 
and drilled into the soil with the fertilizer drill 
three or four inches deep before planting. 

Seed. — In the growing of popcorn on a commer- 
cial scale, the selection of seed has more to do with 
success or failure than any other one factor. It is 
said that a man is the sum of his ancestors, and so 
is every plant that is propagated by means of a 
seed. It is not enough that we go through the 
field when the corn is ripe and select ears for seed 
from fine, healthy, productive individual stalks ; we 
must try to guard against the possible chance that 
any of the kernels on the ear which we select for 
seed could have been fertilized with pollen-grains 
from the tassel of another plant that may be either 
poorly developed or entirely barren. In other 
words, we must breed up our seed com to the special 
type best suited to our needs, for the same rea-son 
that we breed our animals for special purposes ; 



420 



MAIZE 



MAIZE 



and the same general principles seem to underlie 
the process in either case and the results are 
equally satisfactory when intelligently employed. 

The breeding of popcorn for seed purposes can 
best be done by growing the seed corn in a part of 
a field by itself that can be given a little extra 
fertilizing and care. The seed with which it is 
planted should be from typical ears that are as 
uniform in size, shape and color as possible, since 
they are to be the foundation stock from which the 
future strain of seed corn is to be developed. 

After planting the breeding plot, the only extra 
work necessary is to go through the plot just 
before the tassels begin to shed their pollen and 
remove the tassels and ears from those stalks which 
are barren or otherwise inferior. Then, when the 
corn is ripe, by careful selection of seed ears from 
the best of those remaining and with proper hand- 
ling and storing the results are sure to follow. 

Place in the rotation. — When grown in a regular 
rotation of crops, popcorn usually takes the place 
of the ordinary field corn and for much the same 
reasons, although frequently it is grown in place 
of one of the "money" crops, such as potatoes. 
This is often the case when the soil is too heavy 
for potatoes. The rotation then has to be arranged 
so that the popcorn and field corn are not grown 
in adjoining fields, as the pollen is carried by the 
wind and they become mixed very easily, which 
afl^ects the quality and appearance of the popcorn. 

Planting. — For the main crop the seed should 
be planted about May 25 to June 5 in the latitude 
of central New York, or as soon as danger of frost 
has passed and the ground has warmed up so that 
the seed will germinate and not rot. The seed-bed 
should be thoroughly harrowed and pulverized. The 
planting should be done with a corn-planter or an 
ordinary grain drill, making the rows three and 
one-half feet apart and dropping the kernels every 
six to eight inches in the row. 

Subsequent care. — The field should be rolled im- 
mediately after planting ; and it should be gone 
over cross-wise of the rows with a light slant-tooth 
harrow or weeder every five or six days until the 
corn is six or eight inches high. This will tear out 
a little of the corn, but more than was needed has 
been sown to allow for this. It is a large number 
of well-developed ears rather than stalks that we 
are trying to obtain. This work with the harrow 
or weeder will save the expensive hand labor with 
a hoe. The horse cultivator should now be used 
at least every ten days, and oftener if necessary to 
break up a crusted surface after a rain. This 
should be kept up as long as practicable ; it should 
be shallow, not over two inches deep, unless after 
long-continued rains, when it is sometimes advis- 
able to cultivate deep to got air into the compact 
soil quickly. 

Popcorn ripens in one hundred to one hundred 
and thirty-five days from planting, according to 
the variety, weather conditions, climate and other 
factors. The maturity can be hastened to some ex- 
tent by using an abundance of phosphatic fertil- 
izer ; on the other hand, it is retarded by the use 
of large quantities of stable manure, which gives 



an excess of nitrogen late in the .season. It is es- 
pecially important that popcorn should ripen before 
frost comes, since if it is injured for popping it has 
little value for anything else. Nevertheless, the 
custom is general among growers in the eastern 
states to allow it to stand after ripening until the 
first frost comes before cutting it, as it is thought 
that the frost hardens it and improves its popping 
qualities. 

Harvesting and storing. — It is harvested either 
with one of the improved corn harvesters or else 
by hand with the old-fashioned corn knife ; in 
either case it is stood up in loose shocks in the field 
and tied with stalks or twine and left to dry and 
cure before husking. It is husked by hand. Where 
four cents per bushel of ears is paid for hu.sking 
field corn, six cents per bushel of ears is usually 
paid for husking popcorn, as the ears are so much 
smaller. 

After husking, if the corn is to be stored it is 
immediately placed in well-ventilated cribs in 
which it is protected from squirrels, rats, mice and 
other vermin. This is usually accomplished by 
lining the inside of an ordinary corn-crib with 
woven wire netting (one-fourth inch mesh) and hav- 
ing the crib built up on posts, each one of which 
has an inverted milk pan or some similar contrivance 
on top to keep the mice from climbing the posts 
and gnawing holes through the floor of the crib. 

The great difliculty in keeping popcorn from one 
season to another without having it destroyed by 
rats or mice is the chief reason why the business 
has gradually come into the hands of a small num- 
ber of growers, who are especially equipped for 
handling it successfully. Again, after a grower 
has supplied a certain trade for a few years with 
popcorn that \yill pop, the dealers come to have 
confidence in his corn and will hesitate to buy of a 
new man, which, of course, tends to discourage the 
new man. In some sections it is a common prac- 
tice to hasten the curing of popcorn by kiln-drying 
in order to take advantage of the Christmas market 
the same season that it is harvested. 

Yidd. 

A bushel of ears of popcorn when husked weighs 
38 pounds, liut when cured one season the standard 
weight is 3.5 pounds. There are 7 pounds of cobs 
in each bushel of ears, so that two bushels of ears 
(70 pounds) make one bushel of shelled corn (.56 
pounds) after shelling and removing the 14 pounds 
of cobs. Sixty bushels of ears per acre is consid- 
ered a good yield, although several growers have 
bred up their seed until with liberal feeding and 
careful cultivation they are able to get between 
eighty and ninety bushels per acre. 

Enemies. 

Diseases. — The only serious disease that affects 
popcorn is the corn smut, which is caused by a 
fungus known as Ustilago Zece. The smut itself con- 
sists of the brown spores of the fungus. It injures 
the crop in two ways : First, by de.stroying the 
ears, causing practically a total loss ; second, by 
absorbing the nutrient juices of the plant and thus 



MAIZE 



MAIZE 



421 



preventing full growth, especially of the ears. 
The loss resulting from this one disease is esti- 
mated as about two per cent of the corn crop of 
the entire country. There is no known remedy 
that is entirely satisfactory. [See page 414.] 

Insects. — In Virginia and other southern states, 
the corn worm (Heliofhis anniger) is a serious 
pest and makes the growing of popcorn in some 
sections an impossibility. Wireworras and corn 
root-worms sometimes affect the plant, but not 
more seriously than they do the ordinary field 
corn. [See pages 413, 414.] 

Marketing. 

Popcorn is marketed in many different ways. 
The western grower usually raises it on contract 
at so much per pound shelled, or sells the entire 
crop to one of the several large dealers in the West 
who supply the wants of the trade throughout the 
country. In this case he ships it on the ear in 
barrels or shelled in bags, or packed in one-pound 
boxes for the retail grocer trade. At first the 
small boxes were very popular, as there was no 
waste for the grocer who had it on his shelves, 
instead of in a ba.'^ket on the floor ; it was soon 
learned, however, that it dried out too much in the 
boxes and would not pop so well as when left on 
the cob until wanted for popping. It seems that 
there is always moisture enough in the cob to keep 
the chit end of the kernel from becoming too dry 
and hard. 

The eastern growers usually sell it to the gro- 
cers in their near-by towns at about one dollar per 
bushel of ears, and the grocers retail it out in 
small lots at five to eight cents per pound. Some 
of the largt r growers ship their entire crop in 
barrels to wholesale grocers and commission mer- 
chants in the large cities, where it is sold on 
account. 

Manufacture. 

The bulk of that which goes to the large cities 
ev?ntually finds its way to the confectionery 
manufacturers, where it is made into sugared pop- 
corn balls, popcorn squares, prize packages and 
numerous other confections. There are several 
manufacturers whose entire output consists of pop- 
corn confections. These are generally a mixture 
of popped corn and molasses, or sugar syrup, fla- 
vored with one of the fruit syrups and pressed into 
bricks or squares. Frequently the popped corn is 
ground fine and mixed with freshly ground coco- 
nut and sweetened with syrup, then pressed into 
small cakes and sold under different names, such 
as honey corn, fruit corncakes and the like. 

The Breeding of Maize. Figs. 644-648. 

By Cyril G. Hopl;ins. 

Corn improvement should embrace both quantity 
and quality. But, because of the great importance 
of increased yield per acre, all selection looking 
toward improvement should be based first on 
yield, this to be followed, so far as practicable, 
with efforts which aim toward higher standards of 



quality. It is with these ideas that the following 
methods for corn-breeding are arranged. 

Physical selection of seed corn. 

The most perfect ears obtainable of the variety 
of corn which is to be bred should be selected. In 
making the selection for desirable ears, as judged 
from the physical characteristics, the larger the 
number of ears examined the better can be the 
selection. If the breeder wishes to improve the 
quality (chemical composition) of the grain, as 
well as the yield and type of his corn, it is recom- 
mended that he choose at least 200 ears of the 
desired physical type to be further examined as to 
quality. 

Chemical selection by mechanical examination. 

The method of making a chemical selection of 
ears of seed corn by a simple mechanical examina- 
tion of the kernels is based on the fact that the 
kernel of corn is not homogeneous in structure, but 
consists of several distinct and readily observable 
parts of markedly different chemical composition. 
For our particular purpose of judging from the 
structure of the kernel as to its composition, we 
need consider but three principal parts, namely : 

(1) The darker colored and rather horny layer 
lying next to the hull, principally in the edges and 
toward the tip end of the kernel. This part, while 




Fig. 644. Kernels of corn. On the Itft, high-protein kernels 
(mueh horny p.irt, little white starch); on the right, low 
protein kernels Uittlo horny part, much white starch). 

chiefly starch, is fairly rich in protein and con- 
tains one-half to two-thirds of all the protein of 
the kernel. (Fig. 644.) 

(2) The white starchy-appearing part occupying 
the crown end of the kernel and usually also 
immediately or partially surrounding the germ, 



422 



MAIZE 



MAIZE 



This part is poor in both protein and oil, consisting 
mainly of starch. (Fig. 644.) 

(3) The germ itself, which occupies the central 
part of the kernel toward the tip end. This is very 
rich in oil. More than four-fifths of the entire oil 
of the kernel resides in the germ. It is also rich 




Fig. 64S. Kernels. On tlie left, high-oil kernels (large germs) ; 
on the right, low-oil kernels (small germs). 

in protein, containing nearly one-fifth of all the 
protein in the kernel, although the germ itself 
constitutes only about one-tenth of the weight of 
the kernel. (Fig. 645.) 

In selecting seed corn by mechanical examination 
for improvement in composition, we remove from 
the ear a few average kernels, cut them into cross- 
sections, preferably near the tip end of the kernel 
(see longitudinal sections), and e.xamine these sec- 
tions as they are cut, usually simply with the naked 
eye, selecting for seed those ears the kernels of 
which show the qualities desired. 

Samples for analysis. 

In order that the breeder may know what he has 
accomplished in his work of mechanical selection, 
he should have an analysis made of two composite 
samples representing each of the two lots of ears ; 
that is, the selected lot and the rejected lot. One 
composite sample should be made by taking ten 
average kernels from each of the selected ears 
(ninety-six ears preferred) and another sample by 
taking ten average kernels from each of the rejected 



ears (100 ears or more). Each of these two samples 
should be put into a separate sack, properly labeled, 
and sent to the chemist for analysis. Of course, 
if the breeder desires to breed for physical type 
and increased yield only, then no chemical analysis 
is needed, and all that is necessary to begin work 
is to select the ninety-six most nearly perfect ears 
obtainable for the breeding plot. 

Size of breeding plot. 

The best number of ears to use in a breeding 
plot is as yet an unsettled question. There are 
several conflicting factors entering into the con- 
sideration. On the one hand, the smaller the num- 
ber of ears, the choicer can be the selection of the 
seed ; while on the other hand, the larger the num- 
ber of breeding rows, the better can be the selec- 
tion of seed for the next crop. Then, again, there 
is undoubtedly some danger of evil eff'ects from 
too close inbreeding by the use of too small a 
number of ears. From our present knowledge, how- 
ever, we think that ninety-six ears is a safe num- 
ber to use, so far as inbreeding is concerned, and 
this is the number that we suggest in these direc- 
tions, it being understood that alternate rows are 
to be detasseled and all seed corn selected from 
detasseled rows. 

Planting by the row system. 

The ninety-six selected seed ears are planted in 
ninety-six separate rows. These rows should be at 
least one hundred hills long, but they may well be 
forty rods long, as the quantity of seed will usually 
permit this. It is recommended that these ninety- 
six seed ears be numbered ' from 1 to 48 and from 

51 to 98, the numbers 49 and 50 being omitted ; 
also, that ears 1 to 48 be planted in one-half of the 
plot and ears 51 to 98 in the other half, preferably 
end-to-end with the fir.st half, leaving one hill un- 
planted to mark the line between the halves, and 
also leaving one row unplanted to mark the line 
between rows 24 and 25 and between rows 74 and 
75, that is, between quarters. In this way, row 51 
(planted with seed from ear 51) is a continuation 
of row 1 (planted with seed from ear 1), and the 
two rows may well extend eighty rods across a 
forty-acro field. The breeding plot can be planted 
with a corn-planter, although it will require some 
time and patience, and if the planter is an edgedrop 
it will be necessary to put a suitable cone or 
inverted funnel in each seed box to keep the small 
quantity of corn to the outside. Place the shelled 
corn from ear No. 1 in one box and from ear No. 2 
in the other ; drive to the middle of the plot, thus 
planting rows 1 and 2 ; clean out the bo.xes ; move 
forward one hill ; put in the corn from ears 51 and 

52 ; use the foot-trip till the corn begins to drop ; 
then drive on and plant rows 51 and 52. Turn at 
the end ; clean out ttie seed ooxes ; put m ears 53 
and .54 ; plant back to the middle ; clean out, put 
in ears 3 and 4 ; and then plant on back to the 
beginning line, thus continuing until the breeding 

'These numbers would be 101 to 148 and 151 to 198 
the first year, 201 to 248 and 251 to 298 the second year, 
etc. [See under Register number, page 425.] 



MAlZifi 



MAIZE 



423 



plot is all planted. The planting may tlien lie con- 
tinued for the commercial lield, using the same 
variet)' of corn, which should be of similar breed- 
ing, finishing, perhaps, with the multiplying plot 
on the side of the field opposite from the breeding 
plot. 

Each one of the breeding plot rows should be 
numbered to correspond with the " register num- 
ber" of the ear from which it is planted, as will 
be explained under the heading of "Register num- 
ber." The breeding plot should be well protected 
from foreign pollen, by being planted as far away 
as possible froni other varieties of corn. 

Detasseling. 

Every alternate row of corn in the breeding plot 
should be completely detasseled before the pollen 
matures, and all of the seed corn to be taken from 
the plot should be selected from these forty-eight 
detasseled rows. This method absolutely prohibits 
self-pollination or close-pollination of the future 
seed. By .self-pollination is meant the transfer of 
pollen from the male flower (tassel) of a given 
plant to the female flower (silk) of the same plant ; 
by close-pollination, as here used, is meant the 
transfer of pollen from the male flower of one plant 
to the female flower of another plant in the same 
row, both of which grew from kernels from the 
same seed ear. Ii is recommended that no plants 

in any of the 
rows which 
appear im- 
perfect, 
dwarfed, im- 
mature, bar- 
ren or other- 
w i s e unde- 
sirable, be 
allowed to 
mature pol- 
len. c c a- 
sionally, an 
entire row 
should be de- 
tasseled be- 
cause of the 
general infe- 
riority of the 
row as a 
whole. These 
are only pre- 
cautionary 
measures 
needing fur- 
ther study, 
while the 
value of de- 
tasseling to 
insure cross-pouination is an established fact. De- 
tasseling is accomplished Dv going over the rows 
as many times as mav be necessary and carefully 
pulling out the tassels as tney appear. Indeed, great 
care should be exercised in this part of the work 
in order not to injure the plants and thereby to 
lower the yields. The tassels should not be cut off, as 




Fig. 646. Showing initial power of resist- 
ance to alkali (maEnesium carbonate) 
exhibited in a single wheat plant ; all 
other plants failed in the same pot. 
(Illinois Experizi2ei2t '^t-.'.ticji j 



this produces an external injury and at the same 
time the stalk is often deprived of several unde- 
veloped leaves. But the tassel should be allowed to 
develop far enough so that it can be separated 
alone at the top joint by a careful pull. It is now 
determined that the detassel- 
ing of the breeding rows 
is necessary. This insures 
cross-pollination and mark- 
edly increases the yield of 
succeeding crops. 

Selection of field rows and 
seed ears. 

As the crop matures, the 
corn from each of the de- 
tasseled breeding rows is 
harvested. First, all of the 
ears on the row which appear 
to be good and which are 
borne on good plants, in a 
good position, and with good 
ear shanks and husks, are 
harvested, placed in a bag, 
with the number of the row, 
and finally weighed, together 
with the remainder of the 
crop from the same row. No 
seed ears should be taken 
within two or three rods of 
the inside ends of the rows. 
The total weight of ear corn 
which every detasseled row 
yields should be determined 
and recorded, for the yield is 
the primary factor in deter- 
mining the rows from which 
all of the ears for the next 
year's seed selection must be 
taken. Each lot of ears from 
each of the detasseled rows, 
and each single ear of the 
ninety -six ears ultimately 
selected for seed, is kept labeled with the num- 
ber of the row in which it grew, and finally with 
its own ear number also, and permanent records 
are made of the number and the description of 
the ear, the performance record of the row, and 
the like, so that, as the breeding is continued, an 
absolute pedigree is established, on the female side, 
for every ear of corn which may be produced from 
this seed so long as the records are made and pre- 
served. It should be the plan to record every fact 
that bears on the question of efiiciency of the 
plants. We also know absolutely that we have good 
breeding on the male side, although the exact indi- 
vidual pedigree of the males cannot be known and 
recorded. 

Planting for cross-pollination. 

In order to insure cross-breeding to the greatest 
possible extent, the plan given in Table I should be 
adopted, varied, perhaps, to meet the necessities of 
individual cases. The greatest care should be given 
to the lav-out. 




Fig. 647 
Showing hereditary 
power to resist 
alkali (magnesium 
carbonate) ; third 
generation of re- 
sistant plants com- 
pared with ordinary 
plants growing in 
the same soil. ! Illi- 
nois Experiment 
Station. ) 



424 



MAIZE 



MAIZE 



Table I. Plan for Planting the Breeding Plot to Avoid Inbreeding. 

The numbers given in the "Guides" designate the field rows from which the seed ears 
are taken. (All even-numbered rows are detasseled.) 



Field row 
No. 


Guide 
system for 


Guide 
system for 


Model 

example 

for an 


Field row- 
No. 


Guide 
system for 


Guide 
system for 


Model 

example 

for an 




even years 


odd years 


even year 




even years 


odd years 


even year 


1 


76 


78 


76 


51 


2 


4 


4 


2 


2 


2 


4 


52 


52 


52 


52 


3 


SO 


82 


84 


53 


6 


8 


10 


4 


6 


6 


10 


54 


56 


56 


58 


5 


84 


86 


90 


55 


10 


12 


16 


6 


10 


10 


16 


56 


60 


60 


66 


7 


78 


76 


80 


57 


4 


2 


8 


8 


4 


4 


8 


58 


54 


54 


56 


9 


82 


80 


86 


59 


8 


6 


14 


10 


8 


8 


14 


60 


58 


58 


60 


11 


86 


84 


92 


61 


12 


10 


20 


12 


12 


12 


20 


62 


62 


62 


68 


13 


78 


76 


80 


63 


4 


2 


8 


14 


2 


2 


4 


64 


52 


52 


52 


15 


82 


80 


86 


65 


8 


6 


14 


16 


6 


6 


10 


66 


56 


56 


58 


17 


86 


84 


92 


67 


12 


10 


20 


18 


10 


10 


16 


68 


60 


60 


66 


19 


76 


78 


76 


69 


2 


4 


4 


20 


4 


4 


8 


70 ' 


54 


54 


56 


21 


80 


82 


84 


71 


6 


8 


10 


22 


8 


8 


14 


72 


58 


. 58 


60 


23 


84 


86 


90 


73 


10 


12 


16 


24 


12 


12 


20 


74 


62 


62 


68 


25 


52 


54 


52 


75 


26 


28 


30 


26 


26 


26 


30 


76 


76 


76 


76 


27 


56 


58 


58 


77 


30 


32 


36 


28 


30 


30 


36 


78 


80 


80 


84 


29 


60 


62 


66 


79 


34 


36 


42 


30 


34 


34 


42 


80 


84 


84 


90 


31 


54 


52 


56 


81 


28 


26 


34 


32 


28 


28 


34 


82 


78 


78 


80 


33 


58 


56 


60 


83 


32 


30 


38 


34 


32 


32 


38 


84 


82 


82 


86 


35 


62 


60 


68 


85 


36 


34 


46 


36 


36 


36 


46 


86 


86 


86 


92 


37 


54 


52 


56 


87 


28 


26 


34 


38 


26 


26 


30 


88 


76 


76 


76 


39 


58 


56 


60 


89 


32 


30 


38 


40 


30 


30 


36 


90 


80 


80 


84 


41 


62 


60 


68 


91 


36 


34 


46 


42 


34 


34 


42 


92 


84 


84 


90 


43 


52 


54 


52 


93 


26 


28 


30 


44 


28 


28 


34 


94 


78 


78 


80 


45 


56 


58 


58 


95 


30 


32 


36 


46 


32 


32 


38 


96 


82 


82 


86 


47 


60 


62 


66 


97 


34 


36 


42 


48 


36 


36 


46 


98 


86 


86 


92 



In this plan, the breeding plot is considered by 
quarters. Each quarter contains twenty-four rows 
and each row is planted with corn from a separate 
seed ear. All even-numbered rows are detasseled 
and seed for the next year's breeding plot is taken 
from the six best-yielding deta.sseled rows in each 
quarter, four ears being taken from each selected 
row, making ninety-six ears in all. 

For convenience we use the term "sire seed," or 
" sire ears," to designate the ears that are to be 



planted in odd-numbered 
rows to produce tassel? 
(the male flowers) and to 
furnish pollen ; and w? 
use the term "dam seed,'' 
or "dam ears," to desig- 
nate the ears to be 
planted in the even-num- 
bered rows to produce 
future seed ears. Of the 
four seed ears taken 
from each selected field 
row, two are used for 
sire seed and two for 
dam seed. 

In the column headed, 
" Guide system for even 
years," is given a key or 
guide by which to work 
out the actual plan for 
planting in all even- 
numbered years ; and 
under the heading, 
" Model example for an 
even year," is given an 
actual plan which has 
been worked out, using 
four seed ears from six 
selected rows from each 
quarter of the breeding 
plot. 

In the guide system, 
for the sake of simplic- 
ity, we use four seed 
ears from each of the 
first six even-numbered 
rows in each quarter, 
a selection which would 
probably never occur in 
actual practice. It will 
be observed that the dam 
seed ears for each quar- 
ter are ears which grew 
in the same quarter, 
while the sire seed is 
always brought from an- 
other (juarter. For the 
first quarter (rows 1 to 
24), sire ears are 
brought from the fourth 
quarter. For the second 
quarter, sire seed is 
brought from the third. 
In each of these cases 
sire seed is carried diag- 
onally across the breeding plot. For the third 
quarter sire seed is brought from the first quarter, 
and for the fourth, from the second, the sire seed 
being carried lengthwise of the breeding plot in 
those cases. 

It will also be observed that there is a definite 
order of planting for "even years" and another 
definite order for "odd years." Thus, in the first 
quarter, the even-numbered rows are planted in 
ascending order with dam seed selected from rows 



MAIZE 



MAIZE 



425 



numbered : 2, 6, 10, 4, 8, 12, 2, 6, 10, 4, 8, 12. The 
alternating even numbers are repeated in sets of 
three and six. The odd-numbered rows are planted 
with sire seed selected from rows numbered ; 76, 
80, 84, 78, 82, 86, 78, 82, 86, 76, 80, 84. This is 
the same order as for the dams except that the 
two sets of three are reversed in the second set of 
six. The only change required for odd-numbered 
years is to transpose the two sets of six in plant- 
ing the sire seed. Exactly the same system is used 
in each quarter of the breeding plot. 

Arranging seed ears for planting. 

By referring to the "Model example for an even 
year," it will be seen that it becomes an easy mat- 
ter to follow the "guide system" in arranging seed 
ears for planting. Suppose, for example, that in 
190.5 the best six rows in the first quarter of the 
breeding plot are 4, 8, 10, 14, 16, 20. Then for the 
dam seed for planting the first quarter in 190(3 
these numbers in ascending order are to be substi- 
tuted for the numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, which are 
given in the "guide system." Thus : For 2, substi- 
tute 4 ; for 4, substitute 8 ; for 6, substitute 10 ; 
for 8, substitute 14 ; for 10, substitute 16 ; for 12, 
substitute 20. 

Arranging these for planting the field rows, we 
have: 



Row Number 


Guide system 


Actual plan 


2 


2 


4 


4 


6 


10 


6 


10 


16 


8 


4 


8 


10 


8 


14 


12 


12 


20 


14 


2 


4 


16 


6 


10 


18 


10 


16 


20 


4 


8 


22 


8 


14 


24 


12 


20 



If the best six rows in the fourth quarter of the 
190.5 breeding plot are 76, 80, 84, 86, 90, 92, then 
for the sire seed for planting the first quarter in 
1906 these numbers are to be substituted in regular 
order for the numbers 76, 78, 80, 82, 84, 80, which 
are given in the "guide system." Arranging these 
by threes as indicated in the "guide system," we 
have the order for planting the odd-numbered rows 
in the first quarter : 76, 84, 90, 80, 86, 92, 80, 86, 
92, 76, 84, 90. Thus we have both the dam and sire 
seed ears for the first quarter, arranged exactly as 
shown under the heading, "model example" in 
Table I. The seed ears are arranged for each 
quarter of the breeding plot in a similar way by 
following the "guide system" and .substituting in 
regulai' ascending order the actual numbers of the 
best-yielding rows for the numbers given in the 
"guide system" in Table I. 

With this selection of best rows, as given in 
the "model example," we would take the best four 
seed ears from row No. 4 (1905) and plant two as 



dam ears in rows 2 and 14 and the other two as 
sire ears in rows 51 and 69 (1906); we would take 
the four best seed ears from row No. 84 (1905) 
and plant two as dam ears in rows 78 and 90 and 
the other two as sire 
ears in rows 3 and 21 
(1906). 

In arranging seed ears 
selected from the 1906 
breeding plot for plant- 
ing the 1907 breeding 
plot, we are to follow 
the "guide system" for 
odd -numbered years, 
again returning to the 
system for even -num- 
bered years for 1908. 

Multiplying plot. 

Seed for a multiplying 
plot of ten acres or more 
should be taken only 
from the selected rows 
of the breeding plot, 
and may include all good 
seed corn which is not 
required for the breed- 
ing plot. This seed 
should be well mixed to- 
gether. The corn in the 
multiplying plot should 
be protected carefully 
from foreign pollen, and 
all inferior stalks may 
be detasseled, to elimi- 
nate their influence on neighboring plants. The 
exact yield of the multiplying plot should be deter- 
mined and registered. 

Commercial field. 

The seed for the commercial field should com- 
prise only the very best obtainable seed corn from 
the multiplying plot. The exact yield of the com- 
mercial field should always be determined and reg- 
istered. From the commercial field the finest ears 
may be selected and sold to the trade as registered 
seed corn. 

Description of individual ears. 

Register number. — As soon as any ear of a given 
variety and strain is selected to be planted in a 
breeding plot by a given breeder it is given a 
register number, which must, of course, represent 
that particular ear only and for all time. By using 
a certain system of numbering, we not only are 
able to designate the ear but can show at the same 
time the year of its breeding or the number of its 
generation, and the field row in which it is planted. 
This we do by starting the first year in the JOO 
series, numbering the ears to be planted in suc- 
cession from 101 to 148 and 151 to 198, and the 
second year starting the 200 series, running from 
201 to "248 and 251 to 298, and so on, as far as 
may be necessary, starting each succeeding year 
with a higher hundred. 




Fig. 648. 
A productive hiU of corn. 



426 



MAIZE 



MAIZE 



Breeder_ 
Variety- 



Corn Register of Ears Planted and Rows 
Harvested in Season of 1905. 



Distance between hills- 



Strain Number of hills in r 


fiw 








Description of individual seed ears 


Per'ormauc© record of field rows 




6 

u 
to 

■§ 


d 

Iz; 

e 


d 

u 
a) 


o 

>3 


5 

c 

s 

it 
a 


a 
P 

1 

Z, a-. 
*- O 


-2 

O 
& 

s 

a 

a 


s 

!5 


o 


o 

O 

1 
1 


o 

o 
<& 

i 
1 

p. 


s 

p 
£ 

g 

*J O 


-S 

"S 

2 
^ c 

04 


s 

1 

o 

1 

«® 






d 

& 

o 
ii 

3 

tp 

a 

<i> 

-5 


o 


p. 

OS 

C 

E 

o 


9 

i 

® 
P. 

O 


c 
— 

Z 
o 

H 


c 

a 
% 
o 

P. 


a 
2 
a 

'o 
Z 

o 






















































Average 




















































Remarks : 


Average yield ir 
(Year 190 
(Year 190 

Average yield c 
(Year 190 
CYftar 190 


ultiplying plot : 
5) 




ammercial field : 




(\) 






































(Year 


1907) 



Z}o7n number. — The "dam number" is the "regis- 
ter number " of the parent ear and is useful in 
tracing the pedigree record from year to year back 
to the source. 

Annual ear number. — In order to designate the 
two hundred or more ears selected from the field, 
each one is given an " annual ear number," which 
runs in a series from one up to two hundred or 
more. This number is only temporary, to serve 
while working on the corn for the final selection of 
seed ears, and when the seed ears are selected to 
be planted, each is given a permanent "register 
number," as explained under that heading. 

If desired, a record may be kept of certain phys- 
ical and chemical properties, as length, circum- 
ference and weight of ear and cob, per cent of 
grain, number of rows of kernels on the ear and 
the average number of kernels in the row, and per- 
centage of protein or oil if determined. 

Performance record of field rows. 

The field row or breeding row numbers should 
correspond, for the sake of convenience, with the 
register numbers of the ears planted. For example, 
ear Register No. 101 should be planted in Field 



Row No. 1. The percentage of stand and the yield 
per acre of each field row should be determined 
and recorded. 

On the same sheet with the complete year's 
record of the breeding plot appear the records of 
the multiplying plot for the same year, and for the 
next year following, and also the records of the 
commercial field for the same year and for the next 
two years. If the record sheet is for the breeding 
plot for 1905, it is important finally to record on 
the same sheet the record of the multiplying plot 
for 1906 and of the commercial field for 1907, 
and for convenience and comparison it is well to 
record on the same sheet the yield of the multiply- 
ing plot for 1905, and the yields of the commercial 
field for 1905 and 1906. If a breeding plot were 
started in 1905, the breeder could have both a 
breeding plot and a multiplying plot in 1906, and 
a breeding plot, multiplying plot and commercial 
field in 1907 ; and from the 1907 crop on the com- 
mercial field he could sell seed corn with a regis- 
tered pedigree of three years, one year in the 
breeding plot, one year in the multiplying plot and 
one year in the commercial field. In 1910, he could 
sell seed corn from his commercial field with a 



MAIZE 



MAPLE-SUGAR 



427 



registered pedigree of six years, four years in the 
breeding plot (1905, 1906, 1907 and 1908), one 
year in tlie multiplying plot (1909), and one year 
in the commercial field (1910). 

Literature. 

Some of the literature on the varieties of maize 
and their classification may here be mentioned : 
E. Lewis Sturtevant, The Varieties of Maize, 
American Naturalist XVIII : 532 (1884); also Bul- 
letin No. 57, Office of Experiment Stations, Wash- 
ington, D. C, 1899 ; John W. Harshberger, Maize : 
A Botanical and Economic Study, Contributions 
from the Botanical Laboratory, University of 
Pennsylvania, I, No. 2, pp. 75-202 ; Same, Fertile 
Crosses of Teosinte and Maize, Garden and Forest, 
IX : 522 ; Contributions Botanical Laboratory of 
Pennsylvania, II : 231-234 ; Herbert J. Webber, 
Xenia, or the Immediate Effect of Pollen on Maize, 
Bulletin No. 22, Division of Vegetable Physiology 
and Pathology, Washington, D. C; E. G. Mont- 
gomery, Tillering in the Corn Plant, Sciencenewser, 
XXIII : 625, April 20, 1906 ; Same, What is an Ear 
of Corn? Popular Science Monthly, January, 1906 ; 
W. W. Rowlee and M. W. Doherty, The Histology 
of the Embryo of Indian Corn, Bulletin, Torrey Bo- 
tanical Club, XXV: 311-315, June, 1898; Frederick 
Leroy Sai-gent, Corn Plants, 1899 ; L. H. Pammel, 
Grasses of Iowa, Bulletin No. 54, Iowa Experiment 
Station, January, 1901 ; Same, (Comparative Anat- 
omy of the Corn Caryopsis, Iowa Academy of 
Sciences, 1897 ; Robert Combs, Histology of the 
Corn Leaf, Contributions Botanical Department, 
Iowa State College, No. 10; Rodney H. True, On the 
Development of the Caryopsis. Botanical Gazette, 
XVIII : 212, June, 1893 ; A. L. Winton, Anatomy of 
the Maize Cob, Report of the Connecticut Agri- 
cultural Experiment Station, 1900: 186-195; H. 
S. Reed, A Study of the Enzyme-Secreting Cells of 
Zea Mais and Phcenix daetylifera, Annals of Bot- 
any, LXX : 267-287, April, 1904 ; Ethel Sargant 
and Agnes Robertson, The Anatomy of the Scutel- 
lum of Zea Mais, Annals of Botanj', January, 1905, 
pp. 115-123. 

For cultivation methods and varieties best suited 
to different localities, reference is made to state ex- 
periment station bulletins, which are too numerous 
to mention ; for general discussions of corn and corn- 
culture, to The Cereals in America, Thomas F. Hunt, 
1904; Bulletin No. 133 of the Department of Agri- 
culture of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,1904; 
The A B C of Corn Culture, P. G. Holden, 1906; 
Farmers' Bulletin No. 199, United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, 1904 ; Indian Corn, Edward 
Enfield, 1866 ; The Book of Corn, Herbert Myrick, 
Orange Judd Company, New York City ; for corn 
pests and remedies, to Economic Entomology, John 
B. Smith, 1896, and Bulletins Nos. 44 and 9.5 of the 
University of Illinois, S. A. Forbes ; for origin and 
history, to Origin of Cultivated Plants, De Can- 
dolle, 1886 ; History and Chemical Investigation 
of Maize, J. H. Salisbury, 1849. 

References on growing maize for the silo follow: 
Henry, Feeds and Feeding, published by the author, 
Madison, Wis.; Voorhees, Fertilizers, Macmillan 



Company, New York City ; King, Physics of Agri- 
culture, published by the author, Madison, Wis.; 
Woll, Book on Silage ; Shaw, Soiling Crops and the 
Silo, Orange Judd Company; Miles, Soiling, Ensilage 
and Silage ; Illinois Station, Bulletin No. 43 ; New 
York State Station, Bulletin No. 97 ; Ohio Station, 
Bulletin No. 5 ; Farmers' Bulletin, United States 
Department of Agriculture, No. 32. Several other 
state experiment stations have discussed silage in 
bulletins and reports, and information will be found 
in reports of Farmers' Institutes. The Agricultural 
Press is a very fruitful source of information. 

For popcorn : Hunt, Cereals in America, Orange 
Judd Company, New York City; Illinois Experiment 
Station, Bulletin No. 13. 

A few of the more important bulletins on corn- 
breeding follow : Connecticut Bulletin No. 152 
(1906), The Improvement of Corn in Connecticut ; 
Illinois Bulletin No. 55 (1899), Improvement in the 
Chemical Composition of the Corn Kernel ; Illinois 
Bulletin No. 82 (1902), Methods of Corn-Breeding ; 
Illinois Bulletin No. 100 (1905), Directions for the 
Breeding of Corn, Including Methods for the Pre- 
vention of Inbreeding ; Illinois Circular No. 101 
(1906), Methods of Testing Variability in Corn; 
Indiana Bulletin No. 100 (1906), Corn Improve- 
ment ; Kansas Bulletin No. 107 (1902), Analyses of 
Corn, with Reference to Its Improvement ; Ohio 
Circular No. 53 (1906), Experiments with Corn; 
Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Bulletin 
No. 133 (1904), The Improvement of Corn in Penn- 
sylvania. 

MAPLE-SUGAR AND MAPLE-SYRUP. Figs. 
649-658. 

By /. L. Hills. 

The making of sugar from the sap of one or two 
species of maple trees constitutes a peculiarly 
American industry. It is commonly associated with 
the " customs " of New England and other northern 
states. 

Like every other farming industry, maple-sugar- 
making has changed greatly within a generation. 
The practices of the first half of the last century 
were in some respects hardly in advance of those 
which the Indians employed. To be sure hot stones 
were no longer dropped into the sap, nor was it 
concentrated by successive freezings ; but the rude 
bark vessels, the huge potash kettles, the unsightly 
slashes on the tree trunks were still used and the 
product was dark, strong and tangy. There was 
little or no attempt to grade the sugar or improve 
its quality, and cleanliness, in the modern accejita- 
tion of the term as applied to sugar-making, wa.; 
unknown. This was not a very serious matter in 
tho.se days, as maple-sugar did not then enter into 
commerce. It was a home-made, home-consumed 
commodity, and the cane-sugar of the tropics was 
rarely seen in the farm pantry in the maple re- 
gions. Beginning about fifty years ago, however, 
the status of the product began to change, in part 
owing to the lowered price of the cane- and beet- 
sugar. The maple became le.ss of a necessity and 
more of a luxury; less was eaten at home and more 



428 



MAPLE-SUGAR 



MAPLE-SUGAR 



sold on the market. There is more incentive to 
improve a money crop than one vhich the family 
uses, and hence the industry developed rapidly. 
Processes were made more economical and labor- 
saving and the products more toothsome and 
cleaner. But, oddly enough, while quality was en- 
hanced to the last degree, no larger crops were 
harvested. The situation was and is an anomalous 
one. The consuming population of 1907 is thrice 
that of 1850, its purchasing power much greater 
and its per capita expenditure for food larger than 
ever before. The demand for maple products is 
many times the supply ; a good grade brings re- 
munerative prices, the work is done at a time when 
other farm work is not pressing, the crop is peren- 
nial, the draft on the soil slight, the material used 
of little value, the cost of apparatus once obtained 
but slight ; and yet the supply is short. 

The reasons for a diminishing supply in the face 
of an increased demand are two. One is avoidable, 
the other unavoidable. They are adulteration and 
the weather. Prior to the passage of the pure food 




The sugar-bush at the close of the season. Vermont, 



law it was aptly and probably truly said that there 
was ten times as much maple-syrup made in Chicago 
as in Vermont. The Chicago brand is made of 
glucose or cane-sugar, perhaps flavored with a 
little of the lowest grade and strongest tasting 
maple and perhaps not. The weather, however, is 
an all-controlling and uncontrollable factor, in that 
it may favor a long-continued flow or cause only 
brief and irregular runs. A day may make or mar 
the success of a crop. If the right sort of weather 
comes at just such a time, provided the wrong kind 
of weather has not preceded it, an average crop or 
better may be gathered. But, if seasonal conditions 
do not favor, the product may be but a half or a 
fourth of a crop ; and nothing can be done to 
remedy this condition. 

Nature of the maple grove. (Fig. 649.) 

There are several sorts of maples known to bot- 
anists, but only two are of importance as sugar- 
producers, — the sugar or rock maple (Acer saccha- 
rinum, Fig. 452) and the red maple (Acer ruhrum), 
the former being the more common one in the East. 



[Unfortunately, the specific name saccharinum has 
been revived recently by some botanists for the 
silver maple (.4. dasycarpmn) which is not a prom- 
inent sugar-producing species, thus restoring, to 
no purpose, a confusion of the earlier botanists.] 
The sugar maple is a stately forest tree, at home 
on the cool uplands and rocky hillsides of western 
New England, the Adirondack region in eastern 
New York, the Western Reserve of Ohio and along 
the Appalachian region as far south as the Caro- 
linas. In all these regions it is a commercial tree, 
either as a source of sugar, of timber, or of both. 
The red or swamp maple grows along stream bor- 
ders and on the lower lands, particularly if not 
well drained, and is more common west than east. 
The sugar-maker's forest is variously called a 
grove, orchard, place, works and bush, the last 
being in many sections the colloquial term. The 
groves are of all sorts and sizes. The small boy 
taps the roadside maple in the spring-time and 
hangs an empty tin pail on a rusty nail to catch 
the slowly dropping sap ; and the great Adirondack 
camp, with its railroad system winding 
among its 40,000 trees, does no more e.xcept 
on a larger scale. Some of the groves stand 
on level land, some on slopes, some crown 
ridges, some are of first-growth, — there are 
not many of these left, — and more are of 
second-growth trees. Some are nearly clear 
maple forests, while in others are mingled 
with the maples such trees as the birches, 
beech, basswood, spruce and hemlock. 

The ideal sugar grove contains the 
largest number of trees to a given area 
consistent with a full development of the 
top, a reserve of smaller growth, however, 
coming on to replace the failing or fallen 
maple monarchs. Its soil is well covered 
with a humus layer, a litter of leaves, grass- 
less and weedless. It is not the number of 
trees that is important, but the amount and 
vigor of the foliage; the spread of the tree 
rather than its trunk, for the leaves are the sugar 
factories and the sunlight their source of power. 
The chlorophyll or green coloring matter of the leaf 
under the influence of the sunlight welds the car- 
bonic acid gas of the air and the water of the 
sap into starch, which is stored throughout the 
tree, the next spring to pass as sugar in the sap to 
the buds for the building of the new leaf structure 
as well as for the making of the new wood. A small 
leaf area or one that is so crowded in a dense growth 
as to be but poorly exposed to the .sunlight cannot 
lay up much starch, and lack of starch means lack 
of sugar. The thick humus layer on the forest floor 
is only second in importance to the foliage expanse, 
for it is the water reservoir of the forest. Indeed, 
so vitally essential is this soil cover of leaf-mold 
to the well-being of the industry that many sugar- 
makers think that the forest trees yield more 
sugar than do those in the open and expo.sed on 
every side. Careful experiments, however, indicate 
that the sap yields, other things being equal, bear 
a direct relation to the size and exposure of thj 
tree-top. 



MAPLE-SUGAR 



MAPLE-SUGAR 



429 



Maple-sugar weather. 

Ideal sugar weather is met in the late winter or 
very early spring, when it begins to warm up, 
when the days are sunny and the nights still frosty. 
The gradual northern spring in which the ground 
yields up its frost but slowly is more likely to 
provoke the repeated sap-flows, which make a suc- 
cessful season, than the more frostless seasons of 
more southern latitudes. Whatever the real cause 
of sap-flow, temperature fluctuations from points 
below to those above the freezing point, slight 
though they may be, excite the gas tension in the 
wood-cells if they occur before the leaf-buds get 
well started. After that yearly episode in the life 
of the tree, little or no sap flows, whatever the 
vagaries of the thermometer. 

If at this time the tree-trunk is tapped with an 
auger, an inch or two in depth, preferably on the 
south side, and a sap-spout driven into the hole, 
the sap flows. Convenience and economy alike 
dictate tapping at breast height. The flow is 
erratic, often exasperatingly so. It may run for 
some time fairly continuously, but commonly the 
flow is broken up into several distinct periods, or 
"runs" as they are called, until the over-warm 
weather of advancing spring swells the leaf-buds 
and the "season" is over. Sap runs in the 
daytime, rarely at night, and to any extent 
only on good sap days. 

The sap. 

The sap as it first flows is crystal clear ^ 
and faintly sweet, carrying not only sugar ^ 
but also minute quantities of mineral matters, 
albumens and gums; as the season advances 
the flow lessens, the sap clouds up (owing to 
exterior contamination of the pail or tap), 
becomes slimy at times and the quality be- 
comes impaired. Hence " first run " sugar or syrup 
makes the best product. While highly variable, the 
sap averages 3 per cent of sugar, together with 
some other dissolved substances that are a nui- 
sance to the sugar-maker. The sap is all through 
the tree at this time, except in the dead heart-wood. 
It is in twig and trunk, root and branch, and wher- 
ever the tree in tapped the wound bleeds, if the 
weather serves. 



of tank cars runs on a narrow-gage railway wind- 
ing among the trees, past storage-tank stations to 
which pipe lines lead from several sections of the 
forest. 

The evaporator. 

When the gathered sap arrives at the sugar- 
house it passes into the storage tank, from whence 
it flows into the evaporator. This, the most costly 
and elaborate implement of the sugar-maker's art, 
is an outgrowth of the shallow iron pan which 
began to replace the old-fashioned iron kettle some 







Fig. 



Gathering the sap. 

The collection of the sap is no small task. Roads 
or paths are broken out in the snow among the trees, 
along which men and teams travel in gathering the 
sap. There are several systems in use. The shoul- 
der yoke is common in the smaller bushes, but the 
gathering-tank or barrels on a bob-sled or stone- 
boat are more often used, sometimes in conjunction 
with the shoulder yoke. When topography favors 
and the size of the plant justifies it, the pipe-line 
system is used, a series of open troughs, or, some- 
times, galvanized iron pipes running through the 
various sections of the bush to the sugar-house or 
to large storage tanks. The most advanced type of 
gathering device is employed in a large Adiron- 
dack camp, tapping, doubtless, the largest number 
of trees under any one management, where a train 



650. ni effect of too much and too deep tapping. Also, a covered 
sap pail: and current forms of sap spouts. 

fifty years ago. The original form was a single 
shallow pan about two and one-half feet wide by 
six to ten feet long, set on a fire-box of brick. The 
sap was concentrated to a thin syrup, which was 
poured out and the process repeated. By the use of 
this device a more rapid evaporation of the water 
was maintained, less wood was used and better 
goods made. The lack of continuity and the neces- 
sary interruptions of the process were an obvious 
disadvantage. Necessity evolved the continuous 
evaporator, into which a steady stream of cold sap 
enters, passes through a devious course, boiling 
furiously, and frpm which, periodically, the hot 
syrup is drawn. 

The evaporator sits over a roaring wood fire 
burning in a long brick stove or iron fire-box which 
the sugar-maker terms the " arch." In some large 
plants steam evaporators are in use. [.^n evapora- 
tor is discussed in detail in the succeeding article.] 
As the product leaves the evaporator it is not, as a 
rule, in salable condition. It is usually safer to 
draw the syrup from the evaporator before it gets 
concentrated enough to sell. So it undergoes 
further boiling in a special deep pan until the tem- 
perature is about 219° or until it weighs eleven 
pounds to the gallon, when (after the separation of 
the "niter" or "sugar sand,"— an impure malate 



430 



MAPLE-SUGAR 



MAPLE-SUGAR 



«f lime — by filtration or sedimentation) it is sealed, 
usually hot, in tin cans. 

The sugaring process. 

Sugaring used to be conducted in the open, and 
it still is in the more southern maple regions. But 
in the North the sugar-house is always in evidence. 
It is commonly a small, rather rough shanty-like 
affair, large enough to house the evaporator, and 
perhaps the " sugaring-off " outfit, and to roof over 
the wood-supply. It is placed usually at the edge 
of the bush, at such a point as is most convenient 
for the delivery of the sap. 

The " sugaring-off " process is an interesting one. 
The thin syrup from the evaporator is boiled to a 
much greater density in the concentrating pan 
used in syrup-making. Marketable syrup carries 
60 to 6.5 per cent of sugar ; marketable sugar, 80 
to 90 per cent. The former boils at about 219°, the 
latter at 234° to 245°, or more. The boiling fluid 
foams and bubbles furiously over the quick fire and, 
now and then, is on the point of boiling over, when 
by a dash of a few drops of cream, skim-milk, water 
even at times, lard, a bit of salt pork, — anything to 
break the surface tension of the foam, — instantly 
it ceases and is gone. Care needs to be exercised 
here to prevent this loss as well as to obviate 
scorching. The fluid is adjudged done by the ther- 
mometer's testimony, or by the way the stuff "hairs," 
or "aprons," or simply by the dictates of experience 
and judgment. The pan is then swung from the ftre 
and the quiescent, brownish, viscid fluid stirred vig- 
orously until graining besrins, when the semi-solid 
mass is poured into molds, tubs or boxes to harden. 

The output. 

The annual crop in this country approaches fifty 
millions pounds, valued at over four millions of 
dollars. Six states — Vermont, New York, Ohio, 
Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire — furnish 
over 90 per cent of the output. Much is made in 
Canada, but none south of Tennessee, west of the 
Missouri river, or in any European country. It is 
the product of limited areas of territorially a very 
small part of the world, and the foreigner who has 
seen or tasted it is rare indeed. 

Many car-loads, particularly of the last run goods, 
the dark and inferior sugar, — the blacker and 
stronger the better, — are picked up by sugar buy- 
ers and shipped, mostly west, to the mixers or 
blenders. Hundreds of tons of such material are 
used in the manufacture of chewing tobacco, a 
trade which is said to be eager for all the maple- 
sugar that it can get. 

Statistics are rather unreliable, but it is probably 
not far from the fact to say that half the total 
crop is made into syrup and half into sugar, the 
proportion of syrup to sugar rapidly increasing. 
Syrup properly put up and stored keeps well, but 
sugar keeps better. The former sells at retail at 
ninety cents to $1.50 a gallon, the latter at seven 
to twenty cents a pound, according to quality and 
quantity, time of year, size of crop, and other fac- 
tors. Early or first run sugar, light in color, fine in 
flavor, in small cakes, sells at fancy prices early in 



the season ; but the main ci'op, good, bad and indif- 
ferent, is likely to bring a low price, which at 
times has been below the co.st of production. The 
tobacco men and the sophisticators sometimes pay 
high prices for the strong-tasting goods of more or 
less uncleanly antecedents ; but e.xcept for these 
special purposes, speaking broadly, the light-hued 
goods of mild and delicate aroma are preferred to 
the darker ones of more decided flavor, and com- 
mand better prices. 

Centralization in maple-sugar-making. 

The latest step in the evolution of the maple- 
sugar industry is the inevitable one toward which 
all forms of human endeavor seem destined, — that 
of centralization. The making of the thin syrup 
at the individual plants still continues, but buyers 
contract for the entire supply to be shipped to some 
central point for grading, reworking, concentration 
and sale. These central plants are sometimes co- 
partnerships of private individuals, sometimes sup- 
ply houses for individual wholesale grocery firms, 
and sometimes associations of sugar-makers, such 
as the Vermont Sugar Makers' Market at Randolph. 
The manifest advantages of such centralization are 
a greater uniformity of product and better control 
of sales. They doubtless afford a desirable sales 
market for many small makers ; but the well- 
informed, well-equipped owner of a consideralile 
sugar-bu.sh can generally do better to complete and 
to sell his own products. 

Literature. 

W. S. Clark, Circulation of Sap in Plants, Report 
Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, 21 (187.3); 
Same, Observations on Phenomena of Plant-life, 
Report Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, 22 
(1874) ; C. S. Sargent, The Sylva of North America, 
Vol. II, (1890) ; W. W. Cooke and J. L. Hills, 
Maple-Sugar, Vermont Experiment Station, Bulletin 
No. 26 (1890) ; C. H. Jones, A. W. Edson and W. J. 
Morse, The Maple-Sap Flow, Vermont Experiment 
Station, Bulletin No. 103 (1904), from which the 
logs in Fig. 6.50 are adapted ; J. L. Hills, The 
Maple-Sap Flow, Vermont Experiment Station, Bul- 
letin No. 105 (1904) (Popular Edition of 103) ; Wil- 
liam F. Fox and William F. Hubbard, The Maple- 
Sugar Industry, United States Department of Agri- 
culture, Bureau of Forestry, Bulletin No. 59 (1905); 
A. J. Cook, Maple Sugar and the Sugar Bush; 
W^iley, The Sugar Industry of the United States, 
Part IV, Bulletin No. 5, United States Department 
of Agriculture (1885). 

Maple-syrup-making from Ohio Experience. 

By ir. 7. Chamberlain. 

There is no better way of setting forth the 
principles involved and the methods employed in 
the making of maple-syrup and niajde-sugar than 
by describing the practice in one of the foremost 
maple -sugar -producing sections in the country. 
The discussion that follows is based on sixty years 
(if observation and personal exper'-tnce, chiefiy in 
northern Ohio. 



MAPLE-SUGAR 



MAPLE-SUGAR 



431 



The old ways and the new. 

The old way, still remembered, was to "box" 
the tree with an axe, cutting a deep "carf," or 
a sort of pocket, boring up into it with a three- 
fourths-inch auger, putting in a long elder spout, 
catching the sap in a wooden sap-trough hewn out 
of a soft-wood half- log some sixteen inches in 
diameter, and boiling it in a huge iron kettle on a 
pole resting on two crotched posts. The boxing 
soon killed the trees,, but trees were plentiful. 
Then came the improvement of hanging three large 
kettles, each on a long, strong pole hung like a 
gate or a well-sweep, so as to raise or lower the 
kettles or swing them from over the fire. The 
three kettles were swung into a row, two large logs . 
were drawn up, one on each side for a sort of 
" arch," and smaller wood was jammed and cris- 
jrossed around the kettles. Smoke, coals, ashes and 
dirt fell in, the sap scorched on the kettles, and 
the syrup was dark. 

The next improvement in boiling is shown in 
Fig. 651. Five large iron kettles were set in a 
crude stone arch with chimney and open mouth, 
and wood about ten feet long was thrust under the 
kettles. Such an arch fifteen feet long, and holding 
five large kettles, would boil into thin, dark syrup 




Fig. 651. Old-iashioned "arch" and "kettles". 

one to two barrels of sap per hour, according to 
the skill and diligence of the firing. The corru- 
gated evaporator, 4 x 16 feet, shown in Fig. 652, 
with good wood and good firing will evaporate five 
barrels per hour into the finest eleven-pound syrup 
ready for the market, with half the fuel. Forty to 
fifty gallons of sap make one eleven-pound gallon 
of syrup in Ohio. 

Details of the sugar-making processes. 

Spouts. — The forms of spouts used by writer, 
after trials of many sorts, are the conical (Fig. 
653), made of heavy tin, and the flanged (Fig. 654). 
Spouts are on sale at hardware stores in the 
maple regions and are advertised in agricultural 
papers. The spout in Fig. 653 is cheaper in first 
cost, but the one in Fig. 654 is more durable 
and oft'ers less obstruction to the flow of the 
sap. The writer uses the spout in Fig. 653 in a 
three-eighths-inch hole the first half or third of the 



season, then rims the holes with a one-half-inch 
curve-lip Cook bit and uses the spout in Fig. 6.54. 
The rimming freshens the drying hole and increases 
the flow of sap, and does not wound and injure the 
tree as boring a new hole ; and the partly soured 
spout is removed. In Ohio, the tapping should be- 




Fig. 652. A modem evaporator and iron arch. 

gin the first bright, warm day after February 15, 
and the season lasts sometimes until April 10, or 
as long as frosty nights or snow-storms are fol- 
lowed by warm days ; hence the need of freshening 
or rimming the holes and removing the partly 
soured spouts. The spout shown in Fig. 653 has 
now been made heavier and longer, so that it 
answers for seven-sixteenths and one-half inch re- 
tapping. 

Buckets.— The buckets should be of "IX" tin, 
very slightly smaller at the bottom than at the top 
so as to " nest " into each other, in nests of twenty 
or more, for convenience in handling. They should 
hold twelve quarts each. Each bucket should have 
a three-fourths-inch hole punched through the tin 
close under its wire rim, to slip over the spout to 
hang the bucket firmly on and against the tree. 
The bucket should be covered tightly, to exclude 
rain, insects, dirt and the like, and to prevent the 
sap freezing on cold nights and souring on warm 
days. 

Covers. — The cheapest and best covers, all things 
considered, are home-made, of boards 12 x 12 
inches square, planed on both sides and all edges, 
and painted. Home-grown lumber and winter work 
reduce the cash cost. By painting one side red and 
the other side white and reversing each cover as 
the sap is gathered from the bucket, mistakes and 
omissions in gathering are avoided and when two 
men are gathering much time is saved from useless 
travel. If a tree is missed, the (wrong) color of its 
bucket cover reveals 
the mistake ; and two 
trips need never be 
taken to the same 
bucket, in doubt as to 
whether its sap 
has been taken. 
The writer 
knows of no 
one thing more 
essential to the 
production o f 
first-class syrup in the variable Ohio climate than 
covers, and the bi-colored covers are a great con- 
venience in gathering, washing buckets at the 
trees, and in other ways. 




Fig. 654. 
Flanged galvanized-iron spout. 



432 



MAPLE-SUGAR 



MAPLE-SUGAR 



Gathering. — Gathering should begin each "sugar 
day" as soon as there is a quart or more of sap in 
each bucket. The sooner and the faster the sap is 
boiled after it leaves the tree, the better is the 
syrup. 

Gathering-tank and sled. — Thp tank is of gal- 
vanized iron, three feet in diameter and three feet 
deep, stands on end and holds four barrels. The 








i^r^i'^- 



Fig. 655. A sugar camp in Ohio. 

sled, commonly known locally as a "stone-boat 
sled," has heavy runners six inches wide, two cross- 
beams and two raves, and a flexible pole. The tank 
has a two-inch galvanized-iron tube, three feet 
long, attached by a piece of rubber hose to the bot- 
tom of one side. In gathering, its outer end is 
hooked up to the top of the tank to prevent leakage. 
In emptying, it is unhooked and dropped into the 
funnel-shaped receiver of the long three-inch tin 
conductor, and runs the sap into the store-troughs, 
shown in Fig. 655. The funnel-shaped receiver is 
shown in Fig. 656. 

The can and sled are drawn by a team among the 
trees in gathering. In emptying the sap, the man 
stands facing the bucket, holds the gathering-pail 
in his left hand, holds the bucket cover under his 
left arm, grasps the bucket rim with his right hand, 
revolves it on its spout as a pivot, empties it, re- 
turns the cover (reversed), carries and empties the 
sap into the near-by gathering-tank, and goes to 
the next bucket or tree. Neither the cover, the 
bucket, nor the pail should ever touch the ground, 
nor the bucket leave its spout. It saves much time 
and backache, and dirt in the sap. 

From the time the sap is lifted and poured into 
the gathering-tank human muscle does not handle it 
again. It runs down the slope (Fig. 655) through 
an automatic float-regulator and into and through 
the evaporator (Fig. 652), and runs as finished 
syrup from the chimney end of the evaporator. 




Fig. 656. The funnel-shaped receiver of the sap-conductor. 

Sugar camps are usually on rolling land, and there 
is no trouble but great advantage in locating the 
sugar-hou.se on a slope. If the slope is slight, the 
two store-troughs may be placed end to end up the 
slope and connected by a tall siphon, and a rather 
long conductor used from the gathering-tank to the 
first store-trough. The essential feature is that the 
bottom of the last store-trough shall be a little 
higher than the top edge of the evaporator, inside 



the sugar-hou.se. The store -troughs should be 
wholly outside of the sugar-house, except the mere 
end plank of the lower one, le.st the heat and steam 
inside slightly sour the sap and hurt the quality of 
the syrup. And the store-troughs should have 
covers, like the buckets, to protect from heat (some- 
times cold), and to keep out rain, in.sects, and the 
like. The writer prefers painted wooden store- 
troughs to galvanised iron one.s, as wood is a non- 
conductor and excludes heat and cold, which would 
sour or freeze the sap. 

Evaporator. — The evaporator should be of heavy 
four-plate tin. Galvanized iron is rougher, does not 
solder so well, and, worst of all, from the action of 
the sap the galvanizing material, in boiling, is likely 
to give the syrup a sort of "vanilla" flavor, foreign 
to the real, delicate, natural maple flavor. 

After trying several sorts of pans and evapo- 
rators for sixty years, father and son, the kind 
the writer now uses is the kind shown in Fig. 
652. It rests on a heavy sheet-iron " arch " or fur- 
nace, which is lined with fire-brick for the fire-box 
and a little back of it. The writer uses a regular 
brick " arch " on solid foundation, with tall brick 
chimney, and the fire-box lined with fire-brick. 
Such an arch and chimney on solid stone and grout 
foundation will last twenty-five years or more, and 
does not heat the sugar-house to discomfort on 
warm days as does the iron arch. 

Some of the advantages of this type of evapora- 
tor are the corrugations, the siphons, and the inter- 
changeable rear pans, shown indistinctly in the 
bottom of the pan in Fig. 652. The corrugations 
increase the surface expo.sed to the heat. The bot- 
tom of the pan is crimped by machinery, up obliquely 
about one and one-fourth inch, then horizontally one 
inch, then down one and one-fourth inch obliquely, 
then horizontally, and so on. This fully doubles the 
bottom surface exposed to the fire, and nearly but 
not quite doubles the boiling capacity on the prin- 
ciple of the tubular boiler. 

Siphons in an evaporator permit the operator to 
cut off and renew at will the flow of sap from 
one pan or section to the next. Fig. 657 shows 
the kind of siphon used. It is made of heavy 
tin, with a cup soldered under and one-fourth inch 
from the bottom of each " leg," to permit the down- 
ward pressure of the air to hold the siphon full 
when it is lifted from the sap and set on any level 
surface, and returned to the sap later. It was found 
that when the siphons, even with the return cups, 
stood with both ends in the violently boiling sap 
or syrup, the air from the bubbles would sometimes 
rise in the siphon, gradually fill the horizontal part 
and stop the flow. This endangered the burning of 
the sap in the further pans thus cut off from the 
sap-flow. So a tin compartment or "cup" was sol- 
dered firmly to the outside corner of each pan at 
the place of transfer. These cups connect with the 
sap by openings close to the bottoms of the two 
pans connected by each siphon. The cups rise 
higher than the sap ever rises in the pans, so as to 
prevent overflow. The sap or the syrup in tl'o 
"cups" is always calm, not boiling, and the sip! on 
connection is perfectly secure. To fill the .'ii l.on, 



MAPLE-SUGAR 



MAPLE-SUGAR 



433 



set both legs in sap enough to cover the return 
cups (6 and c. Fig. 657), open the small stop-cock 
shown at the top, and suck through the rubber tube 
above until the siphon is full ; then shut the stop- 
cock and the flow begins toward the lower level. 
In sucking up boiling sap through the small rubber 
tube above the stop-cock, the mouth was sometimes 
burned. To overcome this, a small, oval, glass 
bulb (a, Fig. 657) was inserted, with a small rub- 
ber tube above and below attached to the stop- 
cock. When the sap rises to the bulb 
it may be seen, the stop-cock shut, 
}'^ and no injury to the mouth results. 




Pig. 657. A good siphon. 




Fig. 658. The heater. 



Heater (Fig. 658). — This is a deep tubular pan, 
with sap all around the tubes. It is set at the 
chimney end of the arch and the flames must all 
pass through the tubes. The idea is to utilize more 
of the heat. But it is hard to clean, the sap must 
be carried by a tube to the front end of the evap- 
orator, and altogether it gives so much trouble that 
it is less used now than formerly, most farmers 
prctferring to utilize the heat by means of a longer 
evaporator. 

Iiiterehangeahle paiu. — Two of these, each with 
two compartments, are shown at the chimney end 
of the evaporator (Fig. 652). The "niter" settles 
and hardens on the bottom of the rear section, or, 
at the most, the last two sections. When it reaches 
the eleven-pound syrup it is held only in suspension 
and slowly settles on the bottom of any pan where 
such syrup is boiling. There it burns or hardens 
on, retards the boiling and, if left on too long, gives 
the syrup a burnt or sort of caramel flavor and 
color. It is hard, and is removed with chisels, 
which injure the pan. This takes time, and the 
boiling must stop. But, if the fire is slackened a 
little, the siphons can be removed and in a moment 
two men can interchange the last two pans (four 
sections). Then the boiling at once proceeds and 
the thinner, sappy syrup soon removes the sedi- 
ment. This interchangeable feature seems to be 
valuable for this reason. The rear pans are not 
corrugated, as flat bottoms are better for syrup, 
which boils with le.ss fire, and they are more easily 
cleaned of their hardened sediment. 

Boiling. — The cold sap enters immediately over 
the fire from the store-troughs, through an inch 
rubber hose or tube. Its rapidity of flow is e.xactly 
adjusted to any rate of boiling, no matter how 
variable, by an automatic float-regulator, a little 
device that sits in the sap at the front corner 
of the evaporator and never fails to do its work 
well. The writer's evaporator, 4 x 16 feet, has two 
corrugated pans which are together ten feet long, 
instead of one, and there are three narrow syrup 
pans, six feet in all, each with three compartments, 

B28 



instead of two with two compartments each. The 
sap thus enters at one corner (right-hand corner 
in the writer's), and is pushed slowly forward by 
the incoming sap under the force of gravity as it 
lowers toward the rear by evaporation. It passes 
thus, in the writer's evaporator, back and forth 
through fifteen dilFerent compartments and four 
siphons until it is drawn out at the left-hand rear 
corner as finished syrup. The writer strains this 
syrup through flannel or felt to take out all the 
raalate of lime still held in suspension, and then it 
is canned air-tight in self-.sealing, gallon tin cans. 
Some persons think that it retains its peculiar fla- 
vor better if canned at boiling heat, but it does 
not seem so to the writer and hence he usually 
cans it cold. 

A saccharometer or a pair of scales tests the 
thickness of each gallon drawn ott'. If a full gallon 
weighs ten and one-half pounds when hot, it shrinks 
in cooling so that a full gallon when cold weighs 
eleven pounds. The experienced syrup-maker's eye 
at once tells. When it "aprons off " from the edge 
of a dipper (empty e.xcept the drippings) in drops 
nearly an inch wide, it is ready to draw ofl' for 
syrup. 

"Cleansing" the syrup. — A careful sugar-maker 
does not cleanse the syrup; he keeps the syrup 
clean from first to last, and there is not the least 
need of "cleansing" it with milk or eggs, as in the 
old times. The bucket covers, gathering-cask or 
can, covered store-troughs and straining as it 
enters them, exclude practically all dirt, and the 
skimming while boiling, and straining the syrup 
take out any that might remain. 

Color of the syrup. — The very best and most delicate 
flavored syrup is a very light amber color, as light- 
colored and clear as white clover honey. The 
writer gathers as soon as the sap is fairly out of 
the tree and boils it all rapidly before stopping for 
the night. All buckets are washed usually about 
once a week, and always as .soon as the least white 
film of sourness begins to form on the bottom. Hot 
water is drawn around to the trees, and the buckets 
are washed and wiped. The spouts are pulled and 
scalded, or new and clean ones are used, and the 
holes are rimmed every two or three weeks. This 
keeps the sap sweet and the syrup light-colored 
and delicate-flavored through the entire season. 
Sap soured so that it has even a slight filmy white- 
ness makes dark-colored, rank-flavored syrup, 
greatly inferior to the best in flavor and in price. 
By washing buckets and spouts and freshening the 
holes whenever they need it, it is possible to make 
fancy "first-run" syrup the entire season until the 
buds begin to swell At this time the syrup, 
though often of very light color, has a "buddy," 
sickish flavor, very difl'erent from the rank taste of 
the dark syrup made from souring sap. Then the 
season is over for making first-class syrup, although 
in Ohio there is sometimes another excellent run. 
Soft maples bud and spoil the sap much earlier 
than the hard maples, and are seldom tapped in 
Ohio. 

Quality. — Only the very best syrrp pays a good 
profit. Maple sweets can never compete in cheap- 



t34 



MAPLE-SUGAR 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



ness with the refined sugars and syrups made from 
sugar-cane and sugar-beets for simple sweetening 
purposes. But for syrup as a table luxury there 
is nothing to compare or compete with it. For a 
strictly fancy article, in the writer's opinion, the 
price will increase year by year because popula- 
tion and wealth increase and the maple-groves 
diminish, and are not being much replanted, though 
they might well be. Some twenty-five years ago 
the writer planted about two hundred young trees 
along the roadsides, and now they are nearly large 











Fig. 659. The making of hay, where hay is cheap; it is a wasteful method. 



enough to tap ; and, with clean turf to the edge 
of the stone pike, they make a beautiful boule- 
vard out of a common country road. 

Closing up. — At the close of the season all vessels 
and utensils should be scalded, washed and wiped, 
and stored " in the dry," the buckets not " nested," 
so that they will not rust. Then the large shed 
should be filled with fine wood for the next season's 
boiling. Thus stored, old rails, limbs and partly 
rotten wood, unfit for sale, will do very well with 
a little sound wood. Such wood dried ten months 
under cover makes the most rapid boiling and the 
best quality of syrup. 

Ulilizing the product. — Nearly the entire Ohio 
crop is made into best syrup with apparatus much 
like that described above, and is sold as a luxury 
costing the consumer $1 to $1.40 per gallon. Per- 
haps one-tenth of the crop is made into "maple 
cream," a delicious, almost white, soft, creamy 
candy, that sells at twenty to thirty cents per 
pound. It is made by boiling best-grade syrup a 
little less than it is boiled to make the hard, coarse- 
grained cake sugar. While hot it is rapidly stirred 
till it comes to a thick, whitish, creamy condition 
and is poured into molds when as thick as it will 



pour. It never becomes very hard and brittle, and 
dissolves quickly in the mouth with a most deli- 
cious flavor. 

MEADOWS AND PASTURES. Figs. 659-675. 

[See, also, article on Grasses.] 

By S. Eraser. 

Meadow is land devoted to crops which are to be 
made into hay. The word is from the Anglo-Saxon 
jnati = meadow. Frequently land which is too low 

and wet to be 
used for other 



purposes is re- 
tained as mea- 
dow. Pasture 
■is land de- 
voted to crops 
which are to 
be grazed. 
The word is de- 
rived through 
the old French 
from the 
Latinjoas/wra. 
The plants 
most c m - 
monly used 
for these pur- 
poses include 
the clovers 
and the true 
grasses, and 
plants of many 
other species, 
frequently 
weeds, and all 
are generally 
spoken of col- 
lectively as 






"grass" and the land as "gras.s-land." 

Meadows and pastures may be permanent or 
temporary in duration. When permanent, the land 
is seldom or never plowed ; when temporary, grass 
is grown for one to four years, usually as part of 
a rotation of crops. 

The end in view, whether meadow or pasture, 
permanent or teraporaiy, will materially aid in 
deciding the seeds which should be sown on grass- 
land. For example, in a meadow the aim is to 
have all the plants at their best at one time, viz., 
when they are to be cut for hay. In a pasture the 
aim is to secure plants which will give a uniform 
amount of feed throughout the season, from spring 
to fall ; thus far, the advice given to secure this is 
to sow a number of difi'erent species of plants 
which are at their best at different times, and which 
will survive climatic conditions. 

For temporary grass-land it is necessary to sow 
seeds of plants that are not costly, that arrive at 
maturity quickly and that give a good yield the 
following year. On the other hand, in the case of 
permanent grass-land, cost of seed and the time 
taken to reach maturity are secondary to duration 
and adaptability of the plants when established. 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



435 



Permanent and temporary grass-land. 

Land may usually be kept perma.nently in grass 
on 

(1) Hillsides subject to washing. 

(2) Upland at a distance from market, and where 
labor is scarce or high. 

(3) Lowland subject to flooding. 

(4) Rocky or stony land. 

(5) Swamp land. 

(6) Heavy clay soils that can be tilled only at 
considerable expense. 

Sometimes it is profitable on high-priced land 
which could readily be tilled if desired. 

Temporary grass-land is especially suited to 
sandy or light soils where grass and clovers will 
nof hold for more than one or two years, and is of 
especial value in almost any rotation. Some of the 
advantages accruing from its use are : 

(1) Usually a larger yield of produce is secured 
per acre ; and when leguminous crops are grown 
the crop-producing power of the soil is increased. 

(2) The introduction of grass crops into a rota- 
tion reduces the labor bill. 

(3) It furnishes an opportunity for improving 
the texture of the soil when the humus has been 
exhausted by several years of tillage, by adding 
humus from the mat of roots and stubble. 

Whether temporary or permanent grass-land 
should or should not be adopted on any particular 
farm depends entirely on the conditions, and must 
be decided by the farmer himself. 

If temporary grass-land is adopted, it may be 
accepted as a general rule for the grass-growing 
region of the New England and northern central 
states, that the clay and heavy soils may be left 
longer in grass, with profit, than the lighter soils. 
Whenever permanent grass-land, especially pasture, 
is the aim, it is well to remember the Engli.sh 
adage, "To make a pasture will break a man, but 
to break a pasture will make a man." Making per- 
manent pasture is slow work. Once the land is 






Fig. 660. Hay-fleia of Geo. M 



Clark, Hieganum, Conn. 

intensive methods. 



seeded it should never be plowed, and wherever 
there is great difficulty in retaining a sod, intelli- 
gent care being given, it may be accepted as evi- 
dence that conditions, climatic or otherwise, are 



such that it is better to adopt a system of tempo- 
rary grass-land. 

A poor pa.sture is unprofitable, and yet a large 
proportion of the pastures of the eastern part of 
the United States are poor. This is due, largely, to 
lack of knowl- 
edge and gen- 
e r a 1 indiffer- 
ence. To grow 
good grass is the 
fine art of agri- 
culture, and no 
farm crop is 
grown on high- 
er-valued land. 
In Italy the best 
irrigated grass- 
land is valued as 
high as $3,000 
per acre ; and 
those parts of 
England most 
famous for their 
pastures and 
meadows are the 
most highly 
prized. The Eu- 
ropean farmer 
has given much 
more attention ^'^.661. The old way. 

than the American to growing good grass. The 
present article reflects the English point of view 
as adapted to American conditions, for the writer's 
first experience was gained in England. 

Valuing grass-land. 

The general method of estimating value is to 
consider the yield per acre, without any special 
reference to the feeding-value of the crop. In the 
case of hay grown for sale, this metliod may be the 
correct one, but it is not necessarily so in the case 
of a pasture. The true value of a pasture is based 
on the amount of " net available nu- 
trients" which it produces per acre; 
or, in other words, the influence of 
the herbage on the animal that con- 
sumes it. By this method of valuing, 
the pasture which produces the most 
beef, mutton or milk, would be 
ranked as of the most value. 

The following are some of the 
factors that have a direct influence 
on the value : 

(1) The character and condition 
of the soil. Certain soils, owing to 
their peculiar properties, are emi- 
nently fitted for the production of 
good quality grass. One of the most 
important of these properties is the 
ability to hold sufficient moisture. 

(2) The method of management. 
Manures and fertilizers influence the total yield and 
quality of the herbage and the time of growth. 
They may prolong the period of growth of a short- 
lived pasture. They tend to reduce the variation 






■..,^^ 



The resnlt of 



436 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



in yield due to favorable and unfavorable seasons. 
At Rothamsted, England, during a period of twenty 
years, the yields of hay from unfertilized grass- 
land varied from 4,368 pounds per acre in the 
most favorable season, to 892 pounds per acre in 
the least favorable one. On well-manured grass- 
land, alongside, the yields varied from 8,960 
pounds to 4,480 pounds during the same period. 
Mismanaged land does proportionately worse in 
unfavorable years when produce is high. In other 
words, land in good condition gives more uniform 
yields and the good farmer is more independent of 
seasonal variations than the poor farmer. 

By intense cultivation and heavy fertilizing and 
seeding, Mr. George M. Clark, of Higganum, Con- 
necticut, reports enormous yields of hay (Fig. 660). 
He says : 

" Last year (1906) my timothy and red-top field 
contained eleven acres, and the alfalfa field three 
and one-half acres. The eleven-acre field produced 
in two crops eighty-one tons of well-dried hay, and 
the three-and-one-half-acre field produced twenty- 
one tons in four crops, making one hundred and 
two tons from the fourteen and one-half acres. 
The seven - eighths - acre piece is a part of the 
eleven-acre field, and produced its usual crop of 
over eight tons, in two crops, each year, or one 
hundred and forty-seven tons in seventeen years, at 
one seeding." 

(3) The number and character of the plants per 
acre. Although it is not known how much empha- 
sis can be laid on these factors, it is conceivable 
that they are of some importance. It is certain 
that an animal must not have to travel too far to 
secure its food if we would have it fatten, and that 
a certain number of plants must be maintained per 
acre for profit. 

As to the character of the plants necessary for 
a good pasture, there is little data. Investigations 
conducted in the United Kingdom, by Drs. Fream 
and Carruthers, for the Royal Agi'icultural Society 
of England, show that there is not necessarily any 
relationship betweeen the botanical composition of 
the herbage of a pasture and its feeding value. 
In some of the best pastures the cultivated grasses 



might constitute as little as 11 per cent of the 
herbage or as much as 100 per cent ; legumes 
might constitute 38 per cent or be absent ; miscel- 
laneous plants, so-called weeds, might be absent or 
constitute 89 per cent by weight of the total yield. 
Two pieces of grass-land may have the same grasses 





Fig. 6M. Loading hay by hand. 



" % vO/ 

Fig. 663. A recently advertised wagon-loader. The platform 
is run to the reiir to receive tlie liny; then it is pulled 
to the front hy means of the hand wlieel, leaving the 
rear of the wagon rack to receive the remainder of the 
load. 

in the same proportion and yet the feeding value 
be very dift'erent. On the other hand, two pieces 
may have entirely different kinds of grasses and 
yet the feeding value be about the same. 

Individual plants of the .same species vary to a 
remarkable degree in duration, yield and other 
characters, and it is readily conceivable that the 
variation in feeding value is as marked as it is in 
other characters. The selection and propagation of 
desirable individuals is now attracting the atten- 
tion of plant-breeders. 

Although we have over 1,000 species of grasses 
growing in this country, not more than a score are 
in general cultivation, and these are sown on vari- 
ous types of soils and under very dissimilar climatic 
conditions. The sowing of grass seed at all is mod- 
ern, not having been in common practice either 
here or in England two hundred years ago, pre- 
vious to which time land was allowed to seed itself 
as best it could. 

(4) The earliness and persistency of the herbage; 
its ability to carry stock throughout the 
season. As already stated, a succession 
of grasses is generally advised for pas- 
ture. Taking the period of bloom as 
indicative of maturity, the order would 
be as follows, in NeV York: 

May (end) : Meadow foxtail, orchard- 
grass, Kentucky blue-grass. 
June : Meadow fo.xtail, orchard-grass, 
Kentucky blue-grass, tall oat-grass, 
red clover (some plants), white clo- 
ver, alsike clover (some plants), 
hard fescue. 
June (end) : Meadow fescue, timothy, 
awnless brome, alsike and red clo- 
ver, Canada blue-grass. 
July : Red-top, Canada blue-grass. 
Not all of the above grasses could be 
maintained on the same land fur a long 
period of time. The following brief 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



437 



not?s are suggestive ; all dates refer to New York 
conditions : 

Meadow foxtail thrives on damp, rich land, and 
on such furnishes feed from early May on. Its 
period of succulent growth and bloom extends well 










Fig. 664. Use of hay sling in field stacking. 

into .July under such conditions, some individuals 
not blooming until the latter date. It is relished 
by all stock. 

Meadow fescue is considered to be one of the 
best hay and pasture grasses. It is relished by all 
stock, but will not thrive unless the land is in good 
condition. It is suited to permanent grass-land 
only, since it takes two or three years to attain 
its highest productivity. 

Both meadow foxtail and meadow fescue are 
little known to American farmers, but they are 
much prized in England and merit attention here. 

Orchard-gra.ss is readily eaten by all stock during 
May and early June. It withstands drought well, 
but becomes coarse during July. If mown, the 
aftermath is readily eaten. 

Kentucky blue-grass is relished by most stock if 
grown on land in good condition ; if spindly and 
poor, it is not readily grazed. If well grown, few 
grasses are better for permanent pasture. 

Tall oat-grass is not readily eaten by stock, 
except in small areas. 

Red and alsike clovers are readily grazed by all 
stock and are used for hay. They furnish feed 
throughout the season if there is sufficient moisture, 
but are not long-lived plants in the eastern United 
States. They are used for temporary grass-land. 

White clover is used entirely for pasture. 

Timothy is the great hay grass. It is the grass 
for one- to three-year leys in the eastern United 
States. Some plants are adapted to grazing, and 
opinions differ accordingly as to its value as a 
pasture grass. 



Awnless brome grass (Bromus inermi^) is com- 
paratively new. Its place seems to be that of a 
pasture grass, where land is to be retained for a 
term of years as pasture. For permanent pasture 
its value is undetermined. 

Red-top is used for permanent and temporary 
grass-land, both as meadow and as pasture. It 
shows great power of adaptation and much varia- 
tion. 

Canada blue-grass is esteemed as a pasture grass 
in parts of New York and Canada. It is adapted to 
heavy clay soils, which have been badly eroded 
and will grow nothing better. 

Among other grasses of less importance are 
crested dog's-tail, which is of little value as a 
pasture grass; perennial and Italian rye-grass, 
which, although useful in England, have not proved 
of general value here. Sweet-scented vernal grass 
is of little or no value. Quack, although a valuable 
grass for pasture and meadow, is almost never sown, 
because of its weedy tendencies. 

(.5) The quality, digestibility and palatability of 
the herbage and of the diiferent grasses evidently 
vary widely, but there is still insufficient infor- 
mation. 

Tlie grasses to soio. 

From the foregoing it is evident that in seeding 
grass-land the following points warrant considera- 
tion : 

(1) Choose grasses that yield heavily under the 
local climatic and soil conditions. This is best de- 
termined by growing the different grasses sepa- 
rately on plats and noting the results during a 
term of years. 

In the eastern states the following grasses do 
best on moist soils : red-top, fowl meadow-grass, 
meadow fescue, meadow foxtail, Italian rye-grass. 







Fig. 665. Hay fork in use. 

For clays and heavy loams, alsike clover and 
timothy "do well for hay, while Kentucky blue-grass, 
Canada blue-grass, white clover and a little 
meadow fescue should be added if the land is 



438 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 




needed for pasture. Awnless brome is also doing 
well where it has been tried, but its use is still in 
the experimental sta^e. On average good land, 
red clover, red-top, timothy and Kentucky blue- 
grass are probably the least fastidious, orchard- 
grass and meadow fescue being a little more ex- 
acting. 

(2) Choose grasses that animals like, 
the plats be sown as suggested and ani- 
mals allowed to graze them, their choice 
will be apparent. On the Dunkirk 
clay loam soil at Cornell University, 
Ithaca, New York, dairy cows 
ranked the grasses in the follow- 
ing order: awnless brome, red and 
alsike clover, meadow fescue and 
timothy, orchard-grass, Kentucky 
blue-grass and red-top, the last 
mentioned grass being shunned 
wherever it occurred. On the 
Dunkirk clay in the Genesee val- 
ley. New York, fattening steers 
ate Canada blue-grass, Kentucky 
blue - grass, Danthonia spicata 
(which is rather prevalent), 
equally well, while red-top and 
timothy were left. Horses and 
sheep are more partial to orchard- 
grass than are cattle. 

Seeding grass-land. 

In seeding temporary grass -land, select 
seeds of plants which mature quickly ; it is 
wasteful to sow seeds of Kentucky blue- 
grass, meadow fescue or meadow fox- ^ 
tail, since it takes two or three ^^ 
years for these plants to attain 
full growth. Red and alsike clo- 
vers, timothy, red-top and or- 
chard-grass suggest themselves as 
being desirable for this purpose. 
For permanent grass-land there 
is a greater variety at our dis- 
posal. In addition to those already 
mentioned, alfalfa, meadow fes- 
cue, meadow foxtail, Kentucky 
blue-grass, hard fescue, Canada 
blue-grass and others may be 
used. I- 

For a meadow a few kinds of " 
grasses are usually sown, and 
these are generally the tall, 
strong-growing species, as timothy, \ 
red-top, tall fescue, alsike and red clo- '|; 

ver. Almost invariably when maximum 
yields are secured, only one or two spe- 
cies are grown, it being much ea.sier to 
furnish the ideal conditions for the best 
growth of one or two species than it is for 
twenty species. 

Whenever the herbage of grass - land is 
diversified, and comprises twenty to forty dif- \,<> 
ferent species of plants, the yield per acre pjg_ ^^g^ 

is low. In seeding a permanent pasture, center tiip hay sling 
however, not only do we sow several spe- and locks. 



cies of grasses to secure a continuous "bite" 
throughout the season, but also because conditions 
change ; some of the grasses being slow in 
occupying the land, early -maturing species 
are sown with them to till the land and to 
exclude weeds, thus ensuring larger yields. 
Some of the grasses should furnish abun- 
dance of leaves and but few stems, thus 
giving a close, dense turf ; among such 
grasses are Kentucky blue-grass, hard 
fescue and some strains of timothy. 
Certain grasses are useful because 
of their stoloniferous habit of 
growth, which enables them bet- 
ter to withstand the treading of 
stock and to live and rejiroduce 
below ground. Such plants include 
Kentucky blue - gra.ss, red - top, 
white clover and many kinds of 
timothy. 




\l 




-\ 



%, 




Purchasing seed and sowing. 

Seeds of different species should 
be purchased separately and sam- 
ples taken for examination for 
purity and germinating power. 
[For advice on seed-testing, see 
page 1 40.] The true basis for pur- 
chasing and sowing seeds is not 
^ how many pounds per acre, but how 

many millions of viable seeds should be 
sown per acre. A pound of timothy seed may 
contain 1,300,000 seeds; a pound of red-top 
may contain 6,000,000 seeds; hence, to 
secure an equal number of plants per 
acre would require a much less 
weight of red-top than of timothy. 
The number of seeds which 
should be sown per acre depends 
on the soil, climate, the kind of 
grass and the object in view. The 
number of grass plants found on 
an acre of old meadow in Eng- 
land was over 78,000,000 when 
irrigated and about 18,000,000 
when not irrigated. A common 
estimate is to sow 20,000,000 via- 
ble seeds per acre, which is about 
450 per square foot. For tempo- 
rally grass-land, where one-third 
of "the seeds are legumes, 8,000,- 
000 to 10,000,000 seeds is ample 
in many places. On the Cornell Uni- 
versity farm when timothy and clovei 
are sown to remain one year, it is cus- 
'' tomary to sow ten pounds of timothy and 

ten pounds of red clover per acre, or about 
13,000,000 timothy seeds and 2,250,000 
clover seeds, a total of 15,250,000 per acre. 

The land should be well fitted. If weedy, two 

or three cleaning crops, as corn, potatoes and 

beans, .should be taken and the land well 

manured for these crops. Fertilizers and 

lime may be applied and liarrowed in before 

the seed is sown, if found to be desirable. 



1 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



439 



A fine, firm seed-bed is necessary, and the sub-sur- 
face must be compact to ensure the upward passage 
of moisture. This point will bear emphasis, many- 
failures occuring from not having the seed-bed 
sufficiently compact. 




Fig. 667. Six-tine grapple fork with spear. Open. 

If sown in fall it is usually advisable to sow not 
later than Septemlier 1. Spring sowing should be 
done as early as the ground will permit. Clover is 
usually sown in spring when the snow is still on 
the ground. This is a good practice because it is 
found that clovers germinate best under the low 
and steady temperature which is then maintained. 
Kentucky blue -grass, however, germinates best 
when subjected to a temperature alternating be- 
tween 68° and 86° F.; hence, if it is sown in fall, 
on or near the surface, these conditions are secured. 
Thus each kind of grass has a certain temperature 
or range of temperatures which are best suited for 
its germination. 

Under ordinary circumstances and with tempo- 
rary seedage, the sowing of the grass with a grain 
crop is advisable because it economizes the use of 
the land. It is well to mow the grass early the first 
year, even if it is to be used as a pasture. This 
prevents the grasses going to seed and thus weak- 
ening themselves. It may not be advisable to seed 
with a grain crop when an e.xpensive seed mixture 
is used in seeding permanently, when the land is 
very rich — the grain crop would lodge — nor when 
it is so poor in condition that it could not carry 
both crops. 



Number and weight cf grass seeds aiid amount to sow. 

It is hardly possible to give the exact formulae 
for seeding land to grass. The following notes are 
merely suggestive and may need modification to 
meet varying conditions. As already stated, various 
authorities have asserted that 10,000,000 to 20,- 
000,000 viable grass and clover seeds should be 
sown per acre, the lesser quantity when the clovers 
constitute a large proportion of the seed mixture 
or the land is seeded for but one or two years, and 
the larger quantity for permanent grass-land. The 
following table has been adapted from "The Best 
Forage Plants," by Stebler and Schroeter, and from 
it calculations may be made. The actual number of 
grains in a pound will frequently vary 20 per cent 
either way ; for example, in recleaned fancy seed 
there are fewer grains to the pound, while in an 

uncleaned sample free 

from chaff, but containing 
many small seeds, the 
number will be greater. 
The recleaned seed weighs 
heavier per bushel. The 
uncleaned seed may con- 
tain a large proportion of 
chaff and in such case 
the number of seeds per 
pound of material may be 
very low. The numbers 
given are per pound of 
pure seed. The percentage 
of germination of average 
samples of seed is fre- 
quently but half, and even 
less than half, of that 
given in the table. The 
germination of the rye 
grasses given in the table 
is a little higher than ordinarily found in the United 
States, even with imported seed. Low germinating 
power may be due to lack of uniformity in ripening 
the seed ; to part of the seed on a plant being 
mature before the remainder, frequently seen in 
meadow foxtail ; or to poor methods of harvesting, 
as in Kentucky blue-grass. 




V 

Fig. 668. Double harpoon 
fork, with twenty-five- 
inchtine. Closed. 



Name 


Number of grains 

in one pound of 

pure seed 


Amount to sow per 

acre, if sown alone. 

Stuudard quality 


Good percentage 
of germination 


Weight per 
English bushel 


Weight of 10,000,000 

grains. Size as 

per column 1 






Pounds 




Pounds 


Pounds 


Awnless brome grass . . 


137,000 


30-50 


75-90 


13-14 


72.99 


Kentucky blue-grass 




2,400,000 


15-20 


80-90 


14-32 


4.17 


Orchard-grass . . 




579,000 


20-35 


80-95 


12-23 


17.25 


Perennial rye-grass 




336,800 


25-40 


95-98 


18-30 


29.7 


Italian rve-grass . 




285,000 


30-45 


95-98 


12-24 


35.1 


Meadow fescue . . 




318,200 


30-35 


75-95 


12-30 


31.42 


Sheep's fescue 






680,000 


25-30 


60-75 


10-25 


14.85 


Tall oat-grass . 






159,000 


20-30 


80-90 


10-16 


62.89 


Meadow foxtail 






907,000 


20-25 


60-90 


6-14 


11.02 


Red-top , . . 






6,030,000 

1,170,-500 

707,000 


8-16 


90-95 


12-40 


1.65 


Timothy . . . 






10-16 


95-98 


45-48 


8.54 


Alsike clover . 






10-13 


95-98 


60-64 


14.14 


Red clover . . 






279,000 


10-16 


95-98 


60-64 


35.8 


White clover . 






740,000 


10-12 


95-98 


60-64 


13.51 


Alfalfa . . . 






209,500 


15-30 


95-98 


60-64 


48.56 







440 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



Testing seed. 

In testing the seed for germination power and 
purity it is more satisfactory to weigh out a sample 
of the seed, separate the chatf and inert matter, 
weigh it, and then proceed to make a germination 
test of the remainder. For example, if a sample of 
awnless brome grass contain 10 per cent of dirt 
and chaff, and 75 per cent of the pure seeds are 
viable, the actual germination power of the sample 
is 67.5 per cent, or 

75x90 _ 

100 ~^^-^ 

Mixing seed. 

It is important that each kind of seed be pur- 
chased separately in order to permit an examina- 
tion for purity. When satistied that the seeds are 
as desired, the different ones may be mixed for 




Fig. 669. Wide-moutli engine truck, swivel and reversible 
steel traclc carrier for hay fork. 

seeding. It is desirable that seeds which are of a 
similar size and character should be mixed and 
sown together ; for example, it is much better to 
mix timothy seed with any clover which is being 
sown, provided that both are being sown at the 
same time, than to mix it with chaffy seeds, such 
as Kentucky blue-grass, meadow fescue or orchard- 
grass. If there are two compartments on the seed 
barrow, then clover and timothy should be mixed 
and sown in one, and the chaffy seeds, such as 
meadow fescue, Kentucky blue-grass, orchard-grass, 
rye-grass, should be sown in the other compart- 
ment. Awnless brome grass is better sown by itself, 
since it requires different treatment. It not only 
requires much larger holes in the seed drill or 
barrow, but it is necessary to cover it much better 
than most of the other grass seeds.' 

In mixing, take the seed of which there is the 
greatest bulk and empty it on a tight floor, a good 
cement barn floor or something of a similar nature 
being desirable ; empty the next largest quantity 
on top, and so on, putting the seed of which there 



is the least amount on the top of the pile ; with 
scoop-shovels proceed to turn over the pile, putting 
it on a new base. A skilful man will give the 
shovel a twist by a mere turn of the wrist which 
will insure very good mixing of the different seeds. 
When the bulk of the pile has been made on the 
new site, the remaining seeds should be swept 
toward the new pile and the operation repeated. 
Four or five turnings will probably be necessary to 
secure a complete blending of the different seeds, 
and the process should be continued until a perftct 
mixture has been secured. 

Examples of seed mixtures which would furnish 
20,000,000 seeds, and the weight of same : 



For hay and fall pasture. 
duration. 



Heavy land. Short 

Weight of 



No. of 

Timothy 13,400,000 

Alsike 3,300,000 

White clover .... 3,300,000 



pure, vi.v 

bie seed. 

Lbs. 

11.44 

4.66 

4.46 



20,000,000 20.56 



For hay and pasture. 

Timothy 

Kentucky blue-grass 
Orchard-grass . . . 

Alsike 

White clover . . . 



10,000,000 
2,000,000 
1,400,000 
3,300,000 
3,300,000 



8.54 
0.82 
2.42 
4.66 
4.46 



20,000,000 20.90 
For hay and pasture. 

Timothy 8,000,000 6.84 

Kentucky blue-grass . 2,400,000 1.00 

Orchard-grass .... 2,000,000 3.46 

Meadow foxtail . . . 1,000,000 1.10 

Alsike 3,300,000 4.66 

White clover .... 3,300,000 4.46 

20,000,000 21.52 
For hay. Heavy loam. 

Red clover 2,790,000 10.00 

Alsike 2,121,000 3.00 

Timothy 7,089,000 6.06 

Red-top 8,000,000 1.32 

20,000,000 20.38 

For pasture, for two years' duration, the Ontario 
Agricultural College sows per acre : 7 lbs. red 
clover, 2 lbs. alsike clover, 4 lbs. timothy, .5 lbs. 
orchard-grass. If wanted for hay, the orchard- 
grass is omitted. 

For permanent pasture the same authorities 
advise : 4 lbs. orchard-gra.ss, 4 lbs. meadow fescue, 
3 lbs. tall oat-grass, 2 lbs. timothy, 2 lbs. meadow 
foxtail, 5 lbs. alfalfa, 2 lbs. alsike clover, 2 lbs. 
white clover, making 24 lbs. per acre in all. 

For wet land in New England for meadow, 
L. R. Jones, of Vermont, suggests, per acre, 10 lbs. 
timothy, 6 lbs. alsike clover, 4 lbs. recleaned red- 
top, 10 Ihs. fowl meadow-grass, in chaff. Sow in 
midsummer without a nurse crop. 

For meadow in a shady place, the same authority 
suggests, per acre, 1 bus. orchard-grass, 6 lbs. tim- 
othy, 3 lbs. meadow fescue or Kentucky blue-grass, 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



MEADOWS AND PASTUEES 



441 



8 lbs. red clover, 2 lbs. alsike clover, and 2 to 4 
lbs. of meadoiy foxtail if obtainable. 

For pasture in Vermont the same authority 
recommends, per acre, 8 lbs. timothy, 4 lbs. re- 
cleaned red-top, 7 lbs. Kentucky blue-grass, 2 lbs. 
orchard-grass, 2 lbs. meadow fescue, 3 lbs. red 
clover, 3 lbs. alsike clover, 4 lbs. white clover, and 
1 or 2 lbs. meadow foxtail if obtainable. 

In western New York the writer is using, for 
sav/ing on old pastures, a mixture of 2 to 3 lbs. 
timothy, 2 lbs. red-top, 4 lbs. Kentucky blue-grass, 
3 lbs. meadow fescue, 2 lbs. meadow foxtail, if 
good seed is obtainable, 2 to 3 lbs. red clover, f to 
1 lb. alsike clover per acre. On heavy clays, 2 
lbs. Canada blue-grass might be included. 

North Carolina Experiment Station (Bulletin 
No. 168) used the following mixtures, per acre, for 
one crop of hay and then to be pastured for 2 or 3 
years : 10 lbs. tall oat-grass, 5 lbs. orchard-grass, 
1 lb. red-top, 2 lbs. Kentucky blue-gra.ss, 74 lbs. red 
clover. Another mixture used was, per acre : 14 
lbs. orchard-grass, 7J lbs. red-top, 7 lbs. Kentucky 
blue-grass, 5 lbs. red clover, 2J lbs. white clover, 
J lb. alsike clover. Another year the following was 
used, per acre : lOJ lbs. orchard-grass, 7 lbs. Ken- 
tucky blue-grass, lOJ lbs. tall oat-grass, 5k lbs. 
meadow foxtail, 7 lbs. Canada blue-grass, 3| lbs. 
red-top, I lb. white clover, 4 lbs. red clover. 

For southern states for hay sow 3 lbs. per acre 
of Bermuda-grass, good imported seed, at any time 
the ground is moist or likely to continue so for some 
time. This grass is generally started by planting 
pieces of sod or cuttings of the underground stems, 
owing to difficulty in securing good seed. Texas 
blue-grass (Poa arachnifera) is usually started 
from cuttings in the same way as Bermuda-grass, 
although seed is sometimes sown. Rescue-grass or 
Schrader's brome grass is sown at the rate of one 
bushel per acre in August or September. One-half 
bushel of rescue-grass and a few pounds of bur- 
clover make a good hay crop. 

For pasture in Mississippi, Lloyd suggests carpet- 
grass and lespedeza for the sandy valleys ; awnless 
brome grass, crab-grass and Mexican clover for the 
upland ; and turf oats and hairy vetch for winter 
and eai'ly spring grazing. Orchai'd-grass is also a 
useful plant. For wet and seepy land sow red-top 
and alsike clover. 

For pasture in western Nebraska, Professor Lyon 
suggests, per acre, 4 to 6 lbs. orchard-grass, 6 to 
10 lbs. awnless brome grass, 8 to 14 lbs. meadow 
fescue, and a small amount of alfalfa, Kentucky 
blue-grass and white clover. The amount of meadow 
fescue may be increased in the southern part of the 
state and the brome grass in the northern part. 

For hay for two years and then pasture, alfalfa 
may be sown with awnless brome grass, meadow 
fescue or orchard-grass, sowing 20 to 25 lbs. of 
alfalfa and 15 to 20 lbs. of the grass seed per acre. 
The alfalfa will occupy the land for the first year 
ar two, after which the grasses come in. 

Machines for sowing grans seed. 

In northeastern United States it is customary to 
sow the timothy in the fall at the time the land is 



sown to wheat, an extra hopper being provided on 
the grain drill for the purpose. If clover is used 
on such land, it is generally sown in the spring 
either with a seed barrow, which frequently is 
made ten to fourteen feet wide and pushed by 
hand, or by means of one of the hand-seeders of 
the Cyclone or other type, which consists merely 
of a revolving disk which scatters the seed ; or it 
may be sown by hand. In many cases it is desirable 
lightly to cover the seed ; the weeder with a seecV 
box attached is an admirable toc>l for such work. 
This tool is mounted on two wheels, which furnish 
the drive for the seeder and enable the operator to 
ride. [See pictures of seeding tools, pages 133, 137.] 

]ny grasses "run out." 

The same plant cannot occupy the same piece of 
land for an indefinite period of time. Grasses, like 
other plants, live and die ; they tend to run out or 
disappear. Farmers find it necessary to reseed 
more or less often if they wish to maintain the 
grass on the same land. There are several reasons 
why grasses run out : 

(1) The plant may live its normal life and then 
die. The duration of life of most grasses is not 
understood and little is known regarding the influ- 
ence of grazing or cutting on their lives. 

(2) When a plant dies the tendency is for some 
other plant to take its place ; just as oaks may 
follow hemlock or pines, so weeds take the places 
of grasses unless prevented by the farmer. 

(o) The changes in the texture or condition of 
the soil influence the herbage. When land is newly 
seeded certain grasses may thrive which will not 
do so when the soil becomes more compact. The 
treading of animals further compacts the soil and 
it is not so well " aerated." The air space in the soil 
is partially maintained by the death of plants and 
decay of their roots. 

In the Genesee valley on Dunkirk clay soil, when 
it has been eroded, Canada blue-grass, oxeye 
daisies and white clover constitute the bulk of 
the herbage, but if grazed for twenty or thirty 
years, the land improves sufficiently so that Ken- 
tucky blue-grass begins to come in and in two or 
three decades more the herbage consists largely of 
Kentucky blue-grass, meadow fescue and white 
clover. 

(4) Climatic conditions are important. Late 
spring frosts kill early-growing or earlj'-maturing 
grasses, as orchard-grass and meadow foxtail ; but 
if such are protected by manure, or even cut straw, 
they may survive similar conditions. Favorable 
spring weather may enable such grasses to develop 
unusually well, and crowd out later- growing 
species. 

Changeable autumn and winter weather, freezing 
and thawing, and even heavy rains are more in- 
jurious to some gi-asses than to others. On the 
heavy clay lands of New York the chief factor in 
determining the life of alsike, red clover and even 
timothy is the winter. In changeable winters 
many of the plants are heaved out and their places 
are later taken by oxeye daisies, live-for-ever and 
other weeds. 



442 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 




Drought injures grass-land in several ways. It 
not only reduces the water content of the soil, 
because of which some grasses suffer more than 
others, but it causes the soil to bake and crack and 
so injures the roots. Under such 
conditions, deep-rooted grasses, 
as tall oat-grass and awnless 
brome, may survive; and grasses 
having nar- 
row, bristle- 
like leaves, 
such as 
sheep's fes- 
cue, tend to 

Fig. 670. Root digger or grass-hoe. .Some- ,., ' / 

times lised for destrojiiig weeds. Wnile S U C h 

grasses a s 
red-top, which have flat leaves, will iose ground. 
Thus the changing seasons may be one of the prime 
causes for changes in the herbage of a pasture. 

(•5) Injudicious management. Timothy may be 
ruined by too early cutting, time not having been 
given for food to be stored in its thickened stem, 
which would tide the plant over the summer 
droughts. Grazing too close has the same efi'ect, 
especially if done late in the fall. Grasses may be 
pulled up by animals or the land may be poached 
by the stock if they are turned on when it is too 
wet. 

Certain grasses, such as timothy, are perennial 
by means of stolons. The stolons are formed about 
the same time the seed is developed. Anything 
which prevents the formation of the stolon causes 
the death of the plant and a bare spot in the 
pasture. 

Renovation of worn-oid meadows and pastures. 

One of the best ways to renew grass-land or to 
maintain it in good condition is to fatten cattle or 
sheep on it, feeding the animals concentrated feeds 
and, in some cases, hay and forage in addition. 
Sheep are most highly esteemed, because they eat 
so many weeds and because their droppings are 
scattered uniformly over the land. In the case of 
cattle or horses, the droppings should be distributed 
every two or three months by running a chain 
harrow or a weeder over the land. 

The application of barnyard manure, lime or 
fertilizers is profitable in many cases. Barnyard 
manure has a more lasting influence than most fer- 
tilizers. To determine which is the most profitable 
fertilizer to use, a fertilizer test should be made 
and maintained for a term of years. Lime may be 
applied at the rate of 1,000 pounds per acre, once 
in every three to five years. In addition to the 
above, the pasture should be harrowed in the spring 
or fall as soon as it shows signs of becoming thin 
or sod-bound, the disk-harrow being an excellent 
tool for the purpose, although the spring-toothed 
or spike-toothed harrows may be used in some 
cases. The weeds should be mown either once or 
twice a year before they bloom, and liberal appli- 
cations of grass seed made every two or three 
years, in spring or fall after the harrowing. Under 
such management, not only may land that is now 



good meadow or pasture be maintained as such, 
but much of the poor meadow and pastures of the 
country may be converted into good ones. 

Liter alxLre. 

Spillman, Farm Grasses of the United States, 
Orange Judd Company, New York City ; Sutton, 
Permanent and Temporary Pastures, London ; 
Farmers' Bulletins of the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, No. IIL 
the Farmer's Intereist in Good Seed, and No. 12.3, 
Red Clover Seed ; Division of Agrostology, United 
States Department of Agriculture, Bulletin No. 14, 
Economic Grasses; Eraser, Pastures and Meadows, 
Farmers' Reading- Course, Bulletin No. 10, New 
York State College of Agriculture, Ithaca, New 
York ; Same, Pastures and Meadows, Report of the 
Bureau of Farmers' Institutes of New York, 1903, 
pp. 246-295 ; Flint, Grasses and Forage Plants, 
J. H. Sanders Publishing Company, Chicago ; Shaw, 
Grasses and Clovers, etc., Northrup, King & Co., 
Minneapolis, 189.5 ; Same, Clovers, Orange Judd 
Company, New York City; Wallace, Clover Cul- 
ture, Iowa Homestead, Des Moines, Iowa, 1892 ; 
Beal, The Grasses of North America, two vols., 
Henry Holt & Co., 1897 ; Fream, The Complete 
Grazier, 1893 ; Killebrew, Grasses and Forage 
Plants. In addition, there are very many excellent 
discussions in the publications of the national De- 
partment of Agriculture and of the various state 
and provincial experiment stations. [See references 
to literature under various articles on forage plants 
and under the article on Grasses^ 

Grasses and Clovers Used in Meadows and 
Pastures. 

By W. J. Spillman. 

The number of American grasses is well-nigh 
countless. It is not the purpose of this Cyclopedia 
to consider all of them. The best that can be done 
is to set forth the more important features of those 
that are of leading economic importance, and to 
suggest to the reader their uses and range of 
adaptation. The present article treats chiefly of 
the cultivated grasses and clovers. The succeeding 
article considers native meadows and pastures for 
the ranges. 

Place in the cropping system. 

With reference to the position occupied by the 
grasses in the cropping system, we may divide the 
United States more or less arbitrarily into six 
divisions. The first and most important of these 
divisions comprises in a general way those states 
in which timothy and clover and blue-gra.ss are the 
principal constituents of arable grass-lands. This 
region lies north of a line from Virginia to Kansas, 
and east of a line from Kansas to eastern North 
Dakota. In the Appalachian region, and in the lime- 
stone soils of central Tennessee, are found southern 
extensions of the area, while New England, for the 
mo.st part, should be considered separately. Out- 
lying areas are found more or less generally dis- 
tributed in the northern half of the Rocky moun- 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



443 



tain states and the northern half of the Pacific 
coast states. In this region, which we may appro- 
priately call the timothy region, the type of rota- 
tion which prevails very generally on farms where 
rotation is practiced is corn, followed by small 
grain (usually wheat in the southern part and oats 
in the north), with timothy and clover sown with 
the small grain. On the best farms the grass is 
cut for hay one or two years and is sometimes 
pastured one or two years more before being 
broken up for corn. On poorly managed farms, 
which are by far the more numerous, the grass is 
left down for an indefinite number of years until 
weeds especially adapted to meadow lands creep 
in, rendering the hay of inferior quality and greatly 
reducing the yield. Because of this practice, the 
average yield of timothy and clover hay in this 
country is only about a ton and a quarter per acre, 
whereas it could easily be made two tons by a 
proper system of rotation, combined with the best 
use of farm manures. 

In New England we find a marked modification 
of the rotation type prevailing generally over the 
timothy region. On many of the best New England 
farms the small grain is omitted from this rotation, 
the grass seeds being sown directly in the corn at 
the last cultivation. This operation in New Eng- 
land is called "stocking" the land. On good New 
England dairy-farms it is customary each year to 
plow up about a third or a fourth of the grass- 
land which most needs renewing. This plowed land 
is then fertilized, planted to corn (sometimes peas 
and oats or other cereal crops), and then restocked 
with grass at the earliest opportunity. 

A different modification of the prevailing rota- 
tion of the timothy region is found in certain 
parts of the Pacific Northwest, mainly in western 
Oregon, and, to some extent, in western Washing- 
ton. In that section, instead of following grass- 
lands by a cultivated crop, it is more usual to sow 
small grain in the spring, especially oats. This is 
followed the next year by a cultivated crop, after 
which fall grain is sown. Timothy is sown with 
this fall grain and clover added in the spring. The 
reason for this arrangement of crops is found in 
climatic conditions. Sod land cannot be broken up 
and sown to corn in the spring because of the 
absence of summer rains. It would be too dry 
during the summer. The sod, therefore, must be 
broken in the fall. Land being thus made available 
for early spring operations, it is the logical place 
to sow oats. Because of the absence of summer 
rains, the oat land cannot be prepared for wheat 
in the fall. On the other hand, it has been found 
that wheat can be sown after a cultivated crop in 
the fall, with excellent results. 

In those sections where alfalfa is the principal 
meadow and pasture crop, as it is in all irrigated 
sections of the West and is rapidly becoming so 
along the eastern edge of the Plains region, rota- 
tions, when they are used at all, are arranged with 
reference to this crop. The land is usually left in 
alfalfa for a period of three to five or more years. 
When fir.st broken up it is devoted either to a culti- 
vated crop or a small-grain crop. This is usually 



followed by sugar-beets or potatoes (sugar-beets 
are not grown the first year after alfalfa because 
the large roots of the alfalfa interfere with their 
cultivation). The land is then again devoted to 
small grain, with which alfalfa is sown. There 
are numerous variations of this general type of 
rotation in the section in question. 

In the South rotation of crops is almost unknown. 
In a few instances it is beginning to be practiced. 
One of the best rotations in any part of the coun- 
try is widely adapted to conditions prevailing in 
the South. It consists of cotton, followed by corn, 
with which cowpeas are sown. This crop is followed 
by a winter crop of oats and a summer crop of 
cowpeas. This gives four crops in three years, 
leaving two blank spaces to be filled by cover-crops 
or green-manures, namely, between the cotton and 
the corn and between the cowpeas and the cotton. 
In this rotation permanent or semi-permanent 
grasses have no place. When live-stock-farming 
becomes general in the South, and Johnson-grass 
has spread over all the territory to which it is 
adapted, which it ultimately will do, there is a type 
of rotation including Johnson-grass which will be 
good. It closely resembles that .iust outlined and, 
in practice, may be identical with it, but with the 
John.son-grass added. It will consist of cotton 
followed by corn and cowpeas, these by a winter 
crop of oats. After the oats are harvested, the 
Johnson-grass is allowed to come up, and furnishes 
two crops of hay the first year. The next year 
it furnishes three cuttings. If then it is used an- 
other year for pasture without disturbing the soil, 
its rootstocks come very near the surface and it 
can be broken up for cotton and got rid of almost 
as easily as Kentucky blue-grass in the North. In 
breaking up the sod for cotton, however, it is of the 
utmost importance not to plow over four inches 
deep, for if the rootstocks be buried deeper there 
is great difficulty in eradicating the grass. On 
farms where the first type of southern rotation 
is used there is always more or less permanent 
grass-land usually devoted to Bermuda. 

I. The Ti.mothy Region 

As already intimated, the principal grass crop of 
the timothy region consists of a mixture of timo- 
thy (Phlcum pratense). Fig. .5.36, and red clover 
(Trifolium pratense). Fig. 671. This crop usually 
follows wheat or oats and precedes corn. The mix- 
ture is left down by different farmers from one 
year to an indefinite length of time. In the shorter 
rotations on well-managed farms, two tons of hay 
per acre are usual and the very best farmers secure 
three and a half to four tons per acre. The longer 
the grass remains down under ordinary manage- 
ment the lower the yield. After three or four 
years the yield usually falls below one ton per acre 
and the hay consists largely of weeds. 

Timothy is usually sown in the fall with wheat 
or other fall-sown grain. It may be sown at the 
same time as the grain, from a special grass-seed 
compartment on the grain drill, in which case 
some farmers allow the timothy seed to fall in 



44-. 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



front of the grain hoes so that it will be covered 
by the drill ; others allow it to fall behind the 
drill hoes, either covering the seed later by means 
of a light harrowing or brushing of the land 
or leaving it to be finally covered by rain. The 
quantity of timothy seed usually sown under such 
circumstances varies from four to twenty pounds 




Fig. 671. Red clover. 

per acre, although few farmers sow less than eight 
or more than si.xteen pounds. One peck (eleven 
pounds) is perhaps about the average. 

The clover is added in the spring. There are two 
general methods of sowing the clover. In the east- 
ern two-thirds of the timothy belt and rather gen- 
erally in the western third, it is customary to sow 
the clover seed in late winter or early spring, usu- 
ally in February or early in March, either on light 
snow or at a time when the ground is lightly 
frozen and cracked "honey-comb" fashion, leaving 
the seed to be covered by natural processes. This 
method has been fairly satisfactory, though it is 
thought not to be as reliable as the following. In 
the western third of the timothy region the better 
class of farmers wait until the ground is in condi- 
tion to harrow before .sowing clover. The seed is 
then sown and the ground harrowed. 



The quantity of clover seed sown on timothy and 
wheat in the spring in this manner is, generally 
speaking, about the same (by weight) as the 
quantity of timothy seed sown in the fall. Some 
farmers sow more clover than timothy per acre ; 
others sow less. The average quantity sown is prob- 
ably about twelve pounds per acre. This is six 
quarts of clover seed, while it would require a 
little more than eight quarts of timothy seed to 
weigh twelve pounds. 

Because of the prevalence of the idea that timo- 
thy must be sown in the fall with grain, less timo- 
thy is grown than formerly in some of the best 
agricultural sections of the West where wheat has 
been largely abandoned. It has been shown in 
recent years by the practice of some of the most 
successful farmers in the country that, e.xcept 
along the western edge of the timothy region, one 
of the moist satisfactory practices is to sow timothy 
and clover together on well-prepared land in late 
summer (not early fall), though some farmers 
sow as late as the middle of September. This is 
considered late sowing by farmers who practice 
this method. When sown thus without a nurse- 
crop, a full crop of hay is produced the ne.xt year, 
while if sown as first above outlined, a crop of 
hay is not taken until the second summer. In the 
western edge of the timothy region this method 
has not been found to be entirely satisfactory. 
There is too much danger of severe drought in late 
summer. In that section a few progressive farmers 
have found that clover at least may be sown in 
corn at the last cultivation, and that a good stand 
can be assured by this method with perhaps more 
certainty than with any other method. In some in- 
stances in southwestern Missouri, the better class 
of farmers sow timothy alone in the early fall and 
add the clover in the spring after the land is in 
condition to harrow. This method has proved very 
satisfactory where it has been tried, furnishing a 
moderate crop of hay the first j'ear. 

It is known that timothy may be added to a 
clover sod at any time by sowing the timothy in 
the early fall and harrowing it in. Likewise, clover 
may be added to a timothy sod at any time by 
sowing it fairly early in the spring and harrowing 
the sod. As already stated, timothy and clover are 
sown very generally in corn at the last cultivation 
in New England, with excellent results. In that 
section corn is grown mostly for silage. This 
leaves short corn stubble, which is harvested with 
the hay the first year ; but since on good farms 
this hay is fed on the place, the corn stubble is not 
very objectionable, as it makes a convenient bed- 
ding when left in the feed-racks by the cattle. 
[See Clover.] 

Other meadow ingredients. 

Red-top. (Fig. 538.) In some parts of the 
timothy region red-top is frequently sown in the 
mixture. This is particularly true in New England, 
New York and Pennsylvania. Occasionally it re- 
places timothy entirely, for instance in a consider- 
able section of poorly drained prairie land in 
southern Illinois, where most of the red-top .seed of 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



445 



the country is grown. Generally speaking, how- 
ever, red-top is considered a weed, and its presence 
in hay on the marlvets results in a lower grade for 
the hay. At the same time, it is more nutritious 
than timothy and is said to be especially desirable 
for horses when they can be taught to eat it 
readily. 

Red-top is especially valuable in low, moist to 
swampy places, and may be used on such areas in 
meadows and pastures. It will endure flooding for a 
considerable time. It is suggested, also, that it does 
best on acid soils. It i.s not adapted to quick rota- 
tions, as it does not become well established under 
two years. It has creeping stolons, and makes a 
good bottom grass. When u.sed with bunch grasses 
it fills in the open spaces and makes a good sod. In 
the South it makes a fair growth through the 
winter, if the weather is not too severe, and in the 
spring grows rapidly. 

The quantity of red-top seed used in mixtures 
with other grasses varies widely, from perhaps one 
pound of recleaned seed to eighteen or twenty 
pounds. The recleaned seed is the most satisfactory, 
as less of it is required. It does well with timothy, 
orchard-grass and alsike clover. Twelve to fifteen 
pounds of recleaned seed are ordinarily suflicient 
for a goo;l stand. It is also much used in lawn 
mixtures in the north Atlantic states. Ordinarily, 
the seed on the market contains a large amount of 
chaff, and in order to get the same result it re- 
quires three or four times as much of this as of 
recleaned seed. The weight of the market seed 
varies with its purity, but ten to twelve pounds 
per bushel is a fair average. The recleaned seed 
weighs about thirty-five pounds. The seeding is 
made in the spring generally, although it may be 
in the fall with timothy. 

AUike clover (Fig. 335) is rather generally used 
in small quantity in the meadow mixture and its 
use is becoming more prevalent than formerly. 
This clover succeeds well on land where red clover 
formerly succeeded, but now fails. Heretofore 
about two pounds of alsike have been used in the 
mixture in place of four pounds of red clover, but 
in recent years the quantity of alsike has been in- 
creased. In middle Tennessee and in western Ore- 
gon, alsike is rapidly replacing red clover entirely, 
because of the prevalence of diseases to which red 
clover is subject and alsike is not. [See Clover.] 

Pastures in the' timothy region. 

Timothy and clover meadows are more or less 
generally used for pa.sture purposes throughout 
the timothy region. The aftermath is very fre- 
quently pastured after hay is cut, and it is a com- 
mon practice to use the meadow exclusively for 
pasture after the first or second year. The only 
other pasture gra.ss of great importance in this 
section is blue-grass (Figs. 549-551), more com- 
monly known in the southern parts of its territory 
as Kentucky blue-grass and in the northern parts 
as June-grass (Pon pratensis). In the quality of 
the forage it furnishes, blue-grass is hardly sur- 
passed by any other grass in this country. In 
yield, however, it is inferior to many other grasses. 



It furnishes most abundant feed from early spring 
to early summer and again in the fall after the 
heat of summer is past. In some sections blue- 
grass invades meadow lands and becomes well estab- 
lished by the time the clover begins to disappear, 
which is usually in two years. This is especially 
true on soils to which blue-grass is particularly 
partial. In other sections blue-grass is added to 
the meadow land at the time the clover is sown 
and becomes established within two or three years. 
Ordinarily this grass is very slow to start and in 
some sections farmers, particularly those whose 
principal business is the production of beef cattle, 
are loath to plow up a good blue-grass pasture 
because of the difiicultyof starting it again. Blue- 
grass is usually sown in the spring. The quantity 
of seed varies greatly because of the difference in 
quality as it is found on the markets. Twenty- five 
pounds per acre of the best quality is sufficient for 
a good stand, although it would require seventy-five 
pounds of much of the seed on the market. 

Mi.xtures of other gras.ses than those here dis- 
cussed are so rarely met with in the timothy region 
that they cannot be considered within the space 
available for this article. A few other grasses, 
however, deserve brief mention. 

Position of other grasses and clovers in the timothy 
region. 

Orchard-grass (Fig. 544) is of importance in only 
a few sections which lie on the margin of the tim- 
othy region. An exception consists of two or three 
counties in Kentucky, below Cincinnati on the Ohio 
river, and one county opposite in Indiana. Most of 
the orchard-grass seed of the country is grown 
here. [Bulletin No. 100, Bureau of Plant Indus- 
try, entitled " Orchard Grass."] In some parts 
of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, northern 
Arkansas, southern Missouri and eastern Kansas, 
orchard-grass is grown considerably both for hay 
and for pasture. It is usually seeded in the spring 
on well-prepared land with or without clover. 
Twelve to twenty-five pounds of seed are used per 
acre, according to the quality of the seed and the 
condition of the seed-bed. With goed seed and a 
well-prepared bed twelve pounds makes a very 
satisfactory stand, especially for seed-growing. 

Orchard-grass has two serious faults. In the 
first place, it grows in bunches and makes a very 
rough sod. In the second place, it must be cut very 
promptly at blossoming time or within a few days 
thereafter, in order to make a good quality of hay. 

Brome grass (Bromus inermis). Figs. .557, 672. 
This grass will be more particularly mentioned in 
dealing with the Plains region. Because of its larger 
yield of forage and its excellent quality this grass 
deserves more attention, especially as a pasture 
grass, than it has formerly received in the north- 
eastern quarter of the United States. [See page 
452.] 

Fold meadow-grass (Poa trifl.ora, Gelib.; P. sero- 
tina, Ehrh.). Fig 552. This is an important grass 
on wet lands in some parts of New England and 
is frequently recommended for wet lands through- 
out the timothy region, though it has made no 



446 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



headway except in New England. Very little of it 
is on the markets and little is known concerning 
the quality of the seed or the amount required for 
sowing. As is the case with most grasses which 
are not standards, and the seed of which occurs in 
the markets in small quantities, the seed is usually 
not of very good quality. 

Japanese millet (Panicum Crus-galli). Barnyard 
grass. (Fig. 526.) This grass has become somewhat 



\ 







Fig. 672. Brome grass (Bromus inermis). 

important in parts of New England. It may be 
sown for soiling and silage purposes at any time 
from late spring to midsummer. When cut at the 
proper stage, it is greatly relished by cattle. It is 



very difficult to cure as a hay and is ordinarily 
used only for soiling or for silage. 

Barnyard grass prefers a rich, moist soil. The 
seed is lighter than that of most of the millets. It 
may be broadcasted, but drilling is preferable. One 
to three pecks to the acre is sufficient when sown 
for hay. It is deserving of more attention than it 
has received, for it yields heavily. It produces a 
large amount of seed. [See Millet.] 

Meadow fescue {Festuea pi-atensis). Fig. 554. 
This grass has assumed importance in eastern 
Kansas, where it is known as English blue-grass. 
It is sown in spring at the rate of about twelve 
pounds of good seed per acre. The first year it 
furnishes considerable pasture. Thereafter it is 
used for pasture, for seed production or 
for hay. Elsewhere in this country meadow 
fescue is seldom met with, being found occa- 
sionally on the Pacific coast and rarely in 
other parts of the timothy region, especially 
along the southern border. 

Tall oat -grass (Arrhenatherum elatius). 
Fig. 535. This is found occasionally in Ten- 
nessee and on the northern Pacific coast, 
but is practically unknown elsewhere in this 
country. It recjuires about thirty pounds of 
seed per acre and the high price of the seed, 
usually twenty-five to thirty-five cents per 
pound, makes it almost prohibitive. It is a 
"ight yielder, ripens at the same time as 
orchard-grass, with which and red clover it 
may be sown. It makes a fair quality either 
of pasture or of hay, which, however, is 
not at first readily eaten by stock. 

Crimson clover (Trifolhnn incarna' 
turn.) Fig. 338. This winter annual has 
become established, in recent years, 
along the Atlantic seaboard, and is oc- 
casionally met with in the middle South. 
On the north Atlantic coast, as far 
north as Freehold, New Jersey, it may 
be sown at any time from June to Octo- 
ber first. Ten to twenty pounds of seed 
per acre are used, usually the smaller 
amount. It is frequently sown in corn 
at the last cultivation; also after a croji 
of potatoes has been harvested. Its 
principal use is as a green-manure and 
cover-crop, but it is also valuable as 
winter pasture, a spring soiling crop, and, if cut 
before full bloom, as hay. If cut later, the barbed 
lobes of the calyx form "witch balls " in the stom- 
achs of animals, sometimes in such quantity as to 
cause the death of cattle and horses. The crop is 
diflicult to grow except in a few localities where 
farmers have learned its peculiarities and the soil 
has become inoculated with its appropriate bac- 
terium. [See Clorei:] 
■ Alfalfa. [See Pacific coast region, page 452.] 

Italian rye-grass {Lolium multiflorum), Fig. 560, 
is the leading hay grass of England and the conti- 
nent of Europe. It has never been popular in the 
United States except in mixtures for lawns, where 
its rapid, early growth soon gives a green coat to 
the soil, and as a hay and pasture grass in the 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



447 



Pacific Northwest. In the latter section it is very 
frequently found in meadows and pastures. Al- 
though practically a biennial, it is very early, and 
the seed falls readily when mature, so that it 
reseeds itself freely. It is usually grown with 
clover in western Washington, and gives good 
yields of hay or silage. This grass is occasionally 
sown in the South, in which section it behaves as a 
winter annual. Most of the seed of this grass 
obtainable on our markets is the refuse of the 
European crop, and is very unreliable. If good seed 
could be had, fifteen or twenty pounds per acre 
would give a good stand. Of ordinary market seed, 
twice as much usually gives a poor stand. 

Perennial rye-grass (Lolium perenne), Fig. 561, 
does not differ essentially in its culture from 
Italian rye-grass. It grows best on stiff, wet soils, 
doing very well in marshy situations, where it will 
persist for several years. 

Sheep's fescue {Festuca ovina). Fig. 555. This 
grass is not suited for hay, as it makes a too light 
growth, but it has value for pasture in the cooler 
and drier parts of the country. It does well on 
sandy soils. It may be seeded at the rate of three 
bushels per acre. 

Red fescue {Festuca rubra), Fig. 556, is occasion- 
ally cultivated for lawns or in pasture mixtures, 
and is adapted to shady places. It grows on dry 
sandy soils and sterile uplands, making a fine, close 
sod. When seeded alone it is used at the rate of 
two and one-half bushels per acre. In grass 
mixtures it is used in small quantities. The seed 
weighs fourteen pounds to the bushel. 

Rhode Island bent-grass (Agrostis eanina), Fig. 
539, is similar in habit of growth and adaptations 
to red-top, and much of what has been said regard- 
ing that grass applies to this. It is especially valu- 
able for lawns. Most of the seed is grown in Rhode 
Island and Connecticut. 

Canada blue-grass (Poa compressa). Fig. 547. 
This grass has value for pasture in the North, par- 
ticularly in the northeastern states, but is not a 
heavy yielder. It succeeds best on clay soils and 
is better adapted to sterile knolls and barren fields 
than any other cultivated grass. It also does well 
on sandy soils and withstands drought. It should 
be sown in mixtures with other grasses when used 
for hay or pasture. The seed is a common adulter- 
ant of Kentucky blue-grass seed. [See pages 143, 
144.] The plants can be distinguished by the flat 
stem of the Canada blue-grass ; and the latter has 
a bluer color and does not grow so tall. 

Weeds in timothy and clover meadows. 

When short rotations are practiced, the meadow 
being left down only one or two years, there is 
seldom any trouble from weeds. When the grass is 
left down for longer periods certain weeds become 
very abundant. In New England, quack-grass (Ag- 
ropi/ron repms), Figs. 159, 564, white daisy (Chry- 
santhemum Lcueanthcmum), buttercup (Ranunculus 
bulbosus), and orange hawkweed (Hieracium. auran- 
tiacn.m), Figs. 156, 157, are the most troublesome, 
quack-grass being worse than the other three com- 
bined. In the middle states, red-top (Agrostis alba), 



Fig. 538, creeps into the meadows and is considered 
a weed. Another weed known as white-weed (Erig- 
eron Philadclphicus) is very prevalent in old mea- 
dows. Quack-grass is beginning to appear in that 
section and ultimately will probably be as preva- 
lent as it is in New England. On the Pacific coast 
west of the Cascade mountains, velvet-grass (Hol- 
eus lanalns), Fig. 541, is the most prevalent weed 
in meadow lands. It may be exterminated by cut- 
ting for hay before seed is formed, and disking the 
land repeatedly during the dry summer. This will 
exterminate the velvet-grass by the latter part of 
August, when any crop desired may be planted. 

Velvet-grass is used locally in parts of north- 
western United States for forage. It yields about a 
half ton of very light hay per acre, that is nutri- 
tious but not palatable. The seed matures early 
and shatters badly, and in addition is easily wind- 
borne, so that it is readily scattered. 

Quack-grass is a widely distributed and trouble- 
some weed in Europe and in southern Canada 
and the United States. Its extensively creeping 
rhizomes enable it to spread rapidly. It has some 
value as a forage, particularly in permanent mea- 
dows or pastures. It is both nutritious and pala- 
table. A permanent sod must be gone over with a 
disk-harrow occasionally to loosen the sod. It is 
most useful as a soil-binder because of its persistent 
rootstocks. Quack-grass may be eradicated (accord- 
ing to Beal) by plowing late in fall, or very early in 
spring, regardless of weather conditions, and then 
using a shovel-toothed cultivator every three days 
till the middle of June. All green leaves must be 
persistently kept down. The harrow must cut off the 
stems below the surface of the ground to be effec- 
tive. It is not worth while to plow deep or to rake 
out the rootstocks. The plant can be eradicated 
faster by thorough work in the spring growing 
season than later in dry weather. A cultivated 
crop should first be used on the land, and all of the 
grass that comes up persistently chopped out with 
a hoe. The only cure is entirely to rid the soil of 
the roots and seeds. 

II. The Cotton-belt 

Coirpeas. (Fig. 371.) The most important hay 
crop in the cotton-belt is cowpeas. When sown for 
hay they are usually sown alone after a crop of 
small grain. The yield is seldom less than a ton 
per acre and sometimes as much as three tons, or 
even more. Two tons, however, may be considered 
a good yield. The hay is most excellent, especially 
when the seed-pods are numerous and well filled. 
Cowpeas are somewhat difficult to cure for hay. A 
method more or less generally used is to bunch the 
hay on poles set in the ground and extending to a 
height of five or six feet. Two cross-pieces about 
four feet long are nailed to the poles about six 
inches from the ground. The hay is then piled on 
until it tops the stake. In this way cowpea hay 
may be cured in any kind of weather. Cowpea hay 
may be readily cured by the use of hay caps made 
of No. 10 ducking cut forty inches square, attach- 
ing a small weight to each corner. 



448 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



Cowpeas are frequently sown in corn in the 
South at the last cultivation, either broadcast or in 
drills, at the rate of two pecks of seed per acre in 
the latter case. Most of the cowpea seed of the 
country is gathered by hand from peas thus sown. 
In a few instances, after the corn is gathered the 
corn-stalks and cowpea vines are cut together for 
hay. More commonly the vines are left on the 
ground for their renovating effect. This crop is 
very frequently sown alone, to be plowed under 
in renovating worn-out lands. This is an excel- 
lent practice, although where stock is available it 
would be more profitable to harvest the crop, 
feed it, and return the resulting manure to the 
land. When a heavy crop of cowpeas is plowed 
under, it is usually wise to wait until the following 
spring before planting the land to another crop. 
[See Cowpea.] 

Satisfactory grasses are much needed for the 
South. Only two grasses have thus far been found 
that are generally adapted to the cotton-belt, and 
both of them are more or less objectionable because 
of their weedy nature. They are Johnson-grass and 
Bermuda. 

Johnson - grass (Andropogon Halepensis, Brot. 
Sorghum Halepense, Pers., Figs. 518 and 673). 
Known locally in South Carolina and parts of 
Georgia as Means' grass. Johnson - grass was 
introduced into this country from Turkey about 
seventy years ago. It was hailed as a great hay 
grass for the South, and spread rapidly for a 
number of years before its weedy character was 
realized. It is probably the most productive hay 
grass in this country, and it is certainly one 
of the worst weeds. The weedy character is due 
to the remarkable development of its sy.stem of 
rootstocks, every joint in which is capable of 
producing a new plant. It is thus exceedingly 
difficult to eradicate when once -established. When 
once started on a farm, it sooner or later spreads 
over the entire farm. It is distributed more or less 
generally throughout the cotton-belt. Northward 
its distribution is limited by cold. It does not 
spread into sections where the soil freezes to a 
depth of three or four inches in an ordinary winter. 
In recent years it is becoming established on irri- 
gated lands in the Southwe.st, where it is giving a 
great deal of trouble, particularly in vmeyards, 
where it is difficult to fight. 

Johnson-grass will grow on almost any kind of 
soil, but it does best on rather heavy, moist land. It 
spreads ordinarily from the seed, but in cultivated 
land small bunches of the grass are spread more or 
less from the rootstocks, which are dragged about 
the field in tillage operations. In some sections 
it is unlawful to sow the seed of this grass. No 
very definite statement can be made concerning the 
quantity of seed required for a good stand. The seed 
weighs about forty-five pounds per bushel, and the 
quantity sown varies from a bushel to a bushel and 
a half per acre. 

Johnson-grass yields, in ordinary seasons, three 
full cuttings of hay. All kinds of stock prefer the 
hay to timothy, and it is somewhat more nutritious 
than the latter. Because of its rather laxative na- 



ture, it is not well adapted to feeding livery horses 
that are liable to be driven to the limit of endur- 
ance immediately after a full feed. For ordinary 
work horses and for cattle, the hay is entirely 
satisfactory. Like all of the sorghums, however, 




Fig. 673. Johnson-grass (Sorghum Halepense). By some, all 
the sorghums are included in the genus Andropogon. 

it is somewhat lacking in protein, and should be 
fed with other materials rich in that material. 

When it is desirable to utilize a stand of John- 
son-grass for the production of hay, it is necessary 
to plow the land every two or three years in order 
to keep the meadow productive. The best time to 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



448 



plow for this purpose is just after the last crop of 
hay is harvested, or in spring before the growth 
has begun. The yield of Johnson-grass may be 
increased by sowing some winter legume, such as 
bur-clover or the common vetch, and pasturing the 
legume off during the late winter and early spring. 

The fact that livery stable men do not find .John- 
son grass hay a satisfactory feed, and the fear of 
introducing Johnson-grass through the hay in sec- 
tions where it is not already established, greatly 
limit the market for this crop. There is a fair 
market in some sections where the grass is well 
established and in regions where the lumbering 
industry is important. 

Recent studies by the United States Department 
of Agriculture have resulted in discoveries that 
render the complete eradication of Johnson-grass 
comparatively easy. The underground stems live 
only one year. After passing through the winter, 
these stems have only one mission, and that is to 
throw up branches to the surface. These new 
branches, on reaching the surface, form crowns and 
produce new plants. About blossoming time these 
new plants send out a new growth of underground 
stems, which, if the top is left uncut, grow to 
great size and length, frequently penetrating the 
soil to a depth of four feet. But if the top is cut 
back promptly every time it heads out, these new 
rootstoeks develop very late in the season, are 
very slender and remain very ne?r the surface. If 
the grass be cut close during a season, then by 
plowing just deep enough to turn up all the root- 
stock, say three to four inches deep, the grass can 
be eradicated about as easily as Kentucky blue- 
grass. The succeeding crop should be a cultivated 
one, such as corn or cotton. A little better culti- 
vation than usual will exterminate the pest when 
it is treated as here outlined. 

Bermuda-grass {Cynodon Daclylon), Fig. 540, is 
distributed throughout the cotton-belt, and through- 
out the Gulf coast region, where cotton is not im- 
portant. It ic decidedly difficult to eradicate and 
hence is rather generally considered a weed. It 
can be held in check by growing densely shading 
crops such as sorghum, millet, cowpeas, velvet 
beans and the like. By smoothing down the land 
and allowing a perfect sod to form, the grass may 
be killed by shallow plowing followed by thorough 
tillage in dry, hot weather in summer. In the 
northern part of its territory an old sod may easily 
be killed by shallow plowing in late fall or in the 
winter. The resulting exposure of the roots to 
cold efl^ectually kills the grass. 

When grown for hay, Bei'muda may be cut two 
or three times in a season. On good, fairly moist 
land it will yield two or two and one-half tons of 
hay per acre. In one instance, on James island, 
near Charleston, S. C, whore vetch volunteers in 
the fall on a Bermuda sod many years old and is 
allowed to die down in the spring, two crops of 
Bermuda hay yielding four tons per acre are cut. 
This field has been handled in the same way for 
twenty-five years, with excellent results. It is 
heavily fertilized every spring with phosphoric 
acid and potash. 

B2» 



Bermuda is the best pasture grass of the South. 
Its carrying capacity is perhaps greater than that 
of any other pasture grass in the country. In the 
early part of the season, while the grass is young 
and tender, it is highly palatable. In late summer 
it becomes more or less wiry unless carefully 
handled, and is not so satisfactory. Unlike John- 
son-grass, it will bear any amount of trampling, 
on the heavier class of soils at least, apparently 
without injury. On light, sandy soils it is rather 
easily driven out by other grasses, especially near 
the Gulf coast by carpet-grass (page 451). 

Bermuda pastures and meadows are usually 
started from small pieces of sod incorporated in 
the soil. The seed of this grass is rather unreliable 
and usually costs not less than seventy-five cents 
a pound. By giving the seed-bed special prepara- 
tion, fining it by moans of the harrow as much as 
possible, and sowing the seed after the ground is 
thoroughly warmed, three or four pounds of seed 
will usually give a good stand, if it comes at all. 
A very good way to set land to Bermuda is to 
tramp into the ground while it is muddy small 
pieces of Bermuda sod. Another way is to drop 
pieces of sod two or three feet apart in every sec- 
ond or third furrow while the land is being plowed 
three or four inches deep. Still another very good 
practice is to put the land in good condition by 
plowing and harrowing, scatter pieces of sod broad- 
cast and then roll them into the land. 

Paspaium dilatatum. Water-grass. 'Fig. 521.) 
This grass is found more or less widely scattered 
in the cotton-belt, and by many is thouf^ht to be 
of considerable value for hay and pasture, though 
its value is really not well established. It has 
a long growing season, starting early in spring 
and remaining fresh and green till fall. It is hardy 
and will grow on a wide range of soils, but prefers 
moist situations. It stands pasturing. The seed 
has recently found a place on the market. The 
seed is attacked by a fungous disease, which renders 
most of it useless. It should be gathered either 
very early in the season or very late to avoid this 
fungous disease. Little is known concerning the 
quantity of seed required or the best method of 
seeding. [See page 451.] 

Cereals. The cereal grains are much grown for 
hay and for winter pasture in the South. Oats is 
by far the most important. They are all more or 
less valuable for both of the purposes mentioned. 

Crah-grass (Syntherisma sanguinalis). Fig. 520. 
This grass is abundant throughout the cotton-belt 
and beyond. It is very frequently cut for hay, 
whic^i is of fair quality, and is much pastured. As 
the grass comes up volunteer on land which is 
cultivated in the early part of the season and left 
undisturbed in midsummer, it is a cheap source of 
feed. It furnishes an important part of the hay 
crop, but is seldom sold off" the farm where it is 
produced. The yield is half a ton to a ton and a 
half per acre, the smaller yields being usual ; three 
tons per acre may be secured under the best con- 
ditions. The seed is never sown, the growth being 
entirely volunteer. It reaches its best growth in 
moist lands. The main difficulty is to cure the grass 



450 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



properly. When curing is well done, the forage is 
nutritious and palatable. 

Japan clover (Lespedeza striata). Fig. 593. This 
useful plant was first observed about 1850 at 
Charleston, S. C. Since that time it has spread 
throughout the cotton-belt and as far north as the 
Ohio and Missouri rivers. It is found rather gener- 
ally along roadsides and in waste ground. It fre- 
quently comes up in old deserted fields, in all of 
which situations it furnishes a considerable amount 
of valuable pasture. It is available for pasture 
from early summer till late in the fall. It seeds 
abundantly and when once established, although it 
is an annual, it is more or less permanent. The hay 
is said to be of excellent quality. [See Lespedeza.] 







" ^»v*ti53fe«B. 



'fSai 






Fig 674 Sacchanne sorghum grown for fodder 

Sorghum (Fig. 674) is very largely used in the 
South, in late summer, as a green feed for all 
kinds of stock. It is not infrequently sown thick 
and cut for hay. It is planted like either corn or 
wheat. In the former case one-half a gallon to a 
gallon of seed is used ; in the latter case, half a 
bushel to two bushels. [See Sorghum.] 

St. Augustine grass (Stenotapkrum secundatum), 
Fig. 530, is adapted to a wide range of soils, but 
seldom succeeds except near the coast. It is propa- 
gated readily by root-cuttings or pieces of the sod. 
Roots are formed wherever the joints touch the 
ground. 

Te.ras blue-grass (Poa araehnifera), Fig. 546, is 
a native of Texas, but it is now grown somewhat 
widely in the southern states. It makes a good sod, 
which remains green the year round. It makes its 
principal growth during the winter, beginning in 
October and furnishing pasture until April or May. 
The seed is matured in April. In the summer 
months it makes little growth. 

This grass would undoubtedly be more generally 
grown if it were easier to propagate. It produces 
an abundance of seed but is difficult to start from 
seed. Cuttings .of the rootstocks are used almost 
entirely. They should be set about twelve inches 
apart each way. The creeping rootstocks soon 
occupy the ground. It does best on a rich loam, 



well prepared and having good drainage. Planting 
may be done either in fall or spring, September 
and October being preferable. If seed is used, it 
should be drilled in, in rows about twelve inches 
apart. 

Rescue-grass (Bronius miioloides), Fig. 559, does 
best on a rich loam. It should be seeded in August 
or September, at the rate of thirty to forty pounds 
per acre. Farther north, where the .summers are 
not so warm, it may be seeded in the spring and 
be used for summer and fall pasture. When fall- 
sown in the South, it grows rapidly and may fur- 
nish pasture in December or January. The seed 
will mature in March or April. If the conditions 
are right, two cuttings may be had in a season, the 
first one in the spring. If the seed is allowed to 
mature in the spring, it will fall to the ground and 
remain dormant until fall. In this way a perma- 
nent stand may be .secured, and the land may be 
plowed and used for a summer crop during the 
dormant period. 

III. The Gulf Coast Region 

This is one of the most distinct agricultural 
regions in the United States. No distinct cropping 
systems are developed, although agriculture is more 
diversified in that section than in any other part 
of the South. Cotton is relatively of small impor- 
tance. Truck-growing perhaps stands first. Sugar- 
cane is important. Some phases of fruit-growing, 
especially in the southern part of the region, are 
prominent. More live-stock is found in the Gulf 
coast region than in any other southern territory. 
This is especially true of southern Texas and of 
central and southern Florida. In these sections, 
however, live-stock is not strictly farm animals 
but is run on ranges where the native grasses 
furnish more or less abundant feed. 

The section has four more or less valuable hay and 
pasture plants of identical habits. Three of these 
are found mainly in the eastern gulf region, the 
fourth almost wholly in the western. The three in 
the east are crab-grass, beggarweed {Desmodium 
tortuosum, also given as Meibomia tortuosa), and 
Me.xican clover (Richardsonia scabra). These all 
come up volunteer on land that is cultivated in 
spring and left undisturbed in summer. Frequently 
two or three of them are found together. Colorado 
grass, which is found principally in south-central 
Texas, has the same habits. It is of no importance 
except on alluvial soils, where volunteer crops 
sometimes furnish two or three tons of hay per 
acre. The hay is hard to cure because of its rank 
growth, but is of excellent quality if cut before it 
is too ripe. Crab-grass has already been discussed 
(page 449). It is perhaps more important in the 
Gulf coast region than it is in the cotton-belt. 
One farmer in Florida makes a business of produc- 
ing seed of this grass. Beggarweed (Figs. 305-307) 
is used mostly for pasture and as a cover-crop, 
though it is sometimes cut for hay and for silage. 
The silage is said to be of unusually fine quality 
for dairy cows. [See Bcgganreed.] Mexican clover 
has gradually spread over the eastern half of the 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



451 



Gulf coast region. It is grown only as a volunteer 
crop. Horses relish it green, but cows do not. All 
kinds of stock, however, eat the hay readily. In 
some localities it is an important addition to the 
forage resources. [See Mexican dove;-, page 309.] 
All of these crops produce feed that costs nothing 
but the harvesting, and in most cases the stock 
may do that. 

Velvet bean (Mucuna utilis). This crop is not 
much grown outside of Florida, but it is important 
there. It occupies the whole season, and is a very 
rank grower, the vines sometimes reaching si.xty 
feet in length. It is difficult to handle as hay, but 
a good deal of hay is made from it. 

The hay is of good quality and the yield is large. 
If left in the field, the vines and immature pods 
after they are frosted are eaten with relish by all 
kinds of stock. When the ripe pods have softened 
by contact with the ground, the seeds are readily 
eaten by cattle and hogs. About a peck of seed is 
used per acre, and the price of seed is usually about 
a dollar a bushel. It is doubtful whether this crop 
would satisfactorily replace cowpeas north of 
Florida. [See Velvet bean.] 

Carpet-grass (Paspalum compressum) . This grass 
is found from Florida to central Te.xas and north 
to Arkansas. The stems grow very close to the 
ground, sending up leaves two to six inches high. 
It is greatly relished by all kinds of stock, and its 
habit of lying flat and rooting at the joints enables 
it to bear closer cropping than any other good 
grass. On light sandy soils, when this grass is 
closely cropped it will drive out all others. It is 
not confined to sandy land, however, doing well on 
good upland loams. It is seldom cut for hay, but is 
one of the best pasture grasses in the country so 
far as quality is concerned. Its carrying capacity 
is hardly known because so little effort has been 
made to utilize it under farm conditions. Its seed 
is not on the market. The tall, bare stems are fre- 
quently cut and scattered where the seed is wanted. 
The seed could easily be gathered by hand or 
perhaps with a stripper similar to that used in 
harvesting blue-grass in the North. 

Paspalum dilatatum. This grass was referred to 
above (page 449). In one section of southwestern 
Georgia it has become known under the name 
Dallis grass, from the name of a progressive farmer 
who has made considerable use of it for hay and 
pasture. In eastern Australia it is by far the most 
important of the grasses. It is known there as pas- 
palum grass. It grows five or si.x feet high in 
Australia and is used mostly for pasture, remain- 
ing green the year round. It has been little tried 
in the Gulf coast region, but as it thrives in a cor- 
responding latitude in Australia, it would appear 
that it is worthy of trial in northern Florida. It is 
not well adapted to sandy lands, which may ac- 
count for its scarcity in the Gulf coast region. 

Japanese cane. A variety of sugar-cane known 
as Japane.se cane is somewhat frequently grown 
for forage in northern Florida and along "the Gulf 
coast as far west as Louisiana. The stalks are 
smaller and more numerous than those of ordinary 
sugar-cane and the plant remains green longer in 



winter. It produces enormous yields of good forage 
and is much appreciated by dairymen. It lasts sev- 
eral years longer from one seeding than does the 
ordinary sugar-cane. 

Cassava (Figs. 323, 324). An account of the 
forage crops of the Gulf coast region would not be 
complete without a mention of cassava. A few 
years ago this crop was e.xploited in that region 
and it became rather popular, although interest in 
it has waned greatly in recent years. In the Gulf 
coast region the roots are frequently used as feed 
for cattle and hogs, taking the place of corn, for 
which purpose they are valuable. It is difficult to 
secure a perfect stand of the crop. This may be 
done, however, by sprouting the stem-cuttings in 
coldframes before planting. An eft'ort is now being 
made by the United States Department of Agricul- 
ture to propagate this crop from seed, with a fair 
degree of success. [See Cassava.] 

Three recent introductions. 

Guinea-grass (Panieum maximum), Fig. 523, the 
great forage plant of Cuba, is getting a foothold 
in Florida and along the Gulf coast to Te.xas. It 
does best on lands that are not wet, furnishes five 
or more cuttings a year and yields an immense 
quantity of excellent soiling material. It is best 
cut every four weeks, otherwise it becomes large 
and woody. It is very sensitive to cold, and if the 
ground freezes at all the roots are killed. It is used 
chiefly as a soiling crop. For the best results it 
must be planted in rows about five feet apart and 
cultivated. It produces seed at Bilo.xi, Mississippi, 
and volunteers freely from this seed. Little is 
known of its seed habits, as it is usually propa- 
gated from root-cuttings. It lasts several years 
from one setting. 

Para-grass (Panieum molle), Fig. 522, is a bad 
weed in wet lands in tropical countries. It first 
sends out long runners (twenty or more feet) with 
internodes two feet long. From the joints it takes 
root and sends up branches three or four feet high. 
It is decidedly a wet-land gra.ss. Because of its 
vigorous growth it is diflicult to eradicate, but 
yields remarkable quantities of hay or pasture. It 
is fairly well relished by stock. It is pi-opagated by 
cuttings of the creeping stems, which live through 
the winter. It does not mature seed in this coun- 
try to any extent. The cuttings are best planted 
just before the rainy .season, about six to twelve 
feet apart each way. It is not adapted to rigorous 
climate.s, and mu.st not be cut too late in the fall. 
Time should be allowed after the last cutting to 
produce sufficient growth to protect the roots dur- 
ing the winter. It is a heavy grower, and may be 
cut every six weeks during the summer. The first 
cutting is made about June 1. It is grown in a 
few localities in Florida and in southern Texas. It 
has been known to carry three head of cattle 
per acre all summer and to keep them in good 
condition. 

Natal grass (Trichohena rosea) is a third recent 
introduction. It was introduced into Florida about 
1890 by S. M. Tracy. It is well established there 
in the wild state in a few localities. It seeds 



452 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



abundantly and is spreading. Very little is known 
of its forage value. It grows two to five feet high 
and may be worthy of more attention than it has 
received. In the Hawaiian islands it is a rather 
serious weed in the cane-fields. 

IV. The Plains Region 

The eastern edge of the Plains region may be 
considered in two divisions, namely, the north and 
the south. In the north, brome grass {Bromus iner- 
mis, see page 445) is the most important perennial 
hay and pasture plant. It takes the place in that 




Broom-corn viilld. There are several varieties 
of broom-corn millet grown in the Dakotas. The 
seed is several times larger than that of the foxtail 
millets. It is sown after the manner of wheat, 
mostly for its seed, which is used as feed for all 
kinds of stock. 

Sorghum. The several varieties of sorghum, 
both saccharine and non-saccharine, find their most 
important development as farm crops in the Plains 
region, especially from Nebraska southward. The 
ordinary sweei sorghums are grown largely for hay 
and for fodder. These crops are all resistant to 
drought and are relished by all kinds of stock. In 
Kansas and southward kafir (Figs. 577, 
578) is largely grown both for grain and 
fodder. A variety of sorghum closely related 
to kafir, known variously as milo, dwarf milo 
and yellow milo, is of special value in the 
Panhandle region of Texas. [See Kafir and 
Sorgkuvi.] 

Alfalfa is the most important hay plant 
of this region. It will be noticed more par- 
ticularly below. 

In this region large quantities of wild 
prairie grasses are cut for hay. The hay 
is found on all the western markets, where 
it usually sells at about half the price of 
timothy hay. 



Fig 675. Native pasture. Pott.-iin Ranch on south fork o£ Hum- 
boldt river, Elko county, Nev.iila. Looking down stream. 



V. The Rocky Mountain States 



section occupied by both timothy and blue-grass 
farther east. It is usually sown in the spring, either 
with or without a grain crop, at the rate of about 
twenty pounds of seed per acre. Home-grown seed 
is much superior to the imported, largely because 
imported seed is the refuse from the European seed 
trade. The first year it yields large quantities of 
excellent hay. If cut for seed a good crop will pro- 
duce 500 to 700 pounds of seed per acre. Later the 
grass becomes sod-bound, and unless broken up, 
and rolled and harrowed into condition again, it no 
longer yields profitable crops of hay or seed. It is, 
however, a good pasture grass for a number of 
years. It is beginning to be grown in rotation in 
that section much as timothy is grown in the East. 

Millet is important in the same region. This is 
true both of the foxtail millets and of the broom- 
corn millets. Brome grass extends as far south as 
northern Kansas, but does not succeed south of 
central Kansas. The millets, especially the foxtail 
varieties, extend to central Texas. 

The eastern edge of the Plains region is the only 
section in which millets are of first importance. 
It will be noticed more later. [See Millet.] 

Foxtail millets. There are many varieties of 
this group, the mast common being Common millet, 
or Hungarian-grass, and German millet. Common 
millet is grown most largely in the Northwest, Ger- 
man millet mostly in the South. The seed of German 
millet is largely grown in one locality in central 
Tenne.ssee. Hungarian-grass is grown more or less 
throughout the country, being frequently found in 
small areas on dairy-farms in the North, even in 
New England. 



In this section alfalfa is by far the most impor- 
tant hay and pa.sture plant. It is grown mostly on 
irrigated land in the mountain states and to the 
west. 

Timothy and clover, orchard -grass and the 
cereals, especially wheat and oats, occupy more or 
less important places in the economy of the farm 
in this section. In some of the mountain parks an 
e.xcellent quality of wild hay is secured. In one of 
these. South Park, Colorado, a species of rush 
(Juiieus Baltieus) is extensively cut for hay, and 
this hay on the Denver market outranks timothy 
as a feed for horses. In northern Montana, in the 
Milk river valley, a wild grass, known locally as 
blue-stem (Agropyron occidentale), is grown ex- 
tensively for hay, and it is generally considered as 
superior to timothy for horses. This same grass 
prevails more or less generally in Colorado and t is 
Dakotas, and, when present in considerable quan- 
tity in the native hay, adds greatly to its feeding 
value. It is especially adapted to wet lands and 
irrigated areas. It is nutritious and palatable, and 
relished by horses. Slender wheat-grass {Agropyron 
tenerum), which is a bunch grass, also does well on 
dry land and is very hardy against cold. It is a 
promising forage grass in the Dakotas and the 
Canadian Northwest, where it may be considered a 
standard grass. 

VI. Pacific Coast 

Alfalfa. In this section alfalfa outranks all 
other grasses and forage plants. It is almost the 
only hay crop grown on irrigated lands. We may 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



453 



fairly state that aside from maize it is the most 
valuable forage plant known to man. Many fields 
are reported that have yielded satisfactory crops 
for a quarter of a century or more. It succeeds 
generally on irrigated soils throughout the West 
and on good non-irrigated prairie soils in the 
Plains region from the Dakotas to southern Texas. 
Farther east it is more choice of soils, being diffi- 
cult to grow except on rich alluvial soils or on 
upland soils heavily charged with lime. It is be- 
coming well established on alluvial lands along the 
Red river in Louisiana and Arkansas and along the 
Mississippi river as far north as southeastern Mis- 
souri. It may be grown readily on good prairie 
soils in Missouri, Iowa, southern Minnesota, south- 
ern Wisconsin and northern Illinois. In central 
New York it has long been established on a peculiar 
limestone soil. Perhaps one of the best alfalfa 
soils in the country is that found in what is known 
locally as the Cane Brake in Alabama and Missis- 
sippi, a narrow strip of prairie land heavily charged 
with lime, running across the central part of the 
state of Alabama and turning northward into 
northeastern Mississippi. In the localities men- 
tioned, this crop is not difficult to start, though in 
some sections inoculation with alfalfa bacteria is 
necessary when the crop is first introduced. When 
this crop is difficult to grow, it is well to sow the 
seed from the middle to the latter part of August 
in the North, from the middle of August to the 
middle of September in middle latitudes, and either 
in September or March for the South. The number 
of cuttings increases southward, being three in a 
season in the northern states, four in the latitude 
of southern Missouri, four to six in northern Louisi- 
ana, eight to nine along the Rio Grande river, and 
eight to eleven in southern California. 

Aside from its use for dairy and beef cattle, 
alfalfa is perhaps the best hog pasture in this 
country. The feeding value of the hay is such that 
brood sows can be wintered on it without other feed 
very satisfactorily. It is also an excellent pasture 
for horses and mules. Because of its tendency to 
cause bloat, cattle and sheep should not be pastured 
on alfalfa except with great caution. [For further 
information, see the article Alfalfa, page 192.] 

On non-irrigated lands the cereals, especially 
wheat, are grown for hay very largely on the 
Pacific coast. Wild oats (Fig. 543) are a bad weed 
in that section. It is customary to cut those sec- 
tions of wheat-fields for hay in which wild oats are 
most prevalent. Barley and oats are also used 
extensively in some localities for hay. In western 
Oregon and western Washington timothy and clover 
occupy much the same place that they do in the 
timothy region of the East, but in that section 
orchard-grass and Italian rye-grass, particularly 
the latter, are much more appreciated than they 
are in most other parts of the country. Meadow 
fescue is also frequently met with in western 
Oregon. Along the northern Pacific coast, espe- 
cially on .sandy and peaty soils, velvet-grass is 
almost universal. It is generally regarded as a 
pest because of its low yield of hay and because 
stock will not eat it until starved to it. However, 



they can be made to acquire a taste for it, after 
which they will thrive on it. It yields about half a 
ton of hay per acre. 

Native Meadows and Pastures of the Plains and 
Ranges. Figs. 676, 677. 

By P. Beveridge Kennedy. 

The native or unsown meadows and pastures, 
existing on unbroken or wild land, extend over such 
a vast extent of country, with such varied charac- 
teristics of soil and climate, that only the larger 
phases of the subject can be treated in a discussion 
of this nature. Some of the leading species compris- 
ing the grazing flora may be mentioned. The native 
hay lands and grazing lands are not necessarily ten- 
anted by grasses and clovers alone, as we shall see. 

The Southwest. 

The greater part of Arizona, New Mexico and 
Texas is included in this region. Poplars and wil- 
lows are abundant along the rivers, while mesquit 
and creosote bush cover large 
stretches on the sandy and grav- 
elly mesas. The native meadows 
in the northern part consist 
largely of saccaton and salt- 
grass, which furnish forage of 
a poor quality. Farther south 
there is an open prairie coun- 
try. In some sections of New 
Mexico and Texas on the mesa 
lands, the grama-grasses fur- 
nish considerable summer and 
winter pasturage. In the ex- 
treme southwest, in the Texas 
prairie section, the wheat- 
grasses, blue-stems, gramas, 
wild-rye, mesquit-grass, switch- 
grass, needle-grass and bufl^alo- 
grass furnish considerable 
native pasturage in seasons of 
good rains. 

The important grasses enter- 
ing into the composition of the 
native meadows and pastures 
are, the western wheat-grass 
(Agropi/ron), feather and bushy 
blue-stem (Andropogon), three 
grama-grasses (Bouteloua), Ari- 
zona millet (Chmtochloa), wild- 
rye {Elgmus), everlasting grass 
(Eriochhin), curly mesquit (Hila- 
ria), wild timothy (Muhlcnher- 
gia), white-top (Triodia), galleta 
or black grama (Hilaria), alkali 
saccaton (Panicum), needle- 
grass, (Aristida), buff'alo-grass 
(BulhilU), bunch drop-seed grass 
(Sporobolus), and saltgrass {Dis- 
tichlis). 

The following plants, other 
than grasses, are of great importance on the ranges 
for forage : Mesquit beans (Prosopis, p. 308), screw- 
bean (Prosopis), lupines (Lupimis), milk -vetches 



Fig. 676. 

A Sage-brush. One 

of the Artemisi.is. 



454 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



(Astragalus), saltbushes, winterfat (Eurotia), plan- 
tains, altilaria, Stolley vetch, tallow-weed (ActineUa), 
tall tallow-weed {Amblyolepis), beggarweed, wild 
bean. Prickly pear and other cacti have been used 
for forage in this section by burning off the spines 
(page 226). 

The Great Plains region. 

The native grasses and forage plants of this 
region do not play such an important part in 
agriculture as formerly. There are sti'l, however, 
immense tracts of open prairie from which large 
quantities of native hay are cut. In wet and 
swampy places, slough-grass {Spartina), if cut when 



Tlie Rocky mountain region. 

The cultivated crops grown in this region are 
insignificant compared with the millions of cattle, 
sheep and horses that subsist on the summer moun- 
tain ranges and the winter desert feeding-grounds. 
The Red Desert of Wyoming alone is estimated to 
winter 300,000 to 500,000 sheep. In Wyoming 
some alfalfa is grown, but the bulk of the hay is 
made from the native grasses. The native meadows 
are composed chiefly of blue-grasses (Poa), wheat- 
grasses (Agropyron), brome- grasses (Bromus), 
rye-grasses (Elymns), blue-joint, needle-grass, hair- 
grass, mountain timothy {Phleum), mountain fox- 
tail (Alopeeurus), sedges and rushes. In the foothills 




Fig. 677. Mountain or bunch-grass pasture in the far west. 



young, furnishes a supply of coarse hay. Several 
blue-stems together with switch-grass (Panieum), 
side-oats grama {Bouteluua), and western wheat- 
grass, supply the bulk of the native hay. All of 
these are also valuable for pasturage, but the two 
chief pasture grasses are buffalo-grass and blue 
grama. Other grasses of importance are wild rye, 
wild timothy, reed canary-grass, and needle-grass 
(Stipa). Two native forage plants, other than 
grasses, which have come into prominence because 
of their forage value are the wild vetch (Hosaekia; 
see the article on Vetch, page 658) and Beckwith's 
clover (Trifolium Bcckiritliii). The former occurs 
more or le.ss abundantly throughout the prairie 
region, while the latter is common in low meadows 
along the upper Sioux valley and other places in 
South Dakota. As elsewhere on the open ranges 
of the country, much harm has been done by 
over-stocKing 



bordering on the Great Plains region, blue grama is 
abundant and important. Sheep's fescue and snow- 
grass (Festuca) are also important on the high 
mountain ridges. 

Two native species of clover. Rocky mountain 
and Beckwith's, add greatly to the nutritive value 
of the meadow hay in some places. There are very 
many other plants, both annual and perennial, as 
well as a large variety of shrubs, which are of 
value from a forage standpoint, but cannot be here 
enumerated. 

The Great Basin region. 

This region is bounded on the west by the Sierra 
Nevada mountains, extending northward to include 
parts of Oregon and Idaho, and southward to 
northern Arizona. Sagebrush and rabbit-brush 
{Chrysothainnus) are the prevailing plants, except 
where alkali is present, when the vegetation changes 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



455 



to iodine weed {Suada), greasewood (Sarcobatus), 
saltgrass (DMichlis), and saltbushes, according to 
the percentage of injurious mineral salts in the 
soils. In the central part of Nevada, along the 
Humboldt river, there are immense tracts of 
wild native hay and pasture lands. The stock is 
allowed to roam in the hills during the summer 
and in the autumn is turned into the meadows 
after the hay is all stacked, when they feed among 
the tules (Typha) and other places inaccessible 
to the mower. The hay consists largely of wild 
wheat-grass {Ehjmus). It is sold at so much per 
day for range stock being fattened for market. 
In the desert regions there are numerous moun- 
tain valleys irrigated by the melting snow from 
the mountains. These produce an abundance of 
native hay and pasturage, comprised largely of 
blue-grasses, clovers, sedges and rushes. Giant 
rye-grass (Elymus), when young and green, is cut 
in considerable quantities and left in bunches where 
the cattle feed on it in winter when other forage 
becomes scarce. There are hundreds of other plants 
of considerable value that are browsed on through- 
out the year to a greater or less extent. 

Pacific slope region. 

In this region might be included the states of 
California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and the ter- 
ritory of Alaska. It may be divided into the follow- 
ing geographical sections, each with its character- 
istic climate, (a) Pacific coast ; (6) upper Pacific 
coast ; (c) interior valley of California ; {d) the 
Inland Empire ; and (e) Alaska. 

(a) Pacific coast. — This section is characterized 
by low hills of usually poor soil, although in a few 
places the coast line has been eroded and has 
formed fertile flood plains. On these bottom lands 
one acre to a cow is usually suflicient, and stock 
is on pasture for nine months of the year. The 
native pasturage consists of oat-grass (Danthonia), 
red fescue, hair-grass (Deschampsia), blue-grass 
(Poa), and about ten wild clovers (Trifolium), while 
mixed with these to a greater or less extent are a 
number of introduced species, such as the perennial 
and Italian ray-grasses (Lolium), velvet-grass, soft 
chess, white clover, bur-clover (Medicago), black 
medic and alfilaria. 

(b) Upper Pacific coast. — This section includes 
northern California and the western parts of Ore- 
gon and Washington. The pastures consist mainly 
of tufted hair-grass (Deschampsia) , white-top, 
meadow barley-grass (Hordeum), oat-grass, prairie 
June-grass (Kwleria), California fescue, reed- 
grass, slough-grass (Bcekmannia), melic- grass 
{Melica), sheep's fescue, blue-grasses and several 
needle-grasses (Stipa). Adding greatly to the nutri- 
tive value of the hay and pastures are about fif- 
teen species of native clovers. The mountain ranges 
also support an almost endless variety of plants 
of forage value, such as the vetches, wild lupines, 
sunflowers, wild carrots, Indian potato and many 
others. To the detriment of the native plants, three 
weedy brome-grasses, velvet-grass, small barley- 
grass and squirrel-tail grass have become natural- 
ized. Hogs are usually turned into the woods, where 



they find plenty to eat almost the entire year 
round, feeding on acorns, nuts, manzanita berries, 
bulbs and tubers, together with grasses and clovers. 

(c) Interior valley of California. — This section 
includes two immense valleys, which form a huge 
basin in the central part of California. Locally 
the basin is divided into the San Joaquin and Sac- 
ramento valleys, named after the rivers which run 
through them. The flood waters of these rivers 
extend during the spring months over hundreds of 
square miles of land, making it worthless except 
for pasturage, and then only in the late summer 
months. As the waters recede, a strong dense 
growth of tules (Scirpus) is produced, which, to- 
gether with sedges, rushes and water-loving grasses,, 
provides forage for large numbers of stock. 

(d) The Inland Empire or Columbia Basin. — This 
includes parts of eastern Washington, northeastern 
Oregon and northern Idaho. In the Palouse country 
of eastern Washington, wheat and wild oats are 
largely grown for hay. Those sections of the Em- 
pire having a rainfall of less than ten inches are 
devoted largely to grazing and the production of 
alfalfa by irrigation. Large areas have been over- 
stocked and the native meadows are being replaced 
by cultivated crops. Some of the grasses of special 
importance growing indigenously in the meadows 
and bottom lands are western and false wheat-grass, 
white-top, water foxtail, blue-joint (Calamagrostis), 
oat-grass, hair-grass (Deschampsia), saltgrass (Dis- 
tiehlis), wild rye, meadow barley-grass, melic-grass, 
manna-grass and blue-grasses. On the dry hills in 
the ravines and among the sagebrush, the following 
are of considerable importance ; bunch wheat-grass 
(Agropyron), mountain rye-grass (Elymus), sheep's 
fescue, needle-grasses {Stipa) and false oat-grass 
(Trisetum.) 

In addition to the above there' are about ten 
native clovers, nearly all of which are very nutri- 
tious and well liked by stock. The sedges and 
rushes are also extremely abundant and enter 
largely into the composition of all the native 
meadows and pastures. As in other regions devoted 
to grazing, the vetches, milk-vetches, lupines, sun- 
flowers, saltbushes and wild peas play an important 
part in the production of forage. 

(e) Alaska. — Only a small part of this new terri- 
tory has been investigated from a forage stand- 
point. The chief literature describing the meadows 
and pastures is to be found in the annual report of 
the office of Experiment Stations for the year 1904, 
Bulletin No. 82 of the Bureau of Plant Industry, 
and the publications of the Alaska Experiment 
Station. The following extract from Bulletin No. 82 
will give some idea as to the present conditions : 
"Live-stock husbandry in Alaska will have to de- 
pend primarily on the native forage plants, sup- 
plemented in time, perhaps, by such additional ones 
r.s experiments shall indicate may compete with the 
native plants, or which on cultivated land will yield 
heavily enough to be profitable." 

Blue-top, beach rye, Kentucky blue-grass, silver- 
top, Siberian fescue, various sedges, Alaska lupine 
and fireweed are mentioned as being the best native 
forage plants. 



456 



MEDIC 



MEDIC 



MEDIC. Medicago species. Leguminosm. Figs. 
678, 679. 
The one great medic is alfalfa. This plant, once 
thought to be adapted only to semi-arid regions, is 
now grown extensively in many parts of the humid 
East, where it is specially valuable to dairymen. 
In recent years, eastern dairymen have depended 
on nitrogenous by-products to balance home-grown 
rations, which consist largely of corn silage and 
timothy hay. Alfalfa is adapted to saving a part 
of this expenditure, as is shown by the following 
table based on analyses and digestion experiments 
of American Experiment Stations : 



Comparison of Hays on an Average Tonnage 
Per Acre. 




Yield per 
acre 


Digestible 

nutriments 

per acre 


Digestible 
protein 
per acre 


Alfalfa .... 
Common red clover 
Timothy .... 


Tons 
2..3 
1.1 
1.1 


Pounds 
2,4G1 
1,027 
1,091 


Pounds 

506 

150 

62 



While alfalfa hay, on account of its bulky char- 
acter, can only be a partial substitute for concen- 
trates from grains or manufactured nitrogenous 
by-products, it may also on account of its produc- 
tiveness, where successfully grown, be a profitable 
substitute for other hay crops. Since it is perennial 
it reduces the labor and care for a given area of 
land to the minimum. 

The medics are plants of the genus Medicago, 
some fifty in number, some of which are grown for 
forage. With the exception of alfalfa, 
which is Medicago sativa, the species 
are of very secondary agricultural 
value, and are practically unknown to 
the farming people of this coun- 
try. Medicago is closely allied to 
Trifolium (the clovers), from which 
it is distinguished chiefly by the 
twisted or coiled pods [see 
Fig. 274, in the Alfalfa arti- 
cle]. With the exception of 



one shrubby species, 
the medics are herbs, 
annual or perennial, mostly with 
clover-like habit, rather small 
leaves of three leaflets, and flow- 
ers purple or yellow in small 
heads, short spikes or racemes. 
They are native in Europe, Africa 
and Asia. Several species have 
been tried at experiment stations 
and more or less recommended for special purposes. 
Seeds of some species are used as adulterants in 
other seeds [see page 141]. The best known medic 
(aside from alfalfa) in this country is the hop or 
black medic (Medicago lupulina, Fig. 678), which 
looks like a small-headed yellow-flowered creeping 
clover. It is now a weed in many parts of the 




r 




country, although not particularly troublesome. It 
is said to afford good forage and has been recom- 
mended for special places now and then, but it 
appears to be of little value ^ 

as compared with several 
other plants that thrive under 
similar conditions. It is an an- 
nual wiry pubescent plant, lying 
close to the ground. Medicago 
media is the Sand lucern men- 
tioned on page 193. 

A medic that has recently 
received attention is Snail 
clover (Medicago turbinata, Fig. 
679). It is native in south- 
western Spain, introduced into 
California as a winter forage 
plant. The seed starts as soon 
as the fall rains come, and 
the plant grows vigorously 
through the winter and spring. 
The heavy crop of seeds is ma- 
tured in early summer, after 
which the plant shrivels up. It 
volunteers from year to year, 
so that direct seeding is not 
necessary after the crop is es- 
tablished. The pods, which are 
large and smooth, lie on the 
ground after the plant has 
withered, and are easily gath- 
ered. If they are allowed to 
remain, the seeds will germi- 
nate the following fall. The 
plant gives promise as a for- 
age plant because of its heavy 
growth ; and its heavy seed 
production and ready germi- 
nation may make it valuable 
as a cover-crop and green- 
manure. It thrives on moist 
land but is somewhat drought- 
resistant. It shows liability 
to frost injury in some local- 
ities. 

Bur-clover is a name applied to two medics, 
Medicago denliculata and M. maculata. The former 
is a weed on the Pacific 
coast, but furnishes much 
forage in dry summer pas- 
tures. The spotted clover, 
or southern bur - clover, 
,1/. maculata, is recom- 
mended for the South, par- 
ticularly for winter pas- 
ture in the sandy soils of 
the pine -woods regions. 
Various other medics are 
mentioned in experiment 
station and other litera- 
ture, but they are not of 
suflicient importance to 
The economically import- 
ant species in this country at present, aside from 
alfalfa, are .1/. denticulata and M. maculata. 



Fig. 679. 

Snail clover {Medicago 

turbinata). 



Fig. 678. Black or hop medic 
iMedicago lupidina), 

warrant discussion here. 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 



457 



MEDICINAL, CONDIMENTAL AND ARO- 
MATIC PLANTS. Figs. G80-69L 

By R. H. True, and others. 

The growing of medicinal, condimental and aro- 
matic plants in the United States has at present 
hardly passed beyond the experimental or garden 
stage, the demand for articles of these classes be- 
ing in general met where possible by importation. 
Nearly all native drug products are now obtained 
from wild plants. The threatened disappearance of 
some of the most valuable has led the government 
and private experimenters to make efforts to put 
some of these kinds under cultivation, e. g., golden 
seal, ginseng, echinacea, Seneca snakeroot, Cas- 
eara sagrada and others. Drug-plant cultivation 
on a small scale has long been practiced in a few 
places by the Shakers and others. At present, be- 
ginnings in this line have been made in several 
places. Ginseng to a total value of about a million 
dollars is grown in New York, Ohio, Kentucky, 
Missouri and other states in the ea.stern half of the 
country. Golden seal is grown sparingly over a 
similar area. In California, some succe.ss has been 
reached in growing in.sect flowers (Pyrethrum spe- 
cies) on a commercial scale. 

Botanical source. 

For medicinal, condimental and aromatic prod- 
ucts in America, many botanical families are 
drawn on. The orchid family furnishes vanilla 
pods; the crowfoot family provides chiefly medici- 
nal products, as aconite, gol Jen seal and lark-spur ; 
the potato family is represented by drugs, as bella- 
donna, jimson weed, tobacco, and among the condi- 
ments by red pepper and paprika; the mint family 
furnishes a considerable number of products used 
in medicine and also as flavoring agents, such as 
sage (Fig. 680), marjoram, basil, peppermint, spear- 
mint, hyssop, thyme, savory and pennyroyal. Cat- 
nip, belonging to this family, has a medicinal value 
only. The laurel family is e.specially rich in aro- 
matic principles, and hence forms the group from 
which many spices are obtained, notaldy allspice, 
sweetbay, cloves and cinnamon. Sassafras and 
camphor, products of this family, are of especial 
medicinal value. The parsnip family shares this 
tendency toward aromatic products which are fre- 
quently used for both purposes : caraway, anise, 
fennel, lovage and coriander. The mustard family 
is also usually characterized by products of an aro- 
matic or spicy nature, as mustard, white and black. 
The spurge family is characteristically the source 
of medicinal principles, usually purgative, as castor- 
bean and croton seed. The great group of the com- 
posites includes a variety of products, such as 
dandelion, tansy, wormwood, elecampane and camo- 
mile to represent the medicinal group, and tarragon 
to represent the condimental use. 

Parts of plants used. 

Nearly all parts of the plant are made use of in 
obtaining medicinal, condimental and aromatic sub- 
stances. The entire root is used in dandelion, 
burdock, belladonna, yellow dock, lovage, licorice 



ipecac, valerian and Seneca snakeroot ; the bark 
of the root only in some cases, as in sassafras and 
cotton-root bark. The entire herb, excluding larger 
stems, is used in a number of small plants, as 
lobelia, pennyroyal, thyme, peppermint, spearmint 
and catnip ; the leaves in belladonna, henbane, 
stramonium and foxglove ; the flowers only in 
camomiles; the unopened buds in cloves; the fruits 
complete, as in red peppers, chillies, allspice, 
caraway, coriander, anise, fennel, black pepper 




Fig. 680. Sage plant one year old (adapted from 1903 Year- 
book, United States Department of Agriculture). 

and vanilla pods ; the seed freed from the seeC 
vessel, as in mustard, poppy seed, castor-beans ar 
fenugreek. 

Time of harvesting medicinal, condimental and ar. 
matie products. 

In general, root products are usually collected 
at the clo.se of the growing season, when the plant 
has filled the roots or rhizomes with reserve prod- 
ucts, thus giving them a full appearance which 
makes them more acceptable than the shrunken 
material collected in the growing season. Early 
spring, before the reserve products have been used 
up, is also a good season to harvest. Some dealers 
assert that the shrunken roots of some sorts are 
preferable as containing a greater quantity of the 
active principle than fall-dug roots. Perennial 
roots are sometimes preferred at some special 
stage of growth ; e. g., belladonna root gives the 
best yield of alkaloids when two to four years 
old ; if too old it becomes woody and the alkaloidal 
content decreases. Marshmallow root is preferred 
when about two years old. 

Leaves and herbs are, as a rule, collected when 
the plant is in full flower. Many te.sts have shown 
that at that stage the desirable principles, whether 
alkaloids or volatile oils, are most abundant. In 
the case of biennials, the leaves of the two years 
are often not of equal value ; e.g., foxglove leaves 
are taken the second year when the plant is in 
flower. 

Flowers are sometimes collected in the bud stage, 
as in insect flowers, or soon after the flower has 
well opened, as in camomile. Calendula flowers are 
harve.sted at this stage by pulling oif the bright- 
colored ray flowers, which alone make up the drug. 
Fruits are frequently collected a little before they 



458 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 



are thoroughly ripe in order to secure a bright 
appearance in the crude article, as in conium, cori- 
ander, anise, fennel and American wormseed. Others 
are allowed to ripen thoroughly, as red peppers 
and chillies. Some fruits are collected and allowed 
to dry before the seeds obtained from them are 
separated, as opium poppy, stramonium and castor- 
beans. 

Methods of preparation. 

Usually the products of medicinal, condimental 
and aromatic plants are not used when fresh, but 
have to be got into a condition permitting storage 
or shipment so that they may be used at a distance 
or at some later time. The homeopathic school of 
medicine makes it a strong point to u.se plant 
drugs in a fresh condition or preserved by immer- 
sion in alcohol. In general, the preservation of 
these products is brought about by simple drying. 
When dry many cf them retain their most impor- 
tant propL'rties for use. The live roots are care- 
fully cleaned by washing, and if not too large for 
easy drying are merely spread out in some airy 
place. If too large, they are cut up, frequently 
into characteristic forms. Leaf products are dried 
in the shade with natural heat or over a gentle 
artificial heat, about 1:^5° Fahr. In order to 
secure a bright green color, pains must be taken 
to keep the leaves from taking up moisture at any 
stage. When dry they should be stored out of 
strong light. Barks are usually " rossed " before 
drying, i. e., the dead outer corky parts are scraped 
off. In the case of some drugs, as cascara bark, a 
more or less prolonged period of storage is neces- 
sary before use. Flowers and fruits are best when 
dried as promptly as possible without raising the 
temperature to a point likely to drive off more of 
the volatile substances than is necessary. Nearly 
all drug and condiment products leave the hands 
of the growers in the form of the crude, dry prod- 
ucts, which are worked up by the manufacturers 
into the proper forms for use. 

Medicinal, condimental and aromatic plant impor- 
tation. 

The sources of our crude drugs and condiments 
are very widely separated, depending in large part 
on climatic conditions. Commim drug plants 
belonging to the temperate zone, such as digitalis, 
burdock and caraway, are in very large part pro- 
duced m northern and central Europe, frequently 
in more or less localized regions. Caraway comes 
chiefly from Holland, in small quantities from 
Norway, ea.st Prussia and southern Germany. 
Fennel is cultivated in Saxony, Galicia, Macedonia 
and Italy. Digitalis leaves and belladonna reach 
the market from northern Germany, Austria, 
Belgium, Holland and England. Peppermint oil is 
produced chiefly in Japan and the United States. 
Other plants demanding tropical conditions are 
obtained from regions in which their culture has 
been undertaken. Cinchona bark, from which 
quinine is obtained, came formerly from the slopes 
of the Andes. Cultivation of this plant in India, 
Java, and other parts of the Orient has succeeded in 



so far as to cause the practical disappearance of 
the wild barks of South America from the market. 
Ipecacuanha, likewise a native of northern South 
America, is apparently repeating this history. 
Black and white pepper are chiefly produced in 
southeastern Asia, coming on the market through 
Singapore and Penang. Cloves are in large part 
supplied by Zanzibar, where the crop constitutes 
one of the royal monopolies. Some products are 
derived from still more localized regions, as buchu 
leaves from the vicinity of Cape Town, South 
Africa, and aloes from South Africa, the island of 
Socotra in the Red sea, and the Barbadoes islands. 
Some are cultivated, as may be seen in numerous 
cases cited above, and some are wild products. 
Camphor until recently has been derived from an 
essentially wild tree growing in Japan, China and 
Formosa. The great depletion of the natural for- 
ests has led the Japanese government to make 
extensive plantings. Several African sorts of the 
red peppers of the market are collected by natives 
from the wild plants and brought long distances 
to market. 

The quantity of drugs and condimental products 
imported into the United States may be learned 
from the customs report, which shows a total of 
$16,414,868.37 for the twelve months ended June 
30, 1906. 

DESCRIPTIVE NOTES 

It is not intended to present here a discussion 
of all the plants u.sed for medicinal, condimental 
and aromatic purposes. A few of the more common 
and useful ones only are discussed in detail. 

Anise (PimpineUa Anisum, Linn.). Umbelliferce. 
(G. F. Klugh.) 

Anise is an annual herb, two to three feet high, 
with smooth, twice-pinnate leaves, small yellowish 
white flowers in large terminal umbels, followed by 
short, somewhat curved, ribbed fruits ordinarily 
seen in pairs fastened together along their straight 
sides, narrowed toward the upper end, with a pleas- 
ant aromatic odor and taste. 

Anise is widely cultivated for the aromatic fruits 
and the volatile oil distilled from them. Russia is 
the largest present source, with a considerable 
quantity grown in other European countries, 
especially on the Mediterranean sea. The plant has 
been grown in America only on a small scale, 
chiefly in gardens. Considerable heat seems to be 
required to mature the crop. 

The plant grows readily from seed drilled in a 
good loamy soil, at such distances as may be best 
fitted to the method of cultivation, whether by 
horse or by hand. Planting should be done in the 
early spring. The fruit matures in the fall. Since 
a bright, clean appearance is desired, the fruit is 
collected before fully ripe. It is threshed ofl", dried 
and stored. The peculiar sweetish, aromatic taste 
is due chiefly to the volatile oil located in the ribs 
of the fruit. 

The fruits are rarely used for flavoring, the oil 
obtained by distillation being preferred. The usual 
yield of oil is about 2.5 par cent. The material re- 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 



459 



maining after distillation is used in some parts of 
Europe as a stoclv-feed. One investigator in 8iam 
reports that the leaves are grown there and dis- 
tilled instead of the fruit. 

Belladonna {Atropa Belladonna, Linn. ) . Solanacece. 
(G. F. Klugh.) Figs. 681, 682. 

A coarse, herbaceous plant, with a fleshy, peren- 
nial root system, a branching, spreading and often 
straggling stem, reaching a height of three to five 
feet, bearing ovate, entire, nearly smooth leaves, 
three to six inches long, and numerous bell-shaped, 
dull purple flowers that occur either singly or in 
pairs ; the fruit is a purple, very juicy berry of a 
sweet and not unpleasant taste. All parts contain 
atropine or related alkaloids and are poisonous. 
The leaves and roots are used in medicine. 

Belladonna occurs wild in the United States 
occasionally, but is native in Europe and occurs 



field and barely covered with soil, germination tak- 
ing place in March, when conditions are most favor- 
able for the growth of young seedlings. One to 
four pounds of seed are needed to sow an acre. 




Pig. 681. Leaves of beUadonna {Atropa Belladonna) . 

there abundantly both wild and under cultivation. 
The demand of the American drug market is in 
part satisfied fi'om England, Germany and Austria, 
where the plant is cultivated or collected wild. 
Recently its cultivation in the United States on a 
commercial scale has been begun. It seems to 
thrive as far north as New Jersey and does well at 
Washington, D. C. Verm.ont seems to be too far 
north, it is probable that Virginia and the Caro- 
linas offer a favorable type of climatic conditions. 
The soil should be a rich garden loam, moder- 
ately light and sandy, since a heavy soil gives a 
poor return in plants, a light yield of leaves anr 
roots, and favors winter-killing of the roots in 
severe winters. A complete fertilizer is recom- 
mended, containing phosphates, potash and nitro- 
gen. The plants may be started in the field or in 
seed-beds and gi-own in three-foot rows, about 
twelve or fifteen inches apart in the rows. The 
seed may be sown in the fall or early spring in the 




Fig. 682. Root of a two-year-old belladonna plant, two feet 
deep. Grown at Washington, D. C. 

Cultivation should be frequent and shallow to keep 
the soil in good tilth and free from weeds. The 
leaves are picked when the plants are in full bloom, 
dried carefully in the shade, and then kept in a 
dry place. One crop may be gathered the first year, 
and two or more the second and later years, if the 
stalks are cut after each picking of loaves. The 
roots are dug at the end of the second year, washed, 
cut into four- or five-inch lengths and dried. 

The yield that may be expected on good soil is 
about 500 pounds of dried leaves per picking and 
1,.500 pounds of dry root at the end of the second 
year per acre. 

Camphor (Camphora officinalis, Steud.). Lauracece. 
Fig. 683. 

A large evergreen tree, native in Asia, having a 
wide-spreading top, a thick, much-branched stem, 
alternate, entire, evergreen, leathery leaves, broadly 
lanceolate to ovate in form, axillary clusters of 
small, yellowish flowers which are followed by 
small, blackish berries, in size and appearance not 
very unlike the fruit of the native small black 
cherry {Pruniis serofina). The tree is cultivated in 
Florida, along the Gulf strip and as far north 
along the Atlantic coast as South Carolina. 

The tree yields the gum camphor of commerce, 
as well as camphor oil used in liniments and the 
like. These substances are present in varying 
quantity in all parts of the tree, being especially 




Fig. 683. Camphor leaves [Camphora officinalis). 

abundant in the dead heart-wood of old trees. They 
are also present in the leaves and other parts. "Ex- 
periments by the United States Department of 
Agriculture have shown that camphor gum of high 



460 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 



quality can be distilled from the leaves by steam, 
and further experiments are now in progress in the 
hope of utilizing this source or method for camphor 
products. 

Caraway (Carum Carui, Linn.). UmMliferm. (G. F. 
Klugh.) 

Caraway is usually a perennial herb, having an 
enlarged, fleshy root ; erect, slender, somewhat 
branching stem, reaching a height of two feet, 
bearing pinnately compound leaves, the segments 
of which are very narrow, almost filiform ; the 
small white flowers form a flat-topped umbel ; the 
fruits, the so-called "caraway," are narrow, ribbed, 
pointed at the ends, and have the characteristic 
caraway flavor due to the volatile oils contained 
in them. It is a native of Europe but is widely 
introduced into the United States, occurring wild 
or in kitchen gardens. Attempts are being made 
to produce it commercially in the United States to 
supply the large demand now satisfied from abroad, 
chiefly from Holland and middle Russia. 

It grows well on heavy soils, but a moderately 
light soil gives larger yields and is supposed to 
give a grade containing more oil. The seed should 
be sown about the first of April in three-foot drills, 
at the rate of about eight pounds per acre, or in 
sufficient quantity to give a stand of plants about 
three inches or less apart. After the plants come 
up the soil should be cultivated shallow and weeds 
killed regularly until late summer the first year 
and early spring of the second year. Weeds left in 
the field at harvest time will contaminate the 
product when the seeds are harvested and reduce 
the value. 

The seeds ripen about the middle of June the 
second year, and may be cut with a mower, threshed 
out and" cleaned. The seeds should be light brown 
if cut just after the first seeds are ripe and before 
the stalks are dead. Cutting at this time makes a 
good salable product and avoids waste by shatter- 
ing of the seeds. An acre should yield about 1,000 
pounds of seed. 

On distillation with steam the fruits yield a 
pleasant volatile oil with the odor and taste of 
caraway. According to the geographical source 
and conditions of soil and climate, caraway fruits 
yield 3 to 6 per cent of their weight in oil. 

Catnip (Nepeta Cataria, Linn.). Labiatce. Catmint. 
Fig. 684. 

A perennial-rooted herb having a branching, 
erect or somewhat decumbent square-cornered 
stem, three to four feet high, bearing cordate or 
broadly ovate petiolate leaves with crenate mar- 
gins, softly woolly surfaces and veins sharply 
marked on the pale under side; the small nearly 
white flowers are collected in terminal spikes, 
flowering late in the summer or early fall. It is a 
frequent garden plant, and has also escaped over a 
wide area. 

Catnip is propagated by seeds or by root divi- 
sion. It likes a moderately rich garden loam, but 
does well on a variety of soils. The seed should be 
sown about the first of March, or as early as 




possible in the spring, in drills three feet apart, at 
the rate of one to two pounds per acre. After the 
plants are four or five inches in height, they 
should be thinned out to stand about eighteen 
inches apart in the rows. Shallow cultivation to 
keep the soil loose and 
conserve soil moisture 
will incidentally kill the 
weeds and produce a 
healthy growth. The 
plant will flower the first 
year in August or Sep- 
tember and in subsequent 
years in June. The flow- 
ering tops are used. They 
should be picked free 
from large stems and 
dried carefully in the 
shade to preserve their 
green color. The yield of 
tops per acre is about 'S^J, 
2,000 pounds under good 
conditions. 

Fennel (Frcnieulum offi- 
cinale, All.). Umbel- 
lifercB. (G. F. Klugh.) 

Fennel is an herba- 
ceous perennial of the 
parsnip family, native to 
the Old World, grown for 
its aromatic fruit, and in 
India and Japan for its 
edible root. It is grown 
in central Europe and in the Mediterranean coun- 
tries as well as in Japan and India, and sparingly 
in the United States as a garden herb. The fleshy 
root-stem of fennel gives rise to stout, smooth, suc- 
culent stems reaching a height of three feet, which 
bear the dark green, finely dissected aromatic 
leaves and numerous very small yellow flowers 
in branching, umbel-like, terminal clusters ; the 
fruits, ripened in late summer, are about one-third 
inch long, conspicuously ribbed and have the pleas- 
ant fragrance characteristic of plants containing 
anethol. 

Fennel does well on a moderately rich, well- 
drained loam or sandy loam, a heavy wet soil giving 
too much leaf and stem and too little fruit. It is 
sown in three-foot drills as soon in the .spring as 
the ground is ready for garden planting, about five 
pounds of seed being used per acre. It is cultivated 
as an ordinary garden crop. The fruit ripens in 
the fall and is gathered at once in order to pre- 
serve a fresh, bright appearance. It is less desir- 
able for the market if allowed to turn dark. After 
it is dry it can be cleaned of the immature fruit, 
some of which is unavoidably collected, since all 
fruits do not mature simultaneously. 

The aromatic flavor is due to a volatile oil pres- 
ent in the ribs of the fruits. This oil is obtained 
by distillation with steam, a yield of 4 to .5 per cent 
being obtained. The fruit remaining after distilla- 
tion is used in some parts of Germany as a food 
for cattle. 



Fig. 684. Catnip (Nepeta 
Cataria). 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 



461 



Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea, Linn.). Serophula- 
riacea. (G. F. Klugh.) Fig. 685. 
Fo.xglove is a tall biennial herb with fibrous root 
system, and in the second year a straight stem 
bearing a long, unbranched raceme of large, two- 
inch long, showy, bell-shaped to funnel-formed 
flowers, purplish with darker spots in the throat, 
or nearly white, and a luxuriant development of 
alternate, sessile, woolly leaves, with venation con- 
spicuous on the under side, crenate margins, largest 
toward the base of the stem, decreasing upwards 
to the base of the flower-bearing part of the stem. 
The dry seed-pods contain a multitude of minute 
seeds. The flowers open in the early summer of the 
second year. At the end of the first season's growth 
a strong rosette of radical leaves is seen. Leaves 
of the second year's growth form an important 
article in crude drug commerce. The demand of 
the United States is at present satisfied from Eng- 
lish, German and Austrian sources chiefly, where 
the plant is cultivated for 
the purpose or occurs wild. 
Since the seeds are very 
small, they require good 
conditions of germination 
to produce a good stand 
of plants if sown in the 
field, but they may be 
grown where they are to 
stand or in seed-beds and 
transplanted. The soil 
most adapted to the 
growth of foxglove is a 
good garden loam con- 
taining a liberal amount 
of sand and humus, but 
the plant will do well on 
heavier soils if 
transplanted. 
Good drainage is 
essential to keep 
the plants from 
damping off in 
hot weather and 
freezing out in 
winter. The rows 
should be three feet 
apart, the plants be- 
ing fifteen to eighteen 
inches apart in the 
rows. A garden drill 
may be used to sow 
the seed, two pounds 
being required per 
acre. If planted too 
deep the seed will re- 
main in the soil until 
turned up by sul)se- 
quent cultivation. 
Early spring, as soon 
is the best time for 




Fig. 685. Foxglove (.Diaitalis 
purpurea). 



leaves around the bases of the flowering stalks are 
then picked and dried in the shade to preserve 
their green color. The yield of leaves from an acre 
of good soil well fertilized and cared for will be 
about five hundred or six hundred pounds. The 
relation of fertilizers to yield and content of active 
principle is an open question here as with other 
drugs. 




as the soil can be worked, 
planting. 

Frequent cultivation is desirable during the 
growing season of both first and second years until 
the plant flowers in June of the second year. The 



Fig. 686. Golden sen f, Hydrastis Canadensis). 

Golden seal (Hi/dru.stis Canadensis, Linn.). Ranun- 
culaccm. (G. F. Klugh.) Fig. 686. 

A low, perennial -rooted herb with a stout, 
strongly-rooted rhizome of a golden yellow color 
when broken, sending up a slender stem about a 
foot high, which bears one or two alternate, five- 
to seven-lobed leaves, the leaves with a short 
petiole, the upper sessile, and a large basal leaf of 
similar general outline ; the single, whitish, incon- 
spicuous flower is borne terminally above the upper 
leaf on a short peduncle ; the fruit is somewhat 
pulpy when ripe and in general appearance is sug- 
gestive of a small red raspberry. This plant is a 
native of the rich woods of the Appalachian region, 
Ohio valley and northward to southern Wisconsin. 
It has long been used in medicine and in recent 
years to an increasing degree. As a result it has 
become relatively rare in commercial quantities 
and its cultivation has been made a subject of in- 
vestigation by the United States Department of 
Agriculture. The culture of golden seal is now 
widely practiced in small gardens. 

The soil should be loose and loamy, well supplied 
with humus and shaded to keep it moist and cool. 
Plastering laths nailed to 2 x 4- inch pieces at the 



■162 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 



rate of four to the running foot give a proper de- 
gree of shade. These 2 x 4-inch pieces run across 
others nailed to the tops of eight-foot posts set two 
feet in the ground. The soil may be worked up 
without making beds. The planting may be in rows 
twelve inches apart, the plants being set six inches 
apart in the rows. Beds about four feet wide, made 
of ten-inch boards, and filled with soil are easier 
to keep clean of weeds but are more expensive in 
the beginning. Plants may then beset eight inches 
apart each way. A mulch of leaves or similar 
material three inches deep spread on after planting 
furnishes humus and keeps down weeds. Two hun- 
dred pounds each of acid phosphate and kainit in 
addition to the mulch will supply the necessary 
fertilizer. Walks about a foot or a foot and a half 
wide made between the beds make it possible to 
weed the beds without tramping out the plants. 

The best method of propagation consists in divid- 
ing the root-crowns of old plants. These may be 
divided each year, doubling the number at each 
division, or, if desirable, more and smaller plants 
may be made according to the number of buds pro- 
duced, since a bud and a part of the rhizome is 
necessary to pnxluce a new plant. The tops die in 
early fall and the roots may be divided and planted 
again while they are dormant. Small plants are 
formed on the fibrous roots of old plants and may 
be cared for separately or with the other part of 
the crop. Seeds are a practicable means of prop- 
agation, being stratified in sand till the following 
spring when they are planted in the seed-bed. 
Several years are required to grow the plants to 
marketable size. The plants from crown division 
should be dug while dormant about the third year 
after planting, the large roots sorted out, washed 
and dried for market, and the smaller ones planted 
again with those made from crown division for a 

new crop. The yield 
per acre is 2,000 
pounds, or more, of 
dried root. 

Liquorice (Gli/cyr- 
rhiza glabra, 
Linn.). Legumi- 
nosm. Fig. 687. 
A smooth, peren- 
nial - rooted plant, 
with herbaceous top, 
bearing on the spar- 
:^=^ingly branching 
stems alternate, once- 
pinnate, compound 
leaves of eight to 
fourteen paired leaf- 
lets and one terminal 
member ; leaflets en- 
tire, obtuse, oblong or 
elliptical; the small, numerous, papilionaceous, lilac- 
to violet-colored flowers borne in a rather loose, 
pedunculate spike. The underground parts are 
wide-spreading through the long, slender rhizomes 
which run out on all sides and constitute the chief 
part of the Spanish and smaller sorts of liquorice- 




Fig. 687. Liquorice plant (fidapted 
from lOia Yeiirt)c)ok. United 
i<tates Department of Agri- 
culture). 



root. The larger sort, the so-called Russian liquorice 
of southeastern Europe, consists of the larger, more 
irregular underground parts of the variety glaii- 
dulifera, Reg. & Herd. 

The chief sources of liquorice at present are Asia 
Minor and the Caucasus, where the plant grows 
wild, and Spain, Italy and England, where it is cul- 
tivated. The plant can be grown from the seed, 
but usually is propagated by planting the younger 
parts of the rhizomes bearing the buds. The crop is 
harvested in the fall by digging, the cuttings then 
removed being placed perpendicularly in the ground 
in a deep, rich, loamy soil. The crop is harvested 
every third year. The fresh root is washed, dried 
and sold. At present 
the United States De- 
partment of Agriculture 
is experimenting with 
several commercial sorts 
in several of the warmer 
states. Aside from the 
medicinal use, liquorice 
is largely demanded in 
the tobacco industry. 

During the year ended 
June 30, 1905, the fol- 
lowing importations of 
li(luorice products were 
made: Liquorice ex- 
tracts, etc., 751,646 
pounds, valued at $90,- 
.508; root, 100,457,889 
pounds, valued at 
$1,780,485. 

Lobelia (Lobelia inflata, 

Linn.) Lnbeiiacea:. 

Indian Tobacco. (G. 

F.Klugh.) Fig. 688. 
A small, branching, 
hairy herb, six inches to 
two feet high, bearing 
ovate or elliptical, 
roundly toothed leaves, 
and a slender spike-like 
raceme of small pale 
blue flowers, and later 
much inflated bladdery 
capsules containing a ^'^- '^*- 
large number of small 
brownish seeds. It is found wild on dry hillsides and 
in pastures from New England to Georgia. Roth the 
green herb and the seed are collected for the crude 
drug market. Recently the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture has undertaken its cultivation. 
It likes a moist loam containing a fair percent- 
. age of sand and humus. Owing to the smallness of 
the seed and young seedlings, conditions suitable 
for germination must be unusually good. The seeds 
cannot be buried at all, but germinate early in 
April if planted in late fall or early spring on the 
surface of the soil. Freedom from weeds and 
thorough cultivation are essential to its growth. 
One-half to one pound of seed should be sown to 
the acre, the rows being two feet apart, to facili- 




Lobelia (Lobelia 
inflata). 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 



463 



tate cultivation, and the plants left thick in the 
drill. The whole herb should be cut when in full 
flower and dried in the shade to preserve the green 
color. Good soil should yield about 1,000 or 1,200 
pounds of dry herb per acre. 

Lovage (Lcvistieum officinale, Koch.). Umbelliferce. 
(S. C. Hood.) 

An aromatic perennial of the Parsley family, 
characterized by a system of thickened, fleshy, 
aromatic roots, having the odor of celery, a tall 
smooth stem bearing twice or thrice divided leaves, 
segments wedge-shaped at base ; yellowish flowers 
in umbels ; seed three-ribbed and also aromatic. 
The large root is used both as a condiment and 
for medicinal purposes. 

Lovage is an old garden plant introduced from 
Europe, and is grown as a crop in certain parts of 
the West and in New England by the Shakers. It 
is easily propagated either by root division or by 
seeds, but since the seeds grow so readily it is 
probably cheaper to use them. Planting should be 
done in fall in light soil, in drills eighteen inches 
apart. Heavy fertilization with stable manure 
should not bj u.sed, since it causes the plant to pro- 
duce too much top. Cultivation consists in keep- 
ing the crop free from weeds. The plants will 
flower the second year and supply a large amount 
of seed, which also has a market value. The root 
should be gathered in the late fall and be well 
washed and cut into slices about one-half inch 
thick. These are then dried by heat at about 125° 
Fahr. When dry, they are ready for market. 

Opium Poppy (Papaver somniferum, Linn.). Papa- 
nTiu'cw. 
A tall, smooth, somewhat branching annual, of 
grayish green color, reaching a height of about 
five feet, bearing large, ovate leaves with irregu- 
larly cut margins and clasping base. The large, 
solitary flowers are borne at the ends of somewhat 
elongated stems. The flowers vary in color from 
pure white to a striking magenta or purplish color, 
petals usually with a spot of darker color at the 
base. The fruit capsules are roundish in outline, 
somewhat elongated, or sometimes oblate. Some 
forms bear valves near the top, which open at ma- 
turity and permit the seed to escape ; in others the 
valves do not open. The capsules, when scored 
superficially, yield abundant milky juice ; in India, 
China, Persia and Turkey this is collected and dried 
to form opium, the crude gum from which the 
alkaloids morphine and codeine are separated. The 
white seeds are used under the name of "maw" seed 
in bird-seed, and as a source of a pleasant bland 
oil used for food purposes. The blue-seeded form is 
prized for culinary purpcses in making the "Mohn 
Kuchen" of Germany and Austria, and in other 
forms of bakery. The oil is used for b^irning, in 
soap-making, and as a salad oil, either under its 
own or under some other name. Experiments being 
conducted by the United States Department of 
Agriculture have in view the cultivation of the 
poppy in the United States for the seed and for the 
alkaloids. Opium-making is not encouraged. 



The commerce in products of the opium poppy 
for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1005, is as 
follows : 

Crude opium . . . 456,563.79 lbs. $913,770 
Prepared for medici- 
nal purposes . . 723 
Prepared for smok- 
ing 144,997 lbs. 1,316,096 

Morphine and its 

salts 21,290 oz. 41,734 

Seed 38,399.25 bu. 76,779 

Poppy seed oil . . 3,491.45 gal. 1,892 

Total value $2,350,994 

Pennyroyal (Hedeoma pulegioides, Pars.). Labiatce, 
(G. F. Klugh.) 

A low, annual, erect, branching herb, six to 
eighteen inches high, with hairy, angled stem, and 
hairy, oblong or ovate leaves bearing short petioles, 
margins obscurely and bluntly serrate, glandular, 
especially on underside ; flowers pale blue, crowded 
into loose terminal spikes. A native herb found 
wild in open woods along fences, usually in some- 
what shaded places. 

It grows on a variety of soils but is best in a 
garden soil where it makes an unusual growth. 
The seed should be sown in late fall in three-foot 
rows, at the rate of two pounds per acre. It should 
be cultivated as a garden crop and cut when in 
flower. The dried herb may be sold to drug deal- 
ers or the plants may be distilled, green or dry, 
with live steam for their volatile oil. The yield of 
dry herb per acre on good soil should be about two 
tons. 

Peppermint (Mentha piperita, Linn.). Labiatm. 
American mint. Fig. 689. 

A perennial herb, usually one and one -half to 
three feet high, having a fibrous root system, many 
running rootstocks by means of which it is rapidly 
propagated, a thick growth of upright or ascend- 
ing, branching, square stems, opposite leaves with 
entire margin, acute apex, short petioles, punctate 
with pellucid oil-glands ; flowers purplish in loose, 
interrupted terminal spikes on the main stem and 
branches formed by the whorled clusters of flowers 
at the nodes. Characteristic when wild of wet 
places. Introduced from Europe. 

Mentha piperita, var. officinalis, Sole., the so- 
called "white mint," is a smaller plant, having 
light green stems and foliage. It is grown chiefly 
in England. 

Mentha piperita, var. vulgaris. Sole., the so-called 
"black mint," is like the species in stature, with 
large leaves, generally two to three inches long. 
Entire plant dark in color, due to the presence of 
a purplish pigment in leaves and stems. The va- 
rieties are of European origin, and although both 
have been introduced into the United States the 
white mint has not been grown extensively. The 
black mint is the most generally used. In America 
it has proved hardy and very productive. 

Peppermint -culture is practiced in England, 
.Japan, Germany and some other countries on a 
small scale, but extensively in the United States. 



464 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 




Fig. 689. Peppermint 
{Mentha pipe rita}. 



Perhaps 2,000 poiind.s will cover the amount of 
English and German peppermint oil distilled yearly. 
These countries import most of their oil from the 
United States. Michigan, northern Indiana and 
Wayne county, New York, are the mo.'st important 
regions. The Japanese pep- 
permint oils are obtained 
from a different botanical 
source, Mentha arvensis piper- 
ascens, Malinvaud,and Mentha 
arvensis glabrafa, Holmes. 

Peppermint - culture i s 
practiced in Michigan on 
l)lack muck land, obtained 
by the draining of swamps 
and marshes, after it has 
been thoroughly subdued by 
previous cropping. After 
fall-plowing, the land to be 
used for peppermint is har- 
rowed in the early spring 
and provided with furrows 
about three feet apart, into 
which the slender roots are 
thrown so as to make an un- 
broken row of plants. The 
soil is drawn over the roots 
and made firm by treading. 
The young plants are care- 
fully hoed during the first 
season to remove weeds 
which injure the crop, partly by contaminating the 
oil. By fall the peppermint runners so nearly cover 
the ground as to interfere with further use of the 
hoe. Horse cultivation may be made use of until 
fall, when the runners will practically cover the 
ground. 

In August or early September, when in full 
bloom, the herb is mowed usually with a scythe, 
dried until only enough moisture remains to pre- 
vent the falling of the leaves, and hauled to the 
distillery. The distilling apparatus consists essen- 
tially of a boiler from which live steam is obtained ; 
large circular wooden vats connected with the 
boiler, into which the herb is thrown for steam 
treatment ; a condenser, consisting of a tight tube 
surrounded by cold water, through which the va- 
pors from the wooden vats are conducted and 
cooled ; and a receiver into which the condensed 
water and oil flow from the condenser. [See article 
on Oil-hcaring riantit.] The oil is separated from 
the water and stored in tin or glass containers, and 
the exhausted "hay" is sold for fodder for stock 
or allowed to rot for fertilizer purpose-s. 

Peppermint oil, when frozen, separates into two 
parts, — a crystalline solid, menthol, and a clear oily 
residue having the taste and odor of peppermint. 
Menthol is present in an especially large proportion 
in Japanese oil. It is used in solution in combina- 
tion with other remedial agents in sprays and 
other forms of medication, and, being a local ana?s- 
thetic and disinfectant, is molded into the form 
of pencils or cones or as loose crystals for inhala- 
tion or external use in headache, neuralgia and 
■fimilar troubles. The oil is used as a flavoring in 



most varied kinds of products, such as candies, 
soaps and various drinks. The United States is a 
large exporter of peppermint oil. It has varied in 
price from seventy-five cents to three dollars and 
fifty cents per pound in the last ten years. 

Red Pepper {Capsicum species). Solanacem. (T. B. 
Young.) Figs. 690, 691 ; also Fig. 95. 

In the United States these plants, belonging to 
Capsicum annuum, Linn., and varieties. Capsicum, 
frutesccns, Linn., and varieties, and perhaps still 
other species, are annuals, although where they 
are not killed by frost the latter series of forms 
are perennials. 

C. annuum is a very variable member of the 
family SolanaceiT. It has a fibrous root system, a 
smooth, branching, herbaceous stem, one to three 
feet high, bearing entire, ovate or nearly elliptical, 
smooth, acuminately-pointed leaves and whitish 
flowers singly or in small groups at the nodes. The 
fruits vary widely in size, shape, color and pun- 
gency. 

C. frutescens is a perennial shrub reaching, 
in warm climates, a height of several feet, with 
branched and spreading tops, sometimes decum- 
bent ; leaves broadly ovate, fruits most various in 
shape, size and color, but usually small and very 
pungent, borne on long peduncles. 

Paprika type. (Fig. 690.) A sweet red pepper, 
mild in pungency, grown especially in Hungary, 
coming into the world's commerce through the port 
of Budapest chiefly. The plant resembles in general 
appearance the ordinary red pepper of the garden, 
the fruit varying from a narrow, truncated-conical 
form to a slender pointed form. It is grown to a 
limited extent in South Carolina, where it seems 
best suited to a rich, loamy soil. It has come on 
the market in small quantities from California. 

In the South, the seed should be sown in a well- 
prepared seed-bed by March 1, and covered very 
lightly. The plants should be ready for transplant- 




Fig. 690. Paprika peppers. Wliole dried fruits as they appear 
wlieu ready for luarliet. (Yearbools, 1905.) 

ing to the field by the last of April. A rich, loamy 
soil suitable for garden purposes is desirable. It 
should be put in good tilth by April 1, when the 
plants are ready for the field. When necessary, 
any good combination of fertilizers may be used. 
A mixture of 8 per cent phosphoric acid, 4 per cent 
ammonia, and 4 per cent potash has been found 
beneficial. Stable manure is good. 

The plants are set in rows three to four feet 
apart, and twelve to eighteen inches apart in the 
rows. Cultivation is given as for other field crops. 
In July the pods begin to ripen. They are picked 
at about weekly intervals and dried in special dry- 
ing houses by low, artificial heat. They are sold in 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 



465 



this condition or after the removal of the stems. 
The seeds may also be removed and sold separately. 
Cayenne type. A variety of types of small pep- 
pers from various geographical and botanical 
sources, characterized by a high degree of pun- 
gency, come on the market as cayenne pepper. 
The culture method depends on the geographic 




Fig. 691. Branch of Japan chilli pepper, showing the clustered 
arrangement of the fruit. (Yejirbook. lOO.'i. ) 

source of the sorts used ; some are from tropical 
and subtropical situations, others from temperate 
regions. Some forms resembling the .Japane.se chil- 
lies (Fig. 691) and Japanese capsicum of the 
market are grown on a small commercial scale in 
the southern and southeastern st::tcs. The methods 
of propagation and cultivation here are similar to 
those used in growing paprika peppers. These 
peppers are often perennials in a warm climate and 
produce during a long season, hence localities 
which offer these conditions are preferable. The 
so-called "bird peppers" belong to the general class 
of fruits used in producing the "cayenne" pepper 
of the market. 

Sassafras (Sassafras officinale, Nees.). Lauraeece. 
Fig. 2256, Cyclopedia of American Horticul- 
ture. 

A tree of moderate size (fifty to ninety feet); 
bark rather finely checked longitudinally and 
ridged, dark grayish brown ; twigs greenish yel- 
low ; leaves with moderately long petioles, smooth 
when mature, ovate in form, entire to three-cleft, 
with smooth margin ; flowers greenish yellow, in 
clusters, appearing with the leaves ; buds and twigs 
mucilaginous ; bark spicy and aromatic, especially 
the bark of the root. The bark and wood of the 
root are distilled for the oil of sassafras used in 
perfuming soaps and for flavoring purposes. The 
bark of the root and the pith are used in medicine. 
The distillation has been practiced in the mountains 
of eastern United States. 

The bark and wood of the root, after being 
chopped up and split, are distilled by steam in an 
apparatus not difl'ering in principle from the usual 
sorts of apparatus used for distilling volatile oils. 
[See general introduction.] Sassafras is a well 
known common tree, interesting in its habit and 
very marked characteristics of bark, branding and 
foliage. It is partial to sandy lands. 

B30 



Seneca snakeioot (Pohjgala Senega, Linn.). Poly- 
galacea:. (S. C. Hood.) 

A native herb with a rather thick, perennial, 
branching, light-colored root supporting a rather 
extensive crown, from which a large number of 
erect, unbranched stems are given off, bearing 
numerous, alternate, oblong or lanceolate-ovate, 
very short-petioled leaves. The stem terminates in 
a close spike of small white flowers, in general ap- 
pearance suggesting the papilionaceous type seen 
in the legumes. The plant is found in rocky woods 
of New England, to the plains of Manitoba, and 
northward and southward. It is much in demand 
for medicinal purposes both for domestic and for- 
eign use. In view of its commercial value and 
threatened scarcity, its cultivation is receiving 
attention from the United States Department of 
Agriculture and other experimenters. 

Since the commercial supply of Seneca snake- 
root has been derived wholly from wild root, the 
plant cannot as yet be called an agricultural crop. 
Its cultivation, although not diflicult, has so far 
been confined to certain experimental gardens. The 
soil should be light and well drained, and should be 
made rich with leaf-mold well worked in ; stable 
manure is not advi-sable. The plant is propagated 
from seed, which must be gathered in the early 
summer as soon as ripe. Care must be taken not 
to let the seeds dry. They should be mixed with 
moi.st sand, placed in earthen pots and buried two 
to three feet deep in the ground. They should be 
dug up the following spring and planted in the 
field in drills eighteen inches apart, and the seed 
covered very lightly. Seedlings should appear in 
two to three weeks. Cultivation consists simply 
in keeping clean of weeds. The first year the 
plants are not more than two to three inches high 
and are not matured for gathering for perhaps fiv. 
years. Plants will begin to seed when three years 
old. No winter covering is needed if the soil is well 
drained. Plants may be harvested in about four or 
five years from the seed. 

The native range of this plant is chiefly the 
northern half of the United States as far west as 
the Rocky mountains and northward throughout 
Canada. 

Tansy (Tatiacclum rulgare, Linn.). Composite. 
(G. F. Klugh.) Figs. 2463, 2464, Cyclopedia of 
American Horticulture. 

A common perennial-rooted herb of waste places, 
kitchen-gardens and waysides, sending up from a 
strong crown a clump of upright stems, one to 
three feet high, bearing smooth, dark green, pin- 
nately compound leaves made up of sharply toothed 
leaflets, the blade of the leaf running down from 
the petioles; yellow flowers, reaching a diameter 
of one-half inch, occur in terminal, branched, flat- 
topped clusters. It is a rank-smelling herb, u.sed 
in a dry condition in medicine. It contains a volatile 
oil. 

It likes a rather heavy soil, doing best on a clay 
loam, but after having become established on a 
heavy clay it makes a good growth. It may be 
propagated either from seeds or by dividing the 



466 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 



crowns in early spring. The plants are grown in 
the seed-bed or in the field, the seed being sown in 
March. The plants are set in three-foot rows, 
eighteen inches apart in the row; if seeds are used 
instead of plants, they are sown at the rate of two 
to four pounds per acre and thinned to eighteen 
inches when the plants are established. Seed sown 
in the field should be barely covered with soil. 
Cultivation is as for ordinary garden crops. The 
dri2d flowering tops and leaves are used in medicine. 
An acre should yield about 2,000 pounds of tops. 

Thyme (Thymus vulgaris, Linn.). Lahiatm. (G. 
P. Klugh.) 

A low, shrub-like perennial, eight inches to one 
and one-half feet high, forming a dense clump of 
slender upright stems, bearing many .small, sessile, 
ovate to oblong, entire, pale leaves with many oil- 
bearing glands; flowers small, lavender-colored, in 
short, spike-like terminal groups. It is a common 
plant of kitchen-gardens used for flavoring pur- 
poses. The herb is distilled for oil, from which the 
disinfectant " thymol " is obtained. 

It likes a mellow, loamy soil, and grows well 
from seed. Planting is done about the first of 
March in three-foot rows, at the rate of about one 
or two pounds per acre ; the plants are left thick 
in the drill. The grower should cultivate thoroughly, 
and cut the plants at the end of the growing sea- 
son for distillation. An acre should yield five or six 
tons of green herb the first year, which will give 
about twenty pounds of oil. Plantings in Washing- 
ton, D. C, have been winter-killed after being cut 
down to the ground, while bushes left uncut lived 
over. 

Valerian (Valeriana officinalis, Lmn.). Valerianacem. 
(S. C. Hood.) Fig. 2632, Cyclopedia of Ameri- 
can Horticulture. 

Valerian is a perennial herb with a stout, hori- 
zontal or ascending rootstock, bearing fibrous roots ; 
stem one and one-half to three feet high, somewhat 
branching above, with a few short hairs ; lower 
stem-leaves pinnately divided or lobed into many 
lanceolate or oblong leaflets ; flowers small, closely 
crowded into terminal clusters, lilac or lavender in 
color, fragrant. It is a common ornamental known 
as "garden heliotrope." The underground parts are 
dug, sliced and dried to form the valerian of the 
crude drug market. 

Valerian root has been grown in certain sections 
of New York and New England, and as this is the 
form known as English valerian the quality is very 
fine. 

The soil should be light and well dressed with 
stable manure. Soil not well drained or having 
much clay should be avoided, because the plant 
does not do well, and also because of the difficulty 
in cleaning roots grown on this soil. The land 
should be plowed in the fall, and very early in the 
spring should be harrowed until very fine. In some 
sections it is the custom to spade the soil by hand 
with a fork and pick out all lumps. 

The plant is propagated by root-divisions of the 
previous year. The plants are left in the ground 



until wanted, when they are dug and the divisions 
made. A good plant should give six to eight divi- 
sions. These divisions should be planted in rows 
two feet apart, and ten inches apart in the row. 
They should root at once and send up a rosette of 
leaves in two weeks. The crop must be well culti- 
vated throughout the entire summer and kept free 
from weeds. 

The roots are ready to be dug about October 1. 
The masses of roots are usually washed in running 
water to remove the soil. They are then cut so 
that drying will be even. The drying is done in a 
specially constructed kiln with artificial heat, usu- 
ally at 125° to 150° Fahr. When well dried the 
root may be packed in barrels for market. The 
yield should be about 2,000 pounds of dry root per 
acre. 

Wormseed, American (Chenopodium anthelminti- 
cum, Linn.). ChenopodiacecB. (T. B. Young.) 

An annual, branching, unsightly weed character- 
istic of waste grounds, having a large fibrous root 
system (which under favorable conditions may live 
over winter in the South) and a stout, straggling, 
smooth stem, two to four feet high, bearing smooth 
leaves, various sinuately cut and lobed or almost 
entire, and long, dense, nearly leafless spikes of 
inconspicuous flowers, followed by small, shining 
black seeds enclosed in a green calyx. It occurs 
wild in eastern and southern United States. It has 
long been used in medicine for its anthelmintic 
properties, a quality due to the volatile oil which is 
distilled from the tops and fruits. Its cultivation 
has been practiced experimentally in South Carolina 
by the United States Department of Agriculture. 
The center of wormseed production in this country, 
of oil as well as seed, has been Westminster, Mary- 
land. 

Loamy soils are best suited to the plant, but it 
grows well on any type of soil, and develops an 
abundant crop of herbage and fruit in the fall. 
Fertilizers with a liberal amount of phosphate.?, 
nitrate, and organic nitrogen and potash, are the 
most satisfactory to the plant. 

The seeds are sown directly in the field in rows 
three to four feet apart. When the plants are up 
they are thinned out with a hoe to a distance of 
about eighteen inches. The cultivation is not un- 
like that given to other crops of a similar kind. A 
flat cultivation is best, as the crop has to be mowed. 
About July, before the seeds begin to turn brown- 
ish, the plants are cut with a mower and allowed 
to remain in the field a day to dry, and are then 
housed. Then the seeds are threshed, sieved clean 
and sacked, ready for market. 

A fair yield per acre of seeds is about 1,000 
pounds. The plant yields on distillation 0.3 to 0.6 
per cent of volatile oil, the fruits being the parts 
richest in oil. Wormseed oil is pale or yellowish 
and has a penetrating, disagreeable odor. It has 
the property of killing intestinal parasites. 

Literature. 

General : Wm. Dymock, C. J. H. Warden and 
David Hooper, Pharmacographia Indica. A History 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 



MELILOTUS 



467 



of the Principal Drugs of Vegetable Origin met with 
in British Inilia, three vols, Kegan Paul, Trench, 
Triibner & Co., London., 1890-1893 ; H. W. Felter 
and J. U. Lloyd, King's American Dispensatory, 
third edition, two vols., The Ohio Valley Company, 
Cincinnati, Ohio, 1898 (numerous illustrations); 

F. A. Fliickiger and Daniel Hanbury, Pharmaco- 
graphia, A History of the Principal Drugs of Vege- 
table Origin, second edition, Macmillan & Co., 
London, 1879; H. A. Hare, Charles Caspari, Jr., 
and H. H. Rusby, The National Standard Dispen- 
satory, Containing the Natural History, Chemistry, 
Pharmacy, Actions and Uses of Medicines, Lea 
Bros. & Co., Philadelphia and New York, 1905 
(numerous illustrations) ; Laurence Johnson, A 
Manual of the Medical Botany of North America, 
William Wood & Co., New York (illustrated); J. 
U. Lloyd and C. G. Lloyd, Drugs and Medicines of 
North America, Vol. I and part of Vol. II, Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio, 1884-1887 (illustrated); Charles F. 
MiUspaugh, American Medicinal Plants: An Illus- 
trative and Descriptive Guide to the American 
Plants Used as Homeopathic Remedies, two vols., 
1887 (many colored plates) ; Francis Peyre Porcher, 
Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests, 
Medical, Economical and Agricultural, Being also a 
Medical Botany of the Southern States, Walker, 
Evans & Cogswell, Charleston, S. C, Revised 
edition, 1867; H. C. Wood, J. P. Remington and 
I. P. Sadtler, The Dispensatory of the United 
States of America, J. B. Lippincott, Philadelphia, 
1907 (numerous illustrations). Bulletins of the 
United States Department of Agriculture : Alice 
Henkel, Weeds Used in Medicine, Farmers' Bulletin 
No. 188 (1904); Peppermint, Bulletin No. 90, Part 
III (1905); Wild Medicinal Plants of the United 
States, Bulletin No. 89 (190G); Alice Henkel and 

G. F. Klugh, Golden Seal, Bulletin No. 51, Part VI 
(1905); W. W. Stockberger, The Drug Known as 
Pinkroot, Bulletin No. 100, Part V (1906); Rodney 
H. True, Cultivation of Drug Plants in the United 
States, Yearbook of the United States Department 
of Agriculture, 1903; Progress in Drug Plant Culti- 
vation, Yearbook of the United States Department 
of Agriculture, 1905. Special articles on various 
drug plants may be found in the files of the Pro- 
ceedings of the American Pharmaceutical Associa- 
tion, and the various pharmaceutical periodical 
publications. The agricultural aspect of the cul- 
ture of ginseng, golden seal, and others, is espe- 
cially noticed in a monthly publication called 
"Special Crops," edited by C. M. Goodspeed, 
Skaneateles, N. Y. 

MELILOTUS (Melilotus alba.) Leguminosm. (Sweet, 
Bokhara, Stone and Large White Clover, and 
White Melilot.) Fig. 692. 

By J. F. Duggar. 

Melilotus is a genus of leguminous plants, usually 
biennial, occurring commonly as weeds. One form, 
Melilotus alha, is of value as a green-manure, forage 
and bee plant. 

Plants of the genus Melilotus are erect herbs 
with three-foliate leaves, dentate leaflets, and 



mostly white or yellow flowers in slender racemes. 
The most important species are M. alba, Desv., and 
M. officinalis. Lam. Both are generally regarded as 
weeds e.xcept in the prairie region of Alabama 
and Jlississippi, where the former serves a useful 
purpose for forage and for soil renovation. Melilo- 
tus macrostachys i s 
promising by reason of 
its being less bitter 
than most other spe- 
cies. M. Indiea, All., 
is an introduced weed 
in the western part 
of the United States. 
Its yellow flowers are 
smaller than those of 
M. officinalis. At the 
Arizona Experiment 
Station, M. Indiea, lo- 
cally known as " sour 
clover," proved to be a 
most satisfactory win- 
ter cover-crop for or- 
chards, seed sown in 
October affording an 
immense mass of green 
material to be plowed 
under in April. Brit- 
ton states that there 
are about twenty spe- 
cies of Melilotus, na- 
tives of Europe, .Africa 
and Asia. A number of 
species have been 
tested at the Cali- 
fornia Experiment 
Station, some of 
them aft'ording 
large yields of green 
material of untried 
feeding value. In Cali- 
fornia, M. officinalis is 
a pest in grain-fields 
because it imparts its 
odor to threshed grain 
and to the flour made 
objectionable to bakers 




Fig. 692. Sweet clover (Jlfeii- 
lotus alba). 



therefrom, which is very 
The price of such "clover- 
scented" grain is reduced by buyers. 

Melilotus alba is an erect, branching plant, three 
to nine feet tall, bearing small white flowers in 
racemes. It is biennial, rarely blooming the first 
year. Like other members of the genus, it has a 
bitter taste and a characteristic pleasant odor when 
bruised. The chief need for improvement in the 
plant is to decrease this bitter principle. In gen- 
eral appearance this plant bears a close resem- 
blance to alfalfa, up to the time of the appearance 
of blooms, but the stems of the former are coarser 
and less leafy. 

This plant is widely distributed over the United 
States and Canada, growing freely along roadsides, 
in vacant city lots, and in other waste places. It 
is hardy, holding its own against weeds and even 
against Johnson-grass, with which it is sometimes 
sown. It is recognized as a weed throughout the 



468 



MELILOTUS 



MELILOTUS 



greater part of its habitat and is especially liable 
to give trouble in alfalfa-fields in the first year or 
two after the first sowing of alfalfa. To prepare 
land that has been in melilotus for alfalfa, it should 
be devoted for at least one year to some hoed crop, 
preferably cotton, or the melilotus plants should be 
completely plowed under with a disk-plow before 
seed has formed. Large sharp plows are required 
to cut the tough roots of the sweet clover. 

Composilion. 

The following analyses of Melilotus alba, show 
great variation in composition dependent on stage 
of maturity : 



gating one and one-half to three tons per acre. 
The second year, growth from the old roots begins 
early in March, and the first cutting is made about 
May 1, and a second and sometimes a third cutting 
is made the second year, the total yield aggregating 
two to five tons of hay. The crop is cut when it is 
about eighteen inches high. 



As a green -inanure. — Through the loosening 
effect of its large and deeply penetrating roots and 
the decay of the roots and above-ground parts, 
sweet clover serves as a fertilizer for succeeding 
crops, often doubling the usual yield. 





Month 

har- 
vested 


Mois- 
ture 


Protein 


Ether 
extract 


Nitro- 
geu-free 
extract 


Publication 


Hay, air-dry .... 




7.43 


13.37 


3.32 


45.08 


Massachusetts State Experiment Station, 10th Report 


Hay, air-dry .... 




9.30 


11.75 


2.70 


27.70 


Canada Experimental Farms, Report 1893 


Hay, dry matter of . . 


May 


0.00 


22.96 


5.38 


48.20 


Mississippi Experiment Station, Report 1895 


Hay, dry matter of . . 


June 


0.00 


30.54 


4.00 


32.34 


Mississippi Experiment Station, Report 1895 


Hay, dry matter of . . 


June 


0.00 


22.19 


3.09 


37.74 


Mississippi Experiment Station, Report 1895 


Hay, dry matter of . . 


June 


0.00 


17.85 


3.61 


43.80 


Mississippi Experiment Station, Report 1895 


Hay, dry matter of . . 


June 


0.00 


15.20 


1.77 


36.56 


Mississippi Experiment Station, Report 1895 


Hay, dry matter of . . 


Aug. 


0.00 


18.32 


5.97 


42.34 


Mississippi Experiment Station, Report 1895 


Hay, dry matter of . . 


Oct. 


0.00 


19.45 


3.83 


46.28 


Mississippi Experiment Station, Report 1895 



The average of analyses made at the Mississippi 
E.xperiment Station show that the composition of 
the dry matter of the above-ground part of the 
plant is protein, 20.93 per cent ; fat, etc., 3.09 per 
cent ; nitrogen-free extract, 42.46 per cent ; crude 
fiber, 2.5.21 per cent ; ash, 8.87 per cent. At the 
Massachusetts State Experiment Station, the air- 
dry, above-ground part contained 7.43 per cent 
moisture, 1.95 per cent nitrogen, 1.832 per cent 
potash, 0.558 per cent phosphoric acid. 

Culture. 

Propagation. — Sweet clover does best on a shal- 
low, calcareous soil with a rotten limestone subsoil. 
It is never fertilized or manured. It is propagated 
from seed, two to eight pecks of unhulled seed per 
acre being sown on a well-prepared seed-bed. In 
the South the sowing is done in February or the 
early part of March, or by nature in August. The 
seed is frequently broadcasted among growing 
plants of small grain, and usually covered with a 
harrow. 

Place in. the rotation. — The field is left for two 
years in melilotus, or, if very poor, for four year.s, 
reseeding occurring at the end of the second year 
if the crop is allowed to stand till seed is formed. 
The crop immediately preceding sweet clover is 
usually oats or cotton and the succeeding crop is 
usually corn, after which cotton, alfalfa and other 
crops may be grown. 

Harvesting. — When sown on land that is poor or 
poorly prepared, the growth of the first season is 
usually in.sufticient for mowing, and is unu.sed or 
utilized as pasture in late summer and fall. On 
rich or well-prepared calcareous land in the South, 
two cuttings are secured the first season, aggre- 



As a forage. — While chemical analysis shows 
that sweet clover hay is practically of the same 
composition as alfalfa, the former is decidedly in- 
ferior because of its want of palatability, its coarse- 
ness, and its tendency to shed its leaves in curing. 
Melilotus hay is at first refu.sed by live-stock, but 
in time it is eaten fairly well and sustains the 
animals in good condition. Likewise, in time ani- 
mals become accustomed to melilotus as a grazing 
plant, but continue to give preference to other 
forage plants. When used as a pasture plant for 
hogs, melilotus should be mowed occasionally, thus 
causing a new growth of tender shoots to be pro- 
duced. The forai'ie value of melilotus is practically 
unrecognized in California and other parts of the 
West. 

Enemies. 

Sweet clover seldom suffers seriously from disease 
or insect injury. The leaves are occasionally 
attacked by leaf-spot. 

Literature. 

In agricultural writings very little has appeared 
on the subject of melilotus, e.xcept brief notes and 
reports of chemical analyses, occurring chiefly in 
the reports of the Massachusetts State Experiment 
Station. Brief notes are found in Alabama (Cane- 
brake) Experiment Station Bulletins ; Illinois E.x- 
periment Station, Bulletin No. 94 ; Mississippi 
Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 20 ; United States 
Department of Agriculture, Farmer.s' Bulletin No. 
18; Wilcox and Smith, Farmer's Cyclopedia of 
Agriculture, Orange Judd Company ; Shaw, Forage 
Crops, and Soiling Crops and the Silo, Orange Judd 
Company. 










w f 



Plate XVU. Foxtail millet iCha-tochloa Italica) 



MILLETS 

MILLETS. Figs. 693-702. 
By M. A. Carkton. 

The millets are cultivated varie- 
ties of certain small-seeded cereal 
and forage grasses, which, in a strict 
sense, belong to the genus Pankum, 
or to closely allied genera. Because of 
a resemblance in the seed the name is 
also applied to other grasses of different 
genera in this country, while in Europe 
and Asia even the sorghums are classed as 
millets. 

The millets are among the most ancient 
of food grains. There is historical evidence 
of their cultivation in China since 2800 B.C. 
They are still of the greatest importance in 
oriental countries, both as food grains and 
forage plants. In India the annual acreage 
for all millets (including sorghum.s) is com- 
parable with that of wheat in the United 
States. The prosos predominate in India, while 
in Japan the foxtail millets are the most com- 
mon. In these countries and in China an enor- 
mous amount of seed is used annually for human 
food. For many years the proso millets have 
constituted one of the important crops of Russia, 
and at present the annual production, over eighty 
million bushels, is probably greater than in any 
other country. 

In this country millet is generally grown as a 
supplementary or catch-crop. It is also found to be 
valuable in certain kinds of rotations. It is profit- 
ably employed in the case of a failure of some 
other crop, such as corn, or may be substituted for 
corn where the latter crop is not adapted. Millet 
may often be grown in place of a summer fallow, 
giving extra returns without materially lessening 
the chances for the following crop. It is also ex- 
cellent for restoring to a good condition land that 
is foul with weeds. 

Groups and varieties of miUet. 

Of the millets that are fairly well known in this 
country there are three principal groups : the fo.x- 
tail millets (Chmtocliloa Italka and var. Germanica), 
the barnyard millets (Pankiun Urus-galH), and the 
prosos (Panicum miliaceum). 



MILLETS 



469 




Fig. 693. Fig. 694. 

Red Siberian CommonmiUet. About three- 
miUet. fourths natural size. 



Fig. 695. German 
miUet. About one- 
half natural size. 




Foxtail millets. (Figs. 693-698.) 

The seeds of these millets are closely compacted 
into a club head, varying much in size, and either 
cylindrical or tapering at one or both ends. Ac- 
cording to the most common classification, there 
are two principal sub-groups of the foxtail millets, 



separated chiefly on the basis of the size of head, 
and which may be called the large or common 
millets, and the small or Hungarian millets. To 
the sub-group having the large heads belong the 
common (Pig. 694), the German (Fig. 695), the 
Aino (Fig. 696) and the Golden Wonder millets. 
The type of the second sub-group is the Hungarian 
millet (Fig. 698). In each of the.se sub-groups 
there is great variatien in the length and color of 
the beards and color of the seed, and on the basis 
of these variations the further classification into 
varieties is made. 

The seed of both the German and common millets 
is yellow, but that of the former is slightly the 
smaller, while the head of the German is much the 
larger. Both varieties are bearded, the bearda 
often turning dark brown or purple in color. The 
Golden Wonder, a variety much advertised, has a 
head still larger than that of the German and is 
almost beardless. The seed is small and yellow. 
Our common millet is not the common one in 
Europe, although what is known on that continent 
as California millet is this variety. 



470 



MILLETS 



MILLETS 



The name Japanese has often been applied to a 
form of foxtail millet that is usually considered 
identical with the German. On careful study the 
writer is forced to conclude that this is rather dis- 
tinct and he has given it the name of Aino millet. 
The name Japanese is very confusing, as it is 
applied to various groups of millets. This variety is 



grown by 
the Ainos, 
a prehistoric 
race of Japan. 
The spikes are 
longer and more 
open in proportion 
to thickness than in 
the German millet. 
It is not well know^n 
in the United States, 
but may prove to be 
important. 

The Hungarian millet, 
or Mohar, is a small- 
headed millet, with large 
seeds, which vary in color 
from yellowish to purple- 
brown. In typical Hunga- 
rian millet there appears to 
be a large percentage of 
dark seed. The heads have 
dark brown or purple beards. 
This is the common foxtail 
millet of central and south- 
eastern Europe and is often 
called there German millet, 
but it is not theGerman millet 
of this country. This variety 
is very persistent after being 
once seeded, and in careless 
farming may become a weed. 
It is fairly drought-resistant, 
although as a result of many 
trials it does not appear to 
be so good in that respect as 
the common millet. 

The Early Harvest millet is of 
the common millet type. The 
New Siberian and the Korean 
millets are not yet sufficiently 
studied, but may be distinct 
varieties. 



Barnyard millets. (Fig. 699.) 

The barnyard millets are so 
called because of their develop- 
ment from the wild species,Pani- 
cum Crus-gaUi,vf\ikii is known in 
this country as barnyard grass, 
and is common throughout the 
country (Fig. 525). The native 
grass is a coarse plant, with thick spreading stems 
and broad leaves, but is e.xceedingly variable in all 
characters. The heads vary in color from green 



to purple-brown, may possess strong beards or 
none, and there is much variation in habit of 
growth of the entire plant. These variations make 
the development of different varieties a compara- 




Fig. 697. 
One of the common 

foxtail miUets, 
grown from com- 
mercial seed ( ChfE- 

tocfdoa Italica), 



tively easy 
matter. 
In the United 
States the barn- 
yard millets are used 
exclusively for forage, 
but in India the grain 
is commonly used as food 
for the people. In that 
country the varieties of 
two other closely allied 
species, Panicum colonum 
and Panicum frumentaceum, 
known as Shama and Samwa 
millets, are extensively grown 
for the grain, the latter species 
being the more important. 

Proso millets. (Figs. 700, 701.) 

These millets grow one and 
one-half to three and one-half feet 
high, or about the height of other 
millets, and bear a large open head 
or panicle. The resemblance of this 
panicle to that of broom-corn has 
suggested the name broom -corn 
millets. In Ru,ssia, where this 
group of millets is given a promi- 
nent place in agriculture and where 
many distinct varieties have been 
developed, they are known by the 
collective name "proso," a good 
name that should be used in this 
country to distinguish this group 
readily from other millets. Indeed, 
this name is already fairly well 
known, having come into use along 
with the introduction recently of a 
number of good varieties from 
Russia. 

There are three fairly di.stinct 
forms of the species Panicum mil- 
iaceum, based on differences in the 
shape of the panicle, and, in accord- 
ance with these, the cultivated va- 
rieties of this group may be divided 
into three sub-groups : (1) the pani- 
prosos, having a very open, 
erect panicle ; (2) the clump forms, 
having a panicle shaped particularly like that 
of broom-corn, and drooping ; and (3) the com- 
pact prosos, having the panicle compacted almost 



Fig. 698. 
Hungarian millet. 
Neiirly one-tliiril „]p 
natural size. 



MILLETS 



MILLETS 



471 



into the form of an actual head, similar to that of 
kafir. Each of these sub-groups is made up of a 
number of varieties, differing in the color of the 
plant, shape and hairiness of the leaves, color of 
seed and other features. Within each sub-group 
more importance is usually given to the color of the 
seed, but even this character varies considerably in 
the same variety. The seed is always considerably 
larger than in any other millets. The colors 
of seed generally recognized are white, yellow, 
red, brown, gray, and black. 

There is much variation in different varie- 
ties, also in the height of the plant, the time 
of maturity, and drought-resistance. The best 
varieties with respect to the last two qualities 
have been introduced only recently from Rus- 
sia. Until recent years little attention or 
study has been given to this group of millets 
in this country, and naturally no distinction 
of varieties has been recognized. The princi- 
pal definitely -named varieties at pre.sent 
known to us are the Early Fortune, Mani- 
toba, Black Voronezh, Red Voronezh, Red Rus- 
sian, Tambov, Red Lump and Red Orenburg. 
Even some of these are very similar to each 
other, and may be identical. All but the first 
two have been imported from Russia since 
1897. Several so-called varieties making up 
our stock known previous to this period, and 
imported largely from Germany, Austria-Hun- 
gary, China and Japan, may be distinct, but 
have not yet been thoroughly studied. 

During the last six years there has been a 
great revival in the cultivation of these mil- 
lets in this country, largely through the influ- 
ence of the introduction of new and better 



average. It is very succulent when young, but 
rapidly becomes woody at time of heading, and, 
therefore, should be cut early for hay. On the 
other hand, because of its succulence it is difficult 
to cure for this use. It is apparently most useful 
for pasturing or soiling, and for the latter purpose 
should be cut very young. 

Adaptation and disiriLution of millets. 

The foxtail millets are of rather general 
adaptation as to climate. Of these, the Ger- 
man is the variety most largely grown in 
the South. All the varieties are employed in 
the Central, Middle and New England states, 
particularly for hay and soiling purposes. In 
the middle West the common millet is the 
best for drought -resistance, though the 
Hungarian is nearly as good. 

The prosos, to be really successful, are 
somewhat restricted in range because of the 
climate. They are extremely drought-resist- 
ant, but at the same time do not 
appear to be adapted to low 
altitudes or southern lati- 
tudes. They give 





varieties by the United States Department of 
Agriculture. 

Pearl millet. (Fig. 702.) 

In addition to the above-described groups, which 
alone may be considered as the true millets, another 
grass, of the species Pennisetum spicatum, known 
best as pearl millet, has lately attracted much 
attention and should be mentioned here. Various 
other names have been applied to this plant, such 
as penicillaria, cat-tail millet, Egyptian millet, 
and Mand's Wonder Forage Plant. It is an erect, 
succulent annual, growing to the height of six to 
fifteen feet, and bears its seeds in a compact, slen- 
der, cylindrical "head" or spike, six to fourteen 
inches long. There is at present much difference 
of opinion as to the usefulness and, therefore, the 
importance of this plant. It is certain that it yields 
an enormous amount of forage per acre, and may 
be cut two or three times during the season, on an 



best results in the northern Great 
Plains and at altitudes above 4,000 
feet. 

The barnyard millets require much 
more moisture than those of the other groups 
and are especially adapted to the Eastern and 
Central states and to cultivation by irrigation. 

Culture. 

Soil. — All millets require a rich, mellow soil. 
As the roots do not go deep, there should be a con- 
centration of plant-food as near the surface as 
possible. For this reason they are rather exhaus- 
tive on the available food supply in the soil, and 
the effect frequently may be seen in the follow- 
ing crop. To concentrate the plant-food near 
the surface, it may be desirable in some districts 
to apply special manures to be determined by the 
nature of the soil in the particular locality. The 
foxtail millets and prosos, as a rule, should have a 
rather heavy clay loam that will hold moisture well, 
when grown in dry districts, and a lighter sandy 
loam if there is much rainfall. 

Millet is often made a catch-crop after rye or 
some other early -maturing crop or when crops / 
have been destroyed. In such cases, if in a humid i 
district, it is well to plow immediately after har- 
vesting the other crop, and then the soil can be 
put in excellent condition for the millet. If in a 
dry district, the ground is better simply double- 
disked without plowing, after which it should be 
harrowed and the millet drilled ; or if the soil has 
remained unplowed already for a long period it 
may be plowed after the double-disking. The first 
treatment produces a surface mulch of the .stubble 
and weed.s, which absorbs moisture and checks 



472 



MILLETS 



evaporation ; if later it is plowed under, the under 
soil is thus put in a more compact condition and 
will not "dry out" easily. Summer fallow, or land 
plowed late the previous fall is, of course, already 




Fig. 700. Proso. Two-thirds natural size. 

likely to be in excellent condition for millet and 
needs only to be lightly disked and harrowed 
before drilling. 

Seeding. — As a rule, millets should be sown with 
a drill, particularly in the dry districts. When 
grown in humid areas, where the condition of the 
soil for resisting drought is not important, and 
especially if the crop is to be pastured, broadcast- 
ing may be better. A u.sual rate of seeding is two 
to three pecks per acre for the foxtail and proso 
millets, and one to two pecks for the barnyard 
millets. In very dry areas the rate may be con- 
siderably less. Millets are sown at about the same 
time that corn is planted, but the period may be 
extended to August 1. For soiling purposes, several 
crops may be planted at different dates. 

Millet is one of the best crops for immediate 
planting on new land or first "breaking." Unless 
the sod is very stiff the crop can be sown soon 
after the former is turned over. 

Harvesting. — This feature, of cour.se, varies, 
depending on the purpose for which the crop is to 
be used. In this country the foxtail millets are 
used exclusively for forage, and, therefore, should 










■Mih-:^-:^ 






toward 



MILLETS 

always be cut before the seed begins to ripen 

unless it is intended to sell the seed. For hay they 

should be cut even earlier, about the time most of 

the heads have appeared. The barnyard millets are 

also rarely used ,^ 

for the grain, and, ^%%,: 

for early hay or ,i^S 

soiling, should be 

cut at about the 

blooming period. 

It is even more 

essential to cut 

the prosos in good 

time if intended 

for forage, as 

these millets are 

coarse and their 

forage quality 

diminishes rapidly 

the time of maturity. 

Proso is largely used for 
the grain, and this use is ap- 
parently increasing. For such 
purpose the seed should be 
allowed to mature before cutting, 
but care should be taken that the 
crop does not stand until it is 
over-ripe, as in such case there 
will be much loss of seed by shat- 
tering. One is likely to be de- 
ceived in this matter if inexperi- 
enced. The seed itself must be 
examined. It may be ripe even 
though the general appearance of 
the crop would indicate that it is 
yet green. 

In all cases of harvesting for 
the seed, millet is best handled if 
cut and bound with a self-binder. 
The bundles should be placed two 
by two in narrow shocks. Even 
when intended for hay many of 
the millets can be cut with the 
binder in dry weather. Ordina- 
rily, however, harvesting for for- 
age is best done with the mower 
or self-rake, leaving the millet to 
cure dry in the swath or bunches, 
after which it is cured in cocks 
before stacking or housing. 

Uses and nutritive value. 

As before stated, the foxtail mil- 
lets are generally used for forage 
in this country. However, suffici- 
ent attention is not being given, it 
seems, to .soiling and the produc- 
tion of silage in the cultivation 
of these crops. Experience so far 
indicates that they are excellent 
for these purpo.ses. The chief care 
to be taken is to feed sparingly 
and in combination with other 
foods because of the laxative ac- 
tion of these crops, when green. 



I 




if 
Fig. 701. 
One of the prosos, 
sold as White 
French ( Pfiiiicvm 
miliaceum) . 



MILLETS 



MILLETS 



473 



on the digestive organs. If cut late, when the seeds 
are well formed, the feed has an injurious effect . 
on the kidneys of the horse. The millets may also 
be of much value in pasturing, especially for sup- 
plementing exhausted pastures. 
^ Proso is not so good as the other 

'" millets for forage, though it is used 
considerably in this way. It is much 
more valuable for the seed. An in- 
creased amount of seed is being used 

for feeding to stock each year. Seed 

i- :->^!Ml should be ground. In this way proso 
even acts as a substitute for corn 
where that crop will not succeed and 
the sorghums will not mature. These 
millets have been found so well adapted 
for hog-feeding that they are often 
\ v-;-.^3eS^ called hog millets. They are also ex- 
cellent poultry food, and in North Da- 



kota are profitably fed 

to sheep. Because of the 

large percentage of protein 

the seed contains, proso should be well 

adapted for feeding to dairy cattle. 

In Konig's work on "The Chemistry 
of Human Food Materials," the protein 
content of the common millets in the 
hulled form is given as 7.40 per cent ; 
of the Hungarian millets, 12.46 per 
ceirt ; of the proso millets, 10..51 per 
cent ; and the barnyard millets, 9.14 
per cent. It will be noted that the 
Hungarian millets and the prosos 
stand rather high in their percentage 
of protein, the amount being about the 
same as the average for ordinary 
wheat. It is highest in the Hungarian 
millet. Hungarian millet is not nearly 
so much grown as other millets in this 
country. Of the millets commonly 
grown in the United States, therefore, 
the proso group has the highest pro- 
tein content. Shepard, in Bulletin No. 
69 of the South Dakota Agricultual 
Experiment Station, gives the protein 
content of a few millets on the air-dry 
basis, as follows : Barnyard millet, 
9.69 per cent ; Tambov millet, 14.28 
per cent ; Black Voronezh, 1.").68 per 
j. ,M cent. No analysis of f he common mil- 

1 lets is given. Tambov and 151aek Vo- 

IfH ronezh are prosos. It may be stated 

also that the Black Voronezh has so 
far proved to be much the best of the 
prosos in South Dakota. According to 
these analyses, the protein of ,.roso in 
South Dakota runs very high. In Ru.ssia 
and Oriental regions the seed of these millets is one 
of the most common food grains not only for stock, 
but also for man, 



Fig. 702. 
Pearl millet 

spicafum). 
One foiirtli 
natural size. 



Encm ies. 

The millet crops are apparently fortunate in 
being less subject to attacks of insect and fungous 
pests than probably any other cereal crops. Al- 
though several fungi may be found on millet, the 
only one that does any considerable damage is the 
millet smut (UstUago Cramcri, Korn.), and it has 
been shown that this smut can be prevented by 
the ordinary formalin treatment. It seems to suc- 
cumb also to the hot-water treatment. [See report 
by W. Stuart in the annual report of the Indiana 
Experiment Station, 1901. See also Index.] 

Several insects occasionally attack millet, but 
ordinarily they are of little importance. At cer- 
tain periods and in certain districts the chinch-bug 
becomes a rather serious pest. In such cases the 
millet should not be planted in proximity to other 
grasses and should be grown in complete rotation 
with other crops. 

Literature. 

Carleton R. Ball, Pearl Millet, 
Farmers' Bulletin No. 168, Uni- 
ted States Department of Agri- 
culture, 1903; M. A. Carleton, Ru.ssian Cereals 
Adapted for Cultivation in the United States, Bulle- 
tin No. 23, Division of Botany, United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, pp. 27-30 and 40-41, 1900 ; 
E. C. Chilcott, Forage Plants for South Dakota, Bul- 
letin No. 51, South Dakota Agricultural Experiment 
Station, 1897 ; E. C. Chilcott and James H. Shep- 
ard, Forage and Garden Crops in the James River 
Valley, Bulletin No. 59, South Dakota Agricultural 
Experiment Station, 1898 ; E. C. Chilcott and D. A. 
Saunders, Millet, Bulletin No. 60, South Dakota 
Agricultural Experiment Station, 1898 ; A. H. 
Church, Food Grains of India, 1886 ; A. A. Crozier, 
Millet, Bulletin No. 117. Michigan Agricultural 
Experiment Station, 1894 ; J. T. Duthie,The Fodder 
Grasses of Northern India, 1888; H. Garman, 
Bulletin No. 98, Kentucky Agricultural Experiment 
Station, 1902 ; A. S. Hitchcock and J. M. Westgate, 
Forage Plants for Kansas, Bulletin No. 102, Kansas 
Agricultural Experiment Station, 1901 ; Clarence 
B.'^Lane and E. B. Voorhees, Forage Crops, Bulletin 
No. 130, New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Sta- 
tion, 1898 ; Jos. B. Lindsey, Forage Crops, Bulletin 
No. 72, Hatch Experiment Station, Amherst, Mass.; 
Thomas Shaw, Forage Crops Other Than Grasses, 
1900 ; D. A. Saunders, Drought-Resi.stant Forage 
Experiments at Highmore Substation, Bulletin 
No. 74, South Dakota Agricultural Experiment 
Station, 1902 ; D. A. Saunders, Drought-Resistant 
Forage Experiments at Highmore, South Dakota, 
Bulletin No. 70, South Dakota Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station, 1901 ; D. A. Saunders, James H. 
Shepard and W. H. Knox, Native and Introduced 
Forage Plants, Bulletin No. 69, South Dakota Agri- 
cultural Experiment Station, 1901 ; James H. Shep- 
ard, Drought-Resisting Forage Plants at the Co- 
operative Range Experiment Station, Highmore, 
South Dakota, Bulletin No. 66, South Dakota Ex- 
periment Station, 1900; W. J. Spillman, Farm 
Gra.sses of the United States, 1905 ; T. A. Williams, 
Millets, Reprint from United States Department of 



474 



MILLET 



MUSHROOMS 



Agriculture Yearbook, 1898 (also issued as Farm- 
ers' Bulletin No. 101); James W. Wilson and H. 
G. Skinner, Millet for Fattening Swine, Bulletin 
No. 83, South Dakota Agriculture Experiment Sta- 
tion, 1904; also, Speltz and Millet for the Production 
of Baby Beef, Bulletin No. 97, 1906; W. Stuart, 
Formalin as a Preventive of Millet Smut ; Annual 
Report Indiana Experiment Station, p. 25, 1901. 




Fig. 703. Aijaricus cainiH'stris. An edible, purple-brown-spored agaric 

MUSHROOMS and TRUFFLES. Figs. 703-713. 

By B. M. Duggar ; illustrations of mushrooms 
from photographs by G. F. Atkinson. 

The native or wild mushrooms supply a source 
of food that we cannot afford to neglect, and it is 
the purpose of this article to call attention to 
them and to give advice as to their utilization. 

The term mushroom, as the term fruit, is of 
very broad application. It may be applied to any 
one of the several hundred fleshy fungi which may 
be found in a particular region. Unfortunately, 
there is a popular belief that a "mushroom" and 
a " toadstool " are two things which are very dis- 
tinct one from the other in some mysterious way, 
the one being edible and the other poisonous. This 
is practically synonymous with saying that those 
which have been found to be edible will be re- 
garded as mushrooms, and those which have been 
found to be inedible, or which are supposed to be 
inedible, will be termed toadstools. This leads to 
endless confusion, since no two laymen would agree 
as to what forms are edible and what are not. 
The best usage, therefore, sanctions the use of the 
term mushroom to include all the fleshy forms, and 
we may, therefore, with propriety speak of edible, 
inedible, or poisonous mushrooms. In a commer- 
cial sense, " the mushroom " refers to a particular 
species, Agarieus campestris (Figs. 3, 703), or to a 
group of species closely related to this one, several 
of which are cultivated as varieties of this form. 

The utility of mushrooms. 

Mushrooms are an important article of food in 
many parts of the world. They cannot in any 



Pound for pound of the fresh product, they are not 
rich enough in proteids or nitrogenous materials 
to replace meat, nor are they so rich in carbohy- 
drates as to replace such foodstuffs as rice and 
potatoes. Nevertheless, they are, from a chemical 
point of view, as valuable as many of our vege- 
tables. From a physiological point of view their 
value cannot be estimated. This is due to the fact 
that they belong to that class of 
foods which should be known as 
condimental foods. The part which 
they play, therefore, is analogous 
to that of many of our fruits, and 
sometimes more important because 
of the fact that they serve the 
purposes of relishes taken with 
other foods. 

In considering the economic pos- 
sibilities of mu.shrooms, the dis- 
tinction between wild and culti- 
vated mushrooms should be borne 
in mind. It is not possible to form 
an estimate of the total output of 
cultivated mushrooms, although it 
is a product which, to a very large 
extent, is grown for the market. 
Therefore, it would be wholly im- 
possible to estimate the consump- 
tion of wild mushrooms, for the 
latter constitute a product a relatively small [lart 
of which is marketed. While A. campestris and its 
allies are the chief cultivated mushrooms, it should 
be said, however, that other species are cultivated, 
in a sense, in particular regions. Truffle-growing 
[see Truffle, following] is for all practical purposes 
an industry in sections of southern France. In 
Japan, the Shiitake (Collyhia Shiitake) is an article 
of commerce, and probably this same species is 
likewise grown in China. 

Extent of mushroom-culture. 

During the season of 1901, the estimated quan- 
tity of the cultivated mushroom product which 
passed through the Central Markets of Paris was 
nearly ten million pounds. The market of Paris is 
the chief market of the world for the cultivated 
mushroom, and much of the product finally sold in 
London and continental cities may be traced to 
Paris. Nevertheless, mushroom -growing is an 
industry in England and in other European coun- 
tries. In the United States the cultivated mush- 
room is a product of importance only in the neigh- 
borhood of some of the larger cities, and the best 
markets are unquestionably New York, Philadel- 
phia, Boston and Chicago. It is safe to say, how- 
ever, that markets of these and of many other 
cities could support a much larger quantity of the 
cultivated mushrooms than is sold during any sea- 
son. The price paid in this country may vary from 
twenty-five cents a pound to more than a dollar, 
and an average price would probably be about 
fifty cents per pound. This is nearly twice as much 
as is paid for cultivated mushrooms on the markets 
of Paris, and it is evidence of the fact that the 



sense, however, replace the staple articles of diet. ,. mushroom is still a luxury. It is safe to say that 



MUSHROOMS 



MUSHROOMS 



475 



although mushroom production has doubled in the 
United States within a period of live years, the 
markets could take twice the quantity now being 
received without very materially affecting the 
value of the product. Moreover, the demand 
for the cultivated mushroom is increas- 
ing very rapidly, and many of the smaller 
cities which now receive none of this prod- 
uct could dispose of it in small quantity. 

The cultivation of mushrooms is an horti- 
cultural operation, and is therefore not dis- 
cussed in detail in this place. For the benefit 
of prospective growers, however, it may be 
said that the market possibilities have not ifjij'; 
by any means been attained and that the 
price at present paid for the fresh product 
makes it a paying business where the condi- 
tions are favorable and where good care and ^ 
the best cultural intelligence are brought to 
bear on the work. 

Wild mushrooms. 

The wild mushroom product, being depen- 
dent on the season, is very variable. In the 
United States the wild mushrooms which 
reach the market may, for all practical pur- 
poses, be said to consist only of -4. campes- „ 
iris and its allies, and the food value of the 
vast number of other common edible forms is appre- 
ciated by an individual only here and there. In 
Europe, more than in any other country, perhaps, 
the wild mushroom is a sub-staple article of food. 
In many instances there are municipal or state 
regulations governing the species which may be 
legitimately sold. Gen- 
erally as many as six spe- 
cies are legitimately sold, 
and in extreme instances 
the list may run as high 
as forty species. From 
France to western Russia, 
or from Scandinavia to 
Italy, during the mush- 
room season, one may find 
one or more species of 
wild mushrooms on the 
market of both village 
and city. A knowledge 
of common forms is, 
therefore, well dissemi- 
nated. Nevertheless,even 
in those countries, mis- 
takes are made, and cases 
of poisoning, among the 
peasantry particularly, 
are from time to time re- 
ported. This is not sur- 
prising, however, when 
one finds that some of 
the more ignorant classes 
pay no attention what- 
soever to the possibility 
_, . of poisoning except from 

Fig. 704. Coprinus comalus. , j. ii i „ 

An edible biack-spored One or two Well - known 

agaric. Species. 



Writing in 1876, a French botanist reported 
the sale of more than seventy thousand pounds of 
wild mushrooms on the market of the small city of 
Nantes. In 1901, the sale of wild mushrooms in 










^^^^m' 




. 705. Coprinus atramentarius. An edible black-spored agarie. 

the vegetable markets of Munich amounted to 
about two million pounds, and this does not include 
the amount dried and sold out of season. Of the 
amount last mentioned, it is true, however, that 
about six species (or groups of related species) 
furnished practically nine -tenths of the total 
product. Some of the important species of this 
market will be referred to later. 

How to distinguish tlie mushrooms. 

It has been stated that there is no one mark by 
means of which an edible mushroom may be 
known from a poisonous species. In order to use 
the wild forms of the cultivated mushroom, or to 
cultivate the wild forms which may be of value, it 
is necessary to know something of the form and 
appearance of the important groups of these plants. 
Unfortunately, the child seldom grows up with 
such knowledge of these plants as it has attained 
in the case of the birds or snakes which it may 
also have seen in field or forest. The cultivated 
mushroom (Agaricus campestris) is perhaps best 
known, and its general appearance may therefore 
be described, before attempting to compare with it 
the wild edible species. 

The general umbrella form of the plant is famil- 
iar to all. In its different varieties the color may 
vary from almost white to deep brown or even 
sometimes to purplish brown, so far as the cap, or 
upper expanded part, is concerned. Moreover, the 
plant consists of a centrally placed stipe, or stem, 
three or more inches high, bearing the expanded 
cap. Toward the upper end of the stem, in the 
mature plant, there is attached a small ring, or 
annulus, and in the early stages this ring is in the 
form of a veil, that is, a structure connecting the 
edges of the cap, technically known as the pileus, 



476 



MUSHROOMS 



MUSHROOMS 




-/J 









with the stem. This veil protects on the under side 
of the cap certain plate-like radial structures, 
which reach practically from the stem to the per- 
iphery of the cap. These plate-like structures are 
known as the gills, or laraelkB, and in young sjjeci- 
mens of this genus they are invariably some form 
of pink, but on the breaking away of the veil and 
e.xposure to the air they soon become brown and 
eventually brown-black. These characters enable 
one to distinguish this species with absolute cer- 
tainty from any 
injurious form. 
The umbrella 
shape, the annu- 
lus, and the gills 
are common to 
many species and 
even to genera ; 
but the umbrella 
shape coupled 
with the presence 
of an annulus (no 
other appendages 
being present on 
the stem) and 
with the pink 
gills becoming 
brown-black, can- 
n o t be confused 
with those of un- 
desirable forms. 
It should be borne 
in mind, however, 
that there are dif- 
ferences in the 
color of the varie- 
ties of this spe- 
cies. Again, there 
may be slight dif- 
ferences in the 
form of the annu- 
lus, in the shape 
of the stem, and 
other features. 
However greatly these varieties may differ one 
from another, there is a general resemblance which 
is constant. 

Agaricus campestris, as a wild plant, is usually 
found during the late summer and autumn, al- 
though in sections of the country where the win- 
ters are light and the spring of some length, they 
may appear in some quantity during June. This 
refers only to general conditions, for in special 
localities, as, for example, in California, the mush- 
room may occur in greatest abundance after the 
beginning of the winter rains, coming in abund- 
antly in early January. 

One should not be content to use merely this 
one group of mushrooms, but should gradually 
acquire a knowledge of other groups concerning 
which there can be no question of edibility and no 
possibility of mistake. As the interest increases, 
definite knowledge of species will be acquired, and 
one will find himself able to utilize a number of 
the more valuable species as readily as he may 




Fig.. 706. Tolvaria boinbycina, 
edible red-spored agaric. 



utilize the berries of the field or the game of the 
woods. Attention may therefore be called to a 
few groups of mushrooms to which the amateur 
might first give consideration, and also to a few 
forms which it is well at the outset entirely to 
avoid. 

For home consumption there is no group of fungi 
more easily secured than certain species of the 
Ink Cap.s, belonging to the genus Coprinus. The 
characters of the Ink Caps, in general, are the 
umbrella shape, a very slight indication of an 
annulus, gills becoming black, and, best of all, the 
gills, and sometimes the whole plant, becoming 
delique.scent with age, so that, as the plant matures, 
the gills break down from the edges of the pileus 
toward the center, and the whole plant may even- 
tually disappear in an inky mass. The two more 
common species of this group are, the one named 
Coprinus (C. comatus, Fig. 704), sometimes known 
as Shag Mane, a plant which attains a height of six 
to nine inches, with an oval or oblong pileus and 
shaggy surface, becoming gradually deliquescent. 
It is large and fleshy, with excellent flavor. It can 
be found in Jiwns and meadows, and in grassy 
places anywhere, and is usually most frequent dur- 
ing the spring months. The plants are more or 
less solitary, or in loose groups. The other species, 
which is important because of its size and flavor, 
is the true Ink Cap {Coprinus atramentariiis. Fig. 
705). As a rule, this species is found in similar 
situations as the above, but in closer tufts, and 
usually it is more frequent. The life of the plant 
above the .surface of the ground is at most but a 
few days, when it also disappears in the manner 
of other members of this group. 

From what has been said, it is evident that the 
Coprini are not to be used for market purposes. 
When found they should be immediately used. The 
flesh is not so firm as that of other species, there- 
fore care must be used in the preparation of these 
for food in order that they may be most appetizing. 

There are other brown or brown-black spored 
forms which are desirable, and so far as at pres- 
ent known, no species is poisonous. The more 
desirable forms, however, should be learned by 
gradual experience. 

Among the Agarics which have white spores, 
there is a genus which contains several highly 
poisonous species. The general characters of the 
group may be briefly indicated. The plant is 
umbrella-shaped. There is an annulus borne in the 
characteristic fashion near the upper end of the 
stem, and, in addition, there is an appendage of the 
stem, known as a volva, which is to be found at or 
near the base of the stem in the form of a definite 
ridge or sheath. In either case it is what remains 
about the stem of the universal veil which inclosed 
the young plant before it assumed its definite 
umbrella form. Sometimes the whole plant breaks 
through this sheath and no markings of the uni- 
versal veil are left on the cap. Again, to the sur- 
face of the cap the veil is adherent, and, as the cap 
expands, it may be broken up into scales or floccose 
patches. The gills are white in the poisonous spe- 
cies. The two species which every one should 



MUSHROOMS 



MUSHROOMS 



477 



learn to know are the Fly Agaric {Amanita mus- 
cai-ia, Fig. 245) and the Destroying Angel {A. 
phultoides, Fig. 246). In Europe, the Royal mush- 
room {Amanita CcFsarca, Fig. 707) is regarded as 
one of the most delicious wild species. It was even 
regarded as the chief delicacy among the mush- 
rooms, aside from the truffles, in the times of the 
Romans. That is, it is this species, probably, which 
in Latin literature is referred to under the name 
"Boletus," a term now unfortunately applied to a 
very different group of fungi, as subsequently 
mentioned. 

Closely related to the genus Amanita there are 
field mushrooms of the genus Lepiota, which 
resemble fairly closely the Destroying Angel in 
every way except in the absence of the universal 
veil, or volva, at the base. It might not be advis- 
able, however, at the outset to use even these. 

Another group of the Agarics to which the ama- 
teur may turn his attention with no fear of harm, 
is that which includes the oyster mushroom {Pleu- 
rntus ostrcatus) and its allies. These fungi grow in 
the form of clusters of shelving plants, which may 
be found on old stumps and logs or on exposed 
roots where decay has set in. The clusters may 
attain a diameter of a foot or more, and an exami- 
nation of the individual plants which constitute 
the cluster will show that the stem is attached 
excentrically, or at one edge of the pileu.s, in some 
instances the stem being greatly reduced. The 
gills are white and white spores are produced. 
The surface of the pileus varies from white to yel- 
lowish with age, or it may even be grayish purple 
in different forms and species. In most species 
the gills are decurrent, cour.sing downward on the 
stem, gradually losing themselves in mere surface 
lines. These fungi are found abundantly in most 
regions of the United States from July to early 
winter. In the southern states they are not infre- 
quently found at any season so long as the moisture 
is sufficient. 

In the family of pore-bearing mushrooms the 
more widely distributed edible forms are found in 
the genus Boletus (Fig. 247). These species con- 
sist of fleshy plants of the characteristic umbrella 
shape. The stem is central, and frequently the 
whole plant is highly colored. In place of bearing 
gills on the lower surface of the pileus, the surface 
consists of a compact layer of vertically-placed 
small tubes or pores, and it is over the surface of 
these that the spores are borne. Boletus cdniis, 
commonly known as the Edible Boletus (called in 
French, cepe, and in German, Steinpilz), is a common 
article of food throughout Europe, and it probably 
represents in this country a chief source of waste, 
so far as edible fungi are concerned, since it is 
very seldom used. An idea of the amount of this 
waste is suggested by the statement that this 
species and two or three closely related forms 
were sold on the market of Munich in 1901 to the 
extent of about one million pounds, representing a 
value of nearly two hundred thousand dollars. 
Boletus eihdis is a plant with a pileus usually red- 
brown on the upper surface, with a lower surface 
yellowish becoming greenish, slightly discoloring 



when bruised, white flesh, and with a fleshy stem, 
yellowish buff in color. Among the Boleti there 
are several injurious species. General character- 
istics, by which they may be avoided, are a red 
color of the margins of the pores, the gills or flesh 
changing color markedly when exposed or injured, 
and an acrid or peppery taste. 

It is safe to say that among the peasantry of 
Europe, Boletus edulis is almost as common a food 
product as our well-known vegetables. From the 
time of its appearance in the early summer until 
the cold weather of autumn, it is sought every- 
where in the moist woods, and while highly prized 
in its fresh condition, it is also cut into pieces and 
dried for winter use. No small amount is canned 
and exported, the principal exported product being 
from France, and therefore bearing the name com- 
mercially of cepe. It would appear that it was this 
species that constituted, during the time of the 
empire at Rome, the greater bulk of what were 




Fig. 707. Amanita Cccsarea. An edible whitespored agaric. 

known as fungi sullli, not the most highly prized, 
but yet the fungi eaten by the multitudes. 

In the woods of north temperate regions through- 
out the world, and especially abundant in the moist 
mountain regions, there are found delicate branched 
fungi, commonly known as Stag-horn mushrooms. 
Fairy Clubs and others. These species grow on the 
ground, frequently among the mosses, even in boggy 
regions. All of the species which are somewhat 
delicate or of sufficient size arc edible and no mis- 
take can be made in appropriating them at will. 
The larger and more fleshy species are fortunately 



478 



MUSHROOMS 



MUSHROOMS 



rather common and of inviting color. They vary 
from light buff to golden yellow, and the delicate 
appearance of the plant is unmistakable. The .spe- 
cies more commonly used are Clavaria formosa, 
C. aurea, and C. botrytcs (Fig. 708). 

Somewhat like the preceding in general appear- 
ance are a few toothed fungi, which grow on 




r 

Fig. 708. Clavaria botrntes. Edible. 

decaying trunks or limbs. These plants belong to 
the genus Hydnum, and they are found only in 
wooded regions, usually in the presence of abundant 
moisture. The fungus body may consist of a very 
much branched structure, the branches ultimately 
terminating in teeth. The characteristic species 
are cream white and they are of good texture. 
The best known forms are the Coral Hydnum, H. 
coralloides, and the Satyr's Beard, H. erinaceus. 
There are also two important members of this 
genus which have an irregular umbrella shape, 
the lower surface of the pileus in the.se cases 
being studded with teeth (Fig. 709). Both species 
are edible and of good flavor. They are frequently 
found in unusual abundance in mountain woods, in 
situations favorable for the Clavarias above men- 
tioned, in the late summer and early autumn. 

If there is one group of the fleshy fungi well 
known to all who have had opportunities to know 
the products of the pasture and meadow, this group 
is that of the puffballs. The puff'balls are all 
edible, and many of the larger species are some of 
the most valuable of our fleshy fungi. If collected 
and used when the flesh is white, discarded always 
when old, or when the flesh has begun to change 
in color, no suspicious or injurious qualities can be 
assigned to this group. The larger species are 
sometimes very abundant, and a single plant may 
furnish a delicate accessory dish for a whole 
family. Among the valuable species .several may 
be mentioned. Calvatia cyalhiforme, the beaker- 
shaped pufl'ball, is common in pastures throughout 
the United States. It is a plant of the early 
autumn, and is most abundant when the season is 



moist and cool. It is a favorite food of insects, 
but since the latter are comparatively inactive 
during cool weather, that is the season when they 
are to be expected in greatest profusion. This 
putt'ball is at first white and later may become 
purplish brown, or white with a slight tint of 
brown. The flesh is firm and pure white even until 
full size is attained. The plant may attain a diam- 
eter of as much as five or six inches. With age it 
becomes spongy, and the plant differentiates into 
a mass of purple-brown threads and spores ; this 
gradually wears away, leaving a purple-col- 
ored basal cup or beaker, which may be 
found in the pastures for months after the 
spores have blown away. The Giant Pufl'ball 
(Calvatia gigantea) is also found in pastures, 
but it may appear in gardens and meadows 
as well. It has been found of a diameter of 
more than two feet, and can frequently be 
had sixteen to eighteen inches across. Thus 
far it has not been possible to cultivate any of 
these species of puffballs, but in recent years the 
use of these plants has become very much more 
general, perhaps because of the recognition of the 
very definite characters of the group. Even the 
smaller members of the puffballs may be used 
when the flesh is white and tender. 

An entirely dift'erent class of mushrooms, and 
one which indeed includes the truffles and terfas, 
is of further economic importance as furnishing, 
in practically all north temperate regions of the 




Fig. 709. niidiium repandum. Edible. 

earth, some of the most highly prized of the mush- 
rooms, namely, the morels. There are several spe- 
cies of the morels, the chief one being MorcheUa 
eseulenia (Fig. 710), the commonmorel (in German 



MUSHROOMS 



MUSHROOMS 



479 



known as Morehel, and in French as Morille). In 
the United States this plant may pass under the 
came of "sponge mushroom," this fittingly describ- 
ing the general appearance of the plant, for the 
morel is of a sponge-like color, and consists of a 

stem bearing a 
cap or head, 
which is thrown 
into folds or 
wrinkles, also 
suggesting very 
much the struc- 
ture of a sponge. 
The plant is two 
to five inches in 
height and of 
very neat ap- 
pearance. It is 
found chiefly in 
open woods, 
though it may 
also extend into 




Fig. 710. Morchella esculenta. Edible. 



grassy places 
and orchards. 
Its season in the 
United States is 
from late April 
to early June, 
and in a particu- 
lar locality it 
may come and 
disappear within 
a single week. 
It must therefore 
be sought as the 
earliest edible 
mushroom. With 
the exception of 
the trufile, more- 
over, it is con- 
sidered by the 
French the greatest delicacy among mushrooms, 
and it commands on the markets of Paris a price 
several times that of the cultivated mushroom. 

Truffles and other subterranean forms. 

Trufi^es are the fruit bodies, or sporophores, of 
subterranean fungi belonging to the family Tuber- 
accie, of the class Aseomycdes. There are only six 
or seven species which, because of size and quality, 
may be considered of economic importance. These 
are all classed in the genus Tuber, as are also 
many small species. 

The black or winter trufile (Tuber melanosporum. 
Fig. 711) is particularly abundant in France. It 
is preeminently the trufile of commerce, and con- 
stitutes most of the best exported product. It is 
sometimes known as the Perigord trufile, and has 
made famous the markets of Perigord and Carpen- 
tras. Thi.s species has a wonderful aroma and 
flavor. Tuber mstivum, the summer tr'iffle, occurs 
also in southern France, but chiefly in p,irts of cen- 
tral France. The next important species is T. 
magnatvm, a large species with alliaceous flavor, 
highly prized and abundant in Italy. Any of these 



species may vary in size from plants smaller than 
hulled walnuts to those larger than an orange, in 
extreme cases. The majority of trufiles are dark 
brown or black, with a peculiar warty surface, but 
T. magnatum is smooth and light in color, some- 
what resembling a spherical yam. 

In the United States no truflfles of economic 
importance have thus far been found. One or two 
small species have been found during a single 
season in Minnesota, and small forms are also 
known in California. It is thought that none of 
the larger edible species are native in this country. 
There seems to be no reason why truflle-growing 
may not succeed in parts of some of the southern 
states. The introduction e.xperiments thus far 
have been of no consequence. 

Trufiles are found in lime-containing clay soils, 
and are thought to be absent from all sandy soils. 
They are seldom found at great distances from the 
roots of certain trees, and it is thought that the 
mycelium is, in part at least, parasitic on living 
roots. T. melanosporum is more commonly found 
under oaks, particularly Quercus Ilex, the live-oak 
(Chene vert) of southern Europe, Q. coccifera, a scrub 
live-oak of the Mediterranean garigues, and Q. 
sessiliflora. 

Properly speaking, trufiles are exploited rather 
than cultivated ; nevertheless they are cultivated 
in the sense that many areas in which trufiles did 
not grow are now yielding an abundance of this 




Fig. 711. The black truffle above {Tuber melanosporum, var. 
A ijrosses vermes). Terfa {Tcrfeziu teunis) below. (From 
"La Truffa," by Ad. Chatin, Paris.) 

fungus. Truffle production has been made possible 
in such areas by planting the necessary shelter 
trees, providing for proper soil drainage and shut- 
ing out predatory animals. Sometimes, moreover, 



480 



MUSHROOMS 



MUSHROOMS 



the soil from truffle regions has been spread on the 
land, thus securing a sowing of the spores. A 
double economic purpose has thus been accom- 
plished, — reforestation and the encouragement of 
truffle-growing. 

Tcrfa. Terfeziaeece. Fig. 711. 

The terfas, or kames, are fungi which in general 
appearance re.semble the white truffle of southern 
Europe, but because of well-marked characters 
they are placed in another related family, the Ter- 
feziaeece. They were among the earliest known 
edible fungi, and were greatly prized by the an- 
cient Greeks. At present the terfas are abundant in 
pai-ts of Asiatic Turkey and Persia, particularly 
near Smyrna and Babylon, also in the Libyan Des- 
ert of northern Africa and in the semi-desertic 
regions of southern and southwestern Algeria. 
They are highly prized by the Arabs, and wher- 
ever they occur in quantity they constitute an 
important food product. These fungi are found, as 
a rule, under certain species of Cidacece, although 
they occur associated with the roots of other 



plants. They are found more readily than truffles. 
They mature in the spring after the heavy rains, 
and as they develop rapidly, they break or raise 
the soil slightly, so that the locations may be 





Fig. 712. Truffle huntinE (above) with a dog in tlie garigues 
of southern France. Truffle hunting (below) with a pig in 
an "orchard" of oaks, southern France. 



Fig. 713. A broken tuckahoe. llucli reduced. 

detected, although subterranean. They occur in 
lime -containing, sandy soils, mostly in the flood 
plains of small streams. The production of these 
fungi is very evidently dependent on sufficient 
winter rainfall, or inundations at some time in the 
winter months. 

Tiiekakoe. (Indian Bread, Indian Loaf. Okeepe- 
nauk of the early Indians.) Fig. 713. 

The American tuckahoe is now considered to be 
inedible. It is unquestionably the sclerotial stage 
of some fungus, very probably of a pore-bearing 
mushroom (supposedly of a Polyporus). The form 
and size of this sclerotium is not unlike a coco- 
nut. The e.xterior is also rough and bark-like. The 
interior, however, when mature, is hard, white and 
friable. The tuckahcje has been found in various 
parts of the South and Southwest. It has received 
tentatively the name Paclu/ma cocas. 

Among other pore-bearing mushrooms which 
may produce a somewhat similar sclerotial stage, 
one of the most interesting is Polyporus Mi/littce. 
The sclerotium of this fungus is known as " Native 
Bread," and is said to be eaten by the native in- 
habitants. P. Sapurema, found in Brazil, produces 
a sclerotium weighing many kilos. In Italy, P. 
tnherastcr, produces a sclerotial mass of mycelium. 
This mass will produce the edible sporophores of 
the Polyporus until the stored-up nutriment is ex- 
hausted. The sclerotial mass is therefore sought 
in the open and brought in, so that none of the 
mushrooms may be lost as produced. No form of 
tuckahoe or allied structure is cultivated so far as 
can be ascertained. 

Literature on mushrooms. 

Atkinson, Mushrooms, Edible, Poisonous, etc., 
first edition, Andrus and Church, Ithaca, N. Y. 
(1901); second edition, Henry Holt & Co., New 
York City (190.3); B. M. Duggar, The Principles of 
Mushroom-Growing and Mushroom Spawn Making, 
Bulletin No. 85, Bureau of Plant Industrv, United 
States Department of Agriculture (1905); W. G. 
Farlow, Some Edible and Poisonous Fungi, Bulletin 
No. 15, Division of Vegetable Physiology and 
Pathology, United States Department of .Agricul- 
ture (1898); Wm. Hamilton Gibson, Our Edible 
Toadstools and Mushrooms, and How to Distinguish 



NURSERIES 



NURSERIES 



4&J 



Them, Harper & Bros., New York (1895); Nina L. 
Marshall, The Mushroom Book, Doubleday, Page 
& Co. (1901); Charles Mcllvaine, One Thousand 
American Fungi, Bowen-Merrill Co., Indianapolis, 
Ind.; Charles H. Peck, Reports of New York State 
Botanist in the Reports of the New York State 
Museum of Natural History, 1879 to present. 

NURSERIES. 

The special development of nursery agriculture 
is recent. Nurseries were in e.xistence in North 
America a hundred years and more ago, but they 
were isolated, relatively unimportant, and few in 
number. In 1900 there were 2,029 nursery farms 
(establishments in which nursery stock constitutes 
at least 40 per cent of the products) in the United 
States, comprising 16.5,780 acres ; and in 1901 
there were 1,561 acres devoted to nurseries in 
Canada. The nursery business is understood in 
this country to be devoted to the raising for sale 
of woody plants and perennial herbs, and does not 
include the raising of florists' plants and vege- 
tables, although an establishment or place in which 
any plant is reared for sale or transplanting is 
properly a nursery. Aside from the commercial 
nurseries, there are city park departments, ceme- 
teries, florist establishments and private estates 
that rear vast quantities of plants. 

The total value of the commercial nursery prod- 
ucts in the last census year (1899) in the United 
States was $10,086,136. The states returning a 
product of more than a half million dollars are: 
New York, 237 establishments, $1,703,354; Iowa, 
104 establishments, $636,543; Illinois, 126 estab- 
lishments, $610,971 ; Ohio, 147 establishments, 
$.538,534; California, 141 establishments, $533,038; 
Pennsylvania, 95 e.stablishments, $515,010. The 
. average size of the nursery fai-ms was 81.7 acres, 
and the average value per acre of the land was 
$84. In Canada, by far the larger part of the 
nurseries are in the province of Ontario. From the 
other provinces the acreage is returned as follows: 
Quebec, 193; Manitoba, 99; British Columbia, 72; 
Nova Scotia, 37 ; New Brunswick, 35 ; Prince 
Edward Island, 17; The Territories, 20. 

As a type of farm organization and management, 
the nursery business has received no careful study 
in this country. It differs from all other forms of 
agriculture in many of its fundamental features,, 
particularly in its business organization. A high- 
grade nursery presents perhaps the most perfect 
division into departments of any agricultural busi- 
ness; to illustrate this feature, a rather full dis- 
cussion of an organization for a $50,000 nursery 
business is presented in the following pages. 

Inasmuch as nursery farming is not the raising 
of a single crop, or even a single series of crops, 
and as the various nursery crops are treated in the 
Cyclopedia of American Horticulture, the crop- 
practice phases are not discussed here. The nursery 
business is characterized by the relatively small 
equipment in machinery, and the great outlay for 
labor. In 1899, the labor outlay in the nurseries 
enumerated in the census was considerably more 

B31 



than one-fifth of the total value of the products. On 
the other hand, the outlay for implements was only 
5 per cent of the products, and for fertilizers it is 
surprisingly small, being only $139,512 as against 
$2,305,270 for labor. This low fertilizer cost is the 
result of the custom of growing trees on land that 
has not been "treed," especially fruit-stock, which 
must attain a certain size and appearance at a 
specified time. There has been much speculation as 
to the reason why trees do not succeed well after 
trees ; but this should be no more inexplicable than 
similar experience with other crops. Rotation is 
no doubt as necessary in nurseries as in other kinds 
of farming. No rotation systems have been worked 
out, however, and nursery production is to that de- 
gree not conducted on a scientific basis. Great atten- 
tion has been given to de veloping skill in propagating 
the plants and in tilling and handling the stock, 
but little is known of the underlying soil and fer- 
tility requirements. Experiments have demonstrated 
(see Roberts and Bailey, for example, in Cornell bul- 
letins) that the failure of trees to succeed trees with 
good results is not due to lack of plant-food alone. 

Although certain kinds of nursery farming may 
be classed with the intensive agricultural industries, 
as a whole the average returns per acre are not 
remarkably large for a special i dustry. The cen- 
sus shows the average value per acre of the prod- 
uct not fed to live-stock (comprising by far the 
greater part of the total product) to have been 
$60.84 for the whole United States, being about six 
times the acreage value for all crops. The average 
value from flower and plant farms, however, was 
$431.83. The distribution of the property in nur- 
sery-farms is mostly in land and its improvements 
exclusive of buildings, this item being for the 
United States $6,841, in a total average valuation 
of $9,436 per farm. In buildings there were invested 
$2,101 to each farm, in implements $266, and in 
live-stock $228. Each nursery farm averaged 
$4,971 in the value of its product. 

The American nursery grows such a different 
cla.ss of products from the European establishment 
that organization studies of the two are not com- 
parable. The American nurseries grow relatively 
large quantities of fruit trees, and these are not 
trained to special or individual forms. The busi- 
ness is conducted, for the most part, in a wholesale 
way, with a consequent small value for each piece 
in the product. As the country fills up and special 
tastes develop, and as new or untreed land is more 
difficult to secure, a new line of .studies will need 
to be made of the economics of nursery agriculture. 

There is no good separate literature on the nur- 
sery business, although there are books on nursery 
practice, as Bailey's " Nursery - Book," Fuller's 
"Propagation of Plants," and chapters in the lead- 
ing fruit books. The American Association of Nur- 
serymen publishes annual proceedings, and there 
are special journals. In Vol. I of this Cyclopedia 
(page 193) is a discussion of the capital required 
for establishing an up-to-date nursery. Following 
is advice on the equipment needed for an average 
nursery, by E. Albertson and W. C. Reed, of Indiana 
(comprising the remainder of this article) : 



482 



NURSERIES 



NURSERIES 



As to the equipment, the wagons, harness, teams 
and tools used on a good, well-equipped farm for 
preparing the soil, — such as breaking plows, har- 
rows, rollers and crushers — are all needed in the 
nursery ; while for cultivating, the same tools as 
used on the farm for corn, potatoes and garden 
I truck can be used to advantage. To these may be 
added the small bar plows, some finer tooth culti- 
vators, and double cultivators with extra high 
arches. Drags or floats, both single and double, are 
needed to follow the cultivators to crush the clods 




Fig. 714. A peach-tree nursery. Oregon 

and pack the soil, especially in dry weather, and 
hand weeders to use in place of hoes except in very 
hard ground or for heavy work. 

Planting tools will also be needed. For small 
plants the dibble may be used to good advantage, 
but for the planting of most small stock the light 
spade is preferable. Machines are now made for 
opening up the ground and pressing back the dirt 
after the plant has been inserted, proving to be a 
great saving of expense and labor where large 
plantings are made, but they would hardly pay the 
small planter. 

Sheds will be needed and water barrels should be 
provided to keep on hand plenty of water for pud- 
dling everything before planting. If the nursery- 
man is to grow largely of seedlings, seed-sowing 
machines adapted to the seed to be planted should 
be provided. For large blocks of peach trees, a 
peach-seed planter should be had, the best of which 
costs about $125. 

One of the most important parts of the equip- 
ment is the spraying outfit, which should always be 
ready and often used from early spring till the 
latter part of summer. This should be adapted to 
the amount of service needed. Very small areas 
can be covered with the knapsack, while for a few 
acres the tank on a cart with a hand pump will be 
needed ; in large tracts, the power sprayers will be 
found to be more economical. The cost of these 
outfits will range from one to five hundred dollars. 

Pruning, grafting and budding knives must 
be provided, stakes for marking varieties, rafiia or 
other material for tying buds, shears for cutting 
off stocks, grafting threads and wax and cali- 
pers for measuring the trees. Good, heavy digging 



spades will be needed. The equipment will not be 
complete without a power tree-digger and attach- 
ments for hitching at least ten horses. 

After preparations are made for planting, culti- 
vating and digging, the nurseryman must prepare 
to handle and care for the stock properly after it is 
dug, and for this there should be suitable packing, 
storage and work rooms. A work room for grafting, 
making cuttings, grading and counting seedlings 
and cions, will be needed. The room for storage of 
grafts, seedlings and cuttings for planting, should 
be separate from those 
used for storing and pack- 
ing trees ; if possible, a 
separate building is pref- 
erable. The writers would 
advise that all buildings, 
whether called cellars or 
not, be made above ground 
and of only one story. The 
room for seedlings, cions 
and grafts should join the 
work room on the same 
level, both having dirt 
floors. The room for stor- 
age of trees should be 
separate from all others ; 
adjoining this should be 
the packing rooms, where 
the planters' orders are 
sorted, and where all box and bale goods are pre- 
pared for shipment, bulk shipments being loaded 
directly into cars from the storj^ge room. A 
switch into or alongside of this packing room will 
be a great convenience. All these rooms should be 
frost-proof, excepting the packing room, and if 
that is also frost-proof it will be of great advan- 
tage for grading, counting and tying stock taken 
up late, as this work can then be done when the, 
stock could not be handled outdoors. 

These buildings may be constructed of any 
material most convenient and economical, but the 
principle of insulation must always be carefully 
considered. If the buildings are of brick, stone or 
concrete, this insulation may be secured by air- 
chambers in the walls and roof ; if the buildings 
are of lumber, paper may be used for insulation, 
making three or four air-chambers, and protecting 
the paper outside and inside with lumber. This 
makes one of the cheapest and most satisfactory 
buildings, although the brick, stone or cement is 
more durable. Gravel roofs and good air spaces 
in the roofs may be recommended. 

To meet the requirements of the laws of many of 
the states, a fumigating house or room must be 
built. This should be separate from other buildings 
and constructed according to approved plans, and 
may cost from fifty dollars up. 

Plenty of water should be at command at all 
times. If it cannot be had from city waterworks, 
private supplies should be installed, by engine or 
windmill, with sufficient tank capacity to insure a 
constant supply ; and this should be so distributed 
as to be accessible in every part of the buildings. 
Packing material, rye-straw and lumber for boxes 



NURSERIES 



NURSERIES 



483 



must be supplied in liberal quantities. Moss, excel- 
sior, straw, and shavings are used for packing. 

The storage and work rooms may be built at a 
cost of $1,500 and upwards, depending on the 
volume of busine.ss contemplated. Small office room 
may be secured by cutting off part of the work 
room, or in a separate building, the expense being 
governed by circumstances. 

In addition to the above, provision has to be 
made for the nursery-stock or seed that is to be 
planted and grown. This will be governed entirely 
by the nature of the business contemplated, loca- 
tion and other factors, and must be considered 
separately for each individual case. One can very 
soon succeed in investing $5,000 or $10,000 in the 
nursery business, and then find that he has not 
very much of a nursery. Yet there are many large 
nur.series that were started on much less cash capi- 
tal than this, but which, with good judgment, en- 
ergy and grit, soon found the capital to enlarge 
and extend the business as circumstances war- 
ranted. 

Organization of a Commercial Nursery Business. 

By .V. McDonald. 

The purpose of this article is to show the proper 
distribution of capital to equip, operate and main- 
tain a nursery to cover 200 acres of land, to be 
planted complete in three year.s, starting with a 
capita! of $.50,000. In the organization of a com- 
mercial nursery of such size, sufficient capital 
should be provided to plant 140 acres and operate 
the growing department for the first two years, or 
during its non-productive period, and also to erect 
suitable packing, storage and office buildings ; and, 
after the first year, to establish and operate a 
complete sales department. 

After organization has been effected and capital 
provided, if an incorporated company, the stock- 
holders meet and elect directors, who in turn elect 
oflicers who.se business it is, with the advice of the 
directors, to arrange the permanent plans and 
business organization of the company. Usually, in 
case of a corporation, a general manager is ap- 
pointed, who may be one of the officers or directors 
or may be chosen from outside because of personal 
fitness for the work in hand. Again, the directors 
may act as an advLsory board or executive com- 
mittee, resting the responsibility from the differ- 
ent departments directly on themselves, and direct- 
ing the affairs of the company without the assist- 
ance of a general manager ; or, in case of an 
individual owner, he may himself assume the posi- 
tion of general manager and direct the work of 
the different departments, receiving the reports 
from the heads of each division. 

Whether it be general manager, advisory board, 
executive committee or individual owner on whom 
devolves the responsibility of the working organi- 
zation, such person, or persons, must be thoroughly 
conversant with the intricacies and have a practi- 
cal knowledge of all details of the nursery busi- 
ness in both field and office, so that he may econo- 
mize time and lessen cost without detracting from 



the efficiency of the forces under him or lower the 
standard of quality of the article produced. 

The man on whom rests the responsibilty of the 
management of a commercial nursery should be a 
general in every sense of the word. It has been 
well said, "To the active participant, the commer- 
cial battles on the field of modern business are no 
less picturesque than the struggles for military 
supremacy. The powers of command, the routes of 
authority, the training and distribution of men in 
the field of action and the regulation of the forces, 
may not improperly be compared to those of an 
army." 

The nursery farm now under consideration is 
presumed to have the entire acreage planted in 
three years. The seventy acres set aside for the 
first year's planting should include a complete line 
of nursery products that will thrive in the section 
in which the nursery is located, containing fruit 
trees, seedlings to be budded or grafted later of 
all the varieties desired to be propagated, together 
with a full line of ornamental trees, shrubs, vines, 
roses, and the like. This first planting should be 
duplicated the second year, leaving sixty acres to 
be planted the third year to complete the two hun- 
dred. The reason why it is not necessary to plant 
so large an acreage the third year as the first and 
second, is because of the slower-growing kinds, 
especially in ornamental trees and shrubs, as these 
classes contain many kinds that are carried in 
stock for a number of years, while the fruit-tree 
stock is disposed of in two or three years. The 
surplus shown in the stock book at the end of the 
second year will indicate the classes and varieties 
left over after the first year's sales, and will be 
the guide for the third year's planting. 

TIic field men organization. 

Organization of the nursery forces should be 
effected at the very inception of the business, and 
a correct system of daily and weekly reports in- 
stalled, so that the cost of any given class of trees 
and plants may be arrived at by the management 
at any time. The highest standard of grade, thrift 
and health, produced at the least possible cost, 
should always be aimed at ; this can be accom- 
plished only by a close check on labor employed at 
all times. 

Superintendent of nurseries. — Second in authority 
and reporting directly to the general manager 
should be the superintendent, who necessarily must 
have a practical knowledge of all the details con- 
nected with the growing department of a commer- 
cial nursery. He should be selected for his wide 
experience in the business, together with his 
ability to manage men and direct the forces in the 
field. 

Dirision foremen. — Under the superintendent 
are the field foremen, whose business is to take 
charge of and direct the men from day to day in 
the field work. In any well-regulated commercial 
nursery, there should be at least three foremen 
who are responsible for the amount and kind of 
work done in their departments. First would be 
the foreman in charge of the cultivating depart- 



484 



NURSERIES 



NURSERIES 



ment, which should include, in addition to plowing 
and cultivating, the care of horses, tools, and the 
like. Next would come the foreman of grafting, 
budding and the general work of growing and 
digging. In addition to these two, there should be 
a foreman in charge of spraying, which work is 
now acknowledged to be very important to the 
thrift and health of the trees and plants, as well 
as necessary in keeping the stock free from all 
insect pests and diseases. This, at the present 
time, is one of the most important points in con- 
nection with the nursery business, as it is impos- 
sible to ship nursery stock from one point to 
another unless it is free from pests and diseases. 

Daily report from field foremen to superintend- 
ent. — The system established should include 
daily reports from each of the field foremen to the 
superintendent, showing in detail the amount and 
kind of work each man performed during the day. 
The daily reports should be arranged to accommo- 
date the various kinds of work in which one man 
may be engaged during the day, although it might 
be changed every hour. These reports will be a 
guide to the foremen as to the value of individual 
men and help to form the basis for arriving at the 
cost of stock in any given block, enabling the man- 
agement to fix the price at which a tree can be 
sold and a profit made. 

Superintendent's weekly report. — The foremen's 
daily reports should form and be made a part of 
the superintendent's weekly reports to the general 
manager, which should include a general review of 
the work done in the different departments and 
the nurseries generally, with recommendations for 
changes or new equipment required. 

General managers' montlily report. — If a corpo- 
ration, the general 'manager may use the superin- 
tendent's weekly reports, together with the fore- 
men's daily reports, in a monthly report to the 
officers and directors of the company. 

Office organization. 

After planting the seedling stock the first year, 
the erection of suitable office buildings must be 
considered. These should be large and roomy, with 
a view to increased business from year to year, 
great care being given to proper lighting, heating 
and ventilation. 

Sales department. — In the organization of the 
office force, the sales department must be given 
first consideration, for on the management of this 
department will depend largely the success or 
failure of the entire structure. Whether the stock 
is to be sold by wholesale, retail, or by both methods, 
great care should be exercised in laying a founda- 
tion on which to build a sales structure to accom- 
modate daily balances between stocks and sales, 
and weekly reports from the salesmen, together 
with the weekly and monthly reports to the general 
manager. The retailing of nursery stock through 
the medium of traveling salesmen being the most 
generally in favor with nurserymen, these remarks 
will apply more particularly to that system, al- 
though the same principle will apply to any other 
system of selling. 



77ie sales manager. — The sales manager is the 
man on whom rests the responsibility of disposing 
of the products of the nursery farm. He should 
have a general and practical knowledge of the 
nursery business and be able to organize, manage 
and direct a selling force, which work, in itself, 
requires unusual skill, perseverance and tact. He 
should also have a personality that will gain the 
confidence of the salesmen working under him, and 
have sufficient aggressiveness to inspire the men to 
put forth their best energies in the advancement 
of the mutual interests of the nursery and of them- 
selves. The sales manager must also be able to 
install an accurate system of accounting or aggre- 
gating of stock sold and balance in surplus to be 
disposed of. 

The aim of the successful sales manager must 
always be to dispose of those kinds and varieties of 
trees, shrubs and plants that are grown in the 
nursery farm, and to avoid as much as possible the 
sale of varieties that are not produced in his own 
nursery ; this can best be accomplished by keeping 
an accurate record of sales made from week to 
week. This, when checked against stock grown, 
will show remainder yet to be disposed of. The 
salesmen's weekly reports, together with a general 
review of the work accomplished during the week, 
may form the basis of the sales manager's report 
to the general manager, which report should in- 
clude condensed comparisons with corresponding 
periods in previous years, together with general 
information aft'ecting the business. 

Accounting, delireiing and collecting departments. 
— In addition to the sales department, the office 
force should be organized into accounting, deliv- 
ering and collecting departments, each of which 
will report periodically as desired by the general 
manager. 

The stock-buildings and organization. 

It is important and necessary, in establishing 
a commercial nursery, that suitable buildings be 
erected to store the stock during the operation of 
packing, and as a protection from the elements be- 
tween the time when the trees and plants are taken 
up and the time they are sent out to customers. 
These buildings should be arranged for receiving, 
storing, packing and shipping, and should be 
grouped conveniently so that the stock will pass 
from the receiving floor to the storage, billing and 
shipping departments with the least expense in 
handling. Special attention mu.st be given the 
storage cellar to insure a low and uniform temper- 
ature as a protection to the stock from extremes 
of heat and cold, it being important that stock be 
held in a perfectly dormant condition for late spring 
shipments. 

Superintendent of packing department. — The 
superintendent of this department fills a very im- 
portant part in the work of the nursery, and must 
be a man of experience and ability, quick to decide 
and accurate in his judgment of men and of nursery- 
stock. 

Packing-house foremen. — Under the superintend- 
ent and reporting to him there should be foremen 



NURSERIES 



OATS 



485 



over the different divisions of the packing houses, 
whose Ijiasiness it is to direct the men and keep an 
accurate account of the kind and amount of work 
performed by each during the day. Verbal reports 
from the foremen to the superintendent daily dur- 
ing the busy season, will greatly facilitate the 
work. 

Distribution of the investment. 

The approximate distribution of capital in the 
nursery under consideration would be as follows : 



Capital stock 

Annual rental for 200 acres of land 

at $6 per acre for two years . . $2,400 

Horses, tools, etc 1,500 

Cost of seedling stock, planting 
and cultivation of nursery-farm 
for two years 25,000 

Office equipment, management (in- 
cluding commission advanced on 
sales for one year) 15,000 

Packing and storage buildings . . 6,100 



$50,000 



$50,000 



OATS. Avena sativa, Linn. GraminecB. Figs. 715- 
721, also Fig. 542. 

By A. L. Stone. 

A grass grown for its grain, which is used both 
for human food and for stock, and also for its 
straw. It is the only species of the genus that is 
of great agricultural importance. Avena fatua, the 
wild oat (Fig. 543), from which the domestic oat 
may have sprung, is a serious pest in many parts 
of the world. 

The flowers of the oat are borne in a panicle 
which consists of a central rachis or flower-stem 
from which small branches extend in various direc- 
tions. The panicles are nine to twelve inches in 
length, and the branches are arranged in whorls 
at intervals along the flower-stem. There are usu- 
ally three to five or more whorls, which bear sixty 
to eighty florets, or spikelets. (Fig. 715.) Each 
one of these spikelets is composed of two or more 
flowers, but it is seldom that more than two of 
them mature, and of these one grain is invari- 
ably larger than the other. In many varieties but 
a single grain reaches full size and the oats are 
called "single" oats; in others two grains mature, 
and the oats are called "twin" oats. The flower 
itself is placed in two outer, light, netted-veined 
glumes which enclose the flowering glume and 
palea. When there are two flowers on the pedicel, 
the flowering glume of the lower flower generally 




encloses that of the upper flower to a greater or 
less degree. Within the flowering glume and palea 
are the organs of reproduction, which consist of 
three filaments and anthers, closely set about an 
ovary bearing two feathery stigmas. These stig- 
mas surmount the ovary and 
spread out as the flower ex- 
pands. The filaments bearing 
the anthers grow very rapidly 
and push themselves outside 
the palea. The anthers are so 
arranged that the growth of 
the filaments changes their po- 
sition enough to subvert them 
and allow the pollen to fall on 
the stigmas. The flowers bloom 
in morning or afternoon. 

" Fig. 715. 

Distribution and yield. Oatspikeiet in bloom. 

The exact nativity of the oat plant is not posi- 
tively known, but the evidence would indicate it to 
be Tartary in western Asia, or possibly eastern 
Europe. No record of it has been found in the 
literature of China, India or other parts of southern 
Asia. Neither is it mentioned prominently in the 
early histories of Asia or the Holy Land, (iertainly 
it has never been of such importance to the human 
race as wheat, corn or rye, all of which figured 
largely in the early nurture of the race. 

The great oat-producing regions of the world 
lie almost wholly within the north temperate zone 
and include Russia, Norway and Sweden, Germany, 
Canada and the north-central part of the United 
States. T^arge quantities of the grain of very 
good quality are grown in Australia and the neigh- 
boring islands, and more recently limited quantities 
have been grown in Africa and South America, but 
the great bulk of any season's crop is produced in 
the first mentioned territory. 

Russia and its provinces, Poland and Northern 
Caucasia, produce the greatest quantity of oats of 
any country in Europe or America, or in fact the 
world. Of "the more than two billion bushels pro- 
duced in Europe in 1904, Russia furnished 1,065,- 
088,000 bushels. The oats grown there are high 
grade and many of the most valuable varieties now 
being grown in America are importations from 
Russia, largely from the southwestern provinces. 

The following tables from the 1904 Yearbook of 
the United States Department of Agriculture, giv- 
ing the yields of the various grains in the princijial 
regions where each is grown, will give some idea 
of the comparative importance of the oat crop: 





Yield op Oats by 


Continents. 








1900 


1901 


1902 


1903 


1904 


Nort.h America .... 

Europe 

Asia 

Africa 

Australasia 


963,738,000 

2,129,316,000 

40,905,000 

6,750,000 

25,293,000 


906,285,000 

1,884,945,000 

28,439,000 

6,750,000 

32,110,000 


1,193,194,000 

2,324,439,000 

43,511,000 

10,479,000 

25,613,000 


991,508,000 

2,240,970,000 

71,694,000 

7,500,000 

29,979,000 


1,097,423,000 
2,342,015,000 

54,948,000 
8,116,000 

33,677,000 


Total 


3,166,002,000 


2,858,529,000 


3,597,236,000 


3,341,651,000 


3,536,179,000 



486 



OATS 



OATS 



Yield of Corn by Continents. 





1900 


1901 


1902 


1903 


1904 


North America .... 
South America .... 

Europe 

Africa 

Australasia 


2,193,938,000 

81,185,000 

405,990,000 

33,207,000 

9,780,000 


2,225,254,000 

66,647,000 

465,102,000 

27,350,000 

10,025,000 


1,641,600,000 

113,418,000 

562,194,000 

32,350,000 

10,168,000 


2,622,906,000 

98,078,000 

424,090,000 

32,350,000 

7,847,000 


2,364,388,000 

162,711,000 

492,957,000 

32,350,000 

5,615,000 


Total 


2,724,100,000 


2,794,378,000 


2,359,730,000 


3,185,271,000 


3,058,021,000 



Yield op Wheat by Continents. 





1000 


1901 


1902 


1903 


1904 


North America .... 
South America .... 

Europe 

Asia 

Africa 

Australasia 


588,360,000 

120,546,000 

1,507,596,000 

331,266,000 

42,872,000 

50,111,000 


850,693,000 

87,417,000 

1,513,553,000 

395,574,000 
41,428,000 
56,610,000 


777,194,000 

75,984,000 

1,817,602,000 

381,879,000 
51,931,000 
43,927,000 


733,786,000 

118,876,000 

1,828,419,000 

478,515,000 

50,523,000 

20,461,000 


640,827,000 

140,598,000 

1,726,177,000 

519,505,000 

50,606,000 

84,627,000 


Total 


2,640,751,000 


2,945,275,000 


3,148,517,000 


3,230,580,000 


3,162,340,000 



It will be seen that in the number of bushels 
oats exceeds both corn and wheat ; but it is really 
less than either when the total number of pounds 
is considered. The average annual yield of oats for 
the world at large from 1900-1904, inclusive, has 
been 3,499,866,000 bushels. While the yield per 
acre is high, the value per acre is less than that 
of any other of our common grains. 

The average yield of oats per acre varies in the 
different oat-growing regions of the world, as will 
be seen by the following table, also taken from the 
1904 Yearbook of the United States Department of 
Agriculture : 

Average Yield of Oats in Certain Countries, in 



Year 


United 
States 


Russia 


Ger- 
many 


Austria 


Hungary 


Prance 


United 
Kingdom 


1894 
1895 
1896 
1897 
1898 
1899 
1900 
1901 
1902 
1903 






(a) 

24.5 
29.6 
25.7 
27.2 
28.4 
30.2 
29.6 
25.8 
34.5 
28.4 


(b) 
21.7 
19.9 
19.2 
15.7 
16.5 
23.6 
19.5 
14.0 
21.8 
17.7 


(b) 
46.8 
43.2 
41.8 
39.9 
47.1 
48.0 
48.0 
44.5 
50.2 
51.3 


(6) 
25.9 
26.2 
23.1 
21.5 
27.3 
30.2 
25.2 
25.6 
27.6 
28.4 


(b) 
30.1 
29.6 
31.4 
24.3 
30.2 
33.3 
28.1 
28.1 
34.0 
34.4 


(o) 
27.2 
27.5 
27.0 
23.1 
29.0 
27.8 
25.7 
23.5 
29.2 
31.6 


(a) 
43.7 
39.5 
39.2 
40.1 
43.6 
41.8 
41.2 
40.6 
45.9 
44.2 


Avera 


ge 


. 


28.4 


19.0 


46.1 


26.1 


30.3 


27.2 


42.0 



a, Wincliester bushels. 



While the yields here given are not strictly com- 
parable, part of them being given in Winchester 
bushels and part in bushels of thirty-two pounds, 
it is still evident that the yields are greater in 
Germany and the United Kingdom, with their moist 
climates and intensive farming methods, than in 
this country. Europe produces the greatest quan- 
tity of grain in proportion to the area covered, with 



North America second. The production is increas- 
ing more rapidly in North America than in Europe, 
and as our agriculture becomes more intensive we 
will undoubtedly exceed the yields of Europe. 

Of the history of oats in the United States a 
writer in the International Encyclopedia says : 
"Oats have been cultivated in America ever since 
the advent of the first white settlers. They were 
sown with other cereals by Go.snold on the Eliza- 
beth islands in 1602; were introduced into Massa- 
chusetts bay, 1629, and their cultivation has since 
extended to every state in the Union." While this 
statement is literally true and oats are raised in 

every state in the 
Bushels Per Acre, 1894-1903. Union, the greater 

bulk of the crop is 
raised in the north- 
central states. 
Eleven states now 
produce four-fifths 
of the oats grown 
inthe United States, 
and all except New 
York and Penn- 
sylvania are in 
the north - central 
group. These states 
in order of produc- 
tion in 1905 were 
Iowa, Illinois, Wis- 
consin, Minnesota, 
Nebraska, Indiana, 



6, Bushels of 32 pounds. 



New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Ohio and 
Michigan. 

The average yield in 1905 was thirty-four 
bu.shels per acre. Of the great oat-producing 
states, Wisconsin leads in yield per acre with 
.39 bushels, and North Dakota is second with 38.9 
bushels. Iowa showed an average of 35 bushels 
and Illinois 35.5 bushels per acre, the states with 



OATS 



OATS 



487 




Fig. 716. On the left, spread- 
ing oats; on the right, sided 
or mane oats. 



the largest total yield not giving the largest yield 
per acre. 

The total acreage for the United States in 1905 
was 28,046,746, with a production of 953,216,197 
bushels, worth at farm 
values$277,047,537. Of 
the vast quantities of 
oats produced in the 
United States nearly all 
are used for home con- 
sumption. Oats to the 
amount of 41,369,415 
bushels, worth $12,- 
504,564, were exported 
in 1900, and 41,523 
bushels, valued at $18,- 
360, were imported. 
Since that time the ex- 
ports have constantly 
decreased and the im- 
ports increased, so that 
in 1904 only 1,153,714 
bushels, valued at 
$475,362, were e.x- 
ported, while 170,882 
bushels, valued at $57, 
802, were imported. 
[Yearbookof the United 
States Department of 
Agriculture, 1904." 

This increase is un- 
doubtedly due, as will 
be mentioned later, to 
the increasing popularity of oats as an arti- 
cle of human diet in the United States. 

The yields of oats in Canada' for forty 
years have been as follows : 1871 the yield 
was 42,489,453 bushels; in 1881 it was 
70,493,131 bushels ; in 1891 it was 83,428,- 
202 bushels, and in 1901 it had risen to 
151,497,407 bushels. The yield was distrib- 
uted approximately as follows in 1901: On- 
tario, more than 88,000,000 bushels ; Que- 
bec, 33,500,000; Manitoba, 10,500,000 ; New 
Brunswick, nearly 5,000,000; Prince Edward 
Island, 4,500,000; Nova Scotia, 2,300,000 ; Brit- 
ish Columbia, 1,500,000; The Territories, 6,000,000 
bushels. 

Classification. 

Oats may be divided into two great classes. 
These are spreading oats, and sided, mane or ban- 
ner oats. (1) In the spreading oats the branches 
of the panicle extend in all directions from the 
rachis. This class comprises the largest number and 
the most popular of the varieties of oats. (Figs. 
716, 717, 718.) (2) In the second class, known as 
sided or "mane" oats, the branches all hang to one 
side of the rachis, thus producing the appearance 
that has caused the name of " banner " oats occa- 
sionally to be affi.xed to them. The terms " open " 
and "closed" panicles are sometimes applied to 
the two flower arrangements. (Fig. 716.) A third 
class, or hulless oats, while classed by themselves, 
may in fact belong to either of the preceding 



classes, although sometimes called by a distinct 
name, Avena nuda. The principal agricultural dif- 
ference is in the hull, which is so loosely attached as 
to be completely removed by the threshing process, 
leaving the grain only. There is also dift'erence in 
the structure of the parts. Because of low yields 
and other considerations these oats have never 
become popular and are not extensively grown. 

At the Ohio Experiment Station, where seventy- 
one varieties of oats have been under experimenta- 
tion for several years, another classification has 
been made. There the different varieties have been 
divided into four groups. (1) In the first or "Wel- 
come" group are placed all varieties with spread- 
ing panicles, and having coarse straw and short, 
plump grains. (2) In the second or " Wideawake " 
group are placed those varieties with spreading 
panicles which have long, slender kernels and 




Fig. 717. Good head of spreading oate. 



488 



OATS 



OATS 



longer straw than the Welcome oats. These 
varieties take a little longer to mature than the 
preceding. (3) The "Seizure" or third group con- 
tains all the varieties of side oats, those having 
closed panicles. These 
take a still longer time 
to mature. (4) In the- 
fourth or "mixed" group 
are placed all varieties 
about the classification of 
which there is any doubt. 
The varieties may be 
subdivided as to color into 
white, yellow, red, gray 
and black oats. The white 
and yellow oats are grown 
most largely in the North 
and are of the greatest 
economic importance. The 
red and gray varieties are 
grown in the South, 
largely for forage and 
pasture and may be either 
winter or spring oats. 
Black oats are grown in 
the North but are not con- 
sidered to be so good as 
the white oats. 

Relative values of different 



Fig. 718. Spreading oats. 
Poor head. Compare 
with Pig. 717 for a lesson 
in seed selection. 




The character of the 
soil and climatic condi- 
tions will largely deter- 
mine which of these varie- 
ties shall be grown in any 
given locality. Experiments show that in general 
there is no advantage in yield per acre of oats hav- 
ing the open panicle over those having the closed 
panicle. The latter varieties are hardier and are 
undoubtedly better yielders where the growing 
season is of sufficient length to allow them to 
mature properly, but greater certainty of a crop 
is a.ssured through a series of years when the 
open-panicled, earlier- maturing oats are grown. 
It has also been found that there is no particular 
difference in the yields of varieties having short, 
plump grains and those having long, slender 




Fig. 719. Short, plump kernels of tlie medium-early varieties 
of oats. Also illustrates "twiu" oats. 

grains, nor is there any appreciable difference in 
the weight per measured bushel. (Figs. 719, 720.) 

The Illinois Station conducted a five-year test 
with between thirty and sixty varieties, and came 



to the conclusion that the long, slender kernels 
gave a higher percentage of grain to hull, while 
the Ohio Station with seventy varieties one year 
found that the short, plump grains gave the higher 
percentage of grain to hull. 

Varieties with the long, slender kernels take 
longer to mature and in a short season would not 
fill well. This would result in a larger percentage 
of hulls and a decrease in weight per measured 
bushel. The varieties with short, plump grains are 
early-maturing, and the grains will invariably be 
well filled, consequently the percentage of hulls 
will be less. However, in a season long enough to 
allow the later varieties properly to mature the 
grains would be well filled and the percentage of 
hull would be le.ss, so that in general this percent- 
age will be affected more or less by the character 
and length of the growing season. 

Probably a majority of the varieties grown in 
the United States at the present time are those 
having short, plump grains. While the yields are 
not always greater, — in fact may in good seasons 
be less, — they have the advantage of ripening early 
enough to escape storms and rust, which often 
come on a little before harvesting time and tend to 
lessen the yields or in some ca.ses utterly destroy 
the crop. The average percentage of grain to hull 
for American varieties is stated by Hunt in "The 
Cereals in America" to be 70 per cent. 

Variety to sow. 

In choosing a variety to sow, the end in view is 
to secure the highest possible yield of the best 




Fig. 720. Long, slender kernels found in the later-maturing 
varieties of oats . Also illustrates "single" oats. 

grade of grain. To do this a variety must be 
chosen that is suited to the local conditions. The 
shorter the season the earlier-maturing must be 
the variety. There are many well-tried varieties of 
oats, and with a little care success may be had in 
growing any of them. 

At the Ohio Station it was found that varieties 
of the Welcome group, with short, plump kernels 
and open panicle, gave the highest yields per 
acre and the heaviest weight per measured bushel. 
In a ten years' trial the following were found 
to be the best varieties in the group, ranking 
in the order named : American Banner, Improved 
American, Colonel and Clydesdale. Of these, the 
American Banner has been recommended by ten 
experiment stations, which is more than can be said 
of any other variety. Other highly recommended 
varieties are the Swedi-sh Select, White Bonanza, 
Lincoln and Siberian. In Wisconsin, the Swedish 
Select oats have averaged ten bushels more per 



OATS 



OATS 



489 



acre than other varieties grown in the same locali- 
ties, and have yielded as high as eighty-five 
bushels per acre in several instances. In Montana, 
the same oats have yielded over one hundred 
bushels per acre. These oats would be well suited 
to any oat-growing section of the United States. 

In a series of trials at the Ontario Experiment 
Station the Siberian proved to be the best of one 
hundred varieties, and on Canadian farms yielded 
an average of eighty or more bushels per acre. 
The yield of oats per acre is higher in Canada than 
in the United States, one hundred bushels or more 
per acre being not uncommon. 

The Sixty-Day oat is rapidly coming into favor 
in some regions because of its earliness. It matures 
six to twelve days earlier than the ordinary varie- 
ties. The straw is short and the kernel slender. 
Its early-maturing qualities make it valuable in 
sections where the oats are subject to rust, as it 
matures before the severe attacks of rust come on. 
Its short straw also prevents lodging to a large 
extent. The variety known as Kherson is practi- 
cally identical with Sixty-Day. 

New varieties in the United States are largely 
introductions from European countries. To this 
also is due the larger share of the improvement in 
the crop, though many fine varieties have been 
established by careful breeding and selection. 

Oats for the South are discussed for this occasion 
by H. N. Starnes : "At the North there is a wide 
varietal range from which to choose, although 
throughout the south Atlantic and Gulf states the 
list of available profitable varieties shrinks to a 
lean half-dozen, or less. This does not mean that 
all of the northern standard varieties (with the 
exception of the few above referred to) cannot be 
grown at the South. In many localities', where 
climate, soil and special environment chance to be 
favorable they (or most of them) may be readily 
grown, some of them very successfully. Yet it 
may be safely asserted that but two varieties are 
so vastly superior to all others that they are now 
grown to the practical exclusion of the others. 
These varieties are Texas Red Ru.st-Proof, with its 
offspring Appier planted almost entirely in the fall, 
and the Burt for spring planting. 

"The two former are vigorous, robust and pro- 
ductive with a heavy head. The Burt is of value 
only because it will always grow tall enough to be 
cradled or reaped even on thin, poor land. Its head, 
however, is very light. Yet even Burt, in common 
with all other spring oats, must eventually— and 
probably very soon — be abandoned, since the adop- 
tion at the South of the 'open furrow' method of 
seeding will render spring planting no longer neces- 
sary, and Appier will thus remain practically the 
only representation of the oat at the South." 

Culture. 

Seed. — In general, the variety is not so impor- 
tant as the care and selection of the seed after the 
variety is establishsd. Any variety suitable to the 
locality can be made to yield well with careful 
selection and grading of seed. Whatever the 
variety, it is important that the seed be of the 



highest grade. High-grade seed consists of plump, 
heavy grain, free from weed seeds and other foul 
materials and resistant to fungous diseases. 

The seed should be run through a good fanning 
mill to remove weed seeds and dirt, then through 
the mill again, so set that all light oats will 
be blown over. At the Ohio Experiment Station 
it was found that when the light oats were blown 
out in this way and sown, they yielded 3.68 
bushels of grain and 111 pounds of straw less per 
acre than did the heavy grains secured at the same 
separation. The heavy grains also yielded 1.54 
bushels more per acre than grain sown ' 

just as it came from the threshing '^, 
machine. ^ 

Zavitz, of the Ontario Agricultural 
College, conducted an eleven-year ex- 
periment to determine the effect of 
a constant selection and sowing of 
heavy-weight, plump grains in con- 
trast to light-weight grain. He found 
that at the end of the eleven years 
the yield from the former was seventy- 
seven bushels, and from the latter 
fifty-eight bushels per acre. Professoi 
Zavitz expressed his belief that the 
yield of oats could easily be increased 
15 per cent by careful breeding and 
selection of the seed. The oat crop of ^ij'fJSJi] 
the United States in 1905, in round 
numbers, was 950,000,000 bushels. An 
increase of 15 per cent would be 
142,500,000 bushels. The average price 
for oats in 1905 was about twenty- 
seven cents. This would mean an addi- 
tion of $.38,475,000 to the wealth of 
the farmers of the United States. 

The seed should be treated for the 
prevention of .smut. In many fields the 
loss from smut amounts to 40 per cent 
or more of the crop. The treatment of 
the seed for smut is more important 
than farmers as a rule are willing to 
believe. In the year 1902, by close 
inspection of many fields in the state 
and with the cooperation of graduates 
of the College of Agriculture, it was 
found that 17 per cent of the crop in 
Wisconsin was destroyed by smut. The 
yield of oats in Wisconsin that year 
was 95,000,000 bushels, which may be 
considered as only 80 per cent of a full 
crop. [See below under Diseases.] 

The seed should be tested as to its 
vitality or germinating power. A sim- 
ple form of seed -tester is shown in Fig. 72i. 
Fig. 210 and described on page 141. Oat head 
Another tester is shown in Fig. 391. If '^^^fj'"' 
the tester is placed where it will be 
exposed to ordinary room temperature, or 70° to 
80° Fahr., a good germination of oats should be 
obtained in three days. Using one hundred seeds 
to begin with, the number that germinate will 
represent the percentage of germination, which 
should be 97 per cent. 



^J 



490 



OATS 



OATS 



In cases in which the vitality is lower than that, 
it will be necessary to sow more seed per acre. 

There is no question that if care is used in 
selecting, cleaning and treating the seed, and in 
the preparation of the soil, oats should grow better 
in yield and quality from year to year. The ease 
with which seed can be procured and the lack of 
knowledge concerning the best methods induces 
many a farmer to change his seed when by care 
and industry he might himself produce seed as good 
as any he buys. 

In an effort to teach the young farmers the 
importance of good seed and the proper methods of 
selection and grading, many of the agricultural 
colleges have taken up the study of the grain by 
the use of score-cards. A thorough understanding 
and application of all the principles of the score- 
card will enal)le any one more intelligently to take 
up the work of improving the oat crop. 

Preparation of ike sccd-hed. — Oats demand cool 
weather and abundance of moisture, so that the 
sooner they can be sown in the spring the better. 
The amount of water taken from the soil by oats 
exceeds that used by any other of our important 
crops. King, at the Wisconsin Experiment Sta- 
tion, found that oats removed from the soil 504 
pounds of water to each pound of dry matter pro- 
duced. Of course a part of this moisture passes 
from the leaves of the plant through transpiration, 
and from the soil by evaporation, but the amount 
is very great and demonstrates the need of getting 
the grain into the soil as early in the season as 
possible, while the moisture is still available. 

In cases where the ground has been fall-plowed, 
the stirring of the soil should begin as early in the 
spring as it is possible for teams to get on the 
land. The value of early stirring to form a soil 
mulch and thus prevent the evaporation of mois- 
ture was well shown at the Wisconsin Station. 
Professor King used two plots, side by side, both 
of which were alike at the beginning. On one the 
hardened or packed crust was allowed to remain. 
On the other the stirring process was begun as 
soon as practicable and the soil mulch carefully 
preserved. It was found that the evaporation of 
moisture from the unstirred plot was enormous, 
amounting to 198 tons per acre in seven days or 
at the rate of thirty tons per day. Nothing could 
indicate more clearly the short-sightedness of 
a' lowing the land to lie with a packed surface be- 
cause a little extra time would be required to keep 
it in proper condition. The extra labor would be 
well repaid by the increase in crop due to the wise 
conservation of moisture and the destruction of 
weeds. 

While oats will do well after corn with only a 
surface disking, increased yields will undoubtedly 
bo obtained when the ground is plowed, especially 
if the soil is naturally very compact. The seed-bed 
should be in good tilth. Although oats will produce 
well on poorer grades of soil than any other of the 
cereals, a careful preparation of the seed-bed will 
be amply repaid by increased production. The seed- 
bed should be compact, and on rather light soils 
rolling may be necessary. Should the soil be wet. 



however, rolling is likely to pack it to the exclusion 
of proper amounts of oxygen, and even to the point 
where the young plants will be unable to reach the 
surface. In all cases rolling should be attended 
with caution ; and a light dragging afterward to 
preserve the soil mulch is to be recommended. 

Fertilizers. — Oats do best on soils that are not 
too fertile, and the direct application of fertilizers 
is generally inadvisable, as it is liable to produce 
lodging of the grain and con.sequent loss. When 
oats are grown in a rotation following corn which 
has been manured, there is no need of manuring 
the oats, as enough plant-food will still be availa- 
ble after the corn crop has been removed. On soils 
too poor to raise good crops of oats, the applica- 
tion of barnyard manure at the rate of ten to 
twenty-five loads per acre, or of a standard com- 
mercial fertilizer, would put the soil in good condi- 
tion. A standard commercial fertilizer, according 
to Hunt, is " one that furnishes ten to twenty 
pounds each of ammonia and potash and thirty to 
sixty pounds of phosphoric acid. This can be 
obtained by applying 250 to 500 pounds of a com- 
mercial fertilizer containing 4 per cent of am- 
monia, 12 per cent of available phosphoric acid and 
4 per cent of potash." On soils, such as some of 
those in Iowa, Illinois and other states of the corn- 
belt, and in some of the eastern states, where con- 
tinuous cropping has lowered the fertility, it may 
be necessary to increase the percentage of nitro- 
gen in the fertilizer. Commercial fertilizers may 
best be applied with a fertilizer attachment to the 
grain drill and at the time of sowing the grain. 

All in all, oats need little fertilization. The 
Ohio Experiment Station (Circular 54) found that 
while the addition of a complete fertilizer to oats 
increased the yield, the increase failed to pay for 
the fertilizer in one case and barely paid expenses 
in another. It was found, however, that when 
phosphorus alone was used, a marked increase 
resulted and at a profit. The fertilizer applied will 
have to depend on the soil and is largely a matter 
of judgment. 

Depth of seeding. — The proper depth to sow the 
seed and the best method of sowing will depend 
much on the soil. Better results have been obtained 
by shallow sowing. The Illinois Experiment Station 
in a six years' trial has found one inch to be the 
best depth at which to sow oats. This was corrobo- 
rated by the Ohio Experiment Station, where seed- 
ing at a depth of one inch gave a yield of 3.56 
bushels more per acre than when the grain was 
sown two inches deep, and 7.73 bushels more than 
when sown three inches deep. All things taken 
into consideration, drilling is the best way of seed- 
ing when the seed-bed is properly prepared, because 
the depth of seeding can be made more precise and 
uniform. No especial advantage has been found in 
ordinary drilling over broadcasting. Large areas, 
however, are now drilled on old corn land by using 
disk drills. Broadcasting in this manner necessi- 
tates sowing slightly more seed per acre. 

It is well, in all cases, to follow the seeder with 
a harrow to aid in covering the seed in the case of 
broadcasting, and to level the soil in any case, as 



OATS 



OATS 



491 



well as to aid in preserving the best soil mulch. A 
common harrow or drag with teeth set at an angle 
of 43° makes a good tool for the purpose. 

Rate of seeding. — The rate per acre at which the 
seed should be sown will depend largely on the 
location and the preparation of the seed-bed. Oats 
stool abundantly and indications are that a major- 
ity of farmers sow too much seed per acre. Experi- 
ments at ten experiment stations have led to the 
recommendation of eight to sixteen pecks to th& 
acre, with an average of ten pecks. When the 
seed is clean and well graded and the viability is 
high, ten pecks to the acre should be ample. In 
the corn-belt, where oats are sown on corn ground 
with only a surface disking, it is customary to sow 
four bushels of seed per acre ; and in Scotland as 
high as seven and one-half bushels per acre are 
sown. 

Place in the rotation. — Few crops fit into rota- 
tions in all parts of the country as well as do oats. 
In the West, where wheat is so largely grown, we 
find the following rotation : Corn, oats and wheat 
each one year, and clover and timothy two years. 
In the central states we have corn and oats, each 
one year, and clover and timothy two years. This 
rotation predominates also in the corn-belt, but is 
there liable to variation, such as corn two years, 
oats one year, clover one year or clover and timo- 
thy two years. On many farms in the corn-belt, a 
three-year rotation of corn, oats and clover is 
practiced, while some of the more shiftless farmers 
maintain a two-year rotation of corn and oats. 
This latter custom in time is certain to deplete the 
fertility of the land and should be condemned. 

Southern farmers use oats in the rotation with 
corn, cowpeas and cotton. The.se are combined in 
various ways, but the most common method is to 
sow cowpeas with corn the first year, putting the 
cowpeas between the rows of corn and harvesting 
them for the gi'ain. Then fall-sown oats are re- 
moved in time the next summer to put on a crop 
of cowpeas which is cut for hay ; this crop is 
followed by cotton one or two yeans, depending on 
soil conditions. 

Subsequent care. — After the grain is up, nothing 
further need be done until harvest time in an ordi- 
nary season. When, however, moisture is very 
abundant and the soil fairly fertile it may be 
advisable to clip back the oats slightly to prevent 
lodging. This delays the ripening .somewhat, but 
may obviate a heavy loss from lodging. The Iowa 
Experiment Station found (Bulletin No. 45) that 
cutting back to the third leaf from the ground 
when most of the plants had five leaves not only 
increased the yield eleven and one-half bushels per 
acre over that which was not clipped, but the 
grain remained erect after that which was not 
clipped was badly lodged. The cutting back 
delayed ripening four days, so that little risk was 
run in clipping 

Harvesting and threshing. 

The time to harvest oats is when the grain has 
just passed from the "milk" into what is called 
the hard " dough " stage, or a very little later. 



When cut at this stage and set in round shocks, 
covered with cap sheaves, the be.st quality of grain 
will be obtained. Weather conditions and the envi- 
ronment must always be taken into consideration, 
and if the season is unfavorable and weeds are 
abundant in the grain it may be more profitable 
to set the grain in long uncovered shocks, thus 
giving the bundles a better exposure to wind and 
sun. Circumstances and the judgment of the farmer 
must indicate the best treatment for the grain 
in the interval between cutting and stacking or 
threshing, as the case may be. 

Many of our farmers still hold to the old regime 
of stacking all the grain. Oats may be stacked a 
trifle greener than they may be threshed, as they 
will stand a pretty severe heating in the stack 
without injury. If stacked while in proper con- 
dition there is no question that grain will be of 
the very finest quality, other things considered. 
This method has the advantage that the oats can 
be taken care of at the proper time, and are not in 
danger of storms and other injurious influences. 

It is rapidly becoming the custom in many parts 
of the United States to thresh the oats from the 
field. If the weather is favorable so that the grain 
becomes thoroughly dried before threshing, this is 
undoubtedly the more economical method of hand- 
ling the crop, as it saves time and labor when both 
are at a premium on the farm. No especial loss in 
appearance or quality will be suffered unless storms 
occur during the time while the oats are standing 
in the shock. In this case there will be a change 
in color which, while not detrimental so far as 
feeding is concerned, will injure the market value 
of the grain. If the storms are severe and the 
bundles fail to dry out, the grain is liable also to 
start growing, which will injure it from every 
standpoint. 

There are drawbacks to this system of threshing. 
Often, to secure the services of machine and crew, 
the farmer must thresh before his grain is fully dry, 
or he has to wait too long. In one case, the grain 
will have to be stirred in the bin or it will heat. 
In the other, the shocks are .exposed to the autumn 
storms, and the quality of the grain is impaired. 

Precaution should always be taken to see that 
the threshing machine is cleaned thoroughly, so 
that there may be no mixture of grain. Especially 
is this true when barley has been the last grain 
threshed, as we have not yet been able to find a 
machine which will make a close separation of oats 
from barley. 

Oats should yield on an average fifty to seventy 
bushi'ls per acre in the northern states. In many 
of the southern states the yields are as low as ten 
bushels per acre. 

Enemies. 

Diseases. — The principal diseases which atfect 
oats are rust and smut. The smuts of oats are 
of two forms, — the closed smut (Ustilago Icevis, 
Jens.), and the loose smut (L'stilago arena;, Jens.). 
Both forms do .serious damage when allowed to 
develop. The loose smut attacks the entire head of 
oats and turns it into spores. The closed smut rfl^ects 



492 



OATS 



OATS 



only the kernels and is less apparent. Both forms 
can be completely prevented by either the formalde- 
hyde or the hot-water treatment. The formaldehyde 
treatment consists in submerging the seed grain for 
ten minutes in a solution made by using one pint of 
formaldehyde to thirty-six gallons of water. This 
amount of solution will treat forty bushels of oats. 
The hot-water treatment consists in submerging 
the seed in water at 133° Fahr. for ten minutes. 
[See under Barlei/.] In either case the seed may be 
put in baskets, gunny sacks or any vessel which 
will allow the water to penetrate readily. After 
removing from the solution or water, as the case 
may be, pour the grain on the threshing floor and 
allow it partially to dry. Then by opening the 
drill or seeder sufficiently to allow for the swelled 
condition of the grain, it may be sown at the usual 
rate. 

There are two kinds of rust [See mieat] which 
attack the growing oats. One of these is the 
"crown" or "orange leaf" rust. It affects only the 
leaves of the plant. The other is known as the 
"black stem" rust, and this is the one which does 
serious damage to the growing grain. The rust 
spores obtain lodgment on the tender .stems of the 
young plants, penetrate to the interior and there 
produce new spores in quantities so great as to 
burst the stem-walls and appear in black lines on 
the surface. It is often very difficult to distinguish 
between the.se two varieties of rust, for each has a 
red and a black stage. Neither in the red or black 
stage does the "orange leaf" rust do serious 
damage, nor does the red stage of the "black 
stem " rust. It is the later or black stage of the 
" black stem " rust that does especial harm by 
sapping the life from the stem and preventing the 
"iiUing" of the grains. The damage may extend 
only to a partial prevention of the tilling, or a total 
failure of the crop may result. 

A very moist season furnishes the best condi- 
tion for the growth and development of the rust 
spores, and this is the reason why rust is more 
abundant in such seasons. It also explains why 
grain in low parts of the field is more seriously 
afl^ected than is that on the more elevated parts of 
the same field. 

Only by growing varieties of oats which are 
ru.st-resistant or which mature so early that the 
grain fills before the devastating stage of the rust 
arrives can the loss from the rust be avoided. 
Varieties of oats are now obtainable which are 
practically rust-proof, having shown their power to 
produce well under the very worst rust conditions. 
Of the varieties of oats which mature early enough 
to escape serious damage by rust are the Sixty-Day 
oat previously mentioned, the Early Burt and the 
Kherson oats. While none of these is as satis- 
factory as some of the later varieties where the 
latter will mature, they will undoubtedly yield 
good crops every year. With the later-maturing 
varieties there will probably be an occasional 
failure to get a crop, due to attacks of rust. 

Insects. — The oat plant is seldom attacked by 
insects to any appreciable degree except in occa- 
sional seasons when chinch-bugs, army-worms or 



grasshoppers are abundant. The ravages of the 
grasshoppers are hard to avoid, but are of so infre- 
quent occurrence as to be a negligible quantity. 

Both the chinch-bug and the army-worm when 
once well established do much damage. They start 
at one side of the field and move across it, leaving 
devastation behind. A plowed strip of several feet 
in width, with a deep furrow into which the bugs 
or worms will fall, will often prevent their reach- 
ing a neighboring field. This may also be made 
more efficient by scattering tar or some insect 
destroyer in the furrow, the perpendicular side of 
which .should be toward the field to be protected. 
In extreme cases it would be well to burn one field 
to save the remainder. [See page 42.] 

The threshed oats are probably less subject to 
attacks of insects or worms than any other of our 
grains. This is due to the rather thick, smooth and 
close-fitting hulls, which seem to ward oif all 
attacks. 

Uses. 

Until recent years oats have been used mostly 
as a food for animals, horses especially being very 
fond of them. Large quantities are also fed to 
.sheep and cattle in conjunction with corn. It has 
been a.sserted than there is a stimulating principle 
in the oat which gives to an animal life and 
energy, such as is produced by no other cereal. Be 
that as it may, oats remain preeminent as a food 
for horses. 

In Scotland for many years, and more recently 
in other parts of the world, including the United 
States, oats have been used as an article of human 
food. Their great growth in popularity as a human 
food undoubtedly explains in a large degree the 
immense increase in production in the years 1880 
to 1890, which, according to Hunt, was from four 
hundred to eight hundred millions of bushels, an 
increa.se of 100 per cent. Certainly none of the 
breakfast foods on the market today is more 
nourishing or palatable than properly prepared oat 
products. 

The best grade of oatmeal is made from single 
oats, with as small a percentage of hull as po.ssible. 
The plumper and heavier the grain the better will 
the oatmeal manufacturer be suited, provided the 
hulls of the grain are thin. The manufacturer will 
undoubtedly be willing to pay an increased price 
for oats of this sort, and there is here an oppor- 
tunity for the farmer who is properly situated, to 
make a financial gain by catering to the oatmeal 
trade. 

Marketing and market grades. 

Other things being equal, the best time to market 
oats is at threshing time. Then the grain may be 
hauled directly to the market, which saves the 
extra handling cau.sed by placing oats in the bin. 
The market price and the condition of the grain 
when threshed will determine, in a large measure, 
whether grain is to be sold at that time. 

The price received for the grain will depend on 
its condition and the use to which it is to be put. 
To command the best market price any grain must 



OATS 



OATS 



493 



be sound and sweet, free from weed seeds and foul 
material, and have a good color. Oats of poor 
color, whether from exposure to storms, molding 
in the bundle, or overheating in stack or bin, will 
not command the best prices. Oats that have been 
overheated in the bin will be " bin-burned" and 
discolored. They will be injured not only from the 
marketing but from the feeding standpoint as well. 
When oats are badly discolored, elevator men 
often resort to treatment by sulfur to bleach the 
grain and improve the appearance. This leaves the 
grain in worse condition than before and is a 
reprehensible practice. 

In spite of the magnitude of the oat crop in the 
United States and the immense increase in produc- 
tion in the last few years, the exportation of the 
grain has steadily decreased and the importation 
increased. It is evident, therefore, that there will 
be a good market for years to come. It should be 
the aim of the farmers of the United States, by 
more scientific growing and care of the crop, not 
only to supply the home demand but to build up an 
export trade as well. 

Grades. — Every grain - raising state has its 
grain-inspection rules and regulations. These are 
very similar in all the states. The Illinois Grain 
and Warehouse Commission has adopted the follow- 
ing grades for oats : 

White oats, Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4. 

White clipped oats, Nos. 1, 2 and 3. 

Mixed oats, Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4. 

The rules for grading read as follows : 

"No. 1 white oats shall be white, sound, clean, 
and reasonably free from other grain. 

" No. 2 white oats shall be seven-eighths white, 
sweet, reasonably clean and reasonably free from 
other grains. 

" No. 3 white oats shall be seven-eighths white 
but not sufficiently sound and clean for No. 2. 

" No 4 white oats shall be seven-eighths white, 
damp, badly damaged, musty, or for some other 
cause unfit for No. 3." 

For clipped white oats the same rules apply ex- 
cept that No. 1 must weigh thirty-six pounds, No. 
2, thirty -four pounds, and No. 3, twenty -eight 
pounds to the measured bushel. 

The rules for mixed oats are the same as those 
for white oats, except that all need not be white. 
It is very seldom that a carload of oats will grade 
No. 1. Of the four grades, more of No. 3 are re- 
ceived in the market than of any other, and there 
are more of No. 4 than of No. 2. There is no rea- 
son, except lack of care on the part of the growers, 
why the major part of the oats shipped should not 
grade No. 2 at least. Sowing, harvesting and 
threshing at the proper times will cause many oats 
that now grade No. 4 to grade No. 2. The market 
prices generally range from three to five cents 
higher per bushel for No. 2 than for No. 4 white 
oats. Thus, a field of eighty acres, producing fifty 
bushels to the acre, would yield 8,000 bushels of 
oats. A difference of five cents a bushel would 
increase the value of the crop $400, an amount 
which would pay for the extra care and labor 
involved and leave a fair profit besides. 



Literature. 

M. A. Carleton, Improvement of the Oat Crop, 
Fourteenth Annual Report, Kansas State Hoard of 
Agriculture, pp. 32-42, published at Topeka, Kan- 
sas, 1904, by F. D. Coburn, Secretary ; F. L. Sar- 
gent, Corn Plants : Their Uses and Ways of Life, 
Houghton, Mifflin & Co., New York (1899), pp. 
42-72 ; Thomas Shaw, Grasses and Clovers, Field 
Roots, Forage and Fodder Plants, Northrup, Bros- 
lan, Goodwin Company, Minneapolis (1895), pp. 
94-96 ; Morrow and Hunt, Soils and Crops of the 
Farm, Howard and Wilson Publishing Company, 
Chicago (1892) ; Edward Hackel, The True Grasses, 
translated from the German by F. Lamson Scribner 
and E. A. Southwick, Henry Holt & Co., New York 
(1890), pp. 121-125 ; Thomas F. Hunt, The Cereals 
in America, Orange Judd Company, New York 
(1904) pp. 280-331 ; Bulletin No. 2, Aberdeen and 
North of Scotland College of Agriculture, 1905, pp. 
1-37 ; Ohio Experiment Station, Bulletins Nos. 
101-138. The reader will need to keep in touch 
with current Experiment Station literature if he 
desires to keep abreast the times. 

The "Open Furrow" Method of Seeding Oats. 

Fig. 722. 

By Hugh N. Starnes. 

The oat is yearly becoming more prominent as 
one of the staple crops for the southern cotton-belt, 
its position being strongly emphasized by its en- 
trance as an indispensable factor into the system 
of "triennial crop rotation" (page 98). In the past, 
however, oat-culture in the South has been largely 
influenced and its greater increase checked by two 
discouraging obstacles : (1) Because of the almost 
inevitable drought in April and May, spring oats 
are not successful. On the poor, stitf , red-clay land 
usually allotted to them, aside from their predis- 
position to rust under .such circumstances, the only 
variety reaching a height sutticient to cradle or 
reap is the "Burt," an oat with a lengthy stem but 
a light head, and therefore unprofitable. "Texas 
Red Rust-proof," the standard variety, is unfitted 
for sowing on poor land in the spring by reason of 
its shorter culm. (2) This necessitates fall-plant- 
ing ; but it is usually impossible for the average 
farmer to seed down his fall oat plats in time for 
them to become sufficiently rooted to withstand the 
freezes of early winter, for his corn occupies the 
land that should go in oats and it must be gathered 
before the area is planted. The late seeding which 
this entails renders broadcast and hand-sown fall 
oats a most uncertain crop. A large percentage 
invariably succumbs to the cold. Difficulty has been 
experienced in the use of the seed drill. Unfortu- 
nately, the extremely long awns of the "Texas Red 
Rust-proof oat, and of its improved progeny, the 
"Appier" oat, cause the seed to clog in the delivery 
tubes and to produce, in consequence, an irregular 
stand. 

The remedy. 

The practice of the "open furrow" method of 
seeding, however, has transformed the uncertainty 



494 



OATS 



OIL-BEARING PLANTS 



of a fall-sown oat crop into a reasonable surety. 
It has been exploited in Georgia for some fifteen 
years, and although it made slow progress at first, 
now that its advantages are more fully realized it 
is being rapidly adopted by the public. 

Under this system grain may be seeded as late 
as the last week in November with the assurance of 
a good stand and of the crop passing the winter 
uninjured. Throughout the cotton-belt the loss 
from the "winter-killing" of hand-sown fall oats 
ranges from one crop in two to one in three, 
equivalent to an annual average loss of at least 
40 per cent. With the "open furrow" method, an 
annual average loss of 4 per cent would seem 
to be an excessive estimate. Moreover, the yield 
is relatively greater, while its additional cost is 
comparatively moderate. 

Details of the "open furrow" method. 

The details of the process are as follows : — The 
corn land of the previous year is well broken 
and harrowed, preferably in the first or second 
week in October. The implement at first used for 




Fig. 722. "Open furrow" oat-growing. 

planting was a light, one-horse combination seeder 
and fertilizer distributer, seeding and at the 
same time fertilizing only one row at a time. 
It was provided with a six-inch "shovel" plow- 
point to open the furrow, into which were drilled 
seed and fertilizer together from separate hoppers 
and in any desired quantity. The covering was 
effected by means of a wheel at the rear of the 
implement. 

An "open furrow" machine, however, has recently 
been devised by which four rows at a time may be 
seeded in place of one if the oats are exceptionally 
well cleaned. The machine will doubtless be still 
further perfected and eventually supersede the 
original "single row" implement. 

The seeds on germination thus occupy the bottom 
of an open furrow some four inches deep, where 
the roots find anchorage in permanent moisture. 
The sides of the furrow are miniature "bluffs" 
which serve as windbreaks for the tender grain 
against the cold northwest winds, while the recur- 
ring frosts of winter successively sift the soil into 
the furrow, almost filling it by harvest time. The 
rows are run preferably east and west, but their 
direction is not of serious moment, since the 
prevailing cold winds of the cotton-belt are 
from the northwest, and would therefore cross 



the rows diagonally, even when extending north 
and south. 

By harve.st time, which is usually the first week 
in June or the last week in May, the grain has 
tillered to such an extent that the rows are barely 
traceable across the field. Although planting one 
or even four rows at a time appears to be rather 
slow work, it is really more expeditious than it 
seems, while the assurance of securing thereby an 
otherwise fortuitous crop should more than recon- 
cile the planter to the delay. 

With the "open furrow " method liberal fertili- 
zation is advisable on planting and also an addi- 
tional top-dressing of nitrate of soda in early 
spring. 

Adaptation of the method. 

Besides oats the process is equally applicable to 
other small grains, and permits wheat to be sown 
.successfully in the South as late as the middle of 
December. It also opens up great possibilities for 
the Northwest along the margin of the belt where 
fall-sown wheat gives way to spring-sowing. It is 
possible that the limit of fall-sown wheat may be 
pushed northward some fifty or seventy-five miles, 
perhaps one hundred. 

Literature. 

R. J. Redding, Bulletins Nos. 44 and 72, Georgia 
Experiment Station and Press Bulletin No. 45 of 
the same station. 

OIL-BEARING PLANTS. Figs. 723-726. 

By R. H. True. 

Under this heading are included two widely dif- 
ferent classes of plant products, which will demand 
separate treatment. The oils of one class are light, 
readily volatilized, usually marked by a more or 
less strongly developed odor, and taste frequently 
pleasant, and are obtained from the plant by the 
process of distillation with water vapors. The oils 
of the other class are heavy, thickly fluid at u.?ual 
temperatures, relatively lacking in odor and taste, 
and are usually obtained by the forcing out of the 
oil under heavy pressure. Since these two classes 
of products are obtained from difl:erent sources by 
very different processe.s, and are made use of in 
different ways, it will be expedient to discuss them 
separately. 

Plants Producing Volatile Oils 
Botanical source. 

The LabiatccB (the mint family), the Umhcllifcrw 
(the parsnip family), the Rosacac (the rose family), 
and the Composite (the sunflower family), are all 
rich in volatile oils and furnish a considerable part 
of the world's supply. This class of products is 
also widely developed throughout the flower-pro- 
ducing section of the vegetable kingdom, and is 
found in the Verbcnaccm (the verbena family), in 
many of the evergreen trees, in the family which 
includes the orange and the lemon (ii«iace(r), and al.-^o 
in that which includes the wintergreen {Ericaeea;). 



OIL-BEARING PLANTS 



OIL-BEARING PLANTS 



495 



Place of production in the plant. 

Not only are volatile oils produced by many 
widely separated members of the vegetable king- 
dom, but they are contained in the most various 
parts of the plant. (1) In many cases they are de- 
veloped in hair-like structures which grow on the 
leaves and stems of plants, chiefly herbaceous, and 
give to the herbage of these plants the odor charac- 
teristic of them. Peppermint, spearmint, penny- 
royal, sage, catnip, lavender and marjoram belong 
to this class. (2) In many cases the oils are formed 
in internal glands or secreting structures and there 
developed and retained. Such accumulation is seen 
in the fruits (sometimes called seeds) of the IJnihel- 
lifercE, e. g., anise, caraway, coriander, fennel ; in 
the fruit, rind and the foliage of the orange and 
lemon trees ; in the leaves, bark and wood of the 
sassafras ; in the needles, bark and wood of many 
of the cone-bearing trees, as the fir balsam, long- 
leaved pine, white cedar and juniper. (3) In still 
other cases, the volatile product does not exist in 
the plant, but is formed by chemical changes fol- 
lowing preparatory treatment of the parts involved. 
In the case of those products in which the develop- 
ment of prussic acid is a characteristic result, the 
leaves or fruits yielding it must be crushed and 
thoroughly moistened so as to bring together those 
substances which by their action on each other 
cause the development of this acid. Usually a sub- 
stance belonging to the group of bodies known as 
enzymes acts on a substance belonging to the 
group of bodies known as glucosides. When water 
is present, this reaction results in the formation 
of prussic acid and also of other less important 
substances. 

This condition of things is encountered in obtain- 
ing the so-called oil of bitter almonds, whose chief 
sources are the kernels of almonds and apricots. 
Peach kernels contain similar substances and yield 
this oil also. The same general condition exists also 
in the green leaves and the bark of the black 
cherry, which yields this poisonous principle only 
after such a chemical change takes place. Similar 
in its general features is the situation in mustard 
seeds and horseradish, which owe their pungency 
to a volatile oil that is produced by a chemical 
change taking place between substances present in 
the seeds and root respectively. The volatile oil 
of wintergreen illustrates a similar method of 
formation. 

Thus it is clear that for the production of vola- 
tile oils many different parts of plants are used, 
and also that these are treated in very different 
ways. 

Method of obtaining volatile oils. 

The process of obtaining volatile oils consists 
especially in exposing the oil-containing herbage, 
seed, wood, or bark to the action of a current of 
live steam which is then condensed, yielding water 
and the oil. The mo.st important parts of a dis- 
tilling apparatus are the following : (1) The boiler 
which yields the live steam ; (2) the distilling 
chamber in which the substance to be distilled is 
packed and exposed to the live steam, which is 



usually admitted at the bottom ; (3) the condenser 
in which the pipes carrying the live steam laden 
with the vapors of the volatile oil are brought 
from an outlet near the top of the distilling cham- 
ber into an artificially cooled series of tubes from 
which the condensed steam and oil flow out into 
some proper receptacle. The oil, usually somewhat 
impure, floats generally as a superficial layer on 
the water, from whence it is skimmed or otherwise 
drawn off for storage or purification. [Fig. 1391, 
Cyclopedia of American Horticulture, shows a 
mint still in section ; and there is a discussion 
of peppermints and spearmint, and a botanical 
account of the cultivated species of Mentha.] 

Volatile oil production in the United States. 

At the present time the growing and distillation 
of volatile oil-producing plants are practiced to a 
limited extent in several parts of the country. The 
most conspicuous example is peppermint, which is 
grown in southern and central Michigan, northern 
Indiana and in Wayne county. New York. Michigan 
is at present probably the mo.st important pepper- 
mint oil region of the world. Japan produces a 
large quantity of an oil called commercially pepper- 
mint oil. England and Germany are smaller pro- 
ducers. Wormwood oil, formerly grown chiefly in 
France and other parts of Europe, is now grown 
largely in Michigan, Wisconsin and Nebraska, the 
United States furnishing a very considerable part 
of the world's product. Spearmint oil is also pro- 
duced in small quantity. Spearmint supplies mate- 
rial for mint julep. 

Among the volatile oils produced in the United 
States, some are obtained from wild plants which 
are collected in the fields and forests for distilla- 
tion. Sassafras oil is distilled at scattered points 
in Penn.sylvania, Virginia and other parts of the 
country occupied by the sassafras tree, even as far 
west as Missouri. Wintergreen oil is distilled in 
small quantities in Michigan, Connecticut and other 
regions where the wintergreen plant and the sweet 
birch (which yields the oil on distillation of the 
bark) are found abundantly. Perhaps the most im- 
portant single volatile oil is distilled from the 
resinous substances which exude from the wounded 
trunks of the turpentine-yielding pines. The resi- 
nous exudate on distillation yields the oil of tur- 
pentine of commerce. On the Pacific coast there is 
a sparing distillation of the leaves of the eucalyptus 
trees grown so frequently in that region. The ker- 
nels of California bitter almonds, and to a much 
larger extent the kernels of apricots, are also a 
commercial source of the so-called oil of bitter 
almonds. 

Volatile oil importation. 

In addition to the above home production, this 
country imports volatile oils and products derived 
from them to no small extent. In the following 
tables, the report of the National Customs author- 
ities for the year ended June 30, 1905, gives the 
sorts, values, and quantities of some of the most 
important kinds of products imported during the 
period indicated: 



496 



OIL-BEARING PLANTS 



OIL-BEARING PLANTS 



Importation op Volatile Oils into the United States 
During the Year Ended June 30, 1905. 



Kind 


Quantity 


Value 


Bitter almonds .... 

Anise seed 

Bergamot 

Cajeput 

Caraway 

Cassia and cinnamon . 

Camomile 

Citronella 

Fennel 

Jasmine 

Juniper 

Lavender and spike . . 

Lemon 

Limes 

Orange flowers .... 

Orange 

Origanum 

Peppermint 

Rosemary 

Roses, Attar of . . . 

Thyme 

Valerian 

All other essential oils 
and combinations . . 


13,785 pounds 

39,112 pounds 

64,549 pounds 

22,082 pounds 

28,269 pounds 

46,473 pounds 

56 pounds 

649,113 pounds 

8,517 pounds 

817 pounds 

9,989 pounds 

129,832 pounds 

310,056 pounds 

5,415 pounds 

4,995 pounds 

92,077 pounds 

6,495 pounds 

16,184 pounds 

33,050 pounds 

88,337 ounces 

54,607 pounds 

13 pounds 


$10,089 00 

40,949 00 

132,114 00 

8,309 00 

19,464 00 

31,080 00 

172 00 

159,564 00 

2,901 00 

6,797 00 

5,511 00 

175,383 00 

175,852 00 

3,060 00 

28,957 00 

143,555 00 

1,404 00 

18,733 00 

16,398 00 

296,918 00 

39,839 00 

26 00 

420,858 00 


Total 




$1,737,933 00 



Importation of Seeds from Which Volatile Oils are 

Distilled, During the Fiscal Year Ended 

June 30, 1905. 



Kind 


Quantity 


Value 


Anise 

Caraway 


330,494 pounds 
2,275,158 pounds 


$16,593 00 
100,501 00 


Coriander 

Fennel 


1,037,866 pounds 
125,858 pounds 


47,861 00 
5,308 12 


Total 


3,769,376 pounds 


$170,263 12 



Uses of volatile oils. 

Volatile oils meet with a wide use in the making 
of perfumery, for which their pleasing odor and 
high degree of volatility render them especially 
valuable. They are used not only mixed in propor- 
tions designed to produce a given fragrance in the 
form of solutions seen in the usual commercial 
perfumeries, but they find their way into many 
other preparations in which pleasing odor is desired. 
Soaps alone make a striking illustration. As flavor- 
ing agents they play an important part in domestic 
economy. The "essences" of the kitchen, bakery 
and confectionary factory are in large part prepa- 
rations of such volatile oils as give the desired 
flavors to cakes, ice creams and candies. They are 
also used in various beverages, liquors and cordials. 
The French beverage, absinthe, is distinguished 
by the presence in it of oil of wormwood. These 
oils and their products are also used in the manu- 
facture of remedies. Menthol, a crystalline sub- 
stance obtained from peppermint oil by subjecting 



it to a low temperature, occurs in many prepara- 
tions because of its antiseptic properties, and in 
the form of cones or pencils for use externally in 
headaches, neuralgia and the like. Eucalyptol, ob- 
tained from eucalyptus oil, and thymol, obtained 
chiefly from the oil of thyme, are likewise highly 
valued antiseptics and enter into many washes, 
sprays and other medicinal preparations. Some oils 
of the cla.ss here concerned are employed almost 
solely for medicinal purposes, such as oil of Ameri- 
can wormseed. Others have a limited use in various 
ways in the arts and sciences, e. g., oil of red cedar 
wood and of white cedar in microscopic work. 

Anise. [See Medicinal, Condiniental and Aromatic 
riajits, page 458.] 

Bitter Almonds (Prunus Amygdalus, var. amara, 
DG.). Rosacea. 
The so-called oil of bitter almonds is obtained 
from the kernel of bitter almonds, apricots and 
peaches. The kernels are coarsely ground, submit- 
ted to great hydraulic pressure to remove the fatty 
oils present, and the remaining cake after finer 
grinding is macerated in several times its volume 
of water and left for twelve hours. The volatile 
oil does not exist ready formed in the seed, but is 




Long-leaf pine (Pintis palustns). 



developed by the chemical action of bodies present 
in the kernel. Amygdalin, a glucoside present, 
when acted on by emulsin, a splitting ferment also 
present in the kernel, splits up, in the presence of 
water, into grape-sugar, prussic acid and benzalde- 



OIL-BEARING PLANTS 



OIL-BEARING PLANTS 



497 



hyde. After a sufficient time has elapsed for the 
oil to form, distillation occurs. California is the 
chief American source of this very volatile and 
poisonous oil. 

Caraway. [See Medicinal, Coiidimciital and Aro- 
matic Plants, page 460.] 

Long-leaf Pine {Pinus palusfris, WiW.). Coniferce. 
Fig. 723 ; also Fig. 55, Vol. I. 

American turpentine oil consists of the more 
volatile constituents of the resinous exudate ob- 
tained by wounding the trunk of the various 
species of pine, chiefly the long-leaf pine. The 
outer living wood is chopped away in 
such manner as to open a large area of _ _£*_-'- 
young wood rich in turpentine. During 
the warm months this pitch exudes and 
runs down into a pot connected by a 
spout to the tree or into a "box" cut in 
the trunk itself, from which it is removed 
every month or fortnight. The pitch is 
then distilled, with the result that the 
more volatile j^art, the oil of turpentine, 
is separated from a heavy residue, the 
resin. This volatile oil is further purified by recti- 
fication. 

The southeastern states, from North Carolina to 
Florida, are the chief source of American turpen- 
tine oil. Wilmington, N. C, is the chief commer- 
cial center for this and related pine products, such 
as resin and tar. The turpentine supply is threat- 
ened in the United States by the destruction of 
the forests. Synthetic substitutes have not been 
secured. 

Spearmint (Mentha viridis, Linn., M. xpieata, Linn.). 

Lahiatm. (Fig. 1392, Cyclopedia of American 

Horticulture.) 
A low perennial herb (one to three feet high) 
propagated by numerous running rootstocks, with 
ascending or reclining, somewhat hairy, square- 
cornered, green stems, bearing slightly hairy, aro- 
matic, sessile, veiny, oblong leaves, and the dense, 
narrow, terminal leafless spike of small lavender- 
colored flowers. 

This European plant has been widely distributed 
over the eastern part of the United States, where 
it occurs wild in damp fields and waste places. It 
has been grown in Europe for centuries on a small 
scale as a garden plant. It has been cultivated on 
a commercial scale at Mitcham, England, but chiefly 
in the United States in Michigan and in Lyons 
county. New York, where its culture is practiced 
with that of jieppermint [see Pepperm int, page 463]. 
The methods of cultivation and distillation are 
similar to those employed in the case of pepper- 
mint. The yield is about twenty pounds of oil per 
acre. The total American yearly output seems not 
to exceed about 12,000 pounds, which amount makes 
the American product the determining factor in the 
world's market. An oil grouped with spearmint oil 
commercially was formerly produced on a small-scale 
in Thuringia, Germany, but it has ceased to be a 
factor in the market. 

B 32 



The oil is used as a flavoring agent in confec- 
tionery and cosmetics and to a less extent in medi- 
cine. Both the dried herb and the oil are official 
in the U. S. Pharmacopoeia. The dried herb meets 
with a limited demand from crude drug dealers. 

Sweet Birch (Betula lenta, Linn.). Betulacece. 
Fig. 724. 
A tree of medium size, reaching a height of 
seventy-five feet, having a close dark brown bark, 











Fig. 724. Sweet birch {Betula lento). 

the inner lining of which is sweet and aromatic 
when chewed. The leaves are cordate, ovate, acu- 
minate at the apex, with finely .serrated margins. 
The flowers are in long, slender catkins. A native 
tree of rich forests of eastern North America. 

The bark of the sweet birch (cherry birch or 
black birch) yields on maceration and distillation 
a volatile oil which is frequently known commer- 
cially as oil of wintergreen and has practically a 
like composition. The birch bark from young 
trunks and branches is removed usually in late 
.summer, cut up into small pieces and macerated 
for twelve hours with enough water thoroughly to 
moisten the bark, and distilled with steam. The 
characteristic substance of the oil is methylsalicy- 
late, formed by the action of the ferment gaulthe- 
rase (betulase) on the glucoside gaultherin. The 
yield is about .23 per cent. The oil of sweet birch 
and of wintei'green is used chiefly as a flavoring 
agent in candies and medicinal preparations. 

Vetiver. Andropogon sguarrosus, Linn. {A. muriea- 

tus, Retz. Vetiveria zizanioide!>, Nash.). Gram- 

inecE. Vetivere, Cuscus, Khu.s-khus, Khuschus, 

Kuskus, Koosa. 

Vetiver is a perennial tufted grass, native in 

rich moist soils in the coast region of India and in 

Bengal, and also on the plains of the Punjab and 

Northwest provinces. It is '-'■nwn for its roots, the 



498 



OIL-BEARING PLANTS 



OIL-BEARING PLANTS 



filaments of which are used for making scented 
mats, screens, fans, ornamental baskets and various 
fancy articles, and are tied in bundles, weighing 
about two ounces each, which are used for scenting 
drawers. The latter is the Louisiana utilization of 
the plants. From the roots (called khas or khas- 
khas) is distilled a fragrant oil used in perfumery. 
Vetiver is closely related to citronella (Andropogoii 
Nardus), from the leaves of which citronella oil 
is distilled. 

Vetiver has been introduced into southern Lou- 
isiana and has become naturalized there, but it has 
not yet been grown commercially to any extent. 
It seems to have been introduced here from the 
West Indies about seventy years ago. There are a 
few plants in every garden belonging to the native 
French population of the state. There is one large 
collection of plants at Shiloh, about si,xty-four 
miles north of New Orleans, and another in St. 
Bernard parish. 

E)r. Le ilonnier, who has the garden at Shiloh, 
has some 700 plants in nine rows, six feet apart, 
each plant or tuft consisting of a compact mass 
about a foot and a half in diameter, giving rise to 
long stems which in September become jointed 
canes, one-half inch in diameter, and as much as 
eight feet high. In September or October he burns 
the plant's, and digs up the roots which have then 
produced great numbers of small roots or fila- 
ments about one thirty-second of an inch in diam- 
eter and running one to two feet long. These are 
chopped off close to the central mass, which can 
then be replanted. The filaments are thoroughly 
washed in cold water, and, after being dried slowly 
in a room at a temperature of about 120 degrees, 
are ready for market. 

The grass is propagated chiefly by transplanting 
the roots. When once established it forms dense, 
firmly rooted tufts, rather difficult lo eradicate, but 
not spreading or increasing rapidly. It requires 
for its best development a rich moist soil of rather 
open texture. In Louisiana it is grown most eco- 
nomically on exceedingly sandy soil, the product 
from which shakes almost entirely clean. 

The period during which vetiver is in active sale 
in Louisiana is from November to April, after 
which the stock is mostly exhausted. The whole- 
sale dealers pay for it at forty to eighty cents per 
pound. The higher price obtains at the beginning 
of the season. The quantity of domestic product 
on the market is very small. Almost every constant 
user of it has one or more plants in her own gar- 
den. It has figured in a small way in the importa- 
tions from France since a very early date. [See 
Watt, Dictionary of Economic Plants of India, 
and Dodge, Catalog of Useful Fiber Plants of the 
World.] 

Wintergreen {Gavltheria procumbens, Linn.). Eri- 
eaeecB. Fig. 72.5. 

A slender, creeping, almost woody perennial, 
with running stems near the surface of the ground 
and short erect branches, four to six inches high, 
bearing dark green, leathery, alternate leaves, 
three to six in number, and small, white, almost 



egg-shaped axillary flowers, which are followed by 
round bright berries. It is a native of damp woods 
in the cooler parts of eastern North America. 

Wintergreen herb has been distilled on a small 
commercial scale for its volatile oil for nearly a 
century in New England, and for a less time in New 
York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and other mountain- 
ous states of the East, and as far west as Michigan, 



.i^^ 




Fig. 725. Spring or creeping wintergreen {OauUheria 
pracumbeusj. 

where the plant has been abundant. It seems, how- 
ever, never to have been cultivated for this purpose. 
It grows in woods from Canada to Georgia and 
westward to Michigan and Wisconsin. The leaves or 
herb are gathered in a fresh state, chopped up, and 
after moistening with water are left standing for 
about twenty-four hours to permit the develop- 
ment of the oil, as explained in the introductory 
paragraph on volatile oils (p. 49.5). It contains 
a glucoside, gaultherin, which, when acted on by 
the splitting ferment gaultherase in the presence 
of water, yields oil of wintergreen and grape- 
sugar. It is distilled with steam essentially as 
described in the general introduction. The usual 
yield is about .8 per cent. 

Wormseed, American. [See Medicinal, Condimental 
and Aromatic Plants, page 466.] 

Wormwood (Artemisia Absinthium., Linn.). Com- 
piisitiE. (Fig. 2750, Cyclopedia of American 
Horticulture.) 

A perennial-rooted woody herb, two to four feet 
high, having stout, branching, erect or somewhat 
decumbent stems; twice or thrice pinnately divided 
leaves with narrow lobes, pale, finely hairy-woolly, 
especially beneath; hemispherical flowers in pani- 
cles; fruit with hairy pappus. A common escape in 
waste places or along woodsides. 

Wormwood and the oil derived from it by dis- 
tillation have been known to European medicine for 



OIL-BEARING PLANTS 



OIL-BEARING PLANTS 



499 



more than a century. It was introduced into tlie 
United States at an early date and has been culti- 
vated both in Europe and America on a commercial 
scale. Formerly France was the chief producer, 
but in the last fifteen or twenty years the United 
States has held first rank as regards quantity dis- 
tilled. The plant is grown chiefly in Michigan, 
New York, Nebraska and Wisconsin. Good ordi- 
nary farm land is chosen for wormwood, and when 
in good tilth in spring is planted to wormwood 
seed, usually in rows three feet or more apart for 
easy horse cultivation, the plants being thinned out 
in the row to a distance of eighteen inches to two 
feet apart. The plants grow rapidly and yield a 
considerable cutting the first year. By proper 
weeding a wormwood-field will last three to five 
years before it is plowed up and replanted. Some 
growers sow the seed broadcast in pasture land 
and harvest the wormwood, which is avoided by 
the stock. This secures manuring of the crop. 
The tops are cut for distillation in an advanced 
flowering stage and the distillation is carried out 
as in peppermint. The oil is dark greenish or 
bluish brown in color and of a heavy consistency. 
Wooden tubs that have been used in wormwood 
distillation are not fit for use in di.stilling other 
oils. The yield is about one-half per cent of the 
weight of the fresh herb. In Michigan, in 1902, 
90 acres yielded 873 pounds of oil, an average of 
9.7 pounds of oil per acre. 

Wormwood is the active principle in the French 
drink absinthe. In the form of this beverage and 
as an oil it is capable in overdoses of producing 
serious results resembling epileptic convulsions. 
The oil distilled in America is in part exported. 

Plants Producing Patty Oils. 

Many plants produce fatty oils in a very consid- 
erable quantity and store these, usually in seeds or 
fruits, as reserve food substance. They ai"e used 
at the time of germination as a source of energy to 
support the young plant until it can maintain 
itself. These oils are bland, usually lacking in any 
very strong taste or odor when obtained in a pure 
condition, and lack the strong antiseptic properties 
which characterize the volatile oils. In their chemi- 
cal relationships, they are closely allied to the com- 
mon animal fats. In general they are all made up 
of a mixture containing the same principal sub- 
stances occurring in differing proportions. In oils 
having a low melting point, as olive oil, the pro- 
portion of olein, the constituent having a low 
melting point, is large ; in firmer oils this sub- 
stance is present in smaller percentage, and the 
constituents having a higher melting point, such as 
stearin and palmitin, are present in large propor- 
tion. This is true in the case of most firm fats, 
such as cocoa butter, palm oil and the commoner 
animal fats. Thus some vegetable fats are fluid at 
ordinary temperatures while others are solid. 

Botanical source. 

Plants yielding fatty oils are widely distributed 
through the vegetable kingdom. Among those sorts 



produced on a considerable commercial scale in the 
United States, there are almost as many plant fami- 
lies represented as there are oils. A few examjjles 
will illustrate this : Cottonseed oil is obtained from 
the seed of the species of cotton, Gossijpium, be- 
longing to the mallow family, Malvacea: ; peanut 
oil from the seed of Aracliis hypogna, the peanut, a 
member of the pea family, Lcguminosm; corn oil 
from the seed of the common field corn, Zea Mai/s, 
of the Graminecc, or grass family ; linseed oil from 
the seed of Linum usitatusimum, the flax plant, of 
the flax family, Ltnacca;; rape-seed oil from Brns- 
siea Napu.% a member of the mustard family, Cru- 
cifirm ; and castor-oil from the seed of Ricinus 
communis, a member of the Euphorhiaccm, the 
spurge family. [Refer to the special articles on 
these crops in other parts of the Cyclopedia for 
further information.] 

Place of production in plant. 

As indicated in the above examples, the fatty 
oils are found in seeds or fruits, where they are 
stored in great abundance as reserve food products 
for the u.se of the seedling during germination. 
However, they are located in diffei'ent parts of 
these structures. For example, in the seeds of the 
castor-bean, peanut, flax and cotton, the oil is 
stored in the germ, especially in the cotyledons. 
The source of corn oil is found in the germ of the 
corn grain, not in the storage ti.ssue making up the 
great bulk of the grain. In the olive, the oil is 
stored in the fleshy pulp, of which the fruit in 
large part consists, and not in the hard seed which 
it encloses, therefore, not in the germ, as in the 
other cases. 

Method of obtaining fatty oils. 

In order to obtain the oils from the seeds and 
fruits in which they occur, it is necessary to break 
open the cells in which they are stored and force 
them out. This is ordinarily accomplished by the 
application of high pressure. In some cases, when 
not harmful to the oil, a moderate degree of heat 
is employed, rendering the oil more thoroughly 
fluid, so that it will more readily run out. In some 
cases, the heat developed by the energy expended 
in securing a sufliciently high pressure is ample. 
When the oil is expensive, the oil residues remain- 
ing after pressure has been used are extracted by 
the use of solvents. 

The residue left after the expression of the oil is 
completed may be utilized, in most cases, either as 
a stock-food, as in the case of cottonseed meal and 
lin.seed cake, or as a fertilizer, of which cottonseed 
meal is an example. 

Commercial information and uses. 

The production of plant oils of this class (the 
fatty oils) in the United States on any considerable 
commercial scale is limited to a very small number 
of kinds : cottonseed, linseed, peanut, corn, castor 
and olive oils. The magnitude of the production 
of these oils or of the stock from which they are 
derived is difficult to determine with any degree of 
accuracy. 



500 



OIL-BEARING PLANTS 



OIL-BEARING PLANTS 



Castor-oil (Ricinus communis, Linn.). Euphorhmcem. 

The cultivation of the castor-oil plant is cen- 
tered in Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Illinois, 
in which states, according to the last United States 
Census, an annual crop of 100,000 to L50,000 
bushels of seed is produced. The price is at 
present about one dollar per bushel. The impor- 
tation of seeds for the year ended June 30, 1905, 
was 337,767.86 bushels. This plant is cultivated 
chiefly in Egypt, Turkey in Asia, India and China. 
The oil from this seed is obtained by e.xpression, as 
above stated, after which it is clarified by boiling 
with water to free it from mucilaginous and other 
objectionable substances or by leaving it standing 
in the sunlight to settle. The cake remaining after 
the removal of the oil is powerfully poisonous, as 
are also the whole seeds. 

Castor-oil is used in a number of ways. When 
cold pressed, it is used in medicine for its purgative 
properties; it is mixed with other substances to 
increase its mobility and used in making sticky fly- 
paper, according to report ; it is valued in some 
circumstances as a lubricating oil because of its 
heaviness ; it is excellent as a dressing for leather 
and is used somewhat in making transparent as 
well as common soaps. This oil, like that from 
cottonseed and peanuts, is semi-drying in character. 
[See Castor-hean.'\ 

Colza (Brassiea campestris, Linn.). Rosacece. [See, 
also, page 307, and Rape.] 

Colza oil, strictly speaking, is obtained from the 
seed of Brassica campestris, the rutabaga, but the 
oil from this plant is probably not distinguished 
in commerce from that of B. Napus and B. Rapa, 
the different sorts of rape. 

Colza is cultivated especially in France, Germany 
and Belgium, in part for the seed and the oil 
expressed from it. The seeds yield about 35 per 
cent of their dry weight of browni.sh yellow oil, 
which, although odorless when expressed, develops 
an unpleasant odor and taste on standing. The 
crude oil is used as a lubricant and in some 
regions for illuminating purposes, the refined oil 
being used, it is said, as an adulterant for olive 
and almond oils. The cake is a recognized stock- 
food. The importation of products listed as rape 
during the fi.scal year ended July 1, 1905, was as 
follows: Rape seed, 3,029,948 pounds, valued at 
$78,344; rape-seed oil, 730,686 gallons, valued at 
$264,025. Neither rape nor colza is grown in the 
United States to any considerable extent as a 
source of oil, being used rather as green forage 
crops. The seeds of rape and colza, it is said, are 
used in bird-seed mixtures. [See page 307.] 

Com oil (Zea Mays, Linn.). Graminem. 

Corn oil is obtained from the germ of the seed 
of corn. This part of the seed is practically free 
from starch, so that in the manufacture of glucose, 
in which the starchy structure only is of value, 
the germs are discarded. From this formerly 
refuse product, a useful oil is obtained in large 
quantities. The center of the corn oil industry is 
found in the upper Mississippi valley, where the 



glucose and starch industries are centered. This is 
practically an American product and is exported 
in considerable quantities to Europe, especially to 
Belgium. In 1905, out of a total exportation of 
71,372 barrels, valued at $87.3,579, Belgium re- 
ceived 51,468 barrels. The "cake" remaining after 
the removal of the oil is also an article of export. 
The oil belongs to the semi-drying oils and is 
used for the making of soap and as a lubricant. 
[See Maize.] 

Cottonseed. (Gossypium species.) Malvacem. 

The cottonseed crop, of course, is confined to 
the southern states. The states bordering on the 
Gulf as well as the Carolinas and Arkansas are 
important cotton producers. The crushing and 
storage of the seed is practiced not only in cities 
within the cotton-belt but also in centers most 
readily accessible, such as Cincinnati, Louisville 
and St. Louis, as well as in the larger commercial 
centers. The domestic crop of cottonseed may be 
stated as averaging 5,000,000 tons, of which about 
60 per cent is crushed for oil. The average recent 
oil yield has been about 110,000,000 to 115,000,000 
gallons per year. 

Crude cottonseed oil is purified by heating with 
caustic soda and by further treatment with fuller's 
earth. The clear oil when cooled to 12° below zero. 
Centigrade, separates into a part used in making 
oleomargarine, and a clear oil which is used in 
large quantities as a salad oil and for mixing with 
olive oil. The impure residue removed by treat- 
ment with caustic soda is used by soap-makers. 
Cottonseed oil occurs very largely in various arti- 
cles used in cooking as substitutes for lard. [See 
Cotion.] 

In both cottonseed- and fla.xseed-oil production, 
the United States ranks as an exporter except 
under special conditions, when the demand for flax 
seed may result in importation from Argentina and 
from British India. 

In the preparation of these oils, the residual 
"cake" is a valuable by-product, which is also an 
article of export as well as of home consumption. 

Flax {Linum usitatissimum, Linn.). Linacem. 

In the case of flax seed the crop of the country 
seems to lie between 20,000,000 and 28,000,000 
bushels per annum, grown in large part in Min- 
nesota, North and South Dakota. There is a minor 
production in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Idaho. 
The important centers of the trade are at Chi- 
cago, Minneapolis and Duluth, where store-houses 
and crushers provide accommodations for the ship- 
per or for the manufacturer of linseed oil. The 
chief use of linseed oil is found in the making of 
paints. The desired pigments, finely ground, are 
mixed with the oil and applied to the surface to be 
covered. The oil is quickly acted on by the atmos- 
phere in such a way as to harden it, and is classed 
for this reason as a drying oil. Linseed oil is put 
on the market as raw oil or as boiled oil. The cake 
left after the expression of the oil is a valuable 
stock-feed, and, as such, forms an important article 
of commerce. [See Flax.] 



OIL-BEARING PLANTS 



OIL-BEARING PLANTS 



501 



TSiger iGuizotiaoleifera,Cass.). Compositce. Fig. 726. 

Niger seed is derived from an erect annual plant 
reaching a height of about three feet. It has 
opposite, lanceolate-oblong, serrated leaves, numer- 
ous bright yellow flowers one to one and one-half 
inches in diameter, borne on elongated stems. The 
seed is formed by the inconspicuous disc flowers. 

This plant, native of Abyssinia, is cultivated in 
Mysore, India, and to a lesser degree in Germany 
and the West Indies, principally for the pale yellow 
fatty oil e.xpressed from the seed. The yield is about 
3.5 to 40 per cent. The oil is used for illumination, 
and in making soap. The higher grades are also 
used for food purposes. It has a chracteristic 
pleasant aromatic odor. The seed is used also in 
bird-seed mi.xtures. It reaches the European mar- 
ket by way of London and Hamburg, but is not 
imported in the United States. Its experimental 
culture here has been recommended. 




Fig. 726. Niger {tiuizotia oleifera). 

Olive oil (Oka Europma, Linn.). Oleaeece. 

Olive-growing in the United States is practically 
confined to California and Arizona. The total crop 
in 1899, according to the United States Census, 
was about 5,000,000 pounds. The fruit is in part 
used for pickling and in part for the production of 
olive oil. The oil is obtained by expressing. 

The demand for olive oil is large and is in part 
supplied from foreign sources, notably Italy and 
France. In 1904, the total importation was about 
1,700,000 gallons. This oil does not readily become 
rancid. The better grades of the oil are used as salad 
oil, the poorer for soap-making and in processes 
connected with the manufacture of tobacco. 

Peanut oil (Arachis hypogcea, Linn.). Lcguminosm. 
Peanut-culture in the United States is found 
chiefly in the South, Virginia, North Carolina, 
Georgia, Alabama, Florida and Tennessee being 
the largest producers in the order named. The 



total crop for the United States in 1899 was about 
12,000,000 bushels, valued at sixty-one cents per 
bushel. In 1904, the United States imported pea- 
nuts, shelled and unshelled, to a value of about 
$148,000. The peanut crop has increased during 
the last decade to a remarkable degree, due doubt- 
less to the increased use. Aside from its use in a 
whole roasted condition, the fruit is the source of 
an oil which is expressed from it. 

Peanut oil when expressed cold is pale in color 
and may be used as a salad oil, although it becomes 
rancid more readily than olive oil. It is used as an 
adulterant for olive oil, also in making butterine. 
The lower grades are used in soap-making. Sar- 
dines are frequently preserved in peanut oil. The 
"cake" remaining after expression of the oil is 
used sometimes as a stock-feed. [See Peanut.l 

Sesame {Sesamum Indicum, Linn.). Pedaliacem. 

Sesame (bene or til) is an annual herbaceous 
plant growing two and one-half to seven feet tall. 
The leaves are variable, three to five inches long, 
oblong or lanceolate, the lower often three-lobed 
or three-parted ; the corolla is pale rose or white, 
one inch long, and tubular. The pods are about 
three inches long. 

Bene is planted in April or May, and is ready to 
harvest about six months later. It is sometimes 
planted between rows of cotton, and occasionally 
hoed to keep out weeds. It begins to flower when 
twelve inches high. As the stems elongate, new 
flowers appear, and we eventually find ripe capsules 
below, green ones in the middle, and flowers at the 
top. The flower-capsules burst and the seed shatters 
before the others are ripe. The seed may be gath- 
ered by shaking into a sheet when the pods are dry. 

The seeds are valued for their oil. The seeds 
yield about half their weight of oil-of-sesame, which 
is odorless and does not easily become rancid. The 
oil and seed are used in cooking and in medicine, 
in the making of confections, soap, and as an 
adulterant of olive oil. 

Sesame has been known from ancient times in 
India, Greece and Egypt, and is much more used in 
these countries and in Europe than in this country. 
It is said to have been brought to South Carolina 
by the early slaves. It now runs wild in parts of 
the extreme South, and is cultivated in small 
patches, chiefly by the negroes. 

During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1905, the 
importation of oil-of-sesame amounted to 1,394,- 
97.5 pounds, valued at $91,314. Since the seeds are 
not itemized in the customs returns, the amount 
of seed imported is not ascertainable. 

Literature. 

Allen, Commercial Organic Analysis, London ; 
Brannt, A Practical Treatise on Animal and Vege- 
table Fats and Oils, Philadelphia ; Gill, Handbook 
of Oil Analysis, Philadelphia (1898); Lewkowitsch, 
Chemical Analysis of Fats, Oils and Waxes, New 
York (1898); Sadtler, A Handbook of Industrial 
Organic Chemistry, Philadelphia (1900); Bureau of 
Chemistry, United States Department of Agricul- 
ture, Bulletin No. 77, Olive oil and Its Substitutes, 



502 



OIL-BEARING PLANTS 



ORNAMENTALS 



L. M. Tolman and L. S. Munson ; same, Bulletin 
No. 80, Part II, Rose Geranium Oil and Its Substi- 
tutes, Lyman F. Kebler ; Hopkins, The Oil-Chem- 
ists' Handbook, New York (1900); Andes, Vegeta- 
ble Fats and Oils (trans, by C. Salter), London 
(1897); Benedikt, Chemical Analysis of Oils, Fats, 
Waxes, and of the Commercial Products Derived 
Therefrom, London (1895); Dent, Fats and Oils 
(in Groves and Thorp, editors, Chemical Technology, 
Vol. II, 1895); Lewkowitsch, The Laboratory Com- 
panion to Fats and Oils Industries, London (1901); 
Wright, Animal and Vegetable Fixed Oils, Fats, 
Butters and Waxes, London (1903). 



nately, there is no generic term for the growing 
of all ornamental plants, covering such phases as 
floriculture and the rearing of trees and shrubs 
for adornment and for shade. 

The extension of floriculture and allied occupa- 
tions is due, of course, to the rise in taste ; but 
the rise of taste has been promoted and hastened 
by the increasing efl^ectiveness of the plant-grow- 
ing business. The business is becoming more efl'ect- 
ive because a much greater variety of plants is 
increasingly available, because of the perfecting 
of the glasshouse, of more expeditious and satis- 
factory means of transportation and handling, and 




Fig. 727. A flower and plant farm. Rose Hill, New Rochellc, N. Y. 



ORNAMENTALS. 

While some farmers are growing crops to pro- 
vide their fellows with food, clothing and shelter, 
others are reciprocating by growing plants to or- 
nament the home and public places. The growth 
of the desire for beautiful plants has been very 
marked in the last half-century. Within that time 
commercial floriculture has arisen, together with 
a large part of nursery-farming. [See Nurseries.] 
The growing of ornamental plants, however, is a 
wider business than floriculture. The business of 
floriculture is included within it. Floriculture is 
properly the growing of flowers, including, of 
course, the rearing of the plants that are to pro- 
duce the flowers. By custom, also, the term is ap- 
plied to the raising of many or most herbaceous 
ornamental plants and all greenhouse ornamentals, 
whether grown for foliage or habit. Unfortu- 



because the increased demand has made it possible 
to make a more efl:ective business organization. 

The business of floriculture may derive its rev- 
enue from (a) the selling of cut-flowers (as carna- 
tions, roses and violets); (6) the selling of pot- 
plants to the user (as begonias, palms and many 
greenhouse and window - garden plants) ; (c) the 
selling of nursery products, more or less whole- 
sale (as small plants of carnations, chrysanthe- 
mums, cannas); (d) the selling of seeds or bulbs. 
Flower-farming of one kind or another has now 
become one of the important agricultural indus- 
tries, comprising a total in the United States at 
the last census of 6,1.59 commercial farms or es- 
tablishments, with 42,662 acres, a total property 
valuation of $52,462,419, a total value of products 
of $18,.505,881, and an average value of $431.83 
per acre of products not fed to live-stock. Aside 



ORNAMENTALS 



PAPER PLANTS 



503 



from these establishments are many others, as 
nurseries and truck-farms, that grow and sell flow- 
ers as a secondary business. There are numberless 
private places giving much attention to ornamen- 
tals. The glass surface reported by florists (about 
one-third greater than the land surface on which 
the structures stand) was 68,030,6(56 square feet, 
in 6,070 establishments. More than half this glass 
was in the north Atlantic states. New York lead- 
ing with 10,690,777 square feet, and Pennsylvania 
second with 8,811,711 square feet. 

Floriculture is a concentrated and high-class 
business, notwithstanding the fact that many 
establishments are .shiftless and profitless. The av- 
erage size of flower- and plant-farms in the census 
year was less than seven acres. On these farms, 
the value of land and its imiu-ovements was some 
$28,000,000, while the value of the buildings was 
above $22,500,000. The implements were rela- 
tively low, being only $1,366,887 worth. The 
amount expended for labor was more than $4,000,- 
000, or about one-seventh the value of the land 
and between one-fourth and one-fifth the value of 
the salable product. The labor cost was about $100 
per acre. 

The risks in floriculture are great because of the 
perishable nature of the products, the changes in 
ta.ste, the expensiveness and unsubstantial char- 
acter of buildings, and the cost of heat and other 
maintenance. The difl'erence between the whole- 
sale and retail prices is very marked. The busi- 
ness is now largely broken up into specialties, one 
establishment devoting itself mostly to carnations, 
another to violets or roses, and the like. Although 
the number of species of florists' plants runs into 
thousands, the numbers that are commercially im- 
portant are relatively few, and, for these special- 
ties, societies of growers are usually organized. 
The cut-flower industry has made great headway 
in recent years, with roses, carnations and violets 
as the leading crops. In the growing of all these 
specialties, great perfection of manual and me- 
chanical skill has been developed. This skill is 
constantly becoming more rational and less rule- 
of-thumb. The workmanship is passing out of the 
hands of the old-time apprenticed gardener who 
was trained to grow a great variety of plants for 
personal or household use. The glasshouses have 
come to cover acres of land rather than square 
feet, and they are simple, direct and completely 
utilizable. The notions of greenhouse building that 
were current twenty-five years ago are now largely 
outgrown for commercial e.stabli.shments (see Figs. 
179 to 188). The utilizing of cool storage for some 
of the products has had great effect. The develop- 
ment of the city flower store, the delivery- 
wagon system, and the wholesale trade have 
changed the whole aspect of the business. The 
breeding of plants in one way and another has 
long been an important factor in flower-growing. 
The greater number of authentic historic plant 
hybrids are between greenhouse and other garden 
plants. The underlying problems of plant nutrition 
and of soil fertility and efliciency are yet little 
studied, however, in their practical applications to 



the florists' busines.s. The florist makes his soil. 
He depends little on concentrated fertilizers, but 
greatly on manure, rotted sod and other humous 
ameliorators. 

The organization phases of floriculture have lit- 
tle relation to the farm management and crop 
management problems that are the proper theme 
of this Cyclopedia ; the floricultural subjects and 
plants are discussed in many phases in the Cyclo- 
pedia of American Horticulture ; therefore the sub- 
ject may not be further discussed here. The best 
literature will be found in the trade papers, and 
the reports of national societies. There are recent 
good books devoted to special plants, but none de- 
voted to the whole subject of commercial floricul- 
ture ; in fact, the subject is scarcely homogeneous 
enough for conspectic treatment. The business of 
growing ornamental plants is increasing rapidly, 
and it will continue to increase because the desire 
for beautiful objects rises with the accumulation 
of means and the progress of civilization. Every 
observant person will have noticed that every year 
greater attention is paid to the care and adorn- 
ment of home grounds. This practice is beginning 
to extend far into the open country. 

PAPER-MAKING PLANTS. Figs. 728-731. 
By F. P. Veitch. 

The farmer is not called on to grow crops for 
the purpose of supplying the raw materials used 
for making paper. The cutting of timber and the 
sale of straw for this purpose have been incidental 
to other farm work, filling in the gaps between 
more profitable work. But conditions are chang- 
ing: the wild growths and the wastes of other 
industries heretofore used are supplied at con- 
stantly increasing cost, and the time is now come 
when the farm may be called on to contribute 
more largely to these supjjlies, both with its waste 
materials and with its crops. 

Paper can be made from any fibrous vegetable 
material. The materials commonly used, how- 
ever, are not numerous, and are obtained from 
flax, cotton, hemp, e.sparto, manila, jute, woods, 
straws of cereals. Sunn hemp, rhea, China grass or 
ramie. New Zealand hemp, coconut fiber, adansonia, 
agave, and bark of the paper mulberry. Other ma- 
terials which are used to a certain extent, or for 
various reasons may be considered promising, are 
bamboo, sugar-cane and corn-stalks. There is also 
a long list of cultivated and wild grasses, rushes of 
all kinds, reeds, banana fiber, barks of trees, com- 
mon broom and heather, tobacco- and cotton-stalks, 
beet-pulp waste, peat, and many miscellaneous 
materials from which small quantities of paper 
have been made experimentally. 

The woods most used are spruce, poplar, hem- 
lock, Cottonwood, balsam and pine. A number of 
others are now being employed in the manufacture 
of paper, possibly not in sufficient quantity to 
require individual mention, but enough to indicate 
that, as the necessity arises, many other woods 
will also be used for this purpose. Indeed, there is 
every reason to suppose that, with proper modifica- 



504 



PAPER PLANTS 



PAPER PLANTS 



tions in methods of handling and treating, most of 
the woods will make paper. Fig. 728 shows a pulp 
mill with its accompanying log pond. 

Of the standard paper-making plants, cotton, 
flax, hemp, straws and woods are the only ones 
produced commercially in the United States. 
Sugar-cane, corn-stalks, cotton- and tobacco-stalks 
are produced in large quantities, and vigorous 
efforts are being made to produce paper from them 
on a commercial scale. 

The best paper-making materials — those that 
make paper of the highest quality and greatest 
value — are wastes, derived chiefly from the textile 
industries, which from their form or condition are 
of little value for any other purpose. Cotton, flax, 
hemp, jute and ramie fiber come to the paper-maker 
in the form of rags or as waste, and as old bagging, 
canvas, rope cordage and oakum. The coarse fiber 
from the end of jute stalks is cut off, baled and sold 
to the paper-maker as "jute butts." Waste paper, 
new and old, is an important material, which is used 
in making all grades of paper. Wood, esparto and 




Pulp mill and log pond. 



bamboo are the chief materials now used which are 
not the wastes of other industries. 

All plants are made up of certain definite chemi- 
cal constituents, among which are fats, tannins, 
lignin, pectose, coloring matters, sugar, starch and 
cellulose, and, when treated with certain chemicals, 
according to established methods, a more or less 
pure cellulose is obtained ; and it is on the amount, 
fibrous nature, softness and pliability of this cellu- 
lose that the paper-making value of the plant 
chiefly depends. 

Classification of materials. 

With regard to the quality and value of the 
paper produced, the chief materials may be classi- 
fied in four general groups : (1) Cellulose from 
cotton, flax, hemp and ramie ; (2) cellulose from 
jute, manila and chemical wood ; (.3) cellulose from 
esparto and straws ; (4) ground wood.- From the 
consideration of the nature and the percentage of 
cellulose in the materials they are classified as, (a) 
simple cellulose : cotton, containing 91 per cent of 
cellulose ; (6) pecto-cellulose : flax, cellulose 82 per 



cent ; hemp, cellulose 77 per cent ; ramie, cellu- 
lose 76 per cent ; Sunn hemp, cellulo.se 80 per cent ; 
manila, cellulose 64 per cent ; bamboo, cellulose 50 
per cent ; sugar-cane, cellulose 50 per cent ; straw, 
cellulose 46 per cent ; esparto, cellulose 48 per 
cent ; adansonia, cellulose 49 per cent ; (c) ligno- 
cellulose: New Zealand hemp, cellulose 86 per cent ; 
jute, cellulose 64 per cent ; pine, cellulose 57 per 
cent ; poplar, cellulose 53 per cent. 

Classification of papers. 

With regard to the uses to which they are put, 
papers are divided into several classes : 

(1) Writing paper, embracing what are known 
as bond, ledger, record, linen, bank note, ordinary 
writing and envelope papers. These are thoroughly 
sized papers, the best of which are made from rags, 
hemp and ramie fiber, while the poorer grades con- 
tain also a varying amount of wood pulp. 

(2) Printing paper, embracing book paper and 
newspaper. The best grades of the former are 
made from rags, while the poorer grades contain 

esparto, straw and wood 
pulp. Newspaper is al- 
most universally made 
from ground wood pulp 
which has not been sub- 
jected to any chemical 
treatment, with a small 
percentage of sulfite pulp. 
Some newspapers also 
contain straw. 

(3) Wrapping papers, 
embracing also paper 
bags and heavy envelopes. 
The best grades of these 
are made from jute, sisal 
and common rags ; the 
poorer grades may be 
made in part or entirely 
from chemical wood pulp, 
straw, or ground wood. A 
particularly strong paper, known as " kraf brown," 
standing between manila and jute papers and wrap- 
ping paper made from regular chemical wood pulp, 
is now made by under-cooking wood by the sulfate 
process and subsequently grinding the fiber in a 
special mill. 

(4) Blotting and tissue paper. The best grades 
of the former are loosely made and free from load- 
ing ; poorer grades contain chemical wood pulp and 
large quantities of clay. They are not sized. Tis- 
sue papers are very thin and should be made from 
strong fiber, such as hemp and cotton. 

(5) Cardboard and pasteboard are u-sually made 
of low-grade materials. Strawboard is manufac- 
tured from unbleached and imperfectly washed 
straw. Parchment paper is made of long-fibered 
material by dipping the finished sheet in sulfuric 
acid, washing with water, then with ammonia, and 
finally with water. 

Extent of the paper industry. 

The quantity, kind, and value of the raw ma- 
terials and the paper made therefrom in the United 



PAPER PLANTS 



PAPER PLANTS 



505 



States, in 1905, are given in the following table, 
from the report of the Bureau of the Census : 

Paper' and Wood Pulp. 

Materials used, by kinJ, quantity and cost; products, by 

kind, quantity and value ; equipment. 

Materials used, total cost .... $111,251,478 

Wood: 
Domestic — 

Cords 2,473,094 

Cost $15,953,805 

Canadian- 
Cords 577,623 

Cost $4,847,066 

Rags, including cotton and flax 
waste and sweepings : 

Tons 294,552 

Cost $8,864,607 

Old, or waste paper : 

Tons 588,543 

Cost $7,430,335 

Manila stock, including jute, 
bagging, rope, waste, 
threads, etc.: 

Tons 107,029 

Cost $2,502,332 

Straw : 

Tons 304,585 

Cost $1,502,886 

Ground wood pulp, purchased : 

Tons 317,286 

Cost $5,754,259 

Soda wood fiber, purchased : 

Tons 120,978 

Cost $5,047,105 

Sulfite wood fiber, purchased : 

Tons 433,160 

Cost $16,567,122 

Other chemical fiber, purchased: 

Tons 6,278 

Cost $264,678 

All other stock $1,963,066 

Chemicals and colors $8,365,305 

Sizing : 

Tons 52,171 

Cost $1,838,035 

Clay: 

Tons 201,218 

Cost $2,096,570 

All other materials $28,254,307 

Products, total value $188,715,189 

Newspaper : 

Tons 912,822 

Value $35,906,460 

Book paper : 

Tons 515,547 

Value $37,403,501 

Fine paper : 

Tons 146,832 

Value $22,249,170 

Wrapping paper : 

Tons 644,291 

Value $30,435,592 

Boards : 

Tons 520,651 

Value $16,959,557 

Other paper : 

Tons 366,553 

Value $20,692,140 

Ground wood pulp : 

Made for own use, tons . . 695,576 

Made to sell as such, tons . 273,400 

Value $4,323,495 



Soda fiber : 

Made for own use, tons . . 66,404 

Made to sell as such, tons . 130,366 

Value $5,159,615 

Sulfite fiber : 

Made for own use, tons . . 379,082 

Made to sell as such, tons . 376,940 

Value $13,661,464 

All other products $1,924,195 

Equipment : 

Paper machines : 

Fourdrinier, number 757 

Cylinder, number 612 

Digestors, number 547 

Grinders, number 1,357 

Paper-making materials of the future. 

Inspection of the above table shows that by far 
the largest quantity of paper, more than half in 
fact, is made from wood. This enormous demand 
for 3,000,000 cords per year, when added to the 
quantities otherwise used, is rapidly decreasing the 
visible supply of the better-known paper-making 
woods, the effect of which is already being felt in 
some localities. Greater difficulty in securing and 
increasing cost of spruce and poplar suitable for 
paper-making may be expected. It is highly prob- 
able, however, that modern agriculture will be able 
to meet the demand for suitable substitutes for 
spruce and poplar ; indeed, there is every reason to 
think that very many other woods are also suitable 
for paper-making, and with decreasing supplies of 
the better-known kinds, these will be used more 
and more. Such use has already begun, as is shown 
by the very large con.sumption of hemlock, pine, 
balsam and cottonwood, and by the fact that yel- 
low pine and chestnut are now being developed as 
paper-making materials in the South. The high 
yield of paper obtained from wood, together with 
the ease with which it is prepared for treatment, 
its freedom from dirt, the large quantity that can 
be got into the digester for treatment, have con- 
tributed to make wood the cheapest paper-making 
material. For all but the most exacting purposes, 
it makes a suitable paper at a minimum cost. Any 
successfully competing material, therefore, must 
compare favorably with wood in the final cost of 
the finished paper and in the quality of the paper, 
its freedom from dirt, its appearance, strength, 
durability, and resistance to wear. At present, the 
price of pulp wood averages about six dollars per 
cord, and one cord makes approximately 1,300 
pounds of good, clean, white paper. Six dollars' 
worth of any substitute, therefore, mu.st make 1,300 
pounds of an equally good paper. A number of fac- 
tors help to make the cost of paper from other 
material greater than from wood. Cereal straws, 
wild grasses, corn-stalks, bagasse and cotton-stalks 
must be carefully freed from the dirt which they 
contain, while the high percentage of silica which 
the straws and wild grasses contain helps to make 
their chemical treatment somewhat more costly 
than that of wood. It is doubtful, therefore, 
whether these materials can yet be delivered at the 
mills and treated as cheaply as can wood. 

Again, a property which discourages the use of 
sugar-cane, bagasse, corn-stalks and materials of 



506 



PAPER PLANTS 



PAPER PLANTS 



like nature, is that the cellulose which they con- 
tain is present in two or more forms having widely 
different physical properties, and these forms do 
not behave alike when treated with paper-making 
chemicals. Thus, the pith, fibrovascular bundles 
and rind (the latter consisting of hi^jhly lignilied 
fiber) of bagasse will be attacked in the order given 
by chemical treatment, and a treatment sufficient 



;'iirfi\p.;riJV''l'ir"n''^V^il]l'i Fill ll?^^ 



4-\ ■ ■ 

•ill 



iiiiP:'":il 



Tn' Y^^; 1 :.,--l hi^i 






m'x 



mm^^-- 



iji / 






Fig. 729. Paper bamboo. Japau. 

to soften the rind is rather too severe for the fibro- 
vascular bundles, and entirely too severe for the 
pith. Such treatment, therefore, results in low 
yields, and the resulting pulp is not homogeneous, 
consisting of long, coarse fibers and of the short 
pith cells, the latter of which impart parchment- 
like and objectionable characteristics to the paper. 

A material which is suitable for making papers 
of all grades is the fiber of flax grown for seed. 
The straw contains 20 to 25 per cent of flax fiber 
suitable for making the strongest and best paper. 
Here, again, there are three forms of cellulose 
present, and it is difficult to separate cheaply the 
wood of the straw from the true bast fibens. 
Difficulty, too, has been encountered in removing 
the seed left in the straw, the oil from which, if it 
is not removed, appears in the finished paper, giv- 
ing it a greasy, spotty appearance and spoiling it 
for any but common papers. 

Looking to the time when the cost of wood will 
encourage a larger use of other raw materials, but 
little consideration need be given to materials suita- 
ble for common papers, such as stravi'board, box and 
cardboard, common wrapping paper, and the like, as 
it is not probable that the supply of straw, bagasse, 
corn-stalks, and other low-grade material which, 
under these conditions will be available, will be 
reduced in the near future. For the better papers, 



such as newspapers, strong wrapping, book, writ- 
ing and record papers, we may expect the demand 
to be met more largely than at present, under the 
stimulus of increased prices, by a larger collection 
of rags, scutching and spinning waste of the 
textile industries, old rope, paper trimmings and 
old papers; utilization of other kinds of wood and 
of the waste woods of other wood-using industries; 
recovery of the fiber now wasted in flax-straw, of 
which the product of about three million acres is 
annually wasted in this country; substitution of the 
cereal straws, bagasse, corn-stalks, bamboo rnd 
many other materials; and, finally, when it becomes 
necessary, the production of a material primarily 
for the making of paper. 

DESCRIPTIVE NOTES 

Adansonia (Adansonia digitata). Malvacem. 

Adansonia is the inner bark of the baobab or 
monkey bread tree. It is obtained from the tropical 
regions of the western coast of Africa, and is 
suitable for making a strong wrapping paper 
having a high finish. 

Balsam {Abies balsamea.) Conifcrm. 

Balsam is used in Maine, Pennsylvania, New 
York, New Hamp.shire, Minnesota and Wisconsin 
for sulfite pulp, yielding a pulp of the same general 
character as spruce. 

Bamboo (Bambusea species). Graminem. Fig. 121, 
Vol. I, and Fig. 729. 
These are giant grasses which have long been 
known as suitable for making paper, but have 
never been u.sed extensively for this purpose, 
probably owing to the greater ease of securing 
wood. Recent experiments have again demon- 
strated the value of the dwarf bamboos, particu- 
larly, for paper-making. Bamboo is native in 
tropical and subtropical countries, and is used 
extensively industrially in southern Asia and the 
Philippines. It has been introduced successfully 
into the United States. It is the chief paper-making 
material of China, and owing to the rapidity with 
which it grows (a yield of six tons of paper stock 
per .sea.son has been estimated), it is a promising 
material of the future. It makes a soft, white 
paper, possessing some of the characteristics of 
paper made from straws, and is suitable for 
wrapping, newspaper and book papers. The fiber 
is 1 to 10 mm. long and .015 mm. in diameter. 
The yield of paper is about 40 per cent. 

Corn-stalk (Zea Mays) and Sugar-cane bagasse 

(Suecharum officinarum). Graminem. 
The former is grown extensively in the United 
States, the latter in the United States, West 
Indies, East Indies and Hawaii. They have both 
attracted considerable attention, as have also cot- 
ton-stalks, as paper-making materials. Samples of 
very acceptable paper have been prepared, and 
bagasse has been used for some years by several 
mills in preparing a low-grade wrapping paper. 
[See Maize and Sugar-cane.] 



PAPER PLANTS 



PAPER PLANTS 



507 



Cotton (Gossi/pium species). MalvacecB. Fig. 355. 

Cotton is a single-tibered seed hair and is used 
in the paper industry in the form of fibrous waste 
from the decortication of the seeds, which, even 
after ginning, retain on their surfaces about 10 
per cent of fiber; by delinting, 1 per cent of a 
short fiber is recovered. Old and new rags, spin- 
ning waste and thread are the chief sources of 
cotton-paper stoclc. Large quantities of rags are 
imported from England, Germany and Egypt. The 
total quantity of cotton and flax fiber used in the 
United States for paper-making in 1905 was 294,- 
552 tons. Cotton is largely employed in the finest 
record, ledger, writing, book and blotting papers, 
usually mixed with a little linen. The fibers are 
20 to 40 mm. long, and .012 to .037 mm. in diam- 
eter. The yield of paper from rags is approxi- 
mately 83 per cent. [See Cotton.] 

Cottonwood (Populus deltoides). Salieaeem. Fig. 
449. 
Cottonwood is used to a small extent and yields 
a pulp by the soda process of the same general 
nature as poplar. 

Esparto {Stipa tenadssima and Lygcum Spartum). 
Gramiiiem. 
This plant grows wild in Spain and northern 
Africa. It is gathered, baled and shipped, chiefly 
to England, where large quantities are used. The 
fibers of the flbrovascular bundles constitute the 
paper-making material. The fiber is tough and is 
particularly suitable for the manufacture of bonk 
papers, yielding a soft paper of good (luality. The 
fibers are 1.5 to 2 mm. long and .0125 to .022 mm. 
in diameter. The yield of paper is about 45 per 
cent. It has been used for centuries in southern 
Sjiain and northern Africa for the manufacture 
of baskets, matting and similar wares. The leaf, 
which grows three to five feet long, is used and is 
stripped annually from the plant by hand. This can 
be done only in dry weather. The plant must grow 
ten to fifteen years before the leaf is suitable for 
paper-making. Its cultivation has not been suc- 
cessful. [See Fiber plants.] 

Flax (Linum usitatissimum). LiiiacecB. Figs. 405- 
407. 
The bast fiber from the inner bark of the straw 
is employed in the furm of scutching refuse, spin- 
ning waste, threads, and new and old rags. The 
fibers have a length of 25 to 30 mm. and an aver- 
age diameter of .02 mm. The yield of paper from 
rags is about 75 per cent. Flax fiber is the most 
suitable material for the preparation of high-class 
papers, such as are used for court and other rec- 
ords, which are to be handled a great deal and 
preserved for many years. [See Flax.] 

Ground wood. 

In addition to the use of wood pulp prepared by 
chemical treatment, paper is also made from wood 
pulp prepared by grinding against a stone under a 
stream of water, such pulp being known as 
" ground wood " or " mechanical wood." The paper 



thus prepared has only a temporary value, as the 
fibers are very short, much shorter than from the 
same wood chemically treated ; and, as the color- 
ing matter and ligneous matter are still in the 
pulp, the paper darkens and deteriorates rapidly. 
Spruce is most largely used for grinding. Small 
quantities of hemlock, pine, balsam and poplar are 
also used. Ground wood is used chiefly in making 
newspaper, which consists of about 80 per cent 
ground wood and 20 per cent sulfite. It is also 
used alone or in mixture with other materials in 
making board, cards and cheap wrapping paper. 

Hemlock {Tsuga Canadensis). Coniferm. Fig. 454. 
This wood yields a somewhat coarser pulp of the 
same general character as spruce, but is reduced 
with more difficulty. Hemlock is native from the 
St. Lawrence river to Wisconsin on the west, 
south to Delaware and Maryland, and in the moun- 
tains to Alabama. It is now employed largely in 
Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, 
Ohio and West Virginia for making sulfite pulp, 
which is used for the same class of paper as spruce 
is. The fibers have a length of 1 to 4 mm. and a 
diameter of .021 to .063 mm. 

Hemp {Cannabis saliva). Urticacem. Figs. 566-568. 
The bast fiber from the inner bark of the hemp 
plant is used in the form of scutching refuse, spin- 
ning waste, threads, cuttings, rope ends and canvas. 
As the fiber has great strength, it is used largely in 
combination with rags for bank note and ledger 
paper. Unbleached, it is used for wrapping paper 
and for cable insulation. Hemp is cultivated in 
Russia, Italy, France, China, Japan, and in the 
United States. The fibers are about 22 mm. long 
and .022 mm. in diameter. The yield of paper is 
about 68 per cent. [See Hemp.] 

Jute (Corehorus capsularis and Corchorus olitorius). 

Tiliacem. Figs. 392, 393. 
The fiber of jute is thin-walled, highly lignified, 
and contains much coloring matter. It is obtained 
from the inner bark and is used in the form of 
threads, butts, bagging and spinning waste. It is 
used chiefly where strength is of more importance 
than appearance, as in wrapping papers and heavy 
envelopes ; it is seldom used in white papers. Jute 
is cultivated commercially in India, Burmah, Japan, 
China and Formosa and has been introduced into 
the United States. The fibers are 2 mm. long and 
.022 mm. in diameter. The yield of paper is 50 per 
cent. [See Fiber plants.] 

Manila hemp (Musa texlilis). Musacem. Fig. 398. 
The fiber of Manila hemp or abaca is obtained 
from the flbrovascular bundles of the leaf stalks and 
is used in the form of scutching refuse and old rope. 
It is cultivated in the Philippine islands and has 
been introduced into the East Indies. The fibers are 
about 6 mm. long and .024 mm. in diameter. The 
yield of paper is about 50 per cent. It is used 
chiefly for wrapping, cable insulation and heavy 
envelope papers, which are known as "rope manila." 
[See Fiber plants.] 



508 



PAPER PLANTS 



PAPER PLANTS 



Mauritius hemp (Furcrceafoetida). Amaryllidaeece. 
Fig. 402. 
This hemp is obtained from Mauritius and St. 
Helena, where it is prei)ared for export. It is native 
in Central America. The fiber of the fibrovascular 
bundles of the leaves is used for small cordage, in 
which form it is used as paper-making material. 
The fibers are 1.3 to 3.7 mm. long and .015 to .024 
mm. in diameter. Other agaves also yield a suitable 
paper-making fiber. [See Fiber plants.] 










Fig. 730. Aspen {Popiihis tremtdoides) , much used for paper. 

New Zealand hemp (Phonnium tenax). LiliacecB. 
Fig. 401. 
The fiber is obtained from the fibrovascular 
bundles of the leaves of this plant. It is native in 
New Zealand and Australasia, and is cultivated in 
New Zealand, and, to a small e.xtent, in southern 
i^urope. It is used in the form of old rope, twine 
and yarn, and is suitable for making strong wrap- 
ping papers, though it is but little used. The fibers 
are soft and lustrous, 9 mm. long and .016 mm. in 
diameter. [See Fiber plants.] 

Paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyriferd). Urti- 
caccm. Mitsumata (Edgeworthia Gardneri). 
Thymetceacew. Fig. 92. 
The inner or bast fibers of these plants are used 

in Japan for making paper. The fibers are 6 to 



20 mm. long and are soft and lustrous, and are 
not broken or cut in making Japanese hand-made 
paper. The fiber is prepared for paper-making by 
scraping, soaking and beating, and in the unbroken 
condition yields a paper of great tensile strength 
and softness. By treatment with oils, adhesives and 
colors, the Japanese make from these fibers papers 
which in their strength and resistance are ready 
substitutes for leather and cloth for some purposes. 
These fibers mixed with others are also used in 
Japan in making machine-made papers. Mitsumata 
has been introduced into this country by the 
United States Department of Agriculture. [See 
page 72.] 

Pine (Pinus species). Conifcrm. Figs. 459, 462. 

Several varieties of pine are used in paper-mak- 
ing. White pine (Pinus Strobus), long-leaf yellow 
pine (P. pdlustris), and grey pine (P. divaricata, 
Fig. 462) are coming into use for the preparation 
of pulp by the soda process. The fibers are .5 to 
4.5 mm. long. 

Poplar (Populus grandidentata, P. trcmuloides). 
Salieacem. Fig. 730. 
This is the preferred wood for use in the soda 
process and yields a soft, easily bleached white 
pulp. The tree is native in southern Canada, west- 
ward to the Mississippi river, and south to North 
Carolina. The fibers are .45 to 1.2 mm. long, and 
.017 to .035 mm. in diameter. The yield of paper 
is about 52 per cent. Poplar wood is used chiefly 
in combination with sulfite and other good materials 
in making lithograph, book, writing and blotting 
papers. It is particularly suitable for giving an 
open texture, soft handle and bulk, resembling 
esparto in these qualities. Unbleached poplar is 
used alone or with sulfite, hemp or jute for wrap- 
ping and cable paper. 

Ramie (Boekmeria nivea). China grass. Urticaeeee. 
Fig. 394. 
The bast fibers of the inner bark of this plant 
are used in the form of scutching refuse, spinning 
waste and rags, and furnish an exceptionally .strong 
fiber suitable for the production of the highest 
grade papers, such as bank notes, which are subject 
to much wear and handling. The length of the 
fiber is 80 to 150 mm. and the diameter .05 mm. 
The plant is cultivated in China, Formosa and 
Japan for textile purposes, and recently has 
received a great deal of attention in India, Africa 
and in the United States, where it can be grown 
successfully as far north as Washington, D. C. 
[See Fiber plants.] 

Rhea (Bochmeria tenacissima). Urticacem. 

This plant yields bast fibers somewhat like those 
of ramie, and is suitable for the production of 
strong papers for special purposes. The fiber is 
stitt'er than that of ramie, which is a drawback to 
the use of the material. The fibers reach a length 
of 220 mm. in some cases. It is used in the form 
of scutching waste, spinning waste, and other 
materials. [See Fiber plants.] 



PAPER PLANTS 



PAPER PLANTS 



509 



Sisal or Henequen (Agave rigida, var. dongaia and 
var. Sisalana). Amaryllidacea:. Figs. 22, 399, 
400. 
These plants are cultivated in the West Indies, 
Mexico, Yucatan, Central America and Venezuela. 
The fibers are separated from the leaf by scraping. 
The ultimate fibers are 1 to 6 mm. long, white, 
lustrous and stiff. The material reaches the paper- 
mill in the form of cordage and old bagging and is 
suitable for making strong wrapping paper. [See 
Fiber plants.] 

Spruce (Picea nigra, P. alba and P. rubra). Conif- 
ers. Fig. 73L [See Fig. 46.5.] 
Spruce is particularly suitable for the produc- 
tion of sulfite pulp made by cooking the wood with a 
sulfite liquor, and is still the chief source of this 
pulp. The bark is always removed before making 
the wood into pulp. Spruce is native in Canada, 
northern United States and in the mountains as far 
south as North Carolina. It is also found in northern 
Europe and Asia. The fibers are 1.5 to 2.5 mm. 
long and .035 mm. in diameter. The yield of paper 
is about 50 per cent. It is largely used in combina- 
tion with other materials for making lithograph, 
book and other printing papers, and for writing 
papers. Unbleached, it is also largely used with other 
materials for making wrapping paper. So-called 
manilas often consist almost entirely of unbleached 
spruce fiber. 

Straws of cereals. Graminew. 

Until the introduction of wood, rye- and wheat- 
straws were largely used in the production of news- 
paper material and other cheap printing paper. 
Straw is still used in small quantities, even in high- 
grade papers, to impart to them stiffness and hard- 
ness, but is used chiefly for strawboard, which is 
made in large quantities almost exclusively in the 
Ohio valley. Barley-, rye-, wheat- and oat-straw 
fibers are .1 to .5 mm. long and .0125 to .024 mm. 
in diameter. Rice-straw fibers are .88 mm. long and 
.0025 mm. in diameter. The yield of paper is about 
42 per cent. Of strawboard the yield is about 
80 per cent. Rice-straw is not used to any extent, 
but experimental work indicates that it makes a 
paper similar to that from other straws and that 
it is just as suitable for the making of strawboard. 
The high percentage of silica which it contains 
(which reduces the quantity of soda recovered) 
operates against its use for paper-making. Immense 
quantities of straw are wasted annually. [See 
articles on the cereal grains.] 



Sunn hemp {Crotalaria juncea) . 
396. 



Leguminosx. Fig. 



This is cultivated for its fiber in India and the 
Sunda islands. It is used chiefly in the form of old 
rope and bagging for strong wrapping papers. The 
fibers are 7 to 8 mm. long and .03 mm. in diameter. 
[See Fiber plants.] 

Waste paper. 

In printing there is considerable waste of paper, 
due to the tearing of the paper on the presses, to 



soiling, and to trimming and cutting to desired 
sizes. Magazines, advertising matter, books and 
newspapers, after serving their purpose, are col- 
lected and returned to the paper-mill, to be again 
used in making such kinds of paper as they may 
be suitable for. The quantity of waste paper thus 
used is very large and might well be much greater. 

Literature. 

Handbuch der Papierf abrication, Mierzmski,Wein, 
1886 ; Manufacture of Paper, Davis, Philadelphia, 
1886 ; Chemistry of Paper Making, Grifiin & Little, 




Fig. 731. Spruce timber, used for paper pulp. 



New York, 1894 ; Treatise on Paper Making, Hoff- 
man, New York, 1895 ; Vegetable Fibers, Bulletin 
of Miscellaneous Information, Additional Series III, 
Royal Gardens, Kew, 1898 ; Paper Making, Cross & 
Bevan, London, 1900; Industrial Organic Chem- 
istry, Sadtler, Philadelphia, 1900; Die Rohstoffe 
der Pflanzenreiches, Wiesner, Leipzig, 1900 ; The 
Art of Paper Making, Watts, London, 1901; Papier 
Priifung, Hertzberg, Berlin, 1902 ; Cellulose, Cross 
& Bevan, London, IbOo ; Textile Fibers, Mathews, 



510 



PEA 



PEA 



New Ti ork, 1904 ; Handbuch der Papier Kunde, 
Klemm, Leipzig, 1904 ; Die Cellulose Fabrikation, 
Schubert, Berlin, 1906 ; An Elementary Manual of 
Paper Technology, Sindall, London, 1906 ; Philip- 
pine Fibers and Fibrous Substances, Richmond, 
Philippine Journal of Science, i., 433, 1906. 

PEA, AS A FIELD CROP. Pisum sativum, var. 
amuse, Poir. Lcguminosm. Figs. 732-734. 

By J. L. Stone. 

The pea is grown as a field crop for the produc- 
tion of grain for stock-feeding and for the manu- 
facture of "split peas "for culinary use, for canning 
in the factories, for forage and green-manuring and 
to supply the seed trade. 

The pea is the most important member of the 
genus Pisum. It is native to Europe, but has been 
cultivated from before the Christian era for the 
rich seeds. It is an annual, glabrous and glaucous, 
tendril-climbing ; the stipules are large and leafy ; 
the leaflets are oval or ovate, two to three pairs, 
the leaf ending in tendrils ; the flowers are few, 
on an axillary peduncle. The field- or stock-pea 
difi^ers from the garden pea usually in its violet or 
purple rather than white flowers, its smaller and 
more uniformly smooth seeds, but chiefly in the 
less tenderness and sweetness and lower quality of 
the green seeds. 

History. 

The pea is generally supposed to be a native of 
southern climates and was well known both to the 
Greeks and to the Romans, frequent mention being 
made of it in the works of old writers on rural 




Fig. 732. Field-pea. 

subjects. A form of gray pea still growing wild 
in Greece is supposed by some to be the original 
form of all the highly domesticated varieties be- 
longing to the species. The pea has been known 



and cultivated in England for centuries. Most of 
the early English writers on agricultural topics 
mention it either as a garden vegetable or as a 
farm crop. Lydgate, a writer in the time of Henry 
VI, speaks of peas as being hawked about the 
streets of London. It seems to have been more ex- 
tensively used as a garden vegetable in England 
before the introduction of the potato than during 
recent years. 

In the United States the practice of canning 
green peas, thus rendering them available through- 
out the year, has led to their being extensively 
used by the well-to-do classes. The area now de- 
voted to canning peas very largely exceeds that 
planted to stock-peas. 

Distribution. 

Peas thrive best in localities having somewhat 
cool summer temperatures and a rather abundant 
supply of moisture. For grain and seed production 
the southern parts of Canada and the northern belt 
of the United States seem to be best suited. Farther 
south fruiting is less certain owing to liability to 
hot weather, though the crop may have value for 
forage and green-manuring purposes. 

Pea-growing has received much attention in 
Canada, the average annual production of the 
province of Ontario alone during the last twenty 
years being nearly 14,000,000 bushels. The greater 
part of this large crop is fed to live-stock. In the 
United States the crop has received less attention 
than it deserves. In Michigan, Wisconsin and Mon- 
tana great increase in the area devoted to peas 
has occurred in recent years, while in New York 
the production of stock- and seed-peas has very 
materially declined, while the production of canning 
peas has largely increased. 

Peas may be grown successfully for green- 
manure or forage purposes in many regions where 
climatic conditions are not favorable for a good 
yield of seed, and they may be raised successfully 
for canning or marketing in the green state where, 
because of insect infestation, the matured seed is 
of little value. This leads to certain favored local- 
ities making a specialty of seed-pea production. 
Formerly Jefferson county, New York, was the cen- 
ter of the seed-pea industry of the United States. 
More recently, owing to the advent of the pea 
weevil and the pea louse, the industry has largely 
been removed to Michigan, Wisconsin and the state 
of Washington. 

Varieties. 

The varieties of peas are numerous and are of 
two general classes : the field-peas, grown for stock 
food and for the production of "split peas" of the 
markets, and the sweet, wrinkled or vegetable peas 
grown largely for canning and for consumption in 
the green state. The field varieties in the United 
States are usually classed together as "Canada field- 
peas." The Ontario Experiment Station at Guelph 
has tested many varieties of field-peas, mostly 
secured from Europe. Among the most successful 
varieties are the Prussian Blue, Canadian Beauty, 
Tall White Marrowfat, Early Britain, Mummy and 



PEA 



PEA 



511 



Golden Vine. The last-named variety is very largely 
grown and is the one usually met with under the 
name "Canada pea." 

Of the vegetable peas there are many varieties. 
They differ from the field sorts principally in con- 
taining more sugar, which increases palatability, 
and many of the varieties have wrinkled seeds while 
the field sorts are smooth. The wrinkled varieties 
usually produce white flowers, while the smooth 
sorts have colored (mostly purple) blooms. They 
vary greatly in habit of growth, being dwarf or 
large ; early, medium or late ; and in quality, from 
moderately to very sweet. Many of the dwarf, 
early varieties are smooth and only moderately 
sweet, while the late, large varieties are wrinkled 
and much sweeter. The varieties named below are 
grown largely for canning or for marketing in the 
green state. In a careful test made a few years 
ago by N. B. Keeney & Son, LeRoy, N. Y., it was 
found that the number of days from planting to 
fruit picking was : 

Gregory Surprise 49 days 

Alaska 50 days 

Advancer 5'J days 

Horsford Market Garden 71 days 

Telephone 71 days 

Abundance 78 days 

Champion of England 78 days 

Everbearing 80 days 

Some varieties commend themselves to the can- 
ners by maturing the whole crop nearly at one 
time, while other varieties have a long fruiting 
period which makes them especially desirable for 
the home garden. 

Culture. 

Soils. — For whatever special purpose the pea 
crop may be grown, the general soil and cultural 
requirements are much the same. The crop suc- 
ceeds on a variety of soils. Clay loams, especially 
if well supplied with lime, are best adapted, but 
excellent crops are grown on stitf clays. Light, 
sandy and gravelly soils are not so suitable, as 
they are liable to dry out and become hot. Mucky 
soils produce a large growth of vine but the yield 
of grain is likely to be small. While peas re(iuire 
an abundance of moisture for their best develop- 
ment, over-wet soils are wholly unsuited to the 
crop. 

Preparation of the land. — Fall-plowing is to be 
recommended for peas. This favors early sowing 
the following spring, which is desirable, and ex- 
poses the stiff soils, on which peas are usually 
grown, to the ameliorating influences of the win- 
ter's freezing and thawing. It is desirable that the 
land be well pulverized, but, since the pea is a 
hardy and vigorous grower this is not so neces- 
sary as for the small grain crops. 

Fertilizing. — When grown on poor soils, peas 
respond well to manure or fertilizers, but on soils 
of good fertility the manures are usually applied to 
other crops in the rotation and fertilizers are 
rarely used. Some growers maintain that if ma- 
nure is applied it should be plowed under deeply, 



so that the taproots will reach it during the seed- 
forming period. 

Place ill the rotation. — Peas may be assigned any 
place in the rotation. When properly inoculated 
they are capable of gathering nitrogen from the 
atmosphere and consequently are not so dependent 
as some other crops on nitrogen supplied by decay- 




Fig. 733. Oats-and-peas for forage. 



ing grass and clover roots. Still, an inverted sod is 
found in experience to produce the best of yields, 
and the pea crop is most excellent to break down 
the sod and prepare the land for exacting grain 
crops, such as wheat. The usual practice, however, 
is to have peas follow a tilled crop, as beans or 
corn, and then be followed by wheat. A farmer 
can almost afford to grow a crop of peas for the 
purpose of fitting the land for wheat. 

Seeding. — Peas are usually sown with a grain- 
drill or broadcasted by hand. If the land is very 
foul with weeds they are sometimes planted in 
drills twenty-eight to thirty inches apart so as to 
permit of horse cultivation during the early stages 
of growth. The grain drill is usually preferred to 
hand -broadcasting, as it covers the seed more 
evenly than the latter method. On spring-plowed 
land the peas are sometimes sown by hand imme- 
diately after the plow. The seed falls into the 
depressions between the furrows and is usually well 
covered by the harrowing which follow.s. Some 
persons have recommended sowing the seed ahead 
of the plow and turning it under the furrows, but 
this usually buries it too deeply, especially if the 
land is rather heavy. The depth of seeding varies 
from two to four inches, being deeper on the lighter 
soils. 

The quantity of seed required per acre wall vary 
with circumstances from two to four bushels. Rich 
soils which tend to produce a vigorous growth of 
vine require less seed than poorer soils. Large- 
seeded varieties or those producing small vines 



512 



PEA 



PEA 



require more seed per acre than those having small 
seeds or producing large vines. Usually the canning 
varieties require heavier seeding than those grown 
for stock-feeding. 

Harvesting and threshing. — Peas are usually cut 
with a mowing machine. The tendency of the vines 
to fall on the ground often makes the cutting a 
difficult task. Sometimes extra long guards of spe- 
cial shape are provided which lift up the vines so 
that the knives may cut them satisfactorily. Fol- 
lowing the mower, men with forks pitch the cut 
peas to one side in bunches so that they are not 
trampled on at the next bout. 

A pea harvester constructed on the plan of the 
twine binder has recently been invented. It does 
not bind the peas, but delivers them at the side 
out of the way, and thus saves the extra labor of 
moving them by hand. 

If the crop has been matured for seed or grain 
purposes it is allowed to cure in these bunches, 
which are turned once or twice to facilitate drying. 
When dry, peas may be stored in a barn or stack 
like other grain. As the pea-straw will not shed 
rain well, stacks should be topped with some finer 
material to protect the crop from damage. 

If the crop is grown for canning purposes it is 
drawn to the factory immediately after being cut. 
Formerly it was customary to pick the pods con- 
taining the peas by hand-labor in the fields and de- 
liver these only at the factory, but more recently 
the difficulty of securing sufficient laborers to do 
this work and the introduction of pea threshers 
that successfully shell and separate green peas 
from the vines has led to delivering the whole crop 
to the factory. 

Peas are usually threshed by machinery, though 
when only a small quantity is grown annually they 
may well be threshed by using a flail. This avoids 
breaking the seed. In handling larger quantities, 
machine threshing becomes advisable. A "bar con- 
cave" with mcst of the spikes removed is best, and 
the cylinder should be run at a low rate of speed 
to avoid splitting the peas as much as possible. If 
the grain is intended for stock-feeding the amount 
split is unimportant, but when intended for seed or 
the market the breaking of the grain lessens its 
value. The regular bean thresher does more satis- 
factory work on peas than the ordinary grain 
thre.sher. 

The general method of pea-culture outlined above 
is applicable whatever may be the intended use of 
the grain. The varieties to be planted will vary 
with the purposes for which they are grown. 

Uses. 

Stock-feed. — The uses of the pea crop are numer- 
ous. In Canada it is much more largely grown as 
a general farm crop than in the United States. 
The grain has a high feeding value owing to its 
relatively high content of protein. As part of the 
grain ration of horses, fattening cattle, milch cows, 
sheep and swine, peas are unexcelled. When fed to 
sheep or brood sows in winter, peas do not require 
to be ground. For all other stock it is advan- 
tageous to grind them, though sometimes they are 



soaked in water for feeding to swine. When intended 
for stock-feeding, peas are frequently grown with 
oats. The combined crop will usually have a greater 
total value than would be produced by either alone. 
When so grown, about one and one-half bushels of 
oats should be sown with one bushel of peas per 
acre. (Fig. 733.) 

Pea-straw, if well cured, is more relished by 
horses, cattle and sheep than the straw of other 
grain crops. Indeed, if not allowed to become too 
mature before cutting, nor weather-beaten in the 
curing, it more nearly approaches clover hay in 
nutritive quality and palatability than ordinary 
straw. 

Peas sown with oats or barley afford excellent 
pasturage for sheep and swine, but unfortunately 
produce best growth at the season when the grass 
pastures are at their best. For large stock such 
pasturage is not so satisfactory, as the peas are 
easily injured by the tramping of larger animals. 
Sown in this way and cut just before the peas are 
full-grown, they produce an excellent soiling crop, 
and are much used to bridge over the interval 
between the shortening up of grass pasture and 
when corn is ready for use. By sowing at inter- 
vals of ten days, a supply of green forage may be 
provided for several weeks. Any surplus not needed 
for green forage may be cut and cured for hay. 

In common with other leguminous plants the pea 
is especially rich in protein, and much of its agri- 
cultural value is due to this fact. The following 
table gives approximately the digestible nutrients 
in the products named : 







Digestible nutrients 




Dry 










matter 


Protein 


Carbo- 
hydrates 


Etber 
extract 


Pea seed .... 


89.5 


16.8 


51.8 


.7 


Pea-vine straw . . 


86.4 


4.3 


32.3 


.8 


Pea-vine silage* . 


27.2 


4.71 


11.0 


.5 


Peas and oats 










(green) .... 


16.0 


1.8 


7.1 


.2 


Pea-hull meal 










(residue from 










split peas)* . . 


89.8 


15.9 


36.3 


.9 



* Computed from analyses made by G. W. Cavanaugh at 
Cornell Experiment Station. 

Soil enrieher. — Since peas, like other legumes, 
have the power of obtaining nitrogen from the 
atmosphere and placing it within reach of other 
plants, they are much used in some places as a 
green-manure crop. Some persons assert that land 
from which a crop of peas has been harvested is 
richer in nitrogen than it was before the crop was 
grown. Peas are frequently used for sowing in 
apple orchards, the common Canada field-peas 
being suitable for this purpose. The orchard is 
plowed shallow very early in the season and, when 
the peas are beginning to ripen, pigs are turned 
into the orchard to harvest the crop, and the larger 
the pea crop and the smaller the drove of hogs, the 
longer will the peas last. The principal growth of 
the peas is made in spring when there is plenty of 



PEA 



PEA 



513 



moisture. The pea crop is made . by the middle 
of July and does not draw on the moisture supply 
in the orchard after that date, when the moisture is 
needed by the apple trees. [See page 506, Vol. I.] 

Seed-peas. — When produced for the supply of the 
seed trade, peas are usually grown on contract, the 
jobber supplying the planting stock and agreeing 
to buy the crop at a specified price. The peas are 
received at the seed houses and pre- 
pared for market by recleaning and 
hand-picking in the same way that 
beans are prepared. 

Split peas. — About half a million 
bushels of smooth or Canada lield-peas 
are annually required for the produc- 
tion of "split peas," which are used 
principally in making soups. The 
hulls, which are removed in the pro- 
cess of manufacture, and the refuse 
peas are ground together to make 
"pea meal," which is sold as a stock- 
food. 

Canning. — The canning factories 
use the garden pea grown as a field 
crop, not the type known as field-pea. 
[The subject of canning is discussed 
in Part II of this volume.] The pods 
and vines from canning factories are often ensiled, 
or fed green. 

Enemies. 

Weeds. — The pea crop, as most others, encoun- 
ters a number of rather serious obstructions to 
growth. As a rule, it is not seriously interfered 
with by weeds, as it starts quickly and makes rapid 
progress, thus smothering out most weed competi- 
tion. If, however, the land is infested with the 
annual wild mustard (Brassiea Sinapislrum), the 
crop may be seriously injured. Fortunately this 
weed may be destroyed when a few inches high by 
spraying with a solution of about twelve pounds of 
copper sulfate in fifty gallons of water, while the 
peas are not materially injured by the solution. 
This treatment is most effective if the spraying is 
performed on a bright, hot day. Young mustard 
plants are much more easily destroyed than tho.se 
approaching bloom. An ordinary four- or si.x-row 
potato sprayer answers well for the work. The 
metal parts of the sprayer should be brass, as iron 
is actively attacked by the solution. (Page 118.) 

Insects. — There are three insect enemies of the 
pea crop, each of which is very destructive at 
times : the pea weevil or "pea bug" {Bruchus fis- 
orum); the pea moth {Semasia nitricana); and the 
pea louse or aphis (Nectarophora destructor). 

The weevil is a brownish gray, active beetle, 
one-fifth of an inch long, which emerges from peas 
in autumn or in spring, leaving a small round hole. 
The egg is laid on the outside of the young pods 
and the grub, on hatching, eats its way into the 
pea. Here it undergoes its transformation, usu- 
ally not emerging till the peas are sown the follow- 
ing spring. The affected peas are much injured 
for seed and somewhat for stock-food. Fumigation 
of the seed stock with bisulfid of carbon is effect- 

BS3 



ive as a remedy so far as the seed is concerned, 
but the few beetles which emerge in autumn and 
hibernate in barns or fields prevent a complete 
riddance of the pest. In treating the seed it is 
usually placed in tight vessels or rooms and ex- 
posed for two or three days to the fumes of bisulfid 
of carbon. One pound of bisulfid is suflScient for 
about one hundred bushels of peas. 




Fig. 734. Brush-and-pan method of fighting pea-louse. (Div. Entomology, 
United States Department Agriculture.) 

The pea moth, in the perfect form, is a small, 
slaty gray moth, three-eighths of an inch long. 
The moths, however, are seldom seen, the insect be- 
ing observed by pea-growers when in the cater- 
pillar state, and is usually called the "worm." 
They are small, whitish, slightly hairy caterpillars, 
when full-grown about half an inch in length, 
which live inside the green pods, attacking the 
peas by gnawing ragged-edged cavities into them 
and filling the cavities about them with excrement. 
This insect is very destructive in eastern Canada 
and in recent years has become abundant in Jeffer- 
son county. New York. The injuries are most 
severe to late peas. Suggested remedies afford 
little relief except that by planting early and using 
early varieties the attack is usually escaped. 

The pea aphis is a pale green plant-louse which 
clusters in enormous numbers at the tips of the 
shoots and sometimes over the whole plants of 
field-peas ; and it sometimes is found on sweet-peas 
and clover. These insects appear suddenly in large 
numbers and sometimes cause great loss over large 
areas of country. This species is very active and 
springs from the plant on the slightest touch. This 
trait has been used for their destruction by plant- 
ing the seed in drills and using the cultivator to 
bury the aphids after they have been brushed from 
the vines. 

Literature. 

The first two references following have to do 
with the culture of peas, and the last two with pea 
enemies: Farmer.?' Bulletin No. 224, United States 
Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C; 
Soiling Crops and the Silo, Shaw, pp. 102-110 ; 
Yearbook, United States Department of Agriculture, 
1898, p. 223 ; Delaware Experiment Station, Bul- 
letin No. 49. [See, also, the gardening books.] 



514 



PEANUT 



PEANUT 



PEANUT. Arachis hypogoea, Linn. Leguminosce. 
(Earth-nut, Ground-nut, Ground-pea, Goober, 
Pindar.) Figs 735-740. 

By L. a Corbctl. 

Of the "nuts" produced in the United States, the 
peanut is the best l<nown and most universally 
used. It is perhaps most commonly ,, 

known as a roasted nut for eating, and in />' 

i# 





Fig. 735. Peanut. Sterile showy flower above; 
forming pod of fertile flower below. 

in confections; but it has great impor- 
tance as a soil -renovator and forage. 
The product is reallv not a nut, however. 
It is a ripened pod, with edible seeds, 
of a plant very like the pea and bean. 

The peanut is annual, one foot or more 
high, more or less creeping in habit. 
The leaves are abruptly pinnate, with 
two pairs of leaflets and no tendril. The flowers 
are of two kinds: the male (.staminate) showy, and 
the female (pistillate) hidden or cleistogamoas 
flowers more or less clustered in the axils of the 
leaves. The stamens are nionadelphous, but the 
alternate ones are short. The male flowers soon 
wither and fall away, while the female flowers 
begin to grow rapidly by the extension of the 
receptacle and flower stem (stipe), soon curving 
toward the ground, where they bury themselves and 
ripen the pod entirely underground. 

History. 

Little was known of the history or culture of the 
peanut outside of a comparatively circumscribed 
area in southeastern Virginia prior to the Civil 
war. Even now the means of its advent on this 
territory is not clear. Circumstantial evidence 
points to the early slave trade as the most likely 
means by which the nut reached North America. 
Peanuts were used as staple food for the mainte- 
nance of slaves on the voyage across the Atlantic, 
and it is likely that this traffic was the means of 
bringing the peanut to this country early in its 
colonial history. This idea is given additional 
weight by the fact that the Carolina nut is very 
diff'erent in size from the Virginia or Spanish nut 
(Fig. 738) and is accredited an African origin. 
The Virginia nut is probably of African origin also, 
but from a diff'erent section of the country than 
that from which the Carolina came. 

Up to the time of the elder De Candolle, the 
native home of the peanut was in doubt. It had 
been very generally disseminated and thoroughly 
inured to a wide area of the earth's surface. 
Many botanists held to an African origin for the 



species, while others accredited it to India and 
South America. A careful investigation of the case 
by De Candolle has indicated the natural habitat of 
the peanut as Brazil, where six or seven other 
closely allied species are found. If Arachis hypogcea 
were not of American ancestry it would be the 
only exception in the group, which seems improb- 
able. 

Didrihulion and yield. 

Although the peanut was brought to this country 
in colonial times, its extensive commercial cultiva- 
tion is of recent development. The knowledge of 
the crop gained by the soldiers during the Virginia 
campaigns did more than any other single cause 
/to disseminate the culture throughout the thirty- 
eight states from which it was reported in the last 
census. It is now grown in commercial quantities 
in eight states, but it is estimated that one-half 
of the crop is produced in Virginia and North 
Carolina, and that more than one-half of the total 
n.arketed product of the United States is cleaned 
and prepared for the trade in Petersburg, Suffolk 
and Norfolk, in Virginia. 

The magnitude of the peanut industry can be 
judged from the estimated crop of 1905, which is 
placed at 14,000,000 bushels, of which Virginia 
and North Carolina each produced about 4,000,000 
bushels, Georgia about 2,000,000, with the re- 
mainder scattered throughout the other southern 
states. The value of the crop that is placed on the 
market, exclusive of the part retained for planting 
and for home consumption, is estimated at 
$10,500,000, practically all of which represents an 
expenditure for an article now classed as a luxury 
or confection. 

Varieties. (Figs. 737, 738.) 

While seedsmen catalogue only two or three 
varieties of peanuts, there are a number of sorts 
which are distinct and are known by local names. 
The so-called Virginia nut varies from a nut of 
moderate size carrying two kernels to the pod, to 
the immense jumbo nuts carrying three or more 
kernels to the pod. The habit of the vine also 




Fig. 736. 



Peanut, showing procumbent stem and 
buried pods. 



varies from the broad, decumbent, running plant 
covering an area three or more feet in diameter to 
the compact, upright habit of growth in the bush 
type. In North Carolina there is a type of nut 



PEANUT 



PEANUT 



615 



grown extensively and known as the Carolina, 
which presents also the running and the bush types 
of plant. The nuts are of smaller size than the Vir- 
ginia but not so small as the Spanish. The Spanish 
nuts are small and of the bush type of plant 
and yield more than any other variety. (Fig. 737.) 
For agricultural purposes and for the production 
of forage the bush habit is a very decided 
advantage, as it can be more closely planted. 
In Tennessee, two or three varieties of nuts 
have been developed, one of which is worthy 
of mention, in that it produces a kernel 
carrying a very red skin which renders it 
especially attractive. This is known as the 
Tennessee Red, but is not generally recog- 
nized as a distinct variety or catalogued by 
seedsmen. 

Culture. 

. Seeds. — One of the most important points 
in connection with the cultivation of pea- 
nuts is the proper selection of seed. Only 
seed from vigorous, productive plants should 
be planted. Those persons who give special 
attention to this point are liberally rewarded 
for their attention. The result of planting a 
miscellaneous collection of seed is an indif- 
ferent stand and a corresponding yield. 

While the general practice is to employ 
shelled nuts for planting, in some instances 
Spanish nuts, and the larger varieties as well, 
are planted in the hulls ; but a less uniform 
stand of plants is secured when this practice 
is followed. The more perfect stand of 
vines resulting from the use of shelled nuts 
is sufficient to warrant the expense and trouble 
of shelling. This work should be done very care- 
fully, so as not to crack the kernels or to break the 
thin skin which covers them. The work of shelling 
is most satisfactorily done by hand, but in recent 
years a considerable quantity of the seed, of the 
Spanish variety particularly, is secured from the 
factories where it is shelled by machinery. To 
facilitate the work of hand-shelling, a simple device 
called the "peanut popper" is used. This consists 
of a piece of tough hickory or oak bent into the 
form of a miniature pair of tongs. 

Soil. — With the exception of low wet soils the 
peanut will thrive on any good agricultural land, 
in order to produce high-grade peanuts for market, 
however, only soil which is of a light color and 
carrying a high percentage of sand is suited for 
the work. Heavy land of a dark color, impregnated 
with iron, is likely to produce stained nuts which 
do not command so high a market price as do clear- 
shelled nuts. For agricultural purposes, however, 
the color of the shell is of no importance and in 
some instances the largest yields of nuts have been 
obtained from soils of a rather heavy and some- 
what retentive nature, soils carrying a considerable 
percentage of clay. In addition to the light gray 
soils already mentioned, chocolate soils, which are 
more or less abundant in certain parts of Virginia, 
are considered to be well adapted to the peanut. 
It is not advisable to use the same land year after 



year, but the crop fits well into a rotation scheme. 
It is a good preparatory crop for corn. 

Preparation of the land. — The general prepara- 
tion of the soil for the cultivation of peanuts is 
the same as that for any other tilled crop. The 
land should be plowed moderately deep, and if 
clean, as the result of a previous tilled crop, the 








mij^miii 



^-v'Jfl 



' ^' 






Fig. 737. Single plant of Spanish peanut. Texas. 

breaking of the soil may be deferred until spring. 
If, however, there is considerable vegetable matter 
on the land, it is advisable to plow it in the fall and 
to rework the surface in the spring with a disk- 
harrow or some type of soil-stirring implement 
which does not reverse the soil as does the plow. 
A preparatory tilled crop is a decided advantage, 
as it helps to rid the land of grass and annoying 
weeds. 

Fertilizers. — Land which is moderately clean is 
benefited by a light application of lime, ten to 
twelve bushels to the acre, and that which is some- 
what weedy or grassy should have a more liberal 
dressing, say fifteen to twenty-five bushels to the 
acre. After the land has been tilled and limed, it is 
customary to lay it ofl:' in rows two and one-half 
feet apart, using a turning plow to open a furrow 
in which is scattered the fertilizer to be used on 
the crop, after which the cultivator or weeder is 
run over the area to incorporate the fertilizer with 
the soil. 

If stable manure is to be employed on the area 
to be devoted to peanut-culture it should be thor- 
oughly rotted, spread on the field in the fall 
previous to planting the crop and plowed under. 
It is not advisable to use fresh manure on the land 
immediately before planting. In addition to manur- 
ing and liming the land in the spring, a dressing of 
plaster is given at the rate of 2:")0 pounds to the 
acre about the time the plants come into bloom. 



516 



PEANUT 



PEANUT 




Other fertilizers which are suggested for pea- 
nuts are acid phosphate 80 pounds, cottonseed 
meal 300 pounds, kainit 240 pounds. Another for- 
mula recommended is acid phosphate 100 pounds, 
dried blood 185 pounds, muriate of ^ 

potash 65 pounds. Since the peanut 
is a leguminous plant, drawing its 
nitrogen largely from the soil air, 
the fertilizer used need not be highly 
nitrogenous, although in each of the 
formulas given there is much nitro- 
gen ; the cotton-seed meal in the first 
carries a considerable percentage, 
while dried blood in the last also 
contains nitrogen. A dressing of 250 
to 500 pounds to the acre of either 
of these mixtures should be suffi- 
cient. The North Carolina Depart- 
ment of Agriculture is using a fer- 
tilizer analyzing 7 to 8 per cent of 
available phosphoric acid, 4 per cent 
potash, and 1 to 2 per cent nitrogen. 

Planting. — By the use of a small 
turning plow two furrows are thrown 
up in the form of a back furrow or 
ridge over the line of the furrow 
first opened, in the method employed 
in preparing land for the reception 
of sweet - potato sets. After the 
ridges are thrown up they are 
knocked off" either by the weeder or 
by using a board scraper fastened to 
the back teeth of an ordinary Planet 
Jr. or Iron Age cultivator. The 
planter follows on the ridges, drop- 
ping the seed at intervals of about 
eight inches, two seeds in a place, 
and placing the seeds deep enough to 
be on the same plane as the general 
level of the surface of the field. The 
ridges are brushed down to about two 
inches in height and the seeds are 
planted about two inches deep. On 
soils that are likely to be grassy or 
weedy seeds are dropped somewhat 
farther apart, about twelve inches, 
and two or three seeds in a hill. If 
the seeding is to be done by hand, 
the common practice is to employ a 
wheel-marker with pegs set on the 
rim of the wheel large enough to 
make marks in which the seeds can 
be dropped at proper intervals and 
depths. Covering is then accom- 
plished by treading on the ridge or 
scraping the earth in with the foot. 

Cultivation. — Cultivation should 
begin as soon as planting is com- 
pleted, so as to keep weeds in subjec- 
tion. The first cultivation can be 
done with a narrow-toothed cultiv?.- 
tor run comparatively clo.se to the vines, so as to 
kill as much grass as possible. Some growers 
employ a weeder and run crosswise of the rows 
after using the cultivator between the rows. 









Fig. 738. Three leading types of 
American-grown peanuts: (A) 
Spiinish; (B) Carulina; (C) 
Virginia No. 1. 



There is objection to this, however, as the young 
plants are brittle and easily broken, and the 
weeder frequently does considerable damage. As 
the season advances and the plants gain size, 
broader teeth are used on the culti- 
vator and a center tooth of some size 
is employed to open a water furrow 
between the plants so as to leave a 
ridge two to three inches high of 
loose, friable soil. This is important, 
for as soon as the plants have shed 
their bloom the forming nut is thrust 
into the loose soil for further de- 
velopment. The importance of keep- 
ing the soil well up around the plant, 
as well as loose and friable, is 
apparent. It is also important that 
the cultivation should not be close 
enough to the plant to disturb the 
roots or the forming nuts. In ordi- 
nary practice the plants are not "laid 
by" until about the last of July or 
the first of August through the 
Virginia peanut region. 

Harvesting. — In late years, since 
the value of peanut hay has become 
more generally recognized, the har- 
vesting of the crop has been pushed 
forward. The earlier the hay is cut 
the more valuable it is. If gather- 
ing is delayed until frost touches the 
plants, a large proportion of the 
leaves are lost and the value of the 
hay is very materially lessened. It is 
the practice to begin harvesting 
sufficiently in advance of the normal 
date for killing frost to have the 
crop entirely in shock before such 
fro.st occurs. The common method is 
to throw a furrow away from the 
row of plants on either side. Men 
follow with forks and lift the plants 
out of the ground, gently shake the 
sand from them, and throw them 
into heaps, placing five or six rows 
in one general windrow. Another 
s'luad follows the diggers and places 
the plants in shocks. (Fig. 739.) For 
these, poles seven or eight feet in 
height, free from projecting limbs or 
knots, and sharpened at both ends, 
are provided. One end of the pole 
is thrust into the ground eighteen 
inches or two feet to hold it firmly 
in position. Around the ba.se of this 
pole a few cross-pieces are laid on 
the ground to keep the vines from 
coming in direct contact with the 
soil. In some instances a whorl of 
branches is left on the poles to ac- 
complish this end. In other instances 
narrow strips of boards are nailed at right angles 
to one another acro.ss the pole to .support the 
vines. The plants with the nuts attached, which are 
thrown into windrows by the diggers, are taken 





PEANUT 



PEANUT 



517 



up, gently shaken and placed with the nuts all 
inside the heap around the pole, making a nar- 
row, upright shock about two and one-half feet 
in diameter at the base, and of nearly uniform 
diameter until near the top, where it is quickly 






./A. 



i>5-!^^^ 



Fig 739 Peanut neks 



.'^?y 



Curing peanuts iii tht litl 1 



drawn in and capped with grass or hay. These 
shocks are about five feet in height. The nuts are 
allowed to remain in shocks until thoroughly cured 
or until they are ready for picking. In some 
instances the shocks are lifted and carried to suit- 
able buildings or sheds where the picking is done, 
but in the majority of cases the picking is done 
in the field, this work being accomplished largely 
by hand (Fig. 740), although in the last few years 
a number of satisfactory machines have been 
invented for this purpose. 

The nuts are thoroughly cured, and are then 
placed in sacks and sent to a cleaning factory, where 
they are put through a number of processes for 
removing all adhering sand or dirt, blanching the 
shells of those which are slightly discolored, and 
polishing those of high grade which are to go on 
the market for roasting purposes. 

Yield. 

The average yield of peanuts in Virginia and 
North Carolina is about forty bushels per acre. 
Some growers make an average yield of one hun- 
dred bushels per acre with select types of large 
nuts, and yields of one hundred to one hun- 
dred and forty bushels per acre are reported 
for the Spanish nuts. 

Enemie.t. 

There are no serious enemies to the peanut 
crop as yet. Plants are sometimes destroyed 
by cutworms. The nuts may be attacked by 
weevils if kept a long time, a trouble that 
occurs chiefly in warehouses and confection- 
ary establishments. 

Uses. 

Peanuts are put tc a great variety of uses. 
Every one is familiar with the roasted nuts for 
eating out of hand. Great quantities are thus 
consumed. In addition, the nuts are manufac- 
tured into a great variety of confections and can- 
dies, while the vines, either with or without the 
nuts, are valuable for stock-feeding, and the growth 
of the plant is important in soil-renovation. 



Peanut butter. — Of late, peanut butter is receiv- 
ing wide advertising and is finding a ready market. 
It does not soon become rancid, can be carried to 
sea and can be had in packages to suit the most 
e-xacting demands. While it will probably never 
become a riv-al of butter, it has a legitimate use 
and is likely to become a staple commodity. 

Salted peanuts have in late years become an 
important competitor of the salted almond, and be- 
cause of the diff'erence in cost the peanut is likely 
to find a greatly increased use as a confection of 
this class. 

Peanut oil is one of the best known vegetable 
oils, but because of its high food value, quality and 
keeping properties, it has found little use in the 
arts. It is used chiefly as a substitute for olive oil. 
Marseilles is the great peanut oil factory of the 
world, the supply of nuts being drawn largely 
from Africa, India and Spain. This oil is not manu- 
factured in the United States, but the discussion of 
it here is just now receiving considerable attention. 
This is due to the fact that the owners of cotton- 
oil mills recognize the importance of the peanut 
as an oil-producing plant, in general adapted to the 
same soil and climatic conditions as cotton. With 
the oil mills in the field the ne.xt step is the pro- 
duction of the nut in sufficient quantity to provide 
a supply to the mills and at a price which shall be 
remunerative to the farmer and at the same time 
leave a margin of profit to the millman. Although 
the subject is being extensively discussed, only one 
experiment to demonstrate the profit and loss in 
the venture has been carried out. This has demon- 
strated that the work can be done without loss, 
but it has not been suflicient to show the advantage 
of careful manufacturing on an extensive scale. 
[See Oil-Bearing Plants.] 

As a forage crop. — The peanut vines make hay 
possessing a feeding value for cattle, mules and 
horses equal to that of clover hay. The yield of 
hay when the crop is well manured and cultivated 
ranges from one to three tons per acre. The value 
of the forage is each year becoming better recog- 
nized, and more careful attention is being given to 




Fig. 740. Picking peanuts, separating the nuts from the vines. 

harvesting the nuts in such a way as to preserve 
the hay in the best condition for feeding purposes. 
For best results the vines should be cut or dug 
before frost has touched the leaves. If frosted, the 



518 



PEANUT 



PEANUT 



food value of the hay is lessiened and the yield 
materially reduced. 

The following statement of the analysis of pea- 
nut hay in comparison with other standard hay 
crops shows the great merit of this plant as a 
forage crop : 



more than call attention to the importance of the 
variations in nuts for special purposes. There is a 
range from 26.49 to 35.37 in the protein content 
of different samples and a range of 41.17 to 55.37 
in the percentage of fat. -In special-purpose nuts 
these differences are of great importance. 



Feeding Value of Peanut Hay as Compaked with Hay op Other Crops. 





Moisture 


Dry matter 




Protein 


Fats 


Carbo- 
hydrates 


Crude fiber 


Crude asll 


Peanut hay 


Per cent 

7.83 

6.25 

14.30 

13.50 

10.29 

6.95 


Per cent 
11.75 
13.48 
12.84 
7.17 
19.72 
16.48 


Per cent 
1.84 
15.06 
2.11 
1.97 
4.04 
2.02 


Per cent 
46.95 

36.28 
48.31 
52.94 
45.15 
42.62 


Per cent 

22.11 
29.16 
29.27 
33.41 
•21.99 
31.38 


Per cent 

17.04 

6.02 


Clover hay 


7.47 
4.51 


Cowpea hay 

Alfalfa 


9.10 
7.49 



As roughage, peanut hay compares very favor- 
ably with clover hay. The whole plant, vine and 
nuts, noted as "peanut vine," is superior to alfalfa 
in fat and almost its equal in protein content. The 
value of the peanut as a stock- and hog-food is well 
recognized, and with the increasing interest in 
swine and cattle through the South a great increase 
in the acreage of peanuts grown is sure to come. 
For hogs, peanuts are planted and cultivated and 
the hogs allowed to harvest the crop. This let-alone 
method of harvesting has been justified in the 
commercial results as reported by the Arkansas 
E.xperiment Station. As compared with corn, the 
standard hog-food, one-fourth of an acre of peanuts 
produced 313 pounds of pork, while a like area in 
corn produced 109 pounds of pork, a remarkable 
showing in favor of Spanish peanuts. Cattle, horses 
and poultry as well as swine, are fond of peanuts 
and thrive on them. Horses doing normal work 
have been maintained on whole nuts with as good 
apparent results as on a ration of corn and hay. 

The accompanying summary of the average anal- 
yses of various parts of the peanut plant are of 



These tables show the peanut kernel, with an 
average of 29 per cent of protein, 49 per cent of 
fat, and 14 per cent of carbohydrates in the dry 
material, to be worthy of a high rank, and it should 
be classed with such concentrates as soybeans and 
cotton seed. The vines are superior to timothy hay 
and but slightly inferior to clover hay. The food 
value of the hay is of course higher the greater 
the percentage of nuts left on the vines in har- 
vesting. The hulls also appear to possess consider- 
able value as a feeding stuff, being richer in food 
constituents (protein, fat and carbohydrates) than 
cotton hulls, which are extensively used in the 
South as a coarse fodder, and about equal to the 
poorer grades of hay. The ground hulls are used 
to a considerable e.xtent as a coarse fodder in 
European countries. Peanut meal (the ground resi- 
due from oil e.xtraction) is a valuable feeding stuff, 
extensively used in foreign countries. It contains 
about 52 per cent of protein, 8 per cent of fat, and 
27 per cent of carbohydrates, and is therefore one 
of the most concentrated feeding stuffs, ranking 
with cottonseed meal and linseed meal. 



Average Composition op the 


Food Constituents in Different Parts of the 


Peanut Plant. 






In water-free substance 


Peanut 


Water 


Asll 


Protein 


Fiber 


Nitrogen- 
free extract 


Fat 


Nitrogen 




Per cent 


Per cent 


Per cent 


Per cent 


Per cent 


Per cent 


Per cent 


Kernels 


7.85 


2.77 


29.47 


4.29 


14.27 


49.20 


4.67 


Vines cut before blooming 


31.20 


10.64 


12.63 


22.32 


48.34 


6.07 


2.02 


Vines cut when fully ripe . 


31.91 


12.08 


10.81 


32.28 


39.81 


5.02 


1.73 


Hay 


7.83 


17.04 


11.75 


22.11 


46.95 


1.84 


1.88 


Vines without leaves . . . 




8.80 


6.25 


32.95 


49.49 


2.50 


1.00 


Leaves 




10.90 


10.00 


21.51 


54.09 


3.50 


1.60 




28.74 
12.94 
10.80 


9.58 
3.39 

5.72 


7.63 

7.22 
2.5.11 


48..59 
67.29 
20.96 


31.00 
19.42 
26.89 


3.20 

2.68 

21. .52 


1.22 


Hulls 


1.77 


Skins (inner coat of kernel) 


4.00 


Meal 


10.74 


5.48 


52.49 


5.93 


27.26 


8.84 


8.40 







interest as they indicate the value of the several 
parts of the plant for food purposes. While there is 
considerable variation in the composition of nuts 
grown in various parts of the world, we cannot do 



As a soil renovator. — As a soil renovator, the 
peanut, like other leguminous plants, is rich in 
nitrogen and contains considerable amounts of 
phosphoric acid and potash. The kernels are as 



PEANUT 



POTATO 



519 



rich in these constituents as the kernels of cotton 
seed and the vines are nearly as valuable as a fertil- 
izer as are those of cowpeas. From the analyses 
it will be seen that the hulls are comparatively 
poor, while the meal or cake is rather rich, being 
nearly equal to cottonseed meal as a fertilizer: 



This implies that peanuts can be grown in the 
Orient and shipped across the Pacific more cheaply 
than they can be produced at home. The nuts can 
be produced as successfully in parts of California, 
however, as in eastern United States, and this con- 
dition may some day be changed. 



Fertilizing 


Constituents in 


Different Parts op the 


Peanut Plant. 










In the fresh or air-dry substance 




Water 


Nitrogen 


Phosphoric 
acid 


Potash 


Lime 


Total ash 


Peanut kernels 


Per cent 

6.30 

7.83 

10.60 

10.40 


Per cent 
4.51 
1.76 
1.14 
7.56 


Per cent 

1.24 
0.29 
0.17 
1.31 


Per cent 
1.27 
0.98 
0.95 
1.50 


Per cent 

0.13 

2.08 
0.81 
0.16 


Per cent 
3.20 


Peanut vines (cured) 

Peanut hulls 


15.70 
3.00 


Peanut cake (meal) 


3.97 



Importations. 

Notwithstanding the magnitude of the crop 
grown in the United States, a very considerable 
quantity of peanuts is annually imported. The 











Fig. 741. Potato spray and blossoms. Detail shows a diagram 
plan of Hower (dotted lines siiowing position of sepals), 
and a vertical section. 

Atlantic coast ports report an importation of pea- 
nuts during 1904 amounting in value to $65,161, 
chiefly from Spain, while the Pacific coast ports 
report for the same year an importation valued at 
$87,441, chiefly from Japan and China. This gives 
a total of $152,602 sent abroad for a product which 
might easily be produced at home. The interesting 
fact in connection with the peanut supply for various 
sections of the country is that none of the nuts 
produced either in the Atlantic or Gulf coast states 
reach the Pacific coast markets, these markets being 
supplied almost exclusively from Japan and China. 



Literature. 

\Vm. N. Roper, The Peanut and Its Culture ; 
B. W. Jones, The Peanut Plant ; K. B. Handy, Pea- 
nuts — Culture and Uses, Farmers' Bulletin No. 25, 
United States Department of Agriculture ; C. L. 
Newman, Peanuts, Bulletin No. 84, Arkansas Agri- 
cultural Experiment Station. 

POTATO. Solanum tuberosum, Linn. Solanacece, 
(Irish, English, Round, White Potato.) Figs 
741-762. 

By S. Fraser. 

A farm crop grown for its tubers, which ar* 
used largely for human food and for stock-food, 
and for the manufacture of starch and alcohol. 
The genus Solanum comprises perhaps 1000 spe- 
cies, in many parts of the world. Some twenty of 
the described species are more or less tuber-bear- 
ing, but J. G. Baker (Journal Linnwus Society, XX) 
considers that only six of these " possess a fair 
claim to be considered as distinct species in a broad 
sense." These six are Solanum tuberosum, S. Maglia, 
S. Commersoni, S.cardiophi/llum, S.Jamcsii, S-oxy- 
carpum. Of these, only S. tuberosum is known agri- 
cuturally. It is possible, however, that S. Maglia 
(the Darwin potato) and 5. Commersoni (Pig. 103) 
possess value for the cultivator, either directly or 
hybridized with the common potato. S. Commer- 
soni is now receiving considerable attention in 
Europe. It is native in Uruguay and Argentina 
"in rocky and arid situations 
at a low level." S. Maglia is 
native in the coast regions of 
Chile, while S. tuberosum occurs 
natively in the hill country of 
the interior of Chile and Peru. 
Forms of S. tuberosum occur in 
Mexico, and one of them (var. 
boreale) is native as far north 
as southern Colorado. 

The potato is perennial by 
means of its tubers. Its smooth, generally solid, 
more or less quadrangular stems attain a height of 
two to five or more feet. The stems bear com- 
pound leaves of oval leaflets and small intermedi- 




Fig. 742. 
Sprouts arising from 
the buds, or eyes, 
of a potaio tuber. 



520 



POTATO 



POTATO 



ate leaflets. The flowers are in clusters and have a 
five-pointed, wheel-shaped corolla, one to one and a 
half inches in diameter and varying in color from 
white to purple. (Fig. 741.) Stamens 5 ; pistil 1, 
2-celled. The fine fibrous roots penetrate the soil 
to the depth of two to four feet, and frequently ex- 
tend horizontally two feet distant from the stems. 
The fruits or seed-balls are globular, three-fourths 
to one and one-half inches in diameter, and green, 
yellowish or purple in color. (Pig. 762.) The tuber 
is an underground stem ; it bears buds, and, when 
planted, tends to produce plants similar to its 
parent; hence tubers are used for perpetuating a 
variety, and such are generally designated "seed 
tubers " or " seed." 

Varieties vary considerably in composition ; an 
average of many analyses is: Water, 75 per cent; 
protein, 2.5 per cent; ether e.xtract, .08 per cent; 
starch, 19.87 per cent ; fiber, .33 per cent ; other 
non-nitrogenous materials, .77 per cent ; ash, 1 
per cent ; undetermined, .45 per cent ; 85 to 95 per 
cent of the total dry matter is digestible. 

History. 

The potato was thought by De Candolle to have 
been in cultivation in Peru for probably 2,000 
years. G. de la Vega found the Peruvians cul- 
tivating it in 1542. He sent tubers to Europe. 
Various importations were made by the Spanish, 
and the potato became known in parts of Europe 
before it was introduced into Ireland in 1586 by 




Fig. 743. Potato, to show manner of growth. 

Thomas Herriot, who was a member of the expe- 
dition sent to America by Sir Walter Raleigh. 
The Virginian colonists probably secured potatoes 
from the Spanish, and they soon proved a valuable 
acquisition. 

It is a common opinion that the aborigines of 
Virginia cultivated the potato at the time of the 




PhyUotaxy of po- 
tato. Tlie in- 
serted taeks 
sliow tlie lin'it- 
tion of tlie 
buds. 



discovery. W. R. Gerard asserts, however ("Scien- 
tific American," September 15, 1906), that the 
openauk of Thomas Herriot (a product much 
quoted or discussed in the later writings on the 
potato), supposed to have been the potato, is 
really the ground-nut, Apios tuberosa. He contends 
that the potato was secured by 
Raleigh's expedition, under his 
cousin Sir Richard Grenville, on the 
return voyage, from a Spanish ship 
hailing from St. Domingo and cap- 
tured in mid-ocean. The potato was 
cultivated in Ireland long before it 
was known in England. Probably 
the potato was served as an exotic 
rarity at a Harvard installation 
dinner in 1707 ; but the tuber was 
not brought into cultivation in New 
England till the arrival of the 
Presbyterian immigrants from Ire- 
land in 1718. The potato of Shake- 
speare was what we now know as 
the sweet-potato, which derived its 
name from the aboriginal word 
botnta or batata ; this word or its 
derivative was later applied to our 
common or Irish potato. The abo- 
riginal word is still preserved to us 
in the Latin name of the sweet- 
potato, Ipomwa (or Convolvulus) 
Batatas. 

Gerarde's Herball, published in 1597, describes 
the potato, and the edition published in 1636 con- 
tains a woodcut of it. Many of the other works of 
like nature contain descriptions of it. In 1663, the 
RoJ-al Society of England tried to popularize the 
plant, especially in Ireland. So late as 1699 Evelyn 
barely mentioned the potato, and in 1719 London 
and Wise did not consider the plant worthy of 
listing in their Complete Gardener. Only two 
varieties were listed in 1771, yet by the end of the 
eighteenth century they were numerous. 

Potato-culture spread slowly in Europe but more 
rapidly in the south of Ireland, because the peas- 
ants realized that it was a useful food and planted 
it everywhere ; and with this as their commis- 
sary they were able to maintain the opposition to 
English rule. Two and a half centuries of reliance 
on this crop led to the neglect of other crops, and, 
when the blight occurred in Ireland in 1846, it was 
attended by one of the worst famines known in 
Europe. The potato has been more highly devel- 
oped in Europe than in America, and much higher 
average yields are secured in the United Kingdom 
and northern Europe than in this country. 

Geographical distribution and extent. 

Next to rice, the potato is probably the most 
extensively grown and mo.st valuable crop in the 
world. The annual yield of the world is nearly 
five billion bu.shels. The potato crop of Europe in 
value and volume exceeds the tabulated wheat 
crop of the world. One acre of potatoes fre- 
quently furnishes as much human food as ten 
acres of wheat, and wherever wheat is a preca- 



POTATO 



POTATO 



521 



rioas crop, as in northern Europe, potato-grow- 
ino; has been extensively developed. Yields of 
1,000 to 1,200 bushels of potatoes per acre con- 
taining 10,000 pounds of starch are on record. 
About 30,000,000 acres of potatoes are grown an- 
nually in Europe, and of 
this area one-third is in 
Russia, the average yield 
per acre being about 95 
bushels ; Germany is sec- 
ond in total area with 
8,000,000 acres and a 
yield of nearly 1,600,000,- 
000 bushels, an average 
of 200 bushels per acre. 
France grows between 
3,500,000 and 4,000,000 
acres, Austria nearly 
3,000,000, Hungary 
1,500,000 and the United 
Kingdom 1,250,000. The 
average yield of England 
is about 230 bushels per 
acre, that of Ireland 
about 150 bushels. The 
United States grows 
about 3,000,000 acres, 

and the average yield for the past ten years is 84.5 
bushels. Since the potato thrives best in a cool 
climate, potato-growing has been developed to 
the greatest extent in the Northern states. (Fig. 
745.) According to the report of the Twelfth 
Census, the five states reporting the greatest 
number of bushels in 1899 were New York, 

38.060.471 bushels ; Wisconsin, 24,641,498 bush- 
els ; Michigan, 23,476,444 bushels ; Pennsylvania, 

21.769.472 bushels; and Iowa, 17,305,919 bushels. 
Fig. 746 shows the average yield per acre in 
bushels for the period 1900-1904. 

In Canada, the potato crop has always been 



important, although the output has not shown so 
great an increase as some other crops, notably oats 
and wheat. In 1871, the potato crop was 47,330,- 
187 bushels. In 1901, it reached 55,362,635 hushols, 
raised on 448,743 acres. The production in bushels 




Fig. 746. 



Fig. 745. Potatoes. To show actual yield in bushels by states. 

by provinces in 1901 was as follows : Ontario, 
20,042,258; Quebec, 17,135,739; Prince Edward 
Island, 4,986,633; New Brunswick, 4,649,059; 
Nova Scotia, 4,394,413 ; Manitoba, 1,920,794 ; 
The Territories, 1,277,793; British Columbia, 
955,946. 

Culture. 

Soil. — The soil usually considered best is a deep, 
mellow, free-working loam, although crops are 
raised on lighter or heavier soils, provided the 
latter are well drained. Fall-plowing is generally 
advisable, since it facilitates the spring work. It 

should be as deep 
as possible, to a 
depth of twelve 
inches if the soil 
will permit. The 
land is generally 
left rough-plowed 
during winter and 
is fitted as early 
as possible in 
spring. The seed- 
bed should be well 
prepared by using 
the disk or acme 
harrows. 

Fertilizers. — An 
application of ten 
tons or more per 
acre of barnyard 
manure may be 
made in the fall 
before plowing.or, 
if the manure is 
well rotted, it may 
be applied in 




BUSHELS 
IM ISO- 163 
125-150 
00- 125 
90-100 
80 - 90 
70 - 80 
58 - 70 
Potatoes. To show the average yield per acre in bushels for the five-year period, 1900-1904. 
Compiled from Yearbook United States Department of Agriculture. 



522 



POTATO 



POTATO 



spring and disked in. It is important for potatoes 
that there be plenty of humus, hence the crop is 
frequently grown after a crop of clover or on a two- 
year-old sod. It would do well after a much older 

sod, but there 
is likely to 
be trouble 
from wire- 
worms and 
white grubs; 
for this rea- 
son, when po- 
tatoes are to 
be planted on 
such land, it 
is considered 




Ki*;; 






Fig. 747. A " long ' ' potato, with shaUow 
eyes; peels with little waste. 



advisable to follow another crop, such as oats or 
corn, by potatoes, which may then be grown for 
two or three successive years if desired. If com- 
mercial fertilizers are applied, generally a complete 
fei'tilizer — containing nitrogen, phosphoric acid 
and potash — gives best results. Nitrate of soda is 
a good source of nitrogen for potatoes. 

Seed. — The seed tubers may be planted whole or 
cut; a piece weighing about three ounces, or as 
large as a good-sized egg, and having at least one 
good eye, being the most profitable. It pays to dig 
the heaviest-yielding plants by hand and save their 
progeny for seed. Heavy-yielding plants will gen- 
erally reproduce heavy yielders, and vice versa. 
The tubers used for seed should be sound, free from 
coarseness and second growth and be true to name. 
If planted in rows thirty-si.x inches apart and the 
plants fifteen inches asunder in the row, it will 
require about seventeen bushels of seed per acre. 

The storage of seed is a very important factor. 
It should be kept in a cool, well-ventilated place 
to prevent much loss of weight, until ten or four- 
teen days before planting time, when it may be 
spread on the barn floor or in some well-lighted 
place, which will cause the seed to begin to grow 
before planting. The shoots made under such con- 
ditions will be very small. If the seed is scabby, or 
from .scab-infested land, it may be treated with 
formalin. [See next page under Enemies.] 

Seeding. — Planting may be done by hand or 
machinery, the latter being by far the cheaper 
way, although still unsatisfactory, because there is 

^,^_ no planter, 

known to the 
writer which 
will handle a 
seed piece of the 
size required. On 
sandy loam soils 
the seed may be 
planted three or 
four inches 
deep, and level 
culture adopted with profit. Under other condi- 
tions, planting two or three inches deep and sub.se- 
quent drill culture may be good practice. Where 
irrigation is practiced, rows are often four feet 
apart, but under other conditions three feet is 
generally considered ample. 




Fig. 748. A "long " potato, difficult 
to peel economically. 



The time of planting depends on whether an 
early, mid-season, or late crop is being grown. 
Generally the early crop is put in as soon as settled 
weather comes and the ground ' is workable. Care 
must be taken that the plants are not frosted, as 
they are sensitive. The late crop is planted in the 
middle or latter part of May in the North. [The 
planting dates throughout the country are given 
in Chapter VII, pages 138-140.] 

Subsequent care. — Cultivation begins a few days 
after planting and consists of harrowing the land 
with the spike-toothed harrow or the weeder to 
de.stroy all weeds before they are well started, a 
policy that should be rigidly maintained. The 
weeder may then be used once a week until the 
plants are seven to ten inches tall. By this time 
the plants may have been cultivated once, with the 
cultivator set three or four inches deep ; they 
should receive subsequently about four more culti- 
vations, each one shallower than its predecessor, 
the S3cond one being not more than two to two and 
a half inches deep, thus giving a total of about five 
cultivations at intervals of seven to ten days. By 
this time the tops 
will meet in the 
rows. 

Varieties. — In 
choosing a vari- 
ety to plant, a 
number of factors 
must be consid- 
ered. Am on g 
these may be men- 
tioned : 

• (1) Good cook- 
ing quality and 
flavor. These are 
partly influenced 
by the soil, season, fertilizers, ability to mature 
before frost and other factors. 

(2) Yield. This is dependent on adaptation of 
the variety to its environment. 

(3) Ability to resist diseases. No blight-proof 
variety exists, but some possess more resistance 
than others. 

(4) Color of skin and tuber. Some markets re- 
quire one color, others another. 

(5) The nature of the skin. A netted or rough 
skin is preferred. 

(6) The shape. Some markets discriminate in 
favor of a particular shape. Varieties are some- 
times classified according to shape, as round, flat 
round, kidney and the like. 

(7) Depth and frequency of eyes. Deep and 
numerous eyes are not economical in peeling. 

(8) Time of maturity. In the northern states 
varieties are classified according to the time taken 
to form salable tubers ; thus, "earlies" are ready 
to harvest in 70 to 90 days after planting, ".second 
earlies" in 90 to 130 days, while late varieties 
may sometimes continue to grow for 200 days. 

(9) Thecharacterof the foliage and top. Straight 
upright stems bearing thick hard leaves are desired, 
since such are probably less liable to diseases, and 
are easier to spray. 




Fig. 749. A ' round ' ' potato, 
shallow eyes. 



with 



POTATO 



POTATO 



523 



(10) The vigor. The variety and the strain se- 
cured must be vigorous and not subject to second 
growth of the tubers. 

(11) True to name. The variety should be what 
it is purchased for. 

Many thousand varieties of potatoes have been 
developed during the past hundred years. Among 
prominent varieties of today may be mentioned : 




Fig. 750. Beginning of late blight on left. Right spray good, 
but sliowing a few boles made by flea-beetles. 

Earlies: Bliss Triumph, Early Ohio, Six Weeks 
Market, Early Thoroughbred, Bovee, Reliance, Crown 
Jewel, Noroton Beauty, Burpee Extra -Early, 
Eureka, Early Rose (some strains). Second earlies: 
Burpee Extra -Early, Eureka, Beauty of Hebron, 
Polaris, Irish Cobbler, Early Rose (.some strains). 
Late: Carmen No. 3, Sir Walter Raleigh, Rural New 
Yorker No. 2, Vermont Gold Coin, State of Maine, 
Green Mountain, Freeman, Burbank. 

Potatoes sometimes sport or "mix" in the hill, 
and these bud-sports may be treated as new varie- 
ties. Practically all the new varieties of potatoes, 
however, are produced from seed, for every seedling 
is likely to be different from the parent. Seed-balls 
are not produced abundantly on mo.st varieties. If 
it is desired to produce new kinds, the seed should be 
saved and treated as tomato seed is treated, being 
planted the following spring. The first year the 
plants are small and slender, and the tubers will also 
be very small. These tubers are saved and planted 
the next year, when a crop of good-sized tubers may 
be expected, showing their characteristics. If it is 
desired to combine features of two varieties, the 
flowers may be crossed ; and the resulting seed will 
produce hybrids. 

Harvesting and storing. — Early potatoes are dug 
as soon as large enough for sale. Late varieties 
are left until the vines are dead ; should the vines 
be killed by blight and it is intended to store the 
tubers, the digging should be delayed, if possible, 
until ten days after the date the vines died. The 
grower should harvest when the land is dry, pick 
up the tubers at once and keep them cool. In stor- 
age the tubers should be held between 32° and 40° 
Fahr., be well ventilated and kept dark. 



Potatoes may be stored in the open, in piles 
covered with straw and earth, in cellars or root^ 
houses according to the climatic conditions. In 
the northern states the cellar is the most advan- 
tageous, since the conditions can be more easily 
controlled, and the crop may be inspected or sold 
at any time. The cellar should be kept dark. With 
sound tubers, the loss in weight in storage may 
vary between 5 and 20 per cent in the five winter 
months. Both temperature and the moisture con- 
tent have an influence, a high temperature increas- 
ing and a high moisture content diminishing the 
loss. Nobbe found that about 75 per cent of the 
depreciation is loss of the water content. 

Enemies. 

Diseases. — In the northern and north-central 
states the two most serious diseases are the early 
and late blights. The early blight {AUernaria 
solani) is a fungus which attacks the leaves, enter- 
ing frequently through holes made by flea-beetles. 
It comes on earlier in the season than the late 
blight and does not cause rot of the tubers. The 
late blight (Phytophthora infcstans, Figs. 750, 751, 
752), another fungous disease, injures and often 
destroys the leaves, stems and tubers, and is prob- 
ably familiar to most growers. These diseases 
spread by means of spores which germinate on the 
potato leaves and stems and produce the fungus 
that causes the diseased appearance. If the leaves 
and stems be kept coated with some fungicide, as 
Bordeaux mixture, it prevents the germination of 
the spores and helps to check the spread of the 
disease. 

Potato rosette attacks the stem, causing the 
leaves to grow in clusters. It re- 
duces the yield in many parts of 
the country. The disease is caused, 
in part at least, by Cortieium 
vagiim solani {Rhizocton ia .^olani). 
One form of this fungus develops 
scale-like bodies on the tubers, 
causing the " black scale " of 
potatoes. 

Scab iOSspora smbies) is a fun- 
gous disease which appears on 
the tubers. For treatment, the 
seed tubers should be immersed 
for two hours in a solution of 
formalin of the strength of one 
pound of formalin to thirty gal- 
lons of water. If the seed is not 
planted at once, it .should be 
spread thinly to dry, and should 
be planted on scab-free soil. 

Dry-rot (Fusarium o.ryspornm). 
— This disease attacks all parts 
of the plant below ground and 
produces a gradual premature 
death of the plants. Infected 
tubers rot and shrivel. This fun- 
gus causes more or less loss to the potato crop in 
all .sections of the United States. 

A good and rather long rotation of crops is of 
value in combating all of these diseases. 




Fig. 751. 

Shoot kiUed by 

blight. 



524 



POTATO 



POTATO 



Insects. — The flea-beetle (Crepidodera [Epitrix] 
cucumeri.t) attacks the leaves, puncturing them and 
thus furnishing an easy entrance for spores of dis- 
eases. Spraying with Bordeaux mixture as soon 
as the insects appear is of value. It acts as a 
deterrent. On the Pacific coast other flea-beetles 
occur, and for such the use of arsenites alone or 
in Bordeaux mixture is advised. 




Fig. 752. Distribution of late blight IFIiytophthora iu/cstans) of potato indicated by lines, and of cot- 
ton-wilt (Ncocosmospora vasinfccta) indicated by dots. Yearbook, Dep,Trtiueut of Agriculture, 1903. 

The potato-bug or Colorado potato-beetle (Do- 
ryphora dccemlineata, Fig. 753), the larva of which 
attacks the foliage, is destroyed by spraying with 
Paris green or some other arsenite in a solution, 
preferably Bordeaux mixture, using one-fourth to 
one-half pound of Paris green to fifty gallons of 
solution, and applying 150 to 200 gallons per acre 
when the foliage is well grown. 

The old-fashioned potato-bug or blister-beetle 
(Epicauta vittata) is combated in the same way as 
the Colorado potato-beetle. It is now rarely seen. 
The potato-worm (Gdechia opcrculdla) is injurious 
on the Pacific coast. The potato-stalk weevil (Tric/to- 
baris trinotata) attacks the stems. It is found from 
Canada to Florida. 

Uses. 

In the United States, potatoes are used almost 
entirely as human food, a few million bushels being 
used for the manufacture of starch. They may be 
desiccated and in this form can be readily trans- 
ported. In Europe, large quantities are used for 
the manufacture of starch and alcohol, the latter 
being a cheap source of power for motors. Pota- 
toes are also used as a stock-food, either raw, 
cooked or as silage. [For the making of alcohol, see 
Part II of this volume.] 

Marketing. 

Potatoes are sold by the pound, peck, bushel, 
barrel, cental, sack and car lot. The bushel box 
is the most convenient package for a home market. 



The barrel and sack are often used in shipping. 
The potatoes must be graded before shipment and 
all small, diseased or ill-shaped tubers sorted out. 
Eight to 10 per cent commission is usually charged 
by salesmen in New York, Philadelphia and other 
markets. When potatoes are shipped any distance 
by rail, it not infrequently happens that of the 
price paid by the consumer for a bushel of pota- 
toes about two- . 
thirds is required 
to defray the cost 
of tran.sportation 
and distribution, 
and one-third is 
left for the 
grower. 

Machinery. (Figs. 
754-760.) 

Potato machi- 
nery is in a much 
less satisfactory 
condition than 
that used by the 
grain- or hay- 
grower. There 
are no potato 
planters which 
will plant all the 
tubers all the 
time unless a man 
sits behind to 
look after them ; 
80 to 95 per cent perfect is the best that has been 
attained automatically, iew of the potato spray- 
ing machines carry enough nozzles to ensure the 
covering of the whole of the plants with the spray. 
With potato harvesting machinery the aim has been 
to supply a two-horse machine, and in some cases 
these are efficient, but in some soils three or four 
horses are necessary to handle 
the same machine. The .shovel 
plow is not an efl^icient tool and 
is of little value for the com- 
mercial grower. The elevator 
diggers, of which there are sev- 
eral makes, are a distinct ad- 
vance. There are two types, the 
high elevator, in which the pota- 
toes and soil are lifted to a 
height of two or more feet up an 
inclined plane and shaken mean- 
while, and the low elevator, in 
which the soil and potatoes are 
elevated very little, but are passed backward over 
disk-like rollers. 

In spite of defects, any commercial grower who 
has ten acres of potatoes needs a planter, sprayer, 
cultivator and digger of the most approved types. 
With a good planter a man can open, distribute the 
fertilizer, plant and cover three to six acres pel 
day, and by changing teams during the day the 
machine may be run at the maximum figure. A 
weeder will cover twenty acres a day once. With 
reasonable facilities for filling, a spraying machine 




Fig. 753. 
Potato - beetle (Da- 
ryphora decemlin- 
eata). 



POTATO 



POTATO 



525 



taking five rows should cover one to one and a 
quarter acres per hour of work, or about ten acres 
per day, once over. A two-horse cultivator set to 
take two rows will cover eight to ten acres per 
day, going once in a row. A man without machi- 
nery will dig one-eighth to one-half an acre per day, 
depending on the crop and the soil, at a cost of 
two to six and sometimes eight cents per bushel ; 
with a good mechanical digger and three or four 
horses and eight to sixteen hands to pick up, three 
to six acres may be dug per day at a cost not 
e.xceeding two cents per bushel. 

A specijw example. 

While the average yield of potatoes in the 
United States is less than ninety bushels per acre, 
it is wholly practicable, on good potato soil, to 
produce three to five times that yield. It is doubt- 
ful whether it pays to raise less than two hundred 
bushels to the acre. Whether it pays to raise more 
than three hundred bushels depends on the price of 
labor and the ability to secure it advantageously. 
By superior tillage, the yield may very easily be 
placed beyond three hundred bushels, if the land is 
right ; but if this requires the keeping of an extra 
team throughout the year in order to have it when 



UFnNGHANM 



The potatoes are planted on a rolled surface in 
order to secure uniform depth and a good stand. 
The rows are thirty-six inches apart, seed placed 
three inches deep, and about eleven inches in the 




Fig. 754. A potato planter in cross-section. 

the potatoes need tilling, it is a question whether 
the crop would return a profit. The question of 
farm organization at once arises, for there should 
be other productive work for the extra teams and 
men at other times of the year. 

The farm methods employed in producing more 
than four hundred bushels of potatoes to the acre 
on a particular farm (T. E. Martin, West Rush, New 
York) will illustrate the discussion in this article. 
The land (good loam) is in a three-year rotation, — 
wheat, clover, potatoes. Potatoes is the money 
crop. The land is underdrained. Plowing has been 
lowered gradually from six to ten or twelve inches. 
The plowed land is rolled, and then deeply harrowed 
three or four times. When necessary, parts of the 
land are rolled again and worked over several 
times with harrows. Home -mixed fertilizer is 
drilled in at the rate of 1,600 pounds to the acre, 
so mixed as to contain 2f per cent nitrogen, 9i per 
cent phosphoric acid, 15 per cent potash. Counting 
the mixing, the fertilizer costs about thirty dollars 
per ton. The soil is considered to be deficient in 
potash. 




Fig. 755. Potato planter. 

row, requiring sixteen to twenty bushels of seed, cut 
to one or two eyes. Rows are placed at three feet 
in order to facilitate spraying. On high-priced 
truck-garden land, closer planting may be advis- 
able. The tubers are planted with an automatic 
cutting, dropping, furrowing and covering machine. 

The fields are tilled ten to fifteen times. With 
the good preparation of land and efficient tools, this 
extent of tilling is not laborious nor expensive. 
Level culture is practiced, but considerable ridges 
are formed by the time the vines cover the 
ground. A riding double-row cultivator and one- 
horse weeder are used. Tillage invariably begins 
within a week after planting, by following the 
potato-row lines. The first and second times over, 
very narrow teeth are used, set deep. The third 
and fourth fillings are made as soon as the rows 
can be followed, working deep and very close to 
the plants. Immediately following the fourth cul- 
tivation, the weeder is used, as a rule, running 
twice over the field, crosswise and lengthwise, the 
lengthwise treatment pulling the plants up straight 
so that subsequent working is not interfered 
with. Seven-inch 
side teeth are 
now used on the 
cultivator, throw- 
ing a small, sharp 
ridge directly on 
each row, burying 
the weeds. The 
fields are hand- 
weeded once or 
twice; and, in this 
operation, all 
weak, diseased or 
prematurely ripen- 
ing potato plants 
are pulled up, being treated as weeds. 

Spraying is accomplished by means of a two- 
wheeled geared machine, developing sixty to eighty 
pounds pressure and carrying the nozzles ahead of 
the wheels. On eighteen acres in 1906, there were 
used 331 barrels (of fifty-five gallons) of Bordeaux 
mixture, entailing a cost per acre for spraying of 
twelve dollars. Careful tests showed that the 
spraying saved, above its cost, about forty dollars 




Fig. 756. The platform of one 
of the planters. 



526 



POTATO 



POTATO 



per acre. Spraying began July 2 and was com- 
pleted September 10. The area required about one 
ton of sulfate of copper in crystals, and fifteen 
barrels of stone lime. The formula is si.x pounds 
of sulfate, six pounds of lime, fifty gallons of water; 
also two pounds of Paris green per acre are added. 
Each application is made in opposite directions, 
two such sprayings being called a double application. 
From the time the vines cover the ground, at the 
beginning of each double application all nozzles are 
directed to the right, then into the centers twice 
over and then to the left twice over. This plan 
requires three double applications, and the spray is 
directed against the plant from six different posi- 
tions and angles ; at the completion of the sixth 
spraying, every part of the plant is copper-plated. 
The last week in September or the first week in 
October, while vines are still green, harvesting is 



Potato tops are all raked and burned immediately 
to destroy disease. The ground is worked about 
twice with the spring-tooth harrow and sown di- 
rectly to wheat, after applying about 400 pounds of 




Fig. 757. Four-row potato sprayer. 

begun. A four-horse elevator digger is used. In 1906, 
the crop on eighteen acres was dug and picked up in 
six and one-half actual days, the total crop being 
7,510 bushels, or 417 bushels to the acre. (Fourteen 
years previous, when Mr. Martin took the farm, the 
average yield was sixty bushels per acre. A good 
part of the above crop wa? hauled directly to the 
station and sold at foity cents ; 136 bu.shels only 
were sold as low as thiity-eight cents). The heav- 
iest day's work in the harvesting in 1906 was as 
follows : Twenty-one helpers, little and big ; three 
and three-fourths acres dug and picked up ; three 
two-horse rigs drew seventeen loads to cars one 
mile distant, comprising 1,011 crates; digging 
teams drew 283 crates on 
trucks to the barn ; at six 
o'clock there were left on 
wagons and in the field 207 
crates ; total 1,.501 crates. 
A break-down in the digger 
caused delay of one hour 
and loss in handling of 200 
bushels. 





Potato digger; low elevator type. 



Fig. 759. Potato digger; high elevator type. 

home-mixed fertilizer. Eight quarts of choice tim- 
othy seed is drilled to the acre at this time. The 
following spring, clover or alfalfa, or both, is 
added. 

In such high-class potato-growing as this, special 
attention must be given to the stock seed. A "seed 
piece" of two acres is grown according to the very 
best approved methods. This area is planted with 
the choicest large tubers, and all inferior plants 
are eradicated as rapidly as their deficiencies become 
known. Very promising hills are saved for stock 
seed the following year. This "seed piece" or field 
supplies the tubers for raising the main potato 
crops. 

European experience. 

The potato crop assumes great importance in 
Europe, partly because the corn plant is not suc- 
cessful, and the po- 
tato is the cheap 
starch -producing 
plant. It is the stand- 
ard crop for starch 
and alcohol factories, 
is the staple food of 
the poor, and is much 
fed to stock. The 
aim, as compared 
with American po- 
tato - growers (and 

reported for this article by L. R. Jones), is for a 
product adapted to one or another special purpose, 
and for a large yield quite irrespective of the seed 
or labor invested. Careful attention is paid to the 
seed, which is generally secured from more north- 
erly countries. The crop from the 
best northern-grown seed is con- 
sidered more disease-resistant and 
more productive. The origination 
of new varieties has been espe- 
cially stimulated during the last 
two decades in Great Britain and 
Germany, in order to meet the 
more specialized demands. Seed- 
balls are more abundant, owing 
probably to climatic conditions, 
and hence less difficulty is expe- 
rienced in crossing varieties. In 
Great Britain, where potatoes are 




Fig. 760. Potato sorter. 



POTATO 



POTATO 



527 



grown primarily for table use, the ideal tuber is 
white-fleshed, rich in starch, medium size, oval, 
smooth and with shallow eyes. Much attention is 
given to securing increased disease-resistance. On 
the continent the ideal table variety is smaller, 
yellow-fleshed, relatively poorer in starch and richer 
in proteids. The breeding of starch-rich varieties 
for stock-feed and factory purposes has received 
attention, especially in Germany and Austria. 

Potato-growing in the South. 

By H. Harold Hume. 

In recent years the potato, in common with 
other truck crops, has received an increasing share 
of attention in the southern states. On the Atlantic 
seaboard the southern potato territory may be said 
to e.xtend from Florida to Virginia, the area of 
greatest production being in northeastern North 
Carolina and around Norfolk, Va. 

Cropping sydcm. 

One of the principal differences 
in the culture of the potato in the 
North and in the South is that in 
the South two crops are grown, 
one in autumn and the other in 
spring. The spring crop is by far 
the larger and more important, 
being grown to supply the north- 
ern spring demand for new pota- 
toes, while the relatively small fall 
crop is disposed of locally. Plant- 
ing for the fall crop in Florida is 
made in late September or early 
October ; in the latitude of Savan- 
nah, in the latter part of August 
or early September; and farther 
north in the early part of August. The spring crop 
is generally planted in the latter half of January 
and in February and March, depending on the 
section. This crop is marketed between the latter 
part of April and the middle of July. 

Culture. 

Varieties. — Earlinosu is the principal considera- 
tion in the selection of varieties for the southern 
crop. If the variety is not early it will not meet 
the exacting conditions imposed on the culture of 
the crop by market competition. The favorite 
variety with Florida planters is Early Rose No. 4, 
nine-tenths of the seed used being of this variety. 
In other sections Bliss Triumph (Red Bliss) and 
White Bliss are grown, though the latter, because 
of its being a white variety, although equally early, 
is not so favorably received in the mark-its. 

Seed. — Generally, seed grown in the North 
(Maine, New York and Michigan) or Virginia 
second crop is preferable for use in the extreme 
south, although in the more northerly sections seed 
from the fall crop will give good results for spring 
planting. Throughout the whole area seed from 
the spring crop is used for fall-planting. 

Preparation of the land. — The best preceding 
crop for potatoes in the South is a cover of cow- 



peas. The lanil should be broken two or three 
months in advance of the spring- planting, 
thoroughly harrowed and ridged slightly. Unless 
the land is very well drained, ridging is advan- 
tageous in increasing the earliness of the crop, 
and everything which will ha.sten the growth of 
the spring-planting must be carefully considered. 
The rows may be laid off as close as three feet 
apart if a single planting is to be made, but if 
corn, cotton or some other crop is to be planted 
between the potato rows they should be five feet, 
or thereabouts, apart. 

About a week or ten days before time of plant- 
ing, depending on weather conditions, the commer- 
cial fertilizer required for the crop should be dis- 
tributed on the slight ridge referred to, and a 
second higher ridge thrown over it. 




Fig. 761. Lady-finger potatoes. 

Fertilizer. — To force the crop, large amounts of 
fertilizer must be used. There is always a con- 
siderable amount which does not become available 
for the crop during its growing season, and to 
make up for this a greater quantity must be 
applied. If the crop could be allowed a longer 
growing season, much less fertilizer would be 
required. The amount used, of course, will vary 
with the previous cropping of the land and the 
amount of native available fertility; but, in general, 
1,000 to 2,000 pounds per acre should be used. 
Florida planters generally use one ton per acre. 
While these amounts may seem excessive, the crop 
does not use all the fertilizer, and the residual 
supply may be used to good advantage in pro- 
ducing corn, cotton, hay, or some summer truck 
crop, which should always follow. 

A good average fertilizer should analyze 4 per 
cent ammonia, 6 per cent phosphoric acid and 7 
or 8 per cent pota.sh. Both organic and inorganic 
sources of ammonia may be used. Nitrate of soda 
is frequently very helpful in starting the crop. It 
should be used as a side dressing at the rate of 100 
or l.^O pounds per acre after the plants are two 
or three inches high. The phosphoric acid is 
derived almost solely from phosphatic rock. Sul- 
fate of potash, because of its effect in improving 



528 



POTATO 



POTATO 



the quality of the potato, should be given the 
preference over other sources of potash. 

The fertilizer may be applied in one or two 
separate applications. On the whole, except 
possibly on very light soils, where loss from leach- 




Fig. 762. Berries or seed-balls of the potato. 

ing may occur, it is just as well to put the entire 
quantity in the soil before planting the crop. 

Planting. — The ridge should be split open and 
the seed dropped on the normal level of the ground 
or a little above it. It may be dropped by hand 
and covered with a disk-cultivator, but in all large 
plantings the potato-planter must be used. 

To secure a more uniform stand and stronger 
plants, the seed should be exposed to strong light 
(not sunlight) for some time before planting. Seed 
intended for fall-planting should be spread out 
under the shade of a tree, covered with pine-straw 
and allowed to sprout before planting. Only that 
seed which has sprouted should be used. The 
potatoes should be cut and planted immediately 
afterward. Cutting by hand is preferred, as a 
larger yield is generally secured. The cost of cut- 
ting the seed and planting (if a planter is used) 
is two to two and one-half dollars per acre. 

Cultivation. — In normal seasons, all the necessary 
cultivation can be done with a weeder and disk- 
cultivator, although if crab-grass gets a start, as 
it frequently does in wet weather, the hand hoe 
must be used. Even then the cost of hand-work 
should not exceed twenty-five or thirty cents per 
acre. The disk-cultivator puts the middles and 
sides of the rows in excellent condition, while the 
weeder can be used to stir the tops of the ridges 
until the vines are five or six inches high. If the 
stand is good, the ridge tops will then need little 
or no further attention. During the season, six to 
eight cultivations should be given to secure the 
best yields. When the tops begin to spread, culti- 
vation may be discontinued. If cold weather is 
approaching when the plants are two or three 
inches high, they may be covered with the disk- 



cultivator and allowed to grow out again without 
uncovering. If larger, they may be partially 
covered. 

Digging and packing. 

When the tubers are two-thirds grown, they are 
ready for digging. A good average yield at this 
stage of growth is fifty barrels per acre. If the 
area is large and considerable time is taken in 
digging, a yield of fifty barrels at the beginning 
will run up to seventy-five or eighty barrels toward 
the close of the work, the greater yield being due 
to the increase in the size of the potatoes. 

Many growers prefer to dig by hand, as the mass 
of green vines and the tender skins of the new 
potatoes often make the use of a digger unsatis- 
factory. In digging by hand, the ridge should be 
barred off on both sides, the remaining part being 
leveled down and the potatoes exposed, using 
ordinary prong hoes. 

The potatoes should be graded into firsts and 
seconds as they are picked. Two gangs of pickers 
in charge of competent foremen should be em- 
ployed, one gang to pick up the firsts, the other, 
the .seconds. The less handling the potatoes receive 
the fewer breaks there will be in the skins. The 
barrels of firsts and seconds should be lined up in 
separate rows, to prevent mistakes. The pack 
should be full, well shaken down and the head 
forced into place with a barrel press. Then the 
barrels are headed and stenciled. 

The barrels should be new, clean and bright. 
Proper ventilation can be secured by means of one- 
inch auger holes, fifteen or sixteen in number, 
bored in the sides. 

Potato literature (Fraser). 

S. Fraser, The Potato, Orange Judd Company, 
New York (1905); T. W. Sanders, The Book of the 
Potato, Collingridge, London (190.5); F. B. Van 
Orman, Potatoes for Profit, tenth edition, Philadel- 
phia, Pa. (1904); W. J. Maiden, The Potato in Field 
and Garden, London (1895); E. S. Carman, The New 
Potato Culture, Rural Publishing Company, New 
York (1891) ; Sir J. B. Lawes and J. H. Gilbert, 
Composition of Potatoes and Results of Experi- 
ments with Potatoes (1890), Rothamsted Memoirs, 
Vols. V and VI; E.V. Rodiczky, Die Biographie der 
Kartoffel, Vienna (1878 ) ; J. Reinke and G. Berthold, 
Die Zersetzung der Kartoll'el durch Pilze, Berlin 
(1879) ; C. V. Riley, Potato Pests, New York (1876); 
R. A. Bruckmann et. al.. Die Kartoffel und ihre 
Kultur, Berlin (1876); James Cuthill, Practical 
Instructions for the Cultivation of the Potato, 
fifth edition (1872); Alfred Smee, The Potato Plant, 
London (1846); E. L. Pratt, Observations on the 
Potato and Remedy for the Potato Plague, Boston 
(1846); C. F. Dert'inger, Solani tubero.si esculenti, 
Tubingc-e (1774). State experiment station investi- 
tigations are summarized in the Experiment Station 
Record issued by the Office of Experiment Stations, 
Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
The United States Department of Agriculture has 
issued two Farmers' Bulletins — No. 35, Potato 
Culture ; No. 91, Potato Diseases aiid Treatment. 



PUMPKIN AND SQUASH 



PUMPKIN AND SQUASH 



529 



PUMPKIN AND SQUASH FOR STOCK-FEED- 
ING. Cucurbita I'epo, Linn., and C. maxima, 
Duch. Cucurbitaceoe. Figs. 763-7'64. 

By S. Eraser. 

Varieties of pumpkin and squash are grown for 
stock-feeding. The Mammoth Chili is one of the 




Fig. 763. 



Staminate flower and leaf o£ common field 
pumpkin {Cucurbita Pepu), 



large squashes and the Connecticut Field is the 
standard pumpkin, the.se being among the best 
kinds for feeding. 

So long as hand labor was used in working corn 
it was a common practice to put a few pumpkins 
in with the corn ; but, with the advent of machinery 
and of tillage until the corn plants are tall, the 
custom has rightly fallen into disrepute. It is a 
better practice, in most instances, to plant the crop 
by itself. 

Culture. 

A sandy loam soil is preferred. It should be in 
good condition and be given a deep fall-plowing. 
It may be marked off in checks 8x8 feet or 
8 X 10 feet in the fall, and manure applied near 
where the hill is to be planted ; or this work may 
be done in spring. The manure is covered with 
soil, and some fertilizer may be added if deemed 
advisable. About three pounds of seed are planted 
per acre, and finally three or four plants are left 
in a hill. Constant cultivation is given until the 
spreading of the vines checks it. 

The crop should be harvested and used or stored 
before severe freezing. For storage, the fruits 
should be carefully handled, not cracked or bruised, 
the stem left on, and kept in a dry and moderately 

B34 



warm cellar. Two or three mature fruits on a vine 
is considered to be a good crop and may give a 
yield of thirty or more tons per acre. Since the 
cost of production is small, this is often a very 
remunerative crop. 

Uses. 

Thus far the pumpkin has been viewed as rough- 
age, as competing with silage in the ration. That 
this is the correct view does not appear to have 
been proved. The average analysis shows that 
its percentage composition is, water, 90.5 ; ash, 
0.5 ; protein, 1.3 ; crude liber, 1.7 ; nitrogen-free 
extract, 5.2; ether extract, 0.4. About 80 per 
cent of the dry matter is regarded as digestible. 
Henry states, "Fo'- dairy cows the pumpkin is an 
excellent fall feed, none being more highly rel- 
ished ; for swine in the first stages of fattening it 
is useful either fresh or cooked with meal." In 
feeding value, the pumpkins and squashes should 
rather be compared with roots and cabbages. It is 
probable that increased attention will be given to 
these crops, as more careful feeding practices are 
developed ; at present they are merely incidental 
crops so far as stock-feeding goes. This brief 
article is designed to call attention to this class of 
plants as feeding products. 

Enemies. 

The striped cucumber beetle may destroy the 
plants while young and the squash bug is some- 
times a serious pest. The former is difficult to 
combat successfully. Arsenical poisons are effec- 
tive, but injure the" foliage. The best results gen- 
erally follow the planting of an early trap crop of 
squash, which is sprayed with arsenical poisons. 
The main crop is then sprayed with Bordeaux mix- 
ture. The squash bug is combated by keeping the 
fields free from rubbish, trapping with squash 
leaves and examining daily, and by hand-picking 
of the old bugs early in spring. 

Literature. 

Squashes : How to Crow Them, J. J. H. Gregory 
(1889), Orange .Judd Company, New York ; Farmers' 




Fig. 764. Connecticut field pumpkin. 



530 



RAPE 



RAPE 



Cyclopedia of Agriculture, Wilcox & Smith, Orange 
Judd Company; Principles of Vegetable-Gardening, 
L. H. Bailey, The Macmillan Company. For insects 
and diseases. New Jersey Experiment Station, Bul- 
letin No. 94 ; New York State E.xperiment Station, 
Bulletins Nos. 75, 119; Massachusetts State Report, 
1892, p. 225; same, 1890, p. 211. There is little 
literature on the growing of these plants for stock- 
feeding ; the above references are to horticultural 
writings chiefly. 

RAPE. Brassica Napus, Linn. Cruciferm. Figs. 
765-767. 

By ^. L. Stone. 

Rape is grown primarily for forage and for the 
manufacture of oil from its seeds ; also for bird- 
seed. It is closely related to the mustard, cabbage, 
cauliflower, kohlrabi, kale and turnip. In appear- 
ance it very closely resembles the rutabaga or Swe- 



} <, 



f^%-^^^J^;i 







~v 



Pig. 761. Dwarf Essex rape, showing growth of two months. 

dish turnip. Unlike the rutabaga, however, the rape 
plant runs almost entirely to leaves, and its roots, 
instead of being bulbous like the rutabaga, are 
fusiform or stringy, and resemble those of the cab- 
bage. The leaves of the rape have the bluish shade 
characteristic of the rutabaga, and are variously 
cut and curled. The leaves grow very rank and 
are sweet, tender and very succulent. The plants 
grow to be one to four or more feet tall, according 
to soil and season. 

Rape may be either annual or biennial, depend- 
ing on the variety. The annual or summer varie- 
ties are grown almost entirely for purposes of seed 
production, while the biennial or winter sorts are 
cultivated for forage purposes. In either case, at 
flowering time the plant bears large numbers of 
bright yellow flowers about one-half inch in length 
and the same in diameter at the crown. The seeds 
are small and black, with roughened seed-coats, and 
to the uninstructed are diflicult to distinguish from 
those of other members of the mustard family. 
The annual varieties are reproduced by seed each 
year ; the biennial varieties, under favorable con- 



ditions, live through the winter and produce seed 
the second season. Bird-seed rape is a good ex- 
ample of the former, and Dwarf Essex rape (Fig. 
765) of the Iftter. Rape must not be confused 
with colza (page 307). 

History. 

Rape has been known in England since the six- 
teenth century, and may possibly be native there, 
although there seems to be no definite information 
concerning that fact. As early as the seventeenth 
century large quantities of oil were made from 
rape seed in England and on the continent. The 
quantity has increased, until today rape-seed oil 
occupies an important position in the trades and 
manufactures of Europe. The rape plant is now 
distributed over practically ail of Europe, northern 
Asia, Canada and the United States. 

Forage rape has been known and grown for as 
many years as the bird-seed rape, from which the 
oil is manufactured. It has long been a strong 
factor in the feeding practices of English and 
Scotch farmers, and has been grown in Canada for 
more than thirty years. Many farmers in the 
United States have come to recognize its value as 
a soiling crop, and its production here has rapidly 
increased in the last ten years. 

Whether or not the growing of the German or 
bird rape is ever practiced to any great extent in 
the United States will depend largely on the coal- 
oil supply. If the time ever comes when we need 
to depend on vegetable oils for illuminating and 
lubricating purposes, rape oil will be one of the 
most important. 

Culture. 

Soil. — Any good, arable soil will produce good 
crops of rape, but the plant is a gross feeder and 
the best crops are secured on soils which are 
very fertile and contain large quantities of humus 
or vegetable matter. Good sod land, turned over in 
the fall and given thorough preparation in the 
spring, makes a good seed-bed for rape, the roots 
of which will penetrate the sod and make use of all 
available nourishment. Rape can also be grown to 
advantage on new land, as it will there produce 
abundantly and stumps and roots will not prevent 
stock pasturing it off. 

Fertilizing. — Rape can utilize a very large amount 
of plant-food, and it seems impossible to furnish 
available nutrients in too great quantities. The best 
method of apjilying manure is to spread it on sod 
in the early fall and plow later. Any soil nutrients 
that may have leached down will then have been 
absorbed by the grass roots and held near the sur- 
face. Plowing late in the fall will preserve a large 
share of the fertilizer and at the same time allow 
the sod to decompose during the winter, and thus 
assure a good seed-bed in the spring. 

It is a custom in some places to follow a grain 
crop with rape without plowing. In such cases a 
di.sk-harrow set to cut well and to lap one-half will 
provide a seed-bed in which seed may safely be 
sown. If the season is favorable a good crop of fall 
pasturage can thus be secured. A corn-field after 



RAPE 



RAPE 



531 



the last cultivation is sometimes used as a seed-bed, 
and where the rainfall is sufficiently heavy and the 
corn not too thick, good crops m.ay be secured. 
However, the season is an exceptional one in which 
this method will meet with success, as the corn crop 
usually makes use of all the sunlight and moisture 
that are available. 

Another method which 'has proved very success- 
ful in some sections is to sow rape with oats. The 
rape in this case should be sown one to two weeks 
later than the oats, to give the best results. If the 
rape is sown at the same time, it is likely to grow 
as rapidly as the oats, causing great inconvenience 
in cutting the grain and sometimes producing 
moldy bundles. Because of the great succulence 
of the leaves, they are slow in drying. When the 
rape seed is sown a week later than the oats, it can 
be harrowed in. with a light smoothing harrow 
without much damage to the oats. The oats thus 
get well along before the rape starts and at harvest 
time very few of the rape leaves get into the 
bundles and no damage results. After the grain is 
cut the rape comes on rapidly, and in the course of 
three or four weeks sheep may be turned on it. 

Varieties. — There are several varieties of rape, 
some of which make good forage and others of 
which do not, so that in ordering rape seed it is 
necessary to designate the kind. Experiments at 
various experiment stations, notably at Ottawa 
(Canada), Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan, have 
demonstrated the Dwarf Essex rape to be the best 
variety for forage purposes. If seed-growing for 
purposes of oil production is contemplated, then 
seed of some annual variety should be sown. 

Seed. — The rate at which the seed is to be sown 
depends on the seed, the soil and the method of 
sowing. The seed should be well developed and 
give a strong and vigorous germination. Before 
ordering the bulk of seed for sowing, it is well to 
request one or more dealers to send samples of 
seed. These can then be examined to see whether 
there are any weed seeds or other impurities in the 
seed, and germination tests can be made. [See 
article on Seed-testing, page 141.] Rape seed that 
will not give a germination test of over 90 per 
cent should not be purchased. The seed weighs 
sixty pounds to the bu.shel and can be purchased 
in quantities for about five cents a pound. 

Seeding. — Rape seed is sown in drills or broad- 
casted. When broadcasted, the seed should be sown 
at the rate of three to four pounds to the acre, de- 
pending on the physical condition and fertility of 
the land. It may be sown to advantage with a grain 
drill, set to sow the proper amount, or with a hand- 
seeder if the field is not too large. 

When sown in drills, rape should be seeded at 
the rate of two or three pounds to the acre, and 
the drills should be thirty inches apart. The rape 
can then be cultivated and its growth will be more 
rapid. It should be cultivated often enough to keep 
down the weeds, and after every rain to conserve 
the soil moisture. The seed should be sown with a 
hand drill of some kind, or it may be sown with a 
grain drill by stopping the intervening holes in 
some way and leaving open those which are the 



proper distances apart. This is the best method of 
sowing, as when stock is turned on the rape the 
tendency is to keep between the rows and much 
less of the rape is trampled on and wasted. The 
plants remain upright until nothing but the stem is 
left, and if the stock is then removed for a time a 
second growth of leaves appears and often a third 
growth. This is seldom the case when the rape is 
broadcasted, as the plants are injured by trampling. 

If the land is e.xceedingly rich, the seed can be 
sown more heavily than on soils of a poor grade, 
and this point must be considered in sowing. It is 
well not to sow the seed too thin in any case, as 
the forage is likely to be coarse and not so pala- 
table. If rape is to be raised on very low ground, 
the seed should be sown on raised ridges, leaving 
opportunity between for good surface drainage. 
On ordinary soils this has been found to be un- 
necessary. 

Place in the rotation. — Rape can be used almost 
anywhere in a rotation of crops, taking the place 
of the cultivated crop, such as corn, roots or pota- 
toes. When grown by itself in this way the land 
should be free from weeds if the seed is broad- 
casted. If sown in drills, the land may be kept 
clean by cultivation. Rape may also be used, when 
sown broadcast, as a nurse crop for clover, for 
when the rape leaves are eaten ofi^ the clover 
begins to shoot up. Many good catches of clover 
have been secured in this way. 

Harvesting and handling. 

Owing to its great succulence it is impossible to 
cure the forage or biennial rape satisfactorily, and 
if it is in exceptional cases well cured it is not 
palatable and animals as a rule refuse to eat it. 
As a result, the forage rape is almost never cut for 
hay or for the silo, but is pastured or cut for 
soiling. 

When rape is grown for seed it may either be 
cut with knives or be pulled. In either case it must 
be allowed to cure until thoroughly dry, after 
which it may be piled up in a barn or stack and 
threshed, at the convenience of the grower. If 
stacked outside, care should be taken to handle 
while damp enough to prevent shelling, and the 
stack should be covered with some rain-proof sub- 
stance, such as marsh hay or boards. 

Storage of seed. — After threshing, the seed should 
be stored in not too great bulk. Owing to the high 
oil content of the rape seeds they are liable to be- 
come rancid and to heat to an extent to spoil the 
germinating power. 

The storage of the seed after cleaning is very 
important. The seed should be put in piles, not 
over three inches deep unless perfectly dry. When 
in a perfectly dry condition, the seed may be piled 
a foot deep in summer, and two feet deep in winter, 
but must be stirred with a shovel frequently to 
drive ofl: the moisture which is absorbed in damp 
weather. When seed is to be dried rapidly, it should 
be turned twice a day. In all cases the drying bins 
should be subjected to a good circulation of air. 

Cleaning the seed. — Before rape seed can be used 
fnr oil manufacture it must be thoroughly cleaned 



532 



RAPE 



RAPE 



to remove all foul seeds and earthy material. In 
this cleaning process a six- or eight-sided cylinder 
is used, set on a slant of three-fourths to one inch 
to the running foot. This cylinder is composed of a 
fine screen for two-thirds its length and a coarser 




•!!^r4T..^I 



\y^- 









Fig. 766. 



Fattening hogs on rape. 
sliown in Fig. 



Tlie fence is tiie liurdle 
767. 



screen for the other one-third. The screen revolves 
at the rate of forty revolutions per minute, requires 
one-fourth horse-power to run it, and will clean 
sixty-four to seventy-two bushels of rape seed per 
hour. The whole apparatus is so set that a strong 
current of air carries away all dust. When the 
seed is very dirty the fall per running foot of the 
cylinder is diminished and the number of revolu- 
tions per minute doubled. 

Care must be taken in caring for the seed to 
prevent attacks of mold and must, and the occur- 
rence of rancidity in the oil and rape cake or meal. 
This can be done by being careful not to pile seed in 
too deep piles and by proper precaution in refining. 

Feeding. 

The principal uses of forage rapes are for soiling 
and pasturage. In the former case the plants are 
cut with knives or a scythe, and fed to stock in 
desirable quantities. In the latter case the animals 
are turned in to harvest the crop for themselves, 
which, after they become accustomed to it, they 
do very thoroughly and with a gi-eat deal of satis- 
faction. Rape resembles clover in its composition 
and should make a good grade of silage, but has 
not met with success as a silage crop. Whether fed 
as a soiling crop or pastured, it is a very palatable 
and valuable 
feed. 

Rape has 
been shown to 
be a very valu- 
able feed for 
fatteninglambs 
and pigs, and 
has been fed 
even to dairy 
cows with sat- 
isfactory re- 
sults, although when so fed it should follow rather 
than immediately precede the milking period. If 
fed just before milking, the milk is likely to have 
the cabbage flavor, and will to a greater or less 
extent taint the butter. 



It has also been found impossible to make good 
cheese from milk obtained from cows receiving 
rape as part of the ration, and it makes practically 
no difference whether the rape is fed before or 
after milking. (Bulletin No. 115, Wisconsin Ex- 
periment Station.) 

When turning lambs on rape, it is well 
first to have their stomachs partially full 
of some drier food, as the great succulence 
of the rape plant is liable to cause hoven 
or bloat and often scours, with fatal results. 
Especially is this true when the rape is still 
wet from a rain or heavy dew. Swine are 
not thus affected and can be turned in at 
will. A good plan is to have the rape-field 
adjoining a blue-grass pasture in which 
the sheep can feed for a time before being 
turned into the rape. After sheep have be- 
come accustomed to feeding on the rape 
they can be turned directly on it without 
harm. 

When small numbers of animals are being fitted 
for show, a movable fence can be used and a small 
patch pastured at a time. A diagram of hurdle and 
panel for such a fence is shown in Fig. 767. In 
Fig. 766, the hurdle is shown in use. It some- 
times happens that stock do not at first relish the 
rape, but all eventually learn to eat it and when 
once started eat it voraciously, cases being known 
when swine have even dug out the roots and eaten 
them. [For fuller discussion of comparable methods 
and results, consult the article on Soiling.] 

It should be understood that, while very fattening, 
rape cannot be depended on as a single feed properly 
to fatten animals, but must be used in conjunction 
with a grain ration. Flesh made by feeding rape 
alone is likely to be soft and blubbery, and not of 
the firm handling qualities to suit either the stock 
judge in the show ring or the butcher on the block. 
[Further consideration of the feeding value of rape 
and other products may be expected in Vol. III.] 

When cut for soiling, rape should be fed soon 
after cutting, for if left until badly wilted it loses 
its palatability. If not cut closer than four inches 
from the ground, it was found at the Wi.sconsin 
Experiment Station that three crops could be 
secured in a good year, yielding a total of thirty- 
six tons of feed to the acre. 




r 




■A 




i! 










;i » 


CM 


1 . 




. |s! 




i 1 1 


,1 


1 


V, / _ 


l' 



Fig. 767. Sketcb of hurdle used in pasturing lambs and hogs on rape. 

hurdle is shown in Fig. 766. 



The method of using this 



In a favorable season, stock may be turned on 
the rape in about six weeks from the time of 
planting, but more often it takes eight weeks for 
rape to reach the best or most satisfactory feeding 
stage. 



RAPE 



RAPE 



533 



Manufacture of oil. 

There are cr have been several ways of crushing 
the seed for oil, and many machines have been con- 
structed for each process. The early method was 
by use of a stamping mill in which the seed was 
run into mortars and crushed by means of stamp- 
ers. This was a cumbersome process and gave way 
to the roller system, in which the seeds were run 
between rolls set at proper distances. The early 
system of rolling did not crush the seed fine enough 
and it was necessary to recrush by means of mill- 
stones or runners. This method also proved too 
costly and cumbersome, and was replaced by a 
machine in which were three sets of rollers. Each 
set was a little closer than the preceding, and the 
crushed seed passed from one to the other until, 
after passing the third set of rolls, it was in proper 
condition to go into the presses. 

It was found later that the extraction of the oil 
was facilitaled by heating the crushed seed before 
putting it into the presses. Enough of the pulp 
was placed in a shallow pan to make one cake — nine 
to eleven pounds. These pans were exposed to heat 
varying from 167° Fahi-. to 176° Fahr., but never 
to 212° Fahr., as this would have damaged the oil. 
In the modern process of heating, the pulp is 
steamed to the required temperature. 

Many styles of presses have been used, but all 
the more modern presses are operated by hydraulic 
power and are composed of several pans so ar- 
ranged that pressure can be applied all at once. 
Experience has shown that a more thorough ex- 
pression of the oil can be made when cakes are in 
separate pans than when several cakes are placed 
one on another in the same press with only the 
cloths between. The material for each cake is 
placed in a cloth so cut that the ends when folded 
overlap, making a perfect case. The cloths are 
composed of linen on one side and wool on the 
other, with ropes sewn between the two at inter- 
vals, thus giving the scalloped appearance to the 
cakes. The cakes are submitted to a pressure of 
2,840 pounds to the square inch and the process of 
oil expression requires fifteen minutes. After the 
pressure is removed, the cakes are taken from the 
press and the edges trimmed on the assumption that 
the oil has been completely removed at the center 
of the cake, but has not from the edges. The 
material cut from the edges is mixed with a new 
lot and repressed. 

The oil runs into a collecting reservoir from 
which it is pumped into a 2,000- gallon tank. From 
here the crude oil is pumped either into barrels for 
crude oil use or into refining reservoirs. In refining 
the oil it is exposed first to a heat of 86° Fahr., in 
an open vat to which J per cent to 1 per cent of 
sulfuric acid is added with continuous stirring. In 
stirring, a vertical movement is preferable to a 
horizontal or rotary motion. From the heating vat 
the oil is run into a tank and washed several times 
with hot water, and then into a vat where 5 per 
cent of common salt is added and the oil left until, 
with the aid of the salt, it has become completely 
clarified. For the purest oils, suitable for table use, 
a filtrating process is resorted to in which the oil 



is run through successive layers of linen tow and 
moss. 

Refined oil should be of a pale yellow color, 
clear, free from acid and without any rancidity. It 
should burn with a clear white light without soot 
or odor. Such oils are used for lights and, when 
specially treated, for table and cooking purposes. 

Lubricating oil should contain as much fat as 
possible, be clear from acid and mucus and form no 
sediment. Such is the crude rape-seed oil, and this 
is its principal use. 

By-products. 

Rape-seed cake is a valuable by-product of rape- 
oil manufacture. The cake is broken by means of 
mills made for the purpose, where the cake passes 
between toothed steel cylinders. After breaking it 
may be ground into a fine meal in roller milks. This 
meal contains 9.23 per cent of oil and 5 per cent 
of nitrogen, which makes it a valuable feed, when 
it does not become rancid, and a valuable fertilizer 
at all times. It has been found that 85 per cent of 
the protein substances, 88 per cent of the fat sub- 
stances, and 78 per cent of the non-nitrogenous 
substances in rape meal are digestible. While a 
valuable feed, rape-seed meal needs to be used in 
conjunction with other feeds, for when used exclu- 
sively it forms flesh of a soft and flabby and wholly 
undesirable character. 

The high percentage of nitrogen contained in the 
meal and the amount of phosphoric acid in the ash 
make rape-seed meal a very valuable fertilizer. 
Analyses have shown 6.82 per cent of the meal to 
be ash, and of the ash 32.7 per cent is phosphoric 
acid. Besides these two valuable soil constituents, 
the meal leaves a residue of organic matter to im- 
prove the mechanical and water-holding properties 
of the soil. The 5 per cent of nitrogen contained in 
the rape cake is almost immediately available. In 
their experiments at Rothanisted, England, Lawes 
and Gilbert found that 70.9 per cent of the nitro- 
gen in the rape-seed meal was utilized by the crop 
the season of application. In this it compared very 
favorably with nitrate of soda, of which 78.1 per 
cent was found to be immediately available. 

Value. 

Grisdale, of the Ottawa Experimental Farm, esti- 
mates the cost of growing an acre of rape at 
six dollars and ninety-five cents. The cost will, of 
course, vary with the locality, price of labor, and 
other factors. When care is taken, crops of 1,000 
pounds of seed per acre are not uncommon. If sold 
at five cents per pound, the seed would bring fifty 
dollars per acre. Estimating the growing of the 
crop to cost ten dollars per acre, the rape would 
still give a net return of forty dollars per acre. 
This would surpass a crop of ninety bushels of oats 
per acre, taking into consideration the straw and 
the heavier soil-feeding of the rape. Rape may 
therefore prove a paying crop in some sections. 

Literature. 

Thomas Shaw, Forage Crops, Orange Judd Com- 
pany, New York ; John Wrightson, Fallow and 



534 



RICE 



RICE 



Fodder Crops, Chapman & Hail, London ; W. M. 
Hays, Rape — Test of Varieties, Bulletin No. 46, 
Minnesota Experiment Station ; A. S. Hitchcock, 
Rape as a Forage Crop, Farmers' Bulletin No. 164, 
United States Department of Agriculture ; John 
A. Craig, The Rape Crop, Its Growth and Value 
for Soiling and Fattening Sheep and Swine, Bulletin 
No. 58, Wisconsin Experiment Station ; Forage 
and Fodders, Report, Kansas State Board of Agri- 
culture, Quarter Ending March, 1900 ; J. H. Gris- 
dale. The Rape Plant : Its Culture, Use and Value, 
Bulletin No. 42, Central p]xperimental Farm, 
Ottawa, Canada ; The Book of Rothamsted Experi- 
ments, Compiled by A. D. Hall, John Murray, 
London (1905); Wm. T. Brannt, Animal and Vege- 
table Fats and Oils, Henry Carey Baird & Com- 
pany, Philadelphia. 

RICE. Oryza sativa, Linn. Gramineoe. Figs. 768 
773 ; also Fig. 531, p. 371. 

By S. A. Knapp. 

An annual plant of the grass family grown for 
its grain, which is used for human food. The 
seeds grow on short separate stems radiating from 
the main stalk, and at maturity stand at a height 
of two to five feet. The flowers of rice (Fig. 768) 
are perfect with six stamens, 
one borne in each spikelet, 
and usually with rudiments of 
others ; the fruit or grain 
(Fig. 769) is oblong and ob- 
tuse and closely enclosed in 
the glume or hull, and it falls 
or shells easily, hull and all. 
The grain is used in a great 
variety of ways, and it prob- 
ably supplies more human be- 
ings with food than any other 
single plant. Rice is exten- 
sively cultivated around the 
world in the tropical and sub- 
tropical countries, mostly fol- 
lowing the shores. Its culture 
is very ancient. 

Distrihution. 

While a tropica! plant, rice 
thrives in subtropical coun- 
tries. It is known to have ex- 
isted in India in early historic 
periods and is doubtless indig- 
enous there. It requires a 
rich, moist soil, but is of wide 
adaptation. It thrives better 
under high temperature than 
wheat and is more resistant 
to extreme heat. It has been 
produced under favorable conditions as far north 
as 44°, but its production is limited chiefly to about 
40° north and south of the equator; hence it is 
adapted to all of the states south of Pennsylvania, 
and under favorable conditions may be grown in 
most of the United States. With increasing den- 
sity of population it will doubtless become a staple 




Fig. 768. 
Rice {Oryza sativa). 
Floret open.sliow- 
in g rtower with 
two stigm.as !iiid 
six stamens. Fig. 
531 8 ii o w s the 
hahit of llie plant. 



crop in all of the states south of the Ohio river, 
especially on lands now considered waste by reason 
of insufficient drainage. Wherever fresh water is 
found in abundance and can be economically ap- 
plied to the lands within the rice zone, it will 
prove a profitable crop and will become staple. 

In the United States 
the production of rice 
has been limited mainly 
to the south Atlantic 
coast states and to the 
states bordering on the 
Gulf of Mexico. 




. Two types of rice. 

common long Hon- 
duras on the left, and the 
short Japanese on the 
right. The short-kerneled 
rice does not break so 
readily as the long, in the 
polishing. 



Development of the rice 
industry. 

Rice was iirst intro- 
duced into America soon 
after the settlement of 
Virginia and attained 
considerable importance 

in the colonial times. According to the Encyclo- 
pedia Americana, the practical introduction of 
rice took place accidentally in 1694 in lower Caro- 
lina. A vessel bound for Liverpool from Madi- 
gascar, blown out of her course and in need of 
repairs, put into Charleston. The captain gave 
Landgrave Thomas Smith a small parcel of rough 
rice. This was used as seed ; enough was soon 
grown to provide the needs of the colony, and 
early in the following century it began to fur- 
nish a considerable amount for export. In 1707, 
seventeen ships were reported as sailing from 
South Carolina with cargoes of rice. Production 
gradually increased, and in 17.30 it reached 
21,153,054 pounds; in 1755 it was 50,747,090 
pounds, and in 1770 it had increased to 75,264,- 
500 pounds. This was the product of slave labor 
and was mostly exported to Europe and the West 
Indies. During the next seventy years the increase 
■was slight. In 1840 the report was only 84,145,800 
pounds, but in 1860 it amounted to 187,167,032 
pounds. The civil war practically destroyed the 
industry. The crop of 1865 was reported at 
4,740,580 pounds. It gradually revived till in 
1880 it reached 85,596,800 pounds, and in 189.3, 
237,546,900 pounds, of which amount Louisiana 
produced approximately 182,400,000 pounds and 
the Atlantic coast 55,146,900 pounds. In 1905, 
the total rice crop of the country was 12,923,920 
bushels, valued at $12,266,343. 

In Louisiana the production of rice began at an 
early date, but the commercial product was mainly 
confined to the alluvial lands along the Mississippi 
till about 1884, when on the prairie region of 
southwestern Louisiana the rice industry began to 
be developed along entirely new 'ines. The wheat 
machinery of the northwestern states was adjusted 
to the rice crop ; the gang-plow, the force-feed 
drill, the twine binder and the steam thresher 
became necessary adjuncts to the rice-farm. This 
was possible because the tenacious sub.soil of the 
prairies along the Gulf coast becomes firm enough 
to sustain harve.sting machinery in the period that 
elapses between drawing off the water of irrigation 




Plate XX. Rice ; showing the pacicle. and a rice-field on the Louisiana prairies 



RICE 



RICE 



535 



and the ripening of the grain. These prairies are 
now a great rice region. 

Varieties. 

There are a great many varieties of rice, mainly 
the result of the different climates, soils and 
methods of cultivation under which rice has been 
produced through long periods of years. For prac- 
tical purposes these numerous varieties may be 
reduced to a few. The three types mainly culti- 
vated in the United States are the Carolina, the 
Honduras and the -Japan. The famous Gold Seed 
rice of the Carolinas ranks among the best rices 
of the world for size, richness of kernel, and large 
yield. The so-called Honduras rice, mainly im- 
ported from Mexico, is similar in form of grain 
and in habits of growth to the Carolina. Of the 
many varieties of Japan rice, all have the short, 
fat type of berry, but differ in habits of growth, 
length of head, date of maturity, strength of straw 
and other qualities. The Japanese appear to have 
bred and selected intelligently for certain charac- 
teristics that would meet local requirements. Some 
are storm-resistant, some mature early, some have 
a straw very valuable for hats, and other varie- 
ties are excellent for paper. Thus some valuable 
characteristics have been made dominant in each 
variety. All of the leading varieties excel in yield 
and milling qualities. It is not uncommon for the 
famous Kiushu rice (Japan) to mill 90 to 95 per 
cent of head rice ; 40 per cent is a good average 
for Honduras and 60 for Carolina. 

Red rice (Ori/za rufipogoii), so called because 
the grains are red or streaked with red, is a sep- 
arate species, hardy, of early maturity and great 
vigor. In foreign countries it is not considered 
very objectionable, and in some countries, as 
Porto Rico, where the rice is slightly colored for 
common use with some harmless vegetable dye, 
the matter of the color of the grains has no com- 
mercial importance. In the United States, how- 
ever, the demand is for white rice and wherever 
the red rice invades a field the grade is lowered. 
Red rice can be eradicated by going through the 
fields and pulling all the stools of that variety, by 
late spring-plowing or by rotation of crops. 

Wild rice. — The wild rice of North America (Zi- 
zaniii aquatica) differs widely from true rice. It 
abounds in places of shallow water, in marshy 
places and along the borders of lakes. The grain is 
about one-half inch long,- slender, farinaceous. It 
shatters easily when ripe. Some tribes of Indians 
use it extensively for food. Chicago furnishes a 
market for it at a high price, where it is regarded 
as a great delicacy. It is not cultivated. 

Oriental rice-culture. 

In oriental countries the method of production 
usually followed is to plant in carefully prepared 
seed-beds, where, after the rice has germinated 
and is three inches tall, the soil is daily saturated 
with water till the plants have reached a height of 
six to eight inches, when they are ready for trans- 
planting to the field. Two objects are attained by 
this method of growing the rice plants in beds and 



transplanting them to the fields. A more uniform 
stand and a larger yield are secured and later 
planting in the field is permitted, thus allowing 
time to harvest the winter crop to which the field 
was devoted. Transplanting is done by running a 
spade about two inches under the surface, which 
prunes the roots slightly and renders the plants 
easily pulled up by the tops. They are then pulled, 
tied in bundles of five or six, and carried to the 
field for setting. Previous to this the field is 
watered by rainfall or artificial irrigation, then 
spaded or plowed and further worked until the soil 
is a mass of fine, thick mud, four to six inches 
deep and covered with an inch or more of water. 
In this the field hands stand and set the plants in 
rows eight inches apart by six inches in the rows. 

After setting, the field is kept flooded with water 
till the plants are about twelve to fifteen inches 
tall. The water is then drawn ofi^, the rice is hoed, 
and by some growers slightly root-pruned. It is 
then refiooded and the water allowed to remain till 
about ten days before the grain is fully ripe. This 
period is gradually indicated by the head bending 
over from the weight of the grain. 

The grain is universally cut with a reaping 
hook, bound in bundles about three inches in diam- 
eter and hung on bamboo poles or laid on the 
levees of the fields for curing. The rice grains are 
then removed by drawing the heads through a 
hatchell or by pounding them over a log, or by 
piling the sheaves on a clay floor and driving oxen 
over them, as the custom of the country may ap- 
prove. The grain is spread on mats or floors and 
dried in the sun, and is then stored. 

The hulls or husks are generally removed be- 
fore the grain is sold. The sacks for holding the 
rice in transit to market are commonly made by 
the farmer out of rice-straw. [Further discussion 
of rice-growing in tropical countries is found in 
Vol. I, Chapter II, pages 108, 119, 124, 125. Figs. 
60, 129, 1.30, 1.32, 133, 140, 141, and Plates VI 
and VII (Vol. I) are interesting in this connection.] 

Rice-culture in the United States. 

The larger part of the rice produced in tht 
United States is grown on the low alluvial lands 
along rivers, in reclaimed swamps and marshes 
and tide-water lands, and on level tracts capable 
of irrigation. The tide-water lands lie back up the 
rivers above the meeting of fresh and salt water, 
so that the fields are not liable to flooding with 
salt water. Next to the river a levee is con- 
structed sufiiciently broad and high to keep out the 
river water. This is provided with tide gates. The 
field is then thoroughly ditched and drained, and 
the land is plowed and prepared for a crop. 

Soil. — Rice prefers a rich, clay loam soil with the 
surface thoroughly pulverized at the time of sow- 
ing to the depth of three inches. The soil is pre- 
pared as for wheat. The soil below should be firm, 
such as would result from fall-plowing. The clay 
subsoil should be retentive of water. 

Excellent drainage of the .soil is an important 
condition of good rice-farming. Good drainage 
allows earlier planting, makes possible a more 



536 



RICE 



RICE 



thorough preparation of the soil, insures a better 
stand, improves the quality of the grain, allows 
prompt and complete removal of the water of irri- 
gation at harvest-time and provides one of the 
most important conditions for curing the crop. 




Fig. 770. Taking water from the Mississippi river over the levee 
by means of a siphon. 

The soil of the Gulf coast prairies varies from a 
sandy loam to a black clay loam and is uniformly 
underlaid with a clay subsoil more or less tena- 
cious. The soil is generally rich in plant-food ; the 
surface of the land is mainly smooth and falls 
slightly toward the Gulf or some drainage stream. 
The numerous rivers flowing through these prairies 
to the Gulf furnish an abundant supply of fresh 
water for irrigation. 

The rice-fields vary in area from ten to one hun- 
dred acres, depending on the variation in the level 
of the surface. Many of the best rice-farmers do 
not allow a variation of more than 
three inches in the total levels. 

Planting. — Rice is planted in 
drills or is broadcasted and har- 
rowed in at the rate of fifty-five 
to eighty pounds of seed per acre. 
On land which has been long in 
cultivation the larger amount of 
seed is advisable. Rice should not 
be planted till after the wheat 
crop is in, as it germinates at a 
slightly higher temperature. The 
seeding period extends from 
March 15 to June 15, but ordi- 
narily the seed .should be in by 
the middle of April. 

Watering. — As soon as the rice 
is up, watering begins. The depth 
of the water is increased as 
rapidly as the growth of the plant 
will permit, till such a depth is 
attained that the weeds in the 
field are destroyed. 

For watering the rice-fields, 
surface canals are constructed (with many later- 
als), running from the river banks across the 
prairies, and into these the river water is elevated 
by powerful pumps and distributed to the rice- 



fields. The elevation of the canals above their 
water-supply varies from five to sixty feet, with a 
probable average of twenty or twenty-five feet. 
Along the Mississippi the water is siphoned over 
the levee (Fig. 770). In the Carolinas, a different 
method is followed. After the first water has 
been applied to sufficient depth to kill gra.=s 
and weeds, it is then slowly withdrawn and 
the crop hoed, and a few days allowed for 
dry growth, when the field is again flooded 
and kept in that condition continuously till 
the crop is nearly mature. (Fig. 771.) 

A critical period for rice is when it comes 
into bloom. If heavy showers are frequent 
at this time they will wash the pollen off, 
thus preventing fertilization. 

Harvesting. — Rice should be cut a few 

days before it is perfectly ripe, when the 

straw begins to turn yellow, and should be 

shocked with a good cap to protect as many 

grains as possible from the direct rays of 

the sun, as the too rapid drying may produce 

sun cracks, causing the kernel to break in 

milling. The milling quality of the grain is 

improved by stacking, if the bundles are dry 

and the stacks are small. In the past the crop was 

generally cut with a sickle and bound by hand, 

and it still is to a considerable extent. But the 

draining of the fields and the using of modern 

harvesting machinery is a marked advance over 

the old method and is taking its place wherever 

practicable. (Fig. 772.) 

In the United States considerable rice is mark- 
eted with the hull on, because there are no appli- 
ances on the farm for removing it, and the kernel 
is better protected from insect enemies if incased 
in the hull during the period of storage. 







Fig. 771. 



Imp iw 

Rice-fleld prior to drawing off water for harvesting. Louisiana. 



Yield. 

The average yield is twenty-five to thirty-five 
bushels per acre, but products of one hundred and 
fifteen bushels per acre have been secured. With 



RICE 



RICE 



537 



good soil and seed the average crop may be more 
than doubled by a thorough preparation of the soil 
and the proper application of water while the rice 
is young and during the entire period of growth. 

Milliiig. 

Rice mills (Fig. 773) have been perfected until 
they are a vast network of complicated machinery, 
taking the grain in the rough, separating the weed 
seeds and light grains, removing the hulls and 
then the bran, polishing, grading and placing each 
grade in sacks of recorded weight, ready for sew- 
ing and marking. The capacities of rice mills in 
the United States vary from 1,000 
to 10,000 bushels of rough rice 
per day of twenty-four hours. 

The products of the rice in 
milling are classified commer- 
cially, as follows : Head rice 
(whole grains), straights (mostly 
whole grains but a grade slightly 
below head rice), screenings 
(broken rice, of which there are 
several grades), brewers' rice 
(very finely broken rice used in 
the manufacture of beer), polish 
(a highly nutritious flour scoured 
from the surface of the kernels 
in polishing, sometimes incor- 
rectly called rice flour, which 
latter is ground rice), rice bran 
(the cuticle immediately within 
the hull), and rice hulls (the outer 
covering). The approximate mill- 
ing outturn of 162 pounds of 
rough rice is 98 pounds of com- 
mercial rice, 6 pounds of polish, 28 pounds of bran 
and 80 pounds of hulls. 

ComposUion of rice products. 

The chemical constituents .of the products of 
rice are as follows : 

Commercial or polished rice : Total nutrients, 
87.15 ; protein, 7..52 ; ash, 0.73 ; fat, 0.38 ; carbo- 
hydrates, 78.05. Rice polish : Protein, 11.06; ash, 
8.45 ; fats, 5.92 ; carbohvdrates, 65.97. Rice bran : 
Protein, 9.88; ash, 11..55; fats, 9.21; carbohy- 
drates, 52.63. Rice hulls: Protein, 3.50 ; ash, 
18.29 ; fat, 0.4 ; carbohydrates, 41.80 ; crude fiber, 
37.50. Rice straw: Protein, 3.31 ; ash, 14.64 ; fats, 
0.59; carbohydrates, 3.3.31; crude fiber, 32.01. 

It will be noted that rice polish and rice bran 
remove nearly all the fats from the rice, and con- 
sequently rice as sold on the market has little 
flavor. The retention of the polish, as in oriental 
milling, would materially increase the flavor, and if 
the bran were retained rice would be rich in flavor. 

Definitions of terms. 

The commercial terms used in the United States 
may be defined as follows: Rough rice, or paddy, 
signifies rice with the hull on; a sack is an indefi- 
nite quantity varying from 160 to 210 pounds; a 
barrel is 162 pounds of rough rice; a pocket is 100 
pounds of milled or cleaned rice. 



Enemies. 

Lisccts. — The principal injurious insect is the 
rice weevil (Calandra Oryzce). It originated in 
India and has gradually become common in all the 
rice-producing countries of the world. It is not 
common in overflowed fields, mainly attacking 
stored rice. It is readily killed by the use of 
carbon bisulfid. 

The rice grub is the larva of one of the scara- 
bfeidffi and looks like the ordinary white grub. It 
is killed by water. 

The rice-stalk borer is the larva of a crambid 
moth, which lays its eggs in the early summer. 



{"-' 



; 



.^ 










■^ 




■:^%?^%:^mm^^i%'^^^^^^^Y-^^^^ 









►.-«<• / 




/ 



l-'Wi i 



■V'ti' 






Fig. 772. Rice-field in harvest. Louisiana. 

The young larva bores into the stalk, gradually 
working down to the roots of the plant. In the 
stalk it is transformed into the pupa state and in 
five or six days the moth emerges. Stalks afl:ected 
by the borer turn white, causing a white blast. 

The chinch-bug occasionally works on rice in 
the field, but thorough flooding is, in the main, a 
protection. In stagnant water, rice-worms occa- 
sionally attack the roots and ruin the crop. The 
remedy is to draw off the water and allow the field 
to dry a few days, then reflood. 

Diseases. — Occasionally a fungous disease attacks 
the stalk just below the head and penetrates it 
till the head falls over and the stalk breaks at 
the point of attack. This is commonly called 
" neck rot " or " white blast," and can be obviated 
by the application of lime to the soil. 

Smut (Horrida corona) sometimes attacks the 
rice seeds, changing the interior of the seeds to 
black powder. The affected grains are lighter than 
sound grains, and will float when the seeds are 
immersed in water. In this way they may be re- 
moved. For treatment, see oat smut, page 491. 
Another smut, known as Ustilaginoidea virens, gives 
the blasted grains a greenish appearance. 

[/>es of rice and its products. 

As food. — The uses to which the rice crop is devo- 
ted are varied and interesting. The rice kernel is 



538 



RICE 



RICE 



the principal food of more than half the population 
of the earth. Where a dense population depends for 
food on an annual crop, rice has been selected as 
a staple if the soil and climate are adapted to its 
production. Its great yield per acre, its assured 
returns, its slight drain on the soil and its ease of 




Fig. 773. Typical rice mill in southwestern Louisiana. 

digestion have been important considerations. Its 
slight deficiency in protein is an advantage, be- 
cause the nutritive ratio is usually balanced by 
the lean meats, eggs, fish and legumes^ ordinarily 
composing a part of the American diet. When 
thoroughly cooked, rice is one of the best foods 
known for supplying heat and energy. The short 
time required for its digestion, the slight tax im- 
posed on the system in the process and the high 
percentage digested are all items in its favor for 
the toiler, the person of sedentary habits and 
invalids. 

There are many ways of preparing rice for food. 
In the oriental countries it is made into cakes, 
candy, and infant and invalid foods. A very at- 
tractive method of use is popped rice, prepared 
much like popped corn. In the East Indies rough 
rice is boiled until about half done ; it is then 
dried in the sun and the hull removed. This makes 
the so-called brovfn rice, which includes the polish 
and the bran. In this form it will keep longer 
without injury than rice milled in the American 
way ; it has a higher flavor, contains more protein 
and pepsin, and yields a larger merchantable per- 
centage of human food per bushel milled. Another 
method of preparing rice in India is to remove the 
hull and bran, then store the rice for a year before 
placing it on the market. It is asserted that old 
rice is more digestible. 

There is very little if any difi'erence in the nu- 
tritive value of the different grades of rice in the 
United States. All of our milled rice has less 
flavor and is of a lower nutritive value than ori- 
ental rice because in those countries the polish is 
not removed from the kernel in milling. The pol- 
ish contains about fifteen-sixteenths of the flavor 
of the grain. Commercially, polish is sold to for- 
eign countries as human food ; in the United 
States it is chiefly fed to animals and has a high 
reputed value for dairy cows and young pigs. 



Rice bran contains a high percentage of protein 
and when fresh is held in great esteem as a stock- 
food, but, owing to the excessive amount of fat 
contained, it soon becomes rancid. To overcome 
this', the oil is sometimes extracted and sold for 
various uses, leaving the residue for the .stock. 
Another use for rice bran is proposed as 
follows : Cut equal parts of rice-straw and 
alfalfa hay, mix with this rice bran and re- 
fuse molasses, dry and grind. This would 
place the by-products of rice and sugar in 
a very available form for use and trans- 
portation. 

Rice hulls are largely silicates and so in- 
digestible that they are of little value, if not 
positively hai'mful. At first in the rice in- 
dustry the hulls were thrown out to decay ; 
later they furnished the fuel for the mills 
and more recently some are used to adul- 
terate rice bran, or sold to perform the same 
office for wheat bran. 

Rice-Mrmi! is at present used chiefly in the 
United States for stock-food. When used as 
a sole cattle-food, animals will merely main- 
tain weight. Large quantities are burned in 
the fields as a convenient method of disposal. The 
loss by this method amounts annually to several 
millions. Live-stock industry is usually not exten- 
sively developed in rice-growing regions. 

Miscellaneous. — In Japan, rice is used extensively 
in the manufacture of a fermented liquor called 
saki. In China several kinds of wine that are much 
prized are made from rice. An excellent starch 
also is made from rice. , 

Possible expansion of the rice industry. 

West of the Mississippi river, in the states of 
Louisiana and Texas, are at least 10,000,000 acres 
of land adapted to rice-culture, and, of this, about 
one-half can be watered by husbanding the waters 
of the rivers and by sinking artesian wells. In the 
basin of the Mississippi and her tributaries are 
10,000,000 acres that can be watered suitable for 
rice. In the Gulf and Atlantic states are about 
8,000,000 acres, of which three-fourths can be 
watered. On this estimate there are in the United 
States about 21,000,000 acres of land adapted to 
rice that can be watered and are capable of pro- 
ducing an annual crop of 735,000,000 bushels, worth, 
at sixty cents per bushel, $441,000,000. Most of 
this land is non-productive at present, but in the 
near future it will be required for our food supply, 
and can easily be brought under cultivation. This 
points to the fact that the rice industry in the 
United States is in its infancy and has ample room 
for expansion. 

The State of Arkansas has large areas of land 
with a deep, rich soil, underlaid with a semi-tena- 
cious clay, making admirable conditions for rice 
culture, when taken in connection with the abun- 
dant water supply of that state. Several thousand 
aeres have been planted to rice with the best results. 
The coast sections of Mississippi and Alabama are 
in the main better adapted to rice culture than to 
^ny other grain crop. 



RICE 



ROOT CROPS 



539 



Duty on Rice from 1861 to 1897. 



1861 - 

1862 , 
1864 , 
1883 , 
1890 , 
1894 , 
1897 
1906. 



Cleaned 



Per pound 
1 

li 
2i 
2i 
2 

li 
2 

2 



Uncleaned Paddy 



-I- 



Per pound 

J 

1 

2 

IJ 

li 

8 

To 

li 
li 



Per pound 



14 
li 



Flour, granulated 



Per pound 



20 per cent ad valorem 
i 
i 

i 



i 



Rice from Hawaii admitted free since 1876. 

Literature. 

Watt, Dictionary of the Economic Products of 
India; Chemical Tables for Daily Use, Imperial 
Agricultural College, Japan ; Farmers' Bulletin No. 
110, United States Department of Agriculture ; 
Division of Botany, Bulletin No. 22, United States 
Department of Agriculture ; Office of E.xperiment 
Stations, Bulletin No. 113, United States Depart- 
ment of .\griculture ; Bulletins Nos. 24, 50, 61, 77 
of the Louisiana E.xperiment Station. The reader 
may consult with profit the various writings on 
tropical agriculture. 

ROOT CROPS. Figs. 774-785. 

By S. Eraser. 

The growing of roots for stock - feeding has 
never taken the place in American agriculture 
that its merits deserve, largely because of the ease 
and cheapness with which grain crops can be 
raised and the amount of hand labor involved in 
the production of roots. There is every indication 
that the culture of these forage plants will in- 
crease, particularly in the East. The reason why 
the production of roots is of special interest in the 
north Atlantic states and in eastern Canada is 
that these regions raise a comparatively large 
amount of roughage and a small amount of con- 
centrates, while the north-central states raise a 
large amount of cereals or concentrates in propor- 
tion to hay and forage as shown in the following 
table. The following table shows the ratio of con- 
centrates to roughage in the north Atlantic and 
north-central states according to the Census of 
1900: 



All cereals except wheat, million tons 
All hay and forage, million tons . . 
Per cent of cereals except wheat . . 
Tons cereals except wheat, per animal 

unit 

Tons hay and forage per animal unit. 
Total tens of food per animal unit (of 

about 1,000 lbs. live weight) . . 




The significance of this table is further empha- 
sized when the superior feeding value of concen- 
trates is fully understood. For example, experi- 



ments made by Zuntz, of Germany, 
show that when clover hay was fed to 
horses, 41 pounds were digested out of 
each hundred pounds of hay fed, while, 
when oats . were fed, 62 pounds were 
digested, or 50 per cent more. It was 
found, however, that it required the 
energy of 24 pounds of the 41 pounds 
of hay digested to supply energy to 
chew and digest the hay, leaving the 
net nutritive value at 17 pounds. On 
the other hand, it required only 12 

' pounds of the 62 pounds of oats to 

masticate and digest the oats, leaving 
50 pounds of oats available for pro- 
ducing energy or work. In other words, the oats 
had three times the value of the clover hay for the 
production of work in horses. The energy used up 
in chewing and digesting food is manifested in 
heat and helps to keep the animal warm, and is 
therefore not entirely lost when the ration is 
merely for maintenance. But since in any liberal 
feeding for the production of work, the production 
of meat, or of milk, the amount of heat thus pro- 
duced is sufficient to keep the animal warm, the 
figures given above may be taken as representing 
their true food value. Rather extensive Danish 
experiments indicate that a pound of dry matter 
in roots is about equal to one pound of the cereal 
grains, or to three-fourths of a pound of cottonseed- 
meal, when fed to milch cows. Roots, like the cere- 
als, are highly digestible, perhaps even more digest- 
ible than the cereal grains, and herein probably 
lies their high value. From the standpoint of the 
results which they produce, the roots may be. 
looked on as watered concentrates. They have 
apparently a high net available energy. 

The yield of dry matter. 

One of the objections to roots as a food product 
lies Tntlieir high water content. This limits thequan- 
tity which may be fed and becomes of special impor- 
tance where they are fed in connection with silage. 
Becau.se of this high water content it will not be 
practicable to feed a sufficient amount entirely to 
take the place of the cereals, even should this be 
desirable for other reasons. The trend of experi- 
mental evidence is that the feeding value of the dif- 
erent types and varieties of root crops depends more 
largely on the percentage of dry matter than any 
other factor ; for example, the percentage of dry 
matter apparently modifies their feeding value more 
largely than the percentage of sugar. In comparing 
these yields with the yields of corn, it must be 
remembered that it is more difficult to handle a root 
crop than a corn crop ; more hand labor is required 
per acre and the land must be in good condition. 
The thorough farmer who manures and fit.s his land 
on a timely and intensive system is the one who 
may succeed in growing root crops. 

The following table shows the minimum, average 
and maximum number of pounds of dry matter per 
acre which was obtained at the Cornell Experiment 
Station in 1904, 1905 and 1906, from sowings made 
in May : 



540 



ROOT CROPS 



ROOT CROPS 



Mangels .... 
Half-sugar mangels 
Sugar-beets . . . 
Rutabagas . . . 
Hybrid turnips . . 
Common turnips . 
Kohlrabi .... 
Cabbages .... 

Carrots 

Parsnips .... 



Minimum 


Average 


2,168 


5,155 


5,480 


5,880 


6,014 


7,090 


3,537 


4,331 


2,584 


3,694 


1,710 


2,680 


3,570 


4,070 


4,076 


4,662 


1,878 


3,134 


2,080 


3,130 



Maximum 



8,453 
6,440 
8,090 
5,079 
5,111 
3,500 
4,540 
5,588 
4,379 
3,680 



The estimated yield of grain from flint corn the 
same seasons at the Cornell Station was approxi- 
mately 2,000 pounds, while the yield of dry mat- 
ter in silage from dent corn was about 4,000 
pounds. It is probable that the season of 1904 was 
relatively favorable to the production of roots as 
compared with corn, but this was not true of 1905 
and 1906. In the latter years the average yields 
from roots were better than in 1904, although the 
land used was conceded by all interested to be less 
favorable than that used in 1904. 

Roots vs. cereals. 

The present high price of cereals is a factor in 
favor of the production of root crops. If corn- 
meal continues to be worth $20 a ton or more in 
the East, economy in the production of roots would 
be indicated, while if the price should fall to $10 
a ton, corn-meal would probably be the cheaper 
source of concentrates. The serious handicap to 
the raising of root crops is the fact that with 
present cultural methods a large amount of hand 
labor is required. The point of view that is desired 
here to emphasize is that while roots may not be 
economically raised as a substitute for silage or 
other coarse fodders, it may be economical to raise 
them, especially out of the grain regions as a 
partial substitute for concentrates, particularly 
the cereal grains. 

Literature. 

The following literature deals with several root 
crops and it is most convenient to give it in one 
place. Thomas Shaw, Forage Crops, Orange .Judd 
Company, New York (1900); L. H. Bailey, Cyclo- 
pedia of American Horticulture, Macmillan Com- 
pany, New York (1900); W. A. Burpee & Co., Root 
Crops for Stock-feeding and How to Grow Them, 
Philadelphia, Pa. (1888); Mm. Vilmorin, The Vege- 
table Garden, Translation by Wm. Robinson, John 
Murray, London (1885); J. J. H. Gregory, Carrots, 
Mangold-wurtzels and Sugar-beets, Marblehead, 
Mass. (1882); Fearing Burr, Jr., The Field and 
Garden Vegetables of America, Crosby & Nichols, 
Boston (186.3). Exhibiting roots: Edwin Beckett, 
Vegetables for Exhibition and Home Consumption, 
London (1899); Dunn, The Horticultural Exhibi- 
tor's Handbook, London (1892); Vegetables Grown 
for Exhibition, New York (Geneva) Experiment 
Station, Bulletin No. 69 (1894). History and Rot- 
any: A. de Candolle, Origin of Cultivated Plants, 



Appleton & Co., New York (1892); E. L. Sturtevant, 
History of Garden Vegetables, American Naturalist 
(1887, 1888, 1890); Improvement of the Carrot, see 
L. de Vilmorin, Transactions of the London Horticul- 
tural Society, Ser. 2, Vol. 2, p. 348; John Percival, 
Agricultural Botany, London (1900); L. H. Bailey, 
Botany of Turnips, etc.. Garden and Forest, 1897, 
pp., 321, 322 ; James Buckman, Science and Prac- 
tice of Farm Cultivation, London (1865). The most 
recent studies in this country are by Hunt, Eraser, 
Gilmore and Clark in Cornell Bulletins Nos. 243 and 
244, from which extracts are made above. 

THE KINDS OF ROOTS. 

The kinds of roots that are most profitable to 
grow in this country for forage may now be de- 
scribed briefly. To these might be added potatoes 
and kohlrabi, both treated in separate articles. 
Cabbage, kale and pumpkin [see separate articles] 
are also practically comparable with roots as to 
feeding value. 

Carrot. Daucus Carota, Linn. Umbelliferce. 

The carrot is used as human food and is also 
esteemed for all classes of stock, especially horses. 
The leaves are also relished by stock. It belongs to 
the same order as the parsnip, celery, parsley and 
several other useful herbs. It is sometimes annual, 
but generally is biennial. The edible part is made 
up of parts of the stem and root which have become 
thickened. A section of carrot shows two well- 
defined layers, an outer, and an inner layer or core, 
which frequently vary in color. The proportion 
existing between the two layers is variable. Since 
the outer layer is esteemed to be of higher value 
than the core, the aim in breeding has been to 
produce "coreless" varieties. 

The average percentage composition is, approxi- 
mately, water, 88.6; ash, 1 ; protein, 1.1 ; crude 
fiber, 1.3 ; nitrogen-free extract, 7.6 ; ether e.xtract, 
0.4. 

History. 

The carrot is known to have been in cultivation 
for about two thousand yeans. It is mentioned by 
Pliny, and the wild carrot was known to the Greek 
writers 300 B. C. It has received more attention 
in France than in any other country, and there is 
reason to think that as early as the first century 
it was esteemed there. Cultivated varieties were 
recorded as growing in the gardens and fields of 
Europe in the sixteenth century and had by that 
time been introduced and dtsseminated over the 
central and northern parts of South America. They 
were grown in Virginia as early as 1609 and were 
in Massachusetts twenty years later. The Indians 
carried them westward, and in 1779 General 
Sullivan destroyed carrots at Geneva, N. Y. 

The influence of environment is marked in this 
plant. Vilmorin succeeded in developing commer- 
cial varieties from the wild carrot, by sowing the 
seed in well-prepared ground and selecting the best 
plants for three successive generations. 

The carrot is now cultivated or found wild over 



ROOT CROPS 



ROOT CROPS 



541 



all parts of the world. It is probably native of 
Europe, where the most attention is now being 
given to its improvement. Although it has been 
grown on this continent, practically as long as the 
European occupation its culture has not assumed 
any large proportions in any place. 

Varieties. 

Varieties are classified according to their shape, 
as (P"'ig. 774): (1) Taper-pointed, (2) stump-rooted 
or premorse and (.3) cylindrical. These are charac- 
terized as follows : 

(1) Taper-pointed. The roots taper uniformly 
from crown to taproot.. 

(2) Premorse. The roots end abruptly at the 
base, the taproot starting from a flat or nearly flat 
surface. 

(3) Cylindrical. The roots are cylindrical for at 
least two-thirds of their length and then taper. 

In both (1) and (2) we may have long, half-long 
and short varieties, according to the ratio existing 
between the length and greatest diameter ; thus. 

Long = length more than four times the width. 
Half-long = length more than twice, but less 

than four times the greatest width. 
Short = length less than twice the width. 

The cylindrical types are all long. Of these 
three types the following varieties may be given : 
Taper-pointed, long : White Belgian, Long Orange, 
Long Red (grown largely for stock, and have one- 
third to one-quarter of the root out of the ground). 
Taper-pointed, half-long : Danvers Half-long, Car- 
ter's One Hundred Ton. Premor.se, half-long : Early 
Horn (various synonyms), Lobberick Agricultural 
Carrot (stock). Premorse, short : Early Frame 
(various synonyms). Cylindrical, long: Altringham 
and .Japanese varieties. Vilmorin Coreless Long Red 
belongs in this class. It is stump-rooted. The 
colors red, orange, yellow and white exist in all 
types. 

The stump-rooted type and half-long varieties 
should be selected for shallow and heavy soils. The 
long types may be grown on the deeper and more 
friable soils. 

Culture of carrots. 

Soil. — The ideal land for carrots is a deep, sandy 
loam or an alluvial soil. Carrots grow well on 
deep, peaty soils and give good crops on light soils 
if there is a good rainfall, or on clay loams if well 
drained. The land should be well prepared, deep 
fall-plowing being recommended. The spring prep- 
aration consists of harrowing with the disk or 
acme harrow and finally with the meeker harrow, 
the latter being an admirable tool for finishing the 
preparation of the seed-bed for all root crops. 

Manuring. — It is preferable that the land be well 
manured for the previous crop. If this cannot be 
done, about twelve tons of rotted manure may be 
applied per acre in fall and plowed under, 
or rotted manure may be disked in in the 
spring. It is important that it be evenly distrib- 
uted. One important reason for using rotted 
manure is that carrots are slow in germination and 



growth and permit weeds to grow apace. Manure 
introduces many weeds to land, and rotted manure 
is less likely to contain so many. A complete fer- 
tilizer is usually applied, consisting of, per acre, 
100 to 200 pounds of muriate or sulfate of potash, 
applied in fall or spring and harrowed in, although 
wood-ashes are sometimes used instead ; 400 to 
800 pounds of acid phosphate, 16 per cent avail- 
able, or its equivalent, i. e., 64 to 128 pounds of 
actual phosphoric acid, which is worked into the 
soil in the spring ; and 100 to 150 pounds of nitrate 




..^_ 




Fig. 774. Carrot shapes. Beeinning at the left, first three 
taper-pointed; 1st. long: 2d. h.alf-Iong; 3d, short. Second 
three premorse: 1st. long: 2d, half-long; 3d, short. Third 
two cylindrical: 1st. taper-pointed; 2d, premorse. 

of soda, which is usually applied in the form of two 
top-dressings when the plants are growing. Liming 
the land at the rate of 1,000 pounds per acre is 
frequently beneficial. 

Seed and seeding. — Carrot seed is sometimes par- 
tially germinated by mixing it with wet sand and 
leaving it for a few days, or by merely dampening 
it and leaving the seeds in a pile. Since carrot 
seeds, which are really fruits, carry many spines, 
the method of mixing in sand was formerly of 
value to prevent their sticking together. Today, 
seeds from which the spines have been removed 
may be purchased, and such will readily pass 
through the drill. The seeds should be sown on or 
very close to the surface. They take ten to four- 
teen days to germinate. Six to seven pounds may 
be sown per acre, although if the seed is of good 
germinating power four or five pounds will suffice. 
The rows may be narrow, eighteen to twenty-four 
inches apart when hand culture is used, or twenty- 
eight to thirty-six inches apart for field conditions 
and when machinery is used. In the latter case 
the plants may be left three inches asunder in the 
rows, and 5-5,000 to 60,000 plants should be se- 
cured per acre. 

Subsequent eare. — Shallow cultivation should be 
given as soon as the rows can be seen and be main- 
tained until the foliage meets in the rows. The 
plants should be thinned to one in a place as soon 
as large enough to handle. The crop could well be 
grown after such a crop as cabbages or potatoes, or 
any other crop which has been well manured. 

Harvesting. — The varieties that have part of the 



542 



ROOT CROPS 



ROOT CROPS 



root out of the ground are easier to harvest but 
are more liable to injury by frost. A plow may be 
run beside the rows to loosen the ground in the 
case of other varieties. They are usually harvested 
before severe frost occurs and stored in root cellars 
or in pits as are other roots. 

Enemies. 

The carrot has few troubles. A bacterial soft 
rot {Bacillus carotovorus), for which no remedy is 
known, gives trouble sometimes. The parsley worm 
sometimes attacks the leaves. 

Hybrid-turnip. Brassica Rapa, var. hybrida, Era- 
ser. Crucifene. 
A cross between a rutabaga and a common 
turnip, made with a view to securing a plant pos- 
sessing the desirable characters of both parents, — 
for example, to secure the higher dry-matter con- 
tent of the rutabaga in a plant which will mature 
in a shorter time. Such hybrids show characters of 
either parent. Some varieties are highly esteemed, 
as Fosterton Hybrid, Aberdeen Yellow, Carter 
Lightning and Commonwealth, Carton Pioneer. 
[For culture, see Turnip.] 

Half-sugar mangel. Beta vulgaris, Linn. Chenopo- 
diacem. 
A cross between a modern sugar-beet and a 
mangel, for the purpose of securing a mangel 
richer in dry matter. Thus far little progress has 
been made. Culture and management same as for 
mangel [which see]. 

Jerusalem artichoke. Helianthus tuberosus, Linn. 
Compositece. 

A hardy perennial, with rough, much-branched 
stems, six to eight feet high, which bear large, 
rough, alternate leaves and large yellow flowers. 
It is usually propagated by means of the tubers, 
much in the same way as potatoes, the seeds being 
used for the development of new varieties. 

In percentage composition Jerusalem artichoke 
is very much like the potato : 





Water 


Ash 


Protein 


Crude 
fiber 


Nitrogen- 
free extract 


Ether 
extract 


Artichoke . . 
Potato . . . 


79.5 
78.9 


1.0 
1.0 


2.6 

2.1 


0.8 
0.6 


15.9 

17.3 


0.2 
0.1 



The plant is native in North America and has 
been cultivated by the aborigines for centuries. 
Since the advent of the Europeans it has been 
neglected, and better varieties are now found in 
Europe than here. The plant may be grown profit- 
ably wherever the potato succeeds, and, since it 
can withstand considerable periods of drought, it 
is asserted that it should find a more important 
place in our agriculture, especially in the north- 
western states. 

Culture. 

The land should be plowed deep, well manured 
and well fitted. The tubers are planted either 



in fall or in spring, about two inches deep, eigh- 
teen inches asunder and in rows three and one- 
half feet apart. Six to eight bushels will plant an 
acre, and since frost does not injure the tubers 
one planting may be sufficient for two or three 
successive crops. The crop should be cultivated 
shallow, as corn or potatoes, and is harvested in the 
same way as potatoes; or hogs may be turn:;d on the 
field to root out the tubers. The best method of 
handling a crop which comes from tubers left in the 
land over winter is to use the weeder early in spring, 
and as soon as the plants are well up run the cul- 
tivator through in both directions, leaving the 
plants in hills. 

Varieties. 

There are several varieties of Jerusalem arti- 
choke, some of much better flavor than others, the 
Improved White French being considered one of 
the best. Some varieties are named from the color 
of their skin, as Red-, Yellow-, Purple- and White- 
skinned. 

Uses. 

The tubers are cooked as a vegetable, eaten raw 
as a salad or pickled like cucumbers. They are also 
used as stock-feed, principally for pigs, althougk 
they are of some value for horses. 

Literature. 

Consult the Experiment Station Record for 
references to the experience with Jerusalem 
artichokes at the various experiment stations. In 
addition, see Arkansas Experiment Station, Bulletin 
No. 31 ; Missouri Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 
29 ; Massachusetts Experiment Station, Bulletin 
No. 10. 

Mangel. Beta vulgaris, Linn. Chenopodiacea. (Man- 
gel-wurzel, Cattle Beet, Field Beet). 
The mangel is a root crop used for stock-feeding. 
It may be annual, is more commonly biennial, and 
occasionally is triennial in duration. The part 
used consists of part of the stem and part of the 
root, both considerably thick- 
ened, and so closely united 
that the exact points of union 
are not readily recognized. 
The whole is frequently re- 
ferred to as a "root." The 
following names are given to 
the different parts (Fig. 775): 

The stem includes (1) the neck, which supports 
the leaves and flowers, and with the upper part of 
the hypocotyl (the shoulders, B) constitutes the 
crown (C). (2) The hypocotyl (H), used for the 
storage of food. 

The root includes (1) the primary root (R) used 
for the storage of food and on whose surface are 
seen the dimples (D), in which arise fine, lateral, 
fibrous roots. (2) The taproot and its branching 
fibrous roots, which, like the lateral fibrous roots, 
may attain a depth of four or five feet. 

The neck may be long, medium, short or absent, 
and since it is of less value than the remainder 



ROOT CROPS 



ROOT CROPS 



543 



.s^&^ 






-H 



— R 



Fig. V75. Mangel parts. 
A, ueek: B. should- 
ers; O, crown: H, hy- 
poeotyl : R, primary 
root; D, dimple. Tap- 
roots and fibrous 
roots broken off. 



of the tuber, the aim is to have it as short as 
possible. In the case of sugar-beets the crown 
is removed before using them for the manufac- 
ture of sugar. When a phint has but one shoot 
or neck arising from the crown, it is said to be 
single ; should several shoots 
arise, the plant is said to 
have multiple crowns. These 
are objectionable in all 
classes of roots, because the 
small shoots are developed at 
the expense of the food 
already stored in the "root." 
The hypocotyl varies in 
length in different varieties. 
In some it is above ground, 
in others, as in Kleinwanzle- 
bener sugar-beets, it is 
below ground. It is an ob- 
served fact that those plants 
having the hypocotyl below 
ground are richer in dry mat- 
ter and therefore of higher 
feeding value than those hav- 
ing a large part of the hypo- 
cotyl above ground. The pri- 
mary root appears as a con- 
tinuation of the hypocotyl ; 
it should terminate in a sin- 
gle small taproot. Roots with 
two or more taproots are said 
to be forked or-rough accord- 
ing to the degree of forking. 
They are objectionable because of being difficult 
to harvest, and because they hold considerable soil 
and are likely to have coarse and stringy flesh. 
The dimples (D), usually two in number, are depres- 
sions on opposite sides of the root. They should be 
vertical and not too deep. 

The lateral roots should be fine, fibrous and 
abundant, and should arise only from the dimples,, 
otherwise they increase the cost of harvesting and 
carry considerable soil, which is objectionable. 
The fibrous roots springing from the taproot break 
off when the root is harvested. They are extensive 
and frequently fill the soil to a depth of four or 
five feet. The flesh is seldom of a uniform color. 
A transverse section will 
show rings of firm tissue alter- 
nating with rings of softer 
tissue. Six or seven or more 
rings are often formed in as 
many months of growth. The 
sap of the soft tissue is 
often colored, being crimson 
or golden, or other color, even white. 

In the manufacture of sugar from sugar-beets 
considerable loss was experienced in removing the 
coloring matter from the sap, and this led to the 
use of white mangels for sugar production. 

History of mangels. 

The mangel is regarded as a direct descendant 
of the chard, which was used by the Greeks .300 
B.C. as a vegetable. The roots of the chard were 




out 



used medicinally and as a vegetable during the first 
and second centuries A. D. The use of the root for 
cattle-feeding is recorded as early as the si.\teenth 
century, and beets were introduced into this coun- 
try by the early colonists. As late as 1783 the only 
kinds of mangel seed catalogued for sale in England 
were the red beet and the common long red, and in 
1806 the red beet was the only kind listed in 
America ; in 1828 four varieties were mentioned 
and today there are probably not over a score in 
common use. Since 180.S, when the manufacture of 
beet-sugar began, certain man- 
gels have been developed and / 'Je 
have produced our present-day / 1^° 
sugar-beets. 

Geographical distribution. 

The wild plant (Beta vul- 
garis, Linn.) may be found in- 
digenous along the Mediter- 
ranean and in other parts of 
Europe. It was originally cul- 
tivated for its leaves under the 
name chard, and this plant is 
sparingly grown in American 
gardens. It was later grown 
for its roots, and about the 
middle of the sixteenth cen- 
tury we have reports that in 
Germany and Italy and other 
parts of Europe the root 
was grown as stock-feed. The 
practice of growing it as cat- 
tle-feed was later introduced 
into the United Kingdom, 
where the industry was rap- 
idly developed and where some 
of the best varieties are .now 
found. The mangel is spar- 
ingly grown in parts of the 
United States, but to a larger 
extent in Canada. 



7-0 



"7 



01^ 




In 

lit" 



Fig. 776. 
Long red mangel, 
eaoh "fimiitarln 
t li e njiper figure 
gives pereentat'O of 
dry matter, middle 
figure percentage of 
sugar, and lower per- 
centage of nitrogen. 
(Wood & Berry,) 



Composition. Figs. 776, 777. 

The average percentage com 
position for mangels, sugar-beets and garden beets 
usually given is as follows : 



Mangel . . 
Sugar-beet 
Garden beet 



Water 



Ash 



90.9 
86.5 
88.5 



1.1 
0.9 
1.0 



Protein 



1,4 
1.8 
1.5 



Crude 
fiber 



0.9 
0.9 
0.9 



Nitrogen - 
free extract 



5.5 
9.8 
8.0 



Ether 
extract 



0.2 
0.1 
0.1 



Too much emphasis must not be laid on an aver- 
age. During a recent trial at Cornell University 
Experiment Station the average amount of dry 
matter in 12.^ samples of mangels, embracing ten 
varieties, was 11.6 per cent, the extremes between 
different varieties being 7. .5 per cent and 16 per 
cent. The variation between individual roots 
of the same variety is equally great, being fre- 
quently 100 per cent. In another experiment some 
individuals contained over 20 per cent of dry mat- 



544 



ROOT CROPS 



ROOT CROPS 



ter. In the case of sugar-beets, in 1904 the aver- 
age amount of sugar obtained from one ton of 
beets by the factories and rasping stations in the 
United States was 230 pounds. From these data it 




Fie. 777. TeUow-fleshed Globe mangel. In each "compart- 
ment" the upper figure gives tlie percentage of dry matter, 
the middle figure tlie percentage of sugar, and the lower 
figure the percentage of nitrogen. (Wood ife Berry.) 

is evident that the average percentage of dry mat- 
ter contained must have been over 2 per cent 
greater than that given in the above table, and in 
many states the beets average 18 to 20 per cent 
dry matter, while 30 per cent with 24 per cent of 
sugar has been attained with individual roots. 

Improvement. 

During the past fifty years the amount of sugar 
which can be obtained from a ton of sugar-beets 
has been increased from about 100 or 150 pounds 
to 2.50 pounds or more, a gain of over 100 per cent. 
Part of this gain is due to better methods of man- 
ufacture and part to better beets. The percentage 
of sugar in the beets has been increased from an 
average of be- 
tween 5 and 10 per 
cent in 1805, to an 
average of 14 to 
18 per cent, and 
24 per cent has 
now been attained 
in individual 
roots, a gain due 
largely to a right 
method of selec- 
tion. In selecting 
sugar-beets,ahigh 
sugar content has 
been insisted on 
and the sugar con- 
tent of "mother 
beets " has been 
determined before 
they were saved 
for seed produc- 



tion. The use of the saccharimeter and a reliable 
method of coring have given valuable results. 

With mangels there has been no method of im- 
provement, and roots were .selected because of 
their shape or the color of their skin, no attention 
being paid to their dry-matter content, although 
it is for the dry matter that they are grown. To- 
day, it is urged that all roots that are to be used 
for seed production should be sampled and the per- 
centage of dry matter determined, and that all 
roots that fall below a certain standard should be 
discarded. The determination of the dry-matter 
content requires the use of a cheese tryer, with 
which a plug is removed from near the center of 
the root. (Fig. 779.) This sample is then numbered 
to correspond with a tag on the root, carefully 
weighed and dried in a water-jacketed oven or 
some place where it will not be charred. The loss 
in weight is water, and the percentage of dry mat- 
ter may be estimated. The hole in the root may be 
filled with cotton batting which has been immersed 
in a solution of formalin. The roots which pass 
the test should be stored in sand or soil over win- 
ter and planted early the following spring three 
and one-half feet apart each way. It is important 
that roots saved for seed production should not 
have their crowns injured. 

Varieties of mangels. 

Varieties are frequently classified according to 
shape and color of skin ; they may be long, ovoid, 
tankard, globe or cowhorn (Fig. 780), and have 
black, purple, red, orange, golden, yellow, pink or 
white skin. The varieties grown in the United 
States are nearly all of European origin, and Euro- 
pean-grown seed is generally sown. Some well- 
known varieties of mangels are : Norbiton Giant 
Long Red, Sutton Long Red, Gatepost, Yellow Levi- 
athan, Yellow Intermediate, Chirk Castle, Golden 
Tankard, Yellow Globe. 

Among half-sugar mangels, i. e., the mangels 
that apparently result from a cross between man- 
gels and sugar-beets, may be mentioned Vilmorin 
Half-sugar White and Half-sugar Rosy, and the 




Fig. 778. Green-top Yellow turnip. The figures show the percentage of dry matter. (Wood & Berry. ^ 



ROOT CROPS 



ROOT CROPS 



545 



various kinds of half-sugar mangels of most of the 

seedsmen. 

Among sugar-beets grown for stock-feeding are 
Lane Imperial, Danish Redtop and Danish Im- 
proved, which frequently 
contain a little higher per- 
centage of dry matter than 
piangels, and the improved 
forms of sugar-beets, as 
Klein wanzlebener and its 
several strains, which are 
the richest in dry matter. 

Culture of mangels. 

Land. — Mangels may be 
grown on almost any soil. 
Deep loams are considered 
best, and are necessary for 

the production of heavy yields of the long varie- 
ties. The globes and tankards may be grown on 
the shallower and lighter soils. Deep fall-plowing 
is advisable to ensure a compact subsurface. 
Thorough fitting of the surface soil should be given 



Seed and seeding. — Six to eight pounds of good 
seed will be ample, but frequently ten pounds, and, 
in the case of sugar-beets, twelve to fifteen pounds, 
Eire sown. These may be sown about three-fourths 









Fig. 779. Sampling a mangel. 

in spring. No crop responds more readily to good 
tillage, and none will be more discouraging to the 
grower who but half prepares the land. The use of 
the disk or Acme and the spike-toothed harrows, 
and then the Meeker harrow to finish the work, is 
advised. 

Mangels do better where there is considerable 
sunshine, and if there is a good sup- 
ply of moisture in the soil they will 
thrive in a warm, dry climate. After 
the first two months of growth they 
can withstand drought better than 
almost any other root crop. 

Fertilizing. — Ten to twelve tons of 
manure per acre should be spread 
evenly in the fall, previous to plow- 
ing, and this should be supplemented au 
with fertilizers in .spring. One hun- ^ 
dred to 200 pounds of muriate of f| 
potash per acre may be applied in 
the fall or early in spring, and 200 
to 500 pounds of acid pho.sphate 
with fifty pounds of nitrate of soda 
per acre in the spring, both to be 
harrowed in before seeding. If the 
land has not been limed in the past 
few years, 1,000 pounds of quick- 
lime per acre will probably be of 
value. 

B35 



Fig. 780. Mangel shapes. Beginnineat the left: 1, half-long, uiuler- 
grnimd: 2, long, two-fltths above soil; 3, tankard, one-half above 
soil ; 4. ovniil, three-fifths above soil; 5, globe, four-fltths above soil; 
G, flat, almost all above soil; 7, cowhorn. 

to one inch deep, the lesser depth on heavy soils 
and the greater depth on the lighter soils. The 
seeding is done as early as possible — the first of May 
for New York conditions — in rows twenty-eight 
to thirty-five inches wide. The young plants will 
appear in ten to fourteen days. A regular beet drill 
may be used or the seven-inch eleven-hoe grain 
drill. The part sown is a fruit and generally con- 
tains three to five seeds, half of which should 
germinate. Since two or three plants springing 
from one seed cause difficulty in thinning, attempts 
are now being made to breed fruits which contain 
but one seed. 

Subsequent care. — The object of wide rows, 
twenty-eight inches or more, is to facilitate the 
use of machinery. Since land is low in pi Ice and 
labor is high, the aim should be to grow the maxi- 
mum number of plants in a row and have as few 
rows as nece.ssary to the acre and thus reduce the 
cost of production to its lowest point per ton. At 
least 30,000 plants should be grown per acre. The 
plants should be thinned to one in a place as soon 
as they have four leaves, or if thinning cannot be 
accomplished on time, they should be bunched by 
cutting out all plants except a little bunch every 




Mangels 



On the- left, rough; center, single crown; right 
multiple crown. 



546 



ROOT CROPS 



ROOT CROPS 



six, eight or ten inches as required, or by running 
the weeder across the rows. Singling to one plant 
may be done later. Two plants should not be left 
close together. The distance asunder varies with 
the different varieties, globes and tankards requir- 
ing more space than the long varieties. Shallow 
cultivation should begin as soon as the rows are 
discernible and bo maintained every seven or ten 
days until the tops meet in the rows. 

As soon as the plants are thinned they should re- 
ceive an application of fifty pounds of nitrate of 
soda, which may be mi.xed with 200 pounds of salt 
or with some acid phosphate to give it bulk. This 
should be applied near the plants, but not on the 
leaves, since it may burn them, and should be culti- 
vated in. A second application may be given two 
weeks later. 

Mangels do well after clover, or after an inter- 
tilled crop which has been well manured, as cab- 
bages or corn, or after a grain crop. Sod land 
should be plowed one year before growing mangels 
on it. 

Harveding and doring. — Mangels are usually 
pulled by hand, the tops twisted off and the roots 
stored in root cellars or in piles in the field. They 
should be harvested when dry and should not be 
roughly hamlled. Sugar-beets are generally plowed 
out, or a beet digger is used. When pitted in 
the field the piles are covered with straw and 
soil to a sufficient extent to prevent injury from 
rain or frost. It is important to keep beets cool in 
storage and see that they are well ventilated. 
Freshly harvested mangels tend to produce "scour- 
ing" in stock, hence it is not advisable to feed them 
until they have been stored for a few weeks. 

Feeding mangels. 

Mangels are grown for stock-feeding. The valu- 
able ingredient they contain is dry matter, which 
is almost entirely digestible and is comparatively 
easy to digest. The method of feeding them has 
been to use them as roughage, but owing to their 




Beet seeder. 



watery nature and the ease with which silage can 
be produced in many parts of this country, the 
general opinion is that the latter roughage is the 
more economical. Recently, certain DanLsh experi- 
ments have shown that mangels can be regarded as 
concentrated feeds with a large amount of water 
present, and in comprehensive trials it was shown 



that for milk-production one pound of dry matter 
in the form of mangels (equal to about eight pounds 
of roots) was as good as one pound of corn meal, 
and that this was true in both cases when mangels 
were substituted for three pounds and seven pounds 
of grain in the ration. 




Fig. 783. Beet digger. 



When fed to cattle, mangels are usually "pulped" 
or grated to irregular-shaped pieces about three- 
fourths of an inch in size. British feeders frequently 
mix the pulped roots with chaffed hay or straw and 
let them stand twelve hours before feeding. For 
sheep they are cut into finger pieces, or else sliced. 

Enemies. 

Mangels have few troubles, and should any occur 
which cannot be controlled by good tillage and 
good rotation, it will be better to abandon the crop. 
The diseases are the same as those of the sugar- 
beet [which see]. 

Parsnip. Pastinaca sativa, Linn. Umbelliferm. 

This plant is biennial, and is grown for its thick- 
ened stem and root, which is used for human food 
and for stock-feeding. 

The parsnip was doubtless known to the Greeks 
and Romans, and it has figured in most of the herb- 
als written since the sixteenth century, showing 
that it was well knov.'n and was used as food. It 
was disseminated in the West Indies by 1564, was 
cultivated in Virginia as early as 1609, and was 
grown in other colonies later in the same century. 
The Indians of western New York cultivated it in the 
eighteenth century. Wherever it has grown readily 
it has tended to escape from cultivation and become 
wild. Seedlings from wild plants will assume the 
characteristics of the cultivated forms under favor- 
able conditions. 

The plant is generally considered to be a native 
of the Old World, but it has been so widely dissemi- 
nated that it is found wild in many regions. It is 
grown to some extent in Europe, but is raised only 
sparingly in this country. Since the root grows 
entirely below ground, it is diflicult to harvest, and 
being small in comparison with other roots, both 
in size and in yield, it is not likely to be grown 
extensively for stock-feeding. 

The average percentage composition usually 
given is water, 86..3 ; ash, 0.7 ; protein, 1.6 ; crude 
fiber, 1.0 ; nitrogen-free extract, 10.2 ; ether 
extract, 0.2. 



ROOT CROPS 



ROOT CROPS 



547 



The parsnip is grown usually on strong loams and 
even on clay soils. The details of culture are simi- 
lar to those given for carrots [which see]. It is 
important, however, that the seed shall not be more 
than one year old and that 
it be sown near the surface. 
Four to si.x; pounds are re- 
quired to seed an acre. 
Since the roots are not 
injured by frost when left 
in the ground over winter, 
harvesting may be deferred 
until spring, if desired. 

At the present time there 
are a few well-recognized 
varieties which are em- 
braced in two main types : 
(1) the long type, which 
includes the Hollow Crown 
or Student variety and its 
strains ; (2) the short or 

round type, which is of comparatively recent in- 
troduction. Both of these types are found wild. 

Sugar-beet. Beta vulgaris, Linn. Clienopodiacem. 

A mangel developed for the production of sugar, 
and a product of the past century. So far as cul- 
ture and use as stock-food is concerned, it is similar 
to mangel. [See separate article on Sugar-beet^ 

Turnip. Brassica, sp. Cruciferm. Figs. 778, 784, 785. 
Turnips are grown for their thickened roots, 
which are formed during the first year of growth 
and are used as food for stock. The name "turnip" 
is here used in its widest sense and embraces the 
common turnip {Brassica Rapa, var. depressa, DC), 
the rutabaga, a Swedish turnip {Brassica Campeslris, 



even in individuals of the same variety, being 
modified by variations in the plants themselves, the 
soil and the method of cultivation. As usually 
grown, they are regarded as biennial plants. 

In this discussion it is proposed to treat all three 
types under the one heading because, although 
botanically somewhat different, their uses and the 
methods of culture are similar. 




) 



;%-^^ -^1 




Fig. 785. Single and multiple crowns on turnips. 

var. rutabaga, DC), and the hybrid-turnip {Bras- 
sica Rapa, var. hybrida, Fraser), all of which be- 
long to the same family 
as the cabbage. Like the 
mangel they consist of a 
thickened hypocotyl and 
primary root, the relative 
proportions of which vary 
in different varieties and 



Fig. 784. Turnips, showing necks. Beginning at left, long, medium, sliort, absent (riglit.) 

History. 

According to De Candolle, the common turnip 
{Brassica Rapa) and the rutabaga {Brassica Cam- 
peslris, var. rutabaga) are native of temperate 
Europe. They were disseminated in Europe previous 
to, and in Asia after the Aryan invasion. Turnips 
were introduced from Spain to Mexico as early as 
1586, and in 1610 Strachey reported that the 
Jamestown, Va., colony grew them as well or bet- 
ter than they were grown in England. Mason 
reported that they grew well in Newfoundland in 
1617, and they were grown in New England as 
early as 1G28. With the introduction of the Nor- 
folk four-course rotation of turnips, barley, clover, 
wheat, into English agriculture in the middle of the 
eighteenth century, turnips began to be commonly 
grown for stock-feeding in England, although 
this practice had then been in vogue in parts of 
Europe for some time. Thus far Americans have not 
been much interested in these crops except to a 
small extent for garden purposes. A large number 
of the varieties grown are of European, chiefly 
British origin, and the question may be raised as 
to whether varieties .selected and developed for 
American conditions might not be much more 
satisfactory and thereby encourage the greater 
development of these root crops. 

Geographical distribution. 

Turnips are grown most extensively in cool cli- 
mates. They reach their highest development in 
northern Europe and the United Kingdom and do 
well in northern United States and Canada. 

Composition of turnips. 

The average percentage composition usually 
given is: 





Water 


Ash 


Protein 


Crude 
fiber 


Nitrogen- 
free extract 


Ether 
extract 


Common turnip . 
Rutabaga . . . 


90.5 
88.6 


0.8 
1.2 


1.1 
1.2 


1.2 
1.3 


6.2 
7.5 


0.2 
0.2 



548 



ROOT CROPS 



ROOT CROPS 



In regard to the distribution of the dry matter 
in turnips, Wood and Berry, of Cambridge Uni- 
versity (England), report as follows : 

"The bulbs [shown in Fig. 778] of green-top 
yellow turnips from the same field, were each 
weighed and then cut into horizontal slices. The 
top and bottom pieces, 1 and 2, were not further 
divided. The other slices were subdivided ; 3 rep- 
re.sents a ring around the second slice and 4 the 
central part of the same slice. Similarly, 5 rep- 
resents the outside ring of the third slice, 6 a ring 
inside that, and 7 the inside part of the slice. In 
this way each turnip was divided into twelve dif- 
ferent sections from top to tail and from rind to 
core. Three other bulbs, representing two differ- 
ent varieties, were divided similarly but in a sim- 
pler manner. These gave results in general agree- 
ment with what is shown in Fig. 778. In all these 
samples only the dry matter was determined. The 
results may be summarized as follows : 

"(1) The upper half of a turnip contains a higher 
percentage of dry matter than the lower half. This 
is in direct opposition to the common opinion that 
the under half is the richer. 

"(2) The outside part next the rind is richer in 
dry matter than the inner part. As we proceed 
from the outside toward the center the dry matter 
falls. This is true, no matter in what direction we 
proceed, but the difference from crown to center 
is greater than the difference found in any other 
direction. 

"This analysis shows that a sample taken from a 
turnip by boring can represent only approximately 
the composition of the turnip. In order accurately 
to obtain its composition, the whole turnip would 
require to be used, or at any rate a wedge passing 
through the center from top to tail would require 
to be taken from it." 

Type distinctions. 

Some of the differences between common turnips 
and rutabagas are brought out in the following 
table : 



During the second year both turnips and ruta- 
bagas send up a strong stem which bears many 
branches. The leaves produced at this time are 
generally bluish green and smooth in both cases. 
The flowers of the rutabaga type are much like 
those of the cabbage, being large and creamy yel- 
low, with long claws ; those of the turnip type are 
more like the flowers of the mustards, being small 
and sulfur-yellow, and short-clawed. Thus far, no 
one has found any marked distinguishing features 
of the seeds of these types, although it is now pos- 
sible to detect seeds of charlock or wild mustard in 
a sample of turnip or cabbage seed and to distin- 
guish between seeds of turnip and cabbage. For 
data on this, consult Bulletin No. 29, United States 
Department of Agriculture, Division of Botany. 

As mentioned elsewhere (page 540), a hybrid- 
turnip, or cross between a rutabaga and a common 
turnip, may have the characters of either parent 
blended in any number of ways. 

Botanical relations. 

In several of the Brassicas, selection of plants 
for economic purpo.ses has been so long continued 
that the descendants of an original plant are now 
so diverse that they may be regarded as distinct 
species. The original plant from which the ruta- 
baga has been derived is held by some to have been 
the result of a cross between the wild cabbage 
and the wild turnip, but such has not yet been 
proved. This plant {Brassica campestris), however, 
has given rise to several others, among which may 
be mentioned the colza or rape (Brassica campe.slris, 
var. olcifera), the best oil plant of Europe, annual 
in duration and developed for its seeds (see under 
Oil-bearing plants); and Brassica campestris, var. 
rutabaga, DC, which is biennial in duration and has 
been developed for its roots for .stock-feeding. The 
same diversification is seen in the case of the wild 
turnip (Brassica Rapa). Brassica Eapa, var. olcifera, 
or the thin-rooted turnip, is an annual grown for 
its seeds to furnish oil, while iJmssJca Rapa, var. de- 
pressa is grown for its thickened root and is biennial 



First foliage leaves 

Color of leaves 

Later leaves produced the first year 

Neck 

Position of leaves 

Period of growth 

Flowers 

Roots 

Flesh 

Keeping quality of "roots" . . . 

Dry-matter content 

Average weight of " roots "... 
Size of seed 



Turnip 



Rough. 
GraSs green. 

Covered with rough, harsh hairs. 

Absent. 

Like a rosette in the center of the 

upper surface of the " root." 
Usually 60 to 120 days. 
Small, usually yellow. 

Usually smooth on the surface and in 

outline. 
Soft, usually white to yellow, more 

often white. 
Generally poor ; should be consumed 

early in the season. 
5 to 10 per cent. 
3 to iQ ounces. 
Small ; 2 to 3 pounds usually sown per 

acre. 



Rutabaga 



Rough. 

Bluish green, or covered with a bluish 

white bloom. 
Smooth. 
Present. 
On the neck, which usually shows 

well-defined leaf -scars. 
Usually 90 to 180 days. 
Larger, buff yellow to pale orange in 

color. 
Usually rough on the surface and less 

perfect in form and outline. 
Firmer, white, yellow or orange, more 

often yellow. 
Generally good ; can be kept until 

spring. 
7 to 12 per cent. 
16 to 50 ounces. 
Larger and darker in color ; 4 to 5 

pounds usually sown per acre. 



ROOT CROPS 



ROOT CROPS 



549 



in duration. The relationship of these plants to each 
other and to the hybrid-turnips i.-i shown graph- 
ically below : 



Brassica campestris. 

Hairy leaves when 
young, smooth leaves 
when older (said to be 
a cross between wild 
cabbage and wild 
turnip). 



Brassica Rapa. 

Hairy leaves at all 
times. 



Brassica campestris, var. ole- 
ifera. Colza or rape. Annual. 
Grown for seeds anl oil. 
Best oil plant of Europo. 

Brassica (campes!ris) ruta- 
baga, DC. 
Rutabaga, Swedish turnip. 
Biennial. Grown for "roots." 



Brassica Rapa, var. oleifera. 
Annual ; thin root. Grown 
for seed and oil. 



Brassica Rapa, var. depressa. 
Biennial, normally. Grown 
^for its thickened " root." 




Classification of varieties. 

Turnips are classified commercially according to 
their 

(1) Shape. 

(2) Shape of the upper part of the root. 

(3) Color of the upper part of the root. 

(4) Color of the flesh. 

(1) Shape. Turnips are said to be flat when the 
width of tuber is one and one-half times' the 
depth ; globular when the crown and base are de- 
pressed like a globe, but the width is less than one 
and one-half times the depth ; round when spheri- 
cal in outline in all directions ; tankard when the 
depth is less than two and one-half and more than 
one and one-half times the width and the sides are 
parallel; ovoid when the depth is less than two and 
one-half and more than one and one-half times the 
greatest width and the sides are not parallel, but 
taper toward the top and bottom ; long when the 
length is over two and one-half times the greate.st 
width ; half-long when the roots taper from the 
shoulders to the root but the length is less than 
two and one-half times the width ; cowhorn when 
the roots are twisted like a cow's horn. 

(2) Shape of the upper part of the root. They 
may be "flat-topped" or "round-topped" according 
to the shape of the upper part of the root and the 
character of the shoulders. A concave or depressed 
top is objectionable, since it permits the lodgment 
of water and encourages disease.?. 

(3) Color of the upper part of the root. Roots 
are said to be white-, yellow-, green-, bronze-, 
gray-, purple-, red- or Ijlack-topped. The term 
"grey stones" is also applied to roots having the 
upper part mottled with green and purple streaks. 

(4) Color of flesh. The flesh is generally white 
or yellowish. Both colors are found in common 
turnips, rutabagas and hybrids. 

The varieties of turnips used in the garden give 
too low yield for stock-feeding, although they are 
sometimes sown broadcast after an early crop of 
potatoes, peas or other crop. For the latter pur- 



pose the Golden Ba'l, Pomeranian White Globe, 
Cowhorn or Mammoth Purple Top are frequently 
sown. For sowing for a main crop some of the 
cattle turnips grown in Great Britain are recom- 
mended, such as Imperial Green Globe, Purple-top 
Mammoth, Devonshire Grey Stone, Red Paragon, 
Red Globe, some of which yielded at the Cornell 
E.xperiment Sta.tion in 1904 at the rate of twenty- 
five tons per acre in 
four months after sow- 
in g. Among hybrid- 
turnips well-known 
varieties are Fosterton 
„ . „ , Hybrid, Aberdeen Yel- 

Brasstca Rapa, var Ay- j ^^j.^^^. j^j ^tning 
hnda, Fraser. Hybrid- ', ^, ^ ,, ^ 

turnips. Modern. Bien- ?,n d ( ommon wealth, 
nial. Grown for "roots." Garton Pioneer, Dale 
Hybrid. Among ruta- 
bagas, there are many 
strains of the Monarch 
or Elephant, the Im- 
proved Purple-Top, the 
Long Island Purple-Top, 
the Large White rutabaga. Green-top, Bronze-top. 
Unfortunately, in turnips, as in mangels, the aim 
in the development of' varieties seems to have been 
to select for non-essentials. It matters little 
whether a rutabaga is purple-topped or green- 
topped. It does matter whether it yields twenty- 
five tons of roots containing 8 per cent of dry 
matter or twenty-five tons containing 12 per cent, 
and it is on this line that future efl'orts in the 
development of varieties must be concentrated. As 
mentioned in the case of mangels, the only method 
practicable for the improvement of turnips and the 
selection of "mother roots" for seed production 
seems to be to take out a core or plug from each 
individual root, determine the amount of dry matter 
in the same and retain only those roots which are 
rich in dry matter. When varieties are valued and 
catalogued on their performance record, as fast 
horses and dairy cattle now are, it will be easier to 
give advice as to the variety which should be 
grown. 

Culture if turnips. 

Land. — The bestsoils are free-working loams, rich 
in organic matter and in good tilth. Common tur- 
nips will thrive on the lighter loams, and the ruta- 
bagas will give higher yields on the medium to 
heavy loams, although, if well Supplied with mois- 
ture and manure, good crops may be grown on light 
friable soils. Stift" clays are unsuitable because of 
the difficulty in securing a fine seed-bed, which is 
essential ; and light, sandy and gravelly soils are 
objectionable because the yield is. low. The root 
system of turnips is mainly in the surface soil, and 
the moisture supply at this point in the sandy soils 
is likely to fail. 

Climate. — Climate is of more importance than 
soil. For perfect development a damp, rather dull 
climate seems to be best. Unless the rainfall is 
well distributed throughout the growing period, 
the plants are likely to receive a check from which 
they may never recover. 



550 



ROOT CROPS 



ROOT CROPS 



Preparation of the land. [See Mangels.] — Empha- 
sis must be laid on the necessity of thorough prep- 
aration of the land and securing fine tilth. Phos- 
phatic fertilizers with barnyard manure are gener- 
ally profitable, 400 to 600 pounds of acid phosphate 
par acre being applied in addition to ten tons of 
farm manure per acre. 

Seeding turnips. — Large, plump seed produces 
very strong plants. Two and one-half to five 
pounds, average four pounds, of seed per acre is 
usually sown in the case of rutabagas and hybrids ; 
and two to four pounds, average three pounds, per 
acre in the case of common turnips, when the rows 
are twenty-seven inches apart. Less would do if 
we could be sure that the flea-beetles would not 
kill many of the plants. The seed should be sown 
at a depth of one-half to three-fourths inch, usually 
the former, but in a dry season the latter may be 
better. It can readily be sown too deep. The re- 
sults obtained during the past two years at Cornell 
University show that sowing on May 11 gave over 
100 per cent better yield than sowing on June 12. 

Thinning. — The young plants come up about four 
days after sowing and are ready for thinning in 
three or four weeks. The stand of a root crop has 
great influence on the yield, and to secure more 
plants per acre it has been urged to make the rows 
closer. This, however, eliminates the use of horse- 
power machinery, necessitating hand labor and 
rendering the crop unprofitable. In the case of 
rutabagas, 26,000 to 30,000 plants must be grown 
per acre, and with common turnips rather more. 
Twenty-aeven-inch rows are better than twenty- 
four-inch, and thirty-inch rows are easier to culti- 
vate than twenty-seven. Some of the distances 
advocated are considered below : 







No. of plants 






per acre 


23-inch rows. 


plants 14 inches asunder . . 


19,480 


24-iiich rows 


plants 12 inches asunder . . 


21,780 


27-inch rows 


plants 10 inches asunder . . 


23,232 


30-inch rows 


plants 8 inches asunder . . . 


26,136 


30-inch rows 


plants 7i inches asunder . . 


27,878 



As with mangels, it is recommended that the 
effort be made to secure the maximum yield per row, 
and the use of thirty-inch rows with plants seven 
to eight inches asunder in the row is suggested. 
The common turnips may be left five or seven 
inches asunder. Some of the advantages of wide 
rows are better air circulation among the plants, 
which aids in checking fungous diseases, and fewer 
rows to cultivate and to thin, with a consequent 
saving in labor. The object is to produce roots at 
the least cost per bushel. Intertillage should be 
given every seven to ten days until the foliage 
meets in the rows. 

Harvesting. — The roots are usually pulled by 
hand, and the necks and tops cut off and left in the 
field. The roots are stored in root-cellars or pits. 
Since these roots can withstand more frost than 
mangels and are usually used earlier in the season, 
they are stored after mangels are harvested. The 



roots should be dry when harvested and pitted, 
and good ventilation and a low temperature should 
be maintained in the storage. In Great Britain 
common and hybrid-turnips are frequently con- 
sumed in the field by folding sheep or young stock 
on them. This practice has been used to a small 
e.xtent in some parts of northern United States. 

Uses. 

Aside from their value for cattle-feeding, there 
is sometimes a market for the better quality tur- 
nips for human consumption. Late-sown and not 
too large rutabagas are barreled and shipped to 
most of the large cities in the North, but for such 
purposes varieties required by the different markets 
should be secured. 

Enemies. 

Clubroot or anbury (Plasmodiophora brassica:), 
sometimes does considerable injury. For treatment, 
see Cabbage. A soft rot due to a bacterium {Bacil- 
lus carotovorus, Jones) has been doing serious injury 
to the crop in some of the northern states. It is 
most serious when a crop has reached maturity. 
Late sowing or speedy consumption of the crop 
seems to be the only means of combating it. A 
brown bacterial rot (Pseudomonas campestris) fre- 
quently ravages the crop when the cruciferous 
plants are grown too closely together in the rota- 
tion. 

The flea-beetle {Phyllotreta vittata), mentioned 
under cabbage, frequently destroys the young 
plants and necessitates resowing of the crop. 

Early sowing and plenty of seed, a good rotation, 
having the soil in the best of tilth, liming, manuring 
and timeliness in doing the work, will generally 
put the plants in such a condition that they will 
safely withstand most of the diseases and insect 
attacks. 

Root Cellars and Storage Houses. Figs. 786-789. 
By L. C. Corhett. 

Well-con.structed pits are more desirable for the 
storage of both fruits and vegetables than house 
cellars. All oft'ense from decaying vegetables is 
thus removed from the dwelling, and as a rule a 
lower and more satisfactory temperature for the 
storage of such products can be maintained in root 
cellars than in house cellars. The trifling expense 
involved in the construction of a satisfactory root 
cellar and the value of beets, turnips and carrots 
as stock-food, should command much greater 
attention for the root cellar from stockmen and 
dairymen than has been given it in this country. 

In view of the character of the products to be 
stored in a root cellar, cheapness of construction 
is essential. The less expensive the construction, 
that at the same time will be convenient, and 
have a reasonable degree of permanence, the 
more desirable. Convenience to the feeding place 
is important because of the bulk and weight 
of the product to be handled. Barn cellars are as 
a rule, therefore, when practicable, most conve- 
nient though not always least expensive. If roots 



ROOT CROPS 



ROOT CROPS 



551 



are to be used extensively in the feeding of dairy 
herds, and if it is possible to use the bank base- 
ment so as to fill the cellar by dumping the roots 
from the floor above or through an area-way from 
the outside, a very considerable saving in labor can 
be made. 

Construction. 

In the construction of the root cellar, whether it 
he a part of the basement of the barn or an inde- 
pendent structure, arrangements must be made to 
provide good ventilation by admitting cold air 
from without, and by means of flues to carry off 
dampness and warm air from within. The side 
walls as well as the floor should be dry, and while 
it is more desirable that they consist of earth or 
masonry than of lumber, they should be frost-proof. 

These requirements can be attained in several 
ways, among which may be mentioned the bank-pit 
or cave construction. This requires the making of 
an excavation into the side of a hill in a well-drained 
place. Such excavations should not be too wide to 
be spanned by a safe arch or covered by poles, or 
simply with rafters and a ridge pole. When the 
cellar is wider, it is necessary to use posts and pil- 
lars to support the roof, which is undesirable. The 
length of the cellar will be determined by the 
quantity of products to be stored or by the nature 
of the location in which it is to be constructed. A 
pit eight feet wide and thirty feet long will hold 
700 bushels of roots. 

Materials. — Now that concrete is so extensively 
used in all building work, both above and below 
ground, it is thought that a permanent root cellar, 
whether an adjunct to the barn itself or an inde- 
pendent structure, can be constructed more eco- 
nomically with this material than with stone or 
brick. Simple forms for the side walls can be made 
from rough lumber, and the roof can be built either 
over rafters set for a flat roof or over a low seg- 
ment giving an arched roof. The ^ide walls need 
not be more than six or seven inches thick, and if 
the span of the roof is not over eight feet and the 
layer of earth over the concrete is not more than 
twelve inches, an 8-inch wall over the arch will be 
sufficient. 

A cheaper bank cellar can be constructed by 
using posts and planks to hold the sides of the 
bank in place. If the earth is stiff clay, the sides 
will not require supporting either by concrete or 
by posts and planks. If posts and boards are used, 
the roof can be built on top of the posts about 
twelve inches below the general level of the soil, 
so as to provide a gutter at the side after the roof 
frame has been covered with earth and sod. In 
fact, this arrangement is desirable, no matter what 
the interior construction. 

'On level ground in localities where the winters 
are not severe, root cellars are constructed partly 
above and partly below the surface. For houses of 
this kind, concrete, stone, brick and log-crib con- 
struction are used. The kind of building will de- 
pend, of course, on the use, the material at hand 
and the cost. Since there are no special features 
to be provided in these structures, except that they 



are usually placed two to four feet in the ground, 
the log-crib building only will be de.seribed. 

Log-crib building. (Fig. 786.) — "If there is no 
hillside convenient, a knoll or other dry place should 
be chosen, and the soil removed over a space a trifle 
larger than the ground plan of the house, and to 




Fig. 786. Root ceUar. Crib-construction. After Halsted. 

the depth of two feet or more, provided there is no 
danger that the bottom will be wet. In the con- 
struction of the house, select poles or logs of two 
sizes, the larger ones being the shorter : these are 
for the inside pen, as it is subjected to greater 
strain. The ends of the logs are cut flat, so that 
they will fit down closely together, and make a pen 
that is nearly tight. At least two logs in each 
layer of the inner pen should be cut long enough 
to pass through and fit into the outer pen, to serve 
to fasten the two walls together, the space between 
the two being two feet wide on each side. The 
doorway is built up by having short logs, which 
pass from one layer of poles to the other, and 
serve as supports to the ends of the wall poles. This 
is shown in Fig. 786, in which the house is repre- 
sented as completed. The space between the two 
walls is filled with earth, sods being used to fill in 
between the logs to block the earth. It is best to 
begin putting in the earth before the walls are 
completed, as otherwise it will require an undue 
amount of hard lifting. 

"When the walls are built up five to six feet on 
one side, and about two feet higher on the other, 
to give the necessary slope, the roof is put on. The 
latter should be of poles placed close together, well 
secured to the logs, and covered with sod, eighteen 
inches of earth, and sodded again on the top. Two 
doors should be provided, one on the inner and the 
other on the outer wall, both to fit closely. A fill- 
ing of straw can be placed between the doors, if it 
is necessary, in order to keep out the frost. Such a 
house will last for many years, paying for its 
moderate cost many times over." [Barn Plans and 
Outbuildings, B. D. Halsted.] 

The "A" construction. (Fig. 787.) — A construction 
somewhat akin to this is used extensively through- 
out the Carolinas for storing sweet-potatoes. For 
this purpose, poles about eight feet long are taken. 
If of a size to allow splitting in half, so much the 
better. The ends of the pieces are cut at the same 
angle that rafters would be cut to give the desired 
pitch to the roof. A well-drained and somewhat 
sheltered situation is chosen, the earth smoothed 
and a slight e.xcavation made in which to place the 



552 



ROOT CROPS 



ROOT CROPS 



bases of the poles ; the split timbers are then set 
against a ridge-pole in the form of the letter A. The 
timbers are fitted as closely as possible, so as to 
form a comparatively tight side. The ridge is 
about six or six and one-half feet above the sur- 
face of the ground, which, with eight-foot pieces, 
makes a room about eight feet wide, six feet high 
and any length desired. If the room is not more 
than sixteen or twenty feet long, the door is placed 
in the end, but, if it has a greater length, the door 
is usually placed in one side and given the same 
slant as the side of the building. After the frame- 
work has been completed, the structure is covered 




Fig 787 Root cellar "A construetion 

with a layer of straw or turf and earth to the de- 
sired depth to give the needed protection. Board 
chimneys six or eight inches square are provided to 
give ventilation. One is sufficient for a house of 
any length up to sixteen feet, but another should 
be used for each additional ten feet. When it is de- 
sirable to increase ventilation, or to enable the cel- 
lar temperature to be maintained at an unusually 
low point early in the fall, or late in the spring, 
tile intake pipes can be arranged to carry the cold 
night air from the outside to the cellar. The in- 
take pipes should be provided with dampers to 
exclude the heated air of the day, but opened at 
night when the temperature falls low enough to aid 
in cooling the pit. 

The interior arranriemcnl. — The interior arrange- 
ment of the root cellar will depend on the use to 
which it is to be put. If for the storage of beets, 
turnips or carrots for stock-food, it should be ar- 
ranged to store them in bulk without the construc- 
tion of bins. If it is desirable to store several kinds 
of roots in the same cellar and keep them separate, 
then the construction of bins will be desirable. 
Usually it will be best to use only earth or concrete 
iloors, the partitions for the bins being made of 
plank or concrete. 

Special types of storage houses. 

Besides the types of storage structures already 
described, there are in use among the producers, as 
• well as dealers in root crops, structures which are 
designed to carry such products as are injured by 
freezing through the severe weather of the winter. 
Preeminent among the crops which are thus stored 
may be mentioned onions, sweet-potatoes, Irish 
potatoes and celery. 

Houses for sweet-potatoes, onions and Irish pota- 
toes. — In general, the types of construction of stor- 
age houses used for the storage of the sweet- 
potato, onion and Irish potato, are very much the 
same. They are usually built above ground or as 



bank structures, part of the basement being be- 
neath the surface of the ground, and so arranged 
as to be conveniently approached by wagon and by 
water or railway transportation facilities. Build- 
ings for this purpose are built of stone, concrete 
or wood, the walls being made as nearly frost- 
proof as possible. When brick, stone or concrete 
structures are employed, the walls are so con- 
structed as to carry a dead-air space. In addition 
to this they are usually furred out and lined with 
paper and matched lumber. If stone or concrete is 
used, either hollow blocks or solid walls are built 
and furred out as above described. In frame con- 
struction, 2 X 6 or 2 x 8 studding are employed, and 
paper is placed between the studding so as to 
divide the space between the front and back of the 
studding, so that when paper flooring and ceiling 
are placed on the two sides a double space is 
formed. It is customary to place on the outside 
matched sheeting, a layer of paper and weather 
boarding, and on the inside matched boards, paper, 
furring strips, paper and another layer of matched 
lumber, thus making three dead-air spaces in the 
wall. Such buildings, built entirely above ground 
and located in the extreme northern potato regions 
of the United States, are practically frost-proof. 
The precaution which is taken in the storage of 
perishable products in such buildings is to keep the 
products from contact with the outside walls. 

In the case of storage houses for sweet-potatoes 
which are built much after the manner described, 
they need not, in the regions in which sweet-pota- 
toes are grown, be provided with so many dead-air 
spaces. The potatoes are usually stored in bulk in 
bins which are kept from the outside wall by slat- 
cribbing placed about eighteen inches from the 
outside wall. The sweet-potatoes are harvested as 
soon as the first frost injures the vines. The pota- 
toes are dug so as to dry as thoroughly as possible in 
the field. They are then carefully gathered into small 
baskets holding five-eighths to one bushel, and car- 
ried, preferably on spring wagons, to the storage 
house, where they are placed in large heaps in a stor- 
age room, which is kept by means of artificial heat at 
a temperature of about 80° to 85° throughout the 
harvest period, and for at least ten days or two 
weeks thereafter. A common practice is to place 
the potatoes in layers about two feet deep, which 
may be separated by pine needles or some dry ab- 
sorbent material which will act as an insulation to 
the difi'erent layers. With these facilities and 
proper ventilation, provided the tubers are not in 
contact with the earth or a concrete floor, but 
rather on a board floor elevated some fifteen or eigh- 
teen inches from the earth, and so arranged that cold 
air shall not be admitted after the curing period 
has passed, the potatoes can be kept very success- 
fully until February or March, or even on to the 
bedding period for the next year's crop. 

Irish potatoes m.ay be stored in bulk in cribs 
similar to those described for sweet-potatoes. A 
more common practice, however, is to store them 
in bushel crates or in gunny sacks ; but bags or 
gunny sacks are likely to be unsatisfactory. If they 
are stored in crates they are placed in tiers about five 



ROOT CROPS 



ROOT CROPS 



553 



or six crates wide, and as high as the crates can be 
conveniently placed in the room. If stored in saclcs, 
the tiers are about three to five sacks wide and 
sometimes ten sacks high. This arrangement pro- 
vides an alley-way between the different lines of 
stored material, whether in sacks or in crates. 

In the case of onions, false shelving or racks are 
sometimes provided, which are about six or eight 
feet wide, on which the onions are very carefully 
spread, eight to fifteen inches deep, there being 
surticient space above the onions to admit of inspec- 
tion ; but the usual practice is to replace the 
shelving by bushel crates, which are universally 
used for gathering such products. The crated 
onions are then stored in perfectly insulated build- 
ings constructed as above described. 

The capacity of such storage houses varies from 
a few hundred to fifty thousand bushels. The prac- 
tice in some regions where onions are carried over 
for seed purposes is to spread the bulbs on slat 
racks in open buildings where they are allowed to 
freeze at the beginning of winter and remain frozen 
throughout the whole storage period. Under these 
circumstances it is very important that the bulbs 
be protected from all possible injury ; even the jar- 
ring of the building must be guarded against, other- 
wise the bulbs will rot at the approach of warm 
weather in the spring. It is evident, from the nature 
of the case, that this system can be followed only 
in regions where the winters are rigorous. 

In the storage of Irish potatoes and onions, it is 
desirable that the products be in contact with the 
earth if practicable. The moisture of the earth 
seems to have a beneficial influence on the quality 
of the product, if it is to remain in storage for a 
considerable period. Onion bins and crates, when 
placed directly on the earth, are less lialile to jars 
and disturbances, which cause loss in the stored 
bulbs, than when made a part of the superstructure. 

Storage houses for sweet-potatoes and onions 
must be provided with flues and ventilating arrange- 
ments to remove the moisture and to keep the tem- 



as to give sufficient head room for storing and ear- 
ing for the crop. Buildings of this description are 
usually about twelve or fourteen feet wide, and 
provided with side walls two or three feet high, 
which are fairly well insulated to protect the plants 




/ ■/ 


^ 


m^ 


W^^?'^^ 


^r-'^^wW 


n^ 


— f 




f .~'*^ 




-^^ «;,*■- 


_ I.-- /J -^ic,'- '^ !r: ' ' 


, ■< , ' 




V''^^^'^'" 







Fig. 788. Root cellar. 



The spruce trees serve to catch the suow so that it will 
drift on the roof. 



perature within the limit of safety. In some cases 
this involves heating facilities as well as ventilating 
and cooling apparatus. 

Celery pits. — The storage houses or pits for celery 
are very difi^erent in construction and usually con- 
sist of a half-cellar arrangement. A well-drained 
location is chosen, preferably on soil which is of a 
sandy character. The buildings are so constructed 



Fig. 789. Concrete hotbeds and masonry root cellar. 
Side view of cellar shown in Fig. 788. 

next to the outside, either by banking at the out- 
side or by the style of construction above described. 
The roof is then made of boards, usually those used 
for blanching the early crop of celery in the field. 
In cases where more permanent structures are de- 
sired, the houses may be constructed of concrete 
and provided with shingle or slate roofs. Sufficient 
ventilating flues must be provided to govern the 
temperature inside the pit ; windows are also nec- 
essary to provide light for those who water and 
care for the crop during the storage period. 

Example of a general-purpose root cellar. 

In Figs. 788 and 789 are shown a front and side 
view of a well-constructed and very serviceable root 
cellar at the Farm and Trades School, Boston, Mass. 
The cellar faces south. The walls are of solid 
masonry two feet thick, and extending two feet 
below the level of the earth floor. The front and 
top only are exposed, 
the earth bank sloping 
away from the two 
sides and the rear. The 
front wall extends be- 
yond the side walls to 
retain the earth. 

The roof is of two- 
inch matched spruce, 
tarred and covered with 
three-ply roofing- 
paper. The ceiling is 
sheathed, leaving a 
dead-air space. The 
rafters are 2x8 spruce, 
and the collar-beams the same. Entrance is through 
an outer and an inner door, each four by seven feet, 
set in the center t)f the front wa'l. There are four 
automatic ventilators in the roof, also one over the 
door and one in each door, all regulated from the 
inside. On the south side of the interior is a brick 
wall, extending from end to end, six feet from the 
side wall and three feet high. From the top of this 



-1— 



554 



ROOT CROPS 



RUBBER 



wall to the ceiling is a double-boarded partition, 
and a door leads from the main cellar into this 
smaller room. This is for keeping celery banked in 
sand. The room has two small ventilators in the 
roof. In the main room are bins and shelves for 
different vegetables. The cellar is thirty-nine feet 
six inches long, and twenty-six feet six inches 
wide. The interior height is seven feet six inches. 
The cellar is cool and dry, capable of being kept at 
a uniform temperature, and will accommodate four 
thousand bushels. 

RUBBER, OR CAOUTCHOUC. Figs. 790-798. 

By H. N. Ridley and J. H. Hart. 

Rubber, or caoutchouc, is obtained from the 
milky juice or latex of a considerable number of 
trees and shrubs, erect or climbing, which inhabit 
almost exclusively tropical parts, though some are 
found in sub-tropical regions. These plants belong 




Fig. 790. A plantation ol Hevea Brasiliensis and Caslilloa elaetica. 
Seven years old. 

to the families Urticacece, Euphorhiacem and Apocy- 
nacem. For practical agriculture, however, there 
are only four of these plants which can be utilized 
in cultivation, viz., Hevca Brasiliensis and Maniltot 
Glaziovii of the Eupliorhiaccm, and Castilloa elastiea 
and Fims elastiea of the Urticacece. The big woody 
climbers, Lanrfo/pA/a and Willughheia, of the forests 
of Africa and Malaya, do not respond to cultural 
treatment. Hancornia and various species of Ficus 
not mentioned above have given such poor results 
under cultivation that they are not worth the at- 
tention of the agriculturist, though the rubber has 
value when it can be collected in .sufficient quantity. 
Mimusops globosa, a tree which produces " Balata 
rubber " (or gutta-percha), is indigenous to South 
America and the British island of Trinidad, and 
might be cultivated to any extent. It is a slow- 
growing tree, but to those who can afford to wait 
it would doubtless be a most profitable investment. 
In the four species above mentioned, we have 
plants of which one or another is suitable for 



cultivation on a large scale and with good profit 

very widely in the tropical regions. All are trees 
of considerable size, and, under suitable circum- 
stances, of rapid growth. 

• The United States is entirely dependent on 
imports for its rubber. Crude rubber is the third 
largest of the tropical imports of this country. 
The imports for the five years, 1898-1902, were as 
follows : 

1898 $2.5,386,010 

1899 31,707,630 

1900 31,376,867 

1901 28,455,383 

1902 24,899,230 

Average 28,365,024 

It is absolutely essential for the agriculturist 

who intends planting rubber trees, first carefully to 

select the kind suited for the climate and soil in 

which he intends to plant. Much money has been 

wasted by attempting to plant Ceara 

rubber in the tropical rain-forest region. 

Such errors are easily avoidable. 

The latex. 

The latex, or milk, is a white liquid 
consisting of water containing proteid 
matter, sugar and minute globules of 
caoutchouc or rubber. The art of mak- 
ing the rubber consists in separating the 
rubber from the water and other con- 
stituents of the latex. 

The latex occurs in a series of special 
vessels (the laticiferous vessels) which 
permeate the bark of the stem and twigs 
and also the leaves and other soft parts 
of the trees. A section of the bark of 
the Para rubber (Hevea) under the mi- 
croscope shows on the outer surface sev- 
eral layers of hard, thick-walled cells, 
forming the cork layer ; below this lie 
layers of thin-walled, long cells, the bast 
layer, through which run the laticiferous 
vessels, which are of some length and 
which branch and join each other at intervals so 
as to form a network. Below this layer lies the 
cambium or growing layer of the bark, and below 
this again the wood. The latex vessels are most 
abundant near the cambium layer, and run verti- 
cally, parallel with the long axis of the stem. 

To get the latex it is necessary to cut the bark 
in such a way as to cross as many latex-tubes as 
possible without unduly injuring the tree. A notion 
holds that the wound should not penetrate the deli- 
cate cambium layer but stop short of it for fear 
of risking the life of the tree. As a matter of fact, 
in Para rubber, at least, the risk is small. Many 
trees have been cut to the cambium and deeper in 
the Singapore Botanic Gardens, but none have been 
injured ; reports from Ceylon, however, recommend 
great care in this respect. Less deep wounds heal 
more quickly, it is true, but as the greater part of 
the latex vessels lie very close to the cambium, 
unless the wound is made to this layer not more 
than half the available latex can be secured. 



RUBBER 



RUBBER 



555 



Althorgh latex occurs in all paries of the tree, 
that which is found in the upper branches and 
twigs is weak and of no value commercially. It is 
therefore from the lower part of the trunk, and, in 




Fig. 791. 



Hevea BrasUlensis, or Paia rubber tree, thirty 
years old. 



Ficus, from the aerial roots also, that the rubber is 
derived. 

The value of the rubbers of different trees is by 
no means the same. That of the Hevea is much 
the most valued, and consequently this. tree is the 
most extensively cultivated of the four mentioned. 
This seems to be due to the fact that 
this rubber contains less resin than do 
the other rubbers. In Hevea there is 
also a perceptible difference in the 
quality and quantity of latex obtain- 
able from different trees. 

Culture. 

As there are some important differ- 
ences in the way that each kind of tree 
requires to be treated, both in the mat- 
ter of cultivation and preparation of 
the rubber, it will be advisable to treat 
of each kind separately. Because of its 
importance, and inasmuch as some of 
the practices employed in raising Para 
rubber apply to all the others, or 
will serve to illustrate the general 
principles, this species is discussed at 
length. 



Para rubber {Hevea Brasiliensis). Figs. 790- 
793. 

The Para rubber is a native of the tropical 
forests bordering the Amazon river and its tribu- 
taries, where it grows in a damp, hot climate, with 
a heavy rainfall, and with no distinct dry period. 
It is therefore suited for those parts of the world 
which lie close to the equator, and are known as 
the tropical rain-forest region. It thrives in the 
West Indies. The temperature at which it grows 
shows a mean annual of 78° Fahr ; mean maximum, 
87° Fahr ; mean minimum, 69° Fahr ; extreme maxi- 
mum, 93° Fahr ; and extreme minimum, 62° Fahr. 

The seed. — This tree is nearly always grown from 
seed, for, although it is possible to raise it from 
cuttings, this is not to be recommended. The seeds 
in adult trees are produced more or less throughout 
the year, but the main crop is ripe in August (in 
Trinidad always in September and October). The 
seeds are about an inch long, oblong-rounded, with 
one side slightly flattened, dark brown marbled 
with silver. They vary in size, some of the finest 
trees giving very small seeds. They are produced 
in a large, woody, three-celled capsule, which when 
ripe explodes violently, throwing the seeds. 

The seed should be planted as soon as possible 
after it ripens, as its vitality is of short duration, 
and, unless specially treated, it dies within a week. 
Seed sent from a distance, which has been long on 
the way, should be soaked in water for a day 
before planting. 

The nursery (Fig. 792). — Nursery-beds are made 
in moderately moist, rich soil, carefully worked. 
Th3 seeds are placed in rows about six inches apart, 
on the flat side, and pressed into the soil for about 
half their depth. In some regions they are not 
covered with earth. It is advisable at first to cover 
them with a light shade of leaves or branches, 
about a foot above the ground. The seed germi- 
nates very quickly. The plant can be removed to 
the plantation when it is about a foot tall, which 
will be six or eight months from the time of plant- 
ing the seed. However, it may be kept in the nur- 
sery till much later, as it is very hardy and bears 
transplanting at almost any age. It is advisable to 







V.-:^- 



>>r''— ^. 






^''''f'^S > \ Wi/4- 






>u 







Fig. 792. 



Nurseries of rubber plants, uue year old. The seedliugs are 
potted'iu b:iuiboo joints. (Httrt.) 



556 



RUBBER 



RUBBER 



keep it longer in the nursery when the plantation is 
liable to the attacks of grasshoppers or slugs, or 
where deer or other wild beasts are likely to attack 
the young plant. In such cases the taproot should 
be cut off, and, if the young plant is over twelve 
feet in height, the top should also be removed with 
a clean cut at eight to ten feet from the ground. 

Young plants of Hevea should be potted in 
bamboo joints as soon as they can be safely handled ; 
and the same applies to all the species. In the 
bamboo pots the young plants can await time or 
season for planting better than if grown in nursery- 
beds, and will stand transport better. However, 
they should not stand too long in these pots, or 
their roots may become cramped and hinder future 
growth. (Hart.) 

The plantation. — The soil in the plantation should 
be rich alluvial flat, free from salt-water and well 
drained. Rocky or very sandy soil should be avoided. 
The ground should be cleared of trees and bushes 
by felling and burning, and the young trees should 
be planted about twenty-live feet apart. 

Growth. — The growth in a suitable locality is very 
rapid, and the young trees should be about fifteen 
feet tall in a year and a half, and .sliould attain 
their full height of sixty feet in about eight years. 
If they grow very tall and slender it is advisable 
to top them at about eight or nine feet from the 
ground. For the first few years the ground should 
be cleared of weeds from time to time ; afterward 
it is less necessary, as the trees will shade out the 
weeds. No further cultivation is required. 

The duration of the life of the tree is not known. 
The oldest trees in cultivation are about thirty-five 
years of age and show no signs of weakening ; and 
there are said to be some trees in the Amazon 
region which have been tapped for eighty years. 

It was formerly thought that the Hevea requires 
swampy river-side lands, but the discovery of 
forests of it in high lands shows that a moist situ- 
ation is not es.sential. That it thrives in gravelly 
soil and stands drought well has been amply proved. 
The better the land, however, the better the growth, 
and on well-drained river-side lands it certainly 
reaches a larger size than on dry ground. The tree 
thrives in the open, but grows faster when slightly 
shaded in its younger stages by trees of similar 
habit. (Hart.) 

The trees should fruit in their fifth year. The 
flowering season is preceded by the fall of the 
leaves, which in young trees takes place all at once. 
Older trees shed their leaves more irregularly. 

Tapping. — Many methods of tapping are now in 
use, and it is probable that as the industry pro- 
gresses other methods may be found to which those 
in use will eventually give way. In the original 
forest the life of the tree is but little regarded, 
and generally the collector takes all he can, to get 
which the trees are badly mutilated and usually 
die. It is evident, therefore, that very careful 
measures are necessary on cultivated estates, not 
to injure the trees if continuous crops are to be 
secured. While the trees have large recuperative 
power, yet it is certain that e.xcessive wounding 
for bleeding purposes must tell on them and event- 



ually diminish the yield, if indeed the trees do not 
succumb altogether. (Hart.) 

Tapping may begin in the sixth year with Hevea, 
but much depends on the size of the stem at that 
age. The rubber from young trees is weaker and 
lighter than that from older trees, which is valued 
more highly. It is watery and contains a consider- 
able proportion of resinous matter, a feature which 
disappears as age advances. 

The most convenient and satisfactory method of 
tapping the Para rubber tree is the herring-bone 
system (Fig. 793). A 
vertical incision is 
made in the bark from 
as high as a man can 
conveniently reach to 
within a few inches of 
the ground, and as nar- 
row as possible, as it is 
required only to con- 
duct the milk to the cup 
inserted by its edge at 
the base of the cut. On 
either side, sloping cuts 
are made alternately 
about six inches apart, 
connecting with the 
central cut. The milk 
runs from these side 
cuts to thecentral chan- 
nel and so into the cup. 
Each day a thin slice is 
taken off the lower side 
of each side cut till the 
milk ceases to flow or 
till the cut is about 
one and one-half inches 
wide, when tapping is 
stopped and the wound 
allowed to heal, which it does in about six 
months. Wounds may be dressed with coal-tar. 

Tapping is done all the year round, and is best per- 
formed in the early morning at daylight, or in the 
evening. The former gives the largest yield. Some 
growers prefer to tap during wet weather, on the 
theory that the sap flows faster then, and because 
the additional moisture delays coagulation and 
thus facilitates gathering. In dry weather the 
latex coagulates in the cuts and stops the flow. 

The instruments used for cutting the bark are 
very varied, new ones constantly being invented. 
Especially in old trees, a mallet and a chisel are 
perhaps the best and most easily used. The cups 
for catching the milk are made of aluminum, with 
a rounded base, and contain four or eight ounces. 

The milk runs for half an hour or so and then 
stops. The cups are collected and their contents 
poured into jugs or other large ves.sels to carry 
to the curing shed. It is advisable to put a little 
water with a drop of formalin into each cup 
before fixing it to the tree, to avoid coagulation in 
the cups, which sometimes occurs. The latices of 
all trees should be strained through a fine wire 
mesh to remove the impurities inseparable from 
the bleeding process. 




Fig. 793. 

Para rubber tree, showing 

herring-bone tapping. 



RUBBER 



RUBBER 



557 



Preparing. — Rubber may be made in various 
forms, the best of which are biscuit, crepe or sheet, 
and bhsck. For biscuit, the latex, after beingstrained 
through muslin or wire gauze to remove any dirt, 
is poured into enameled iron plates. A few drops of 
acetic acid are put in each plate, and the milk 
stirred. The plates are covered and put aside for 
about twelve hours, when the latex is found to be 
set, and can be taken out in a cake. It is then put 
between rollers and rolled flat, and laid away on a 
rack to dry, in a cool, dry place. The drying usually 
takes some weeks. When quite dry the biscuits are 
packed in wooden boxes for shipment. If in drying 
mold appears, the biscuits are wiped with a rag 
moistened with formalin. 

Some planters do not use acetic acid, but allow 
the latex to coagulate of itself. The objection is 
that it takes a much longer time to set, and the 
latex is liable to suffer from the decomposition 
of the proteids. Rubber is also sometimes smoked 
over a wood fire. This accelerates the drying but 
darkens it and sometimes causes a .small reduction 
in value. 

Sheet rubber is made in the same way but in 
long, flat trays. Crepe is made in a machine in- 
vented in the Malay states, the rollers of which 
are grooved and tear up and press the soft rubber 
together again, making it of a lace-like appearance. 

There is a slight preference at present for bis- 
cuit and sheet rubber over crepe, but the latter 
has the advantage of drying more rapidly. Block 
rubber has recently come into prominence. 

Scrap is the waste bits of rubber derived from 
the cuts when reopening, and any other bits which 
cannot be made into biscuits. The washings of the 
cups and splashes of milk, and in fact every drop 
of latex, collected into a v.-ooden tub and coagu- 
lated with acid, go into the ^crap. 

Returns and profits. — Every well-grown tree of 
six years (in the Straits Settlements) should give 
three-fourths to one pound of dry rubber per year, 
and increase as the tree grows. The price of plan- 
tation rubber has been extraordinarily high of 
late, reaching as much as seven shillings a pound. 
Although it is difficult to forecast even an average 
price of the product, at a reduction of one-half of 
the present value the planter would still gain a large 
profit. It is estimated in the East that the cost of 
making the rubber and putting it on the market is 
five to ten cents Mexican, or one to two pence per 
pound ; in Trinidad it is eight pence to one shilling. 
The scrap, if tolerably clean, is worth one or two 
shillings less per pound, but u.sually brings a 
higher price than the best African rubber. 

Central American or Panama rubber (Castilloa 
dastica). Fig. 794 ; Fig. 120, Vol. I. 
The Central American rubber, a tree allied to 
the bread-fruit, is a native of the northern parts 
of South America and Central America, and is 
more suited for cultivation in latitudes ten degrees 
north of the equator. It does not seem ever to have 
been grown successfully along the equator. The 
area of its successful cultivation lies north of the 
region for the latter plant. Cultivated trees reach 



a height of sixty feet, with a diameter of eighteen 
inches, in twenty years. 

The plant is raised from seed in nursery-beds, 
and when about a foot tall is removed to the plan- 
tation. It thrives best when planted not too thickly 
with other trees. The tree can be tapped in the 
same way as Para rubber at about eight years of 
age. A spiral form of cut is often used (see 
Vol. I, page 108), but is not recommended. With 
this tree, as with all others, it is best not to tap too 
early, as such treatment is likely to affect later 
production. A better quality of rubber is pro- 
duced as age advances. The latex is coagulated by 
adding boiling water to it, and, after straining, 
by adding eight ounces of formaldehyde to a barrel- 
ful. Then the creamy mass is washed again and 
rolled out, or it may be mixed with water in a bar- 
rel with a tap at 
the bottom. This 
water is drawn 
off in about 
twelve hours, 
and the opera- 
tion repeated 
two or three 
times, when the 
cream is allowed 
to coagulate and 
is then rolled 
out. 

Separation 
can also be ef- 
fected by cen- 
trifugal action, 
but the frequent 
stoppages neces- 
sary are an ex- 
pensive waste of 
time. By this 
process the rub- 
ber is rapidly 
brought to the 
surface of the 
vessels used, and 
requires only to 
be dried. A con- 
venient method 
of coagulating 
and drying is by 
means of the 
"sand filter," 
which can be used in connection with either the 
creaming or the centrifugal process. A centripetal 
method is now under trial, which is inexpensive 
and is expected to work with great economy. If 
the latex is left in the original fluids after strain- 
ing through a fine mesh, it quickly ferments and 
becomes putrid ; the rubber will then coagulate 
and float on the surface, and there is but trifling 
loss. The rubber thus produced is dark in color, 
but of good quality, free from resinous matter and 
keeps well. The method, however, is tedious, repul- 
sive, and takes considerable time. (Hart.) 

The amount of rubber from a tree is variously 
stated. An eight-year-old tree probably gives about 




Fig. 704. PistUlate (left) and stami- 
nate (right) flowers and leaf of Cas- 
tillon. (Ailaiited from Bulletin No. 
49, Bureau of Plant Industry.) 



55S 



RUBBEH 



RUBBER 



six pounds (or less) a year on an average. The 
rubber brings a lower price than Para. 

Ceara rubber (Manihot Glaziovii). 

The Ceara rubber, a tree allied to the tapioca 
plant, is a native of the dry desert regions of Ceara 
in Brazil, where there is annually a long spell of 
drought during which not a drop of rain falls and 
the soil becomes perfectly dry. Though it fre- 
quently has been planted in the equatorial forest 
region it has always failed, as a permanently wet 
climate is quite unsuited for it ; but it might be 
cultivated with success in sandy regions where 
there is a fairly heavy rainfall for a few months 
followed by a spell of absolutely dry weather. 
Ceara rubber has been but little under cultivation 
as yet. 

It is grown from seed but may be raised from 
cuttings. The seed is small, rather fiat and dark 
brown. It is borne in a small capsule like that of 
Para rubber, only much smaller. Because of the 
hardness of the testa of the seed it germinates 
slowly, and it is usual to file off the end or grind 
the angle before planting. The tree grows with 
fair rapidity, and soon attains a large size in 
suitable localities. It requires a sandy soil and 
a dry climate. 

It is generally tapped in short cuts and the latex 
allowed to coagulate on the tree and collected in 
the form of scrap. However, it can be drawn ofl^ 
in quantity as is Para rubber, and coagulated by 
means of smoke. The rubber is of a poorer qual- 
ity than Para rubber, but the tree is certainly 



worth cultivation in countries where the climate 

is suitable. 

Assam rubber (Fieus elastica). Figs. 795-798. 

The Assam, or India rubber, is a native of 
Assam and the Malay region where it is found 





?sl^^«fc^\^J 



Fig 796 J-icus tlasti i or Assam rubber tree, showing 
tapping system 



Fig. 795. Ficus elastica. or Assam rubber tree. Showing habit 
and the characteristic way it attaches its roots to a log. 

growing either as an epiphyte on other trees for 
part of its life, finally killing its host, or as a rock 
plant on high precipices. It is well adapted for 
cultivation in the rain-forests of the equator, but 
it will also grow farther north than will Para 
rubber. It is the well-known "rubber plant" of 
the horticulturist. 

Assam rubber can be grown from cuttings, 
which is the usual method, or from seed. The 
seed is very small and should be grown in 
boxes over water, as it may be destroyed by 
ants. There are 1,000 to 1,200 seeds in an 
ounce. Cuttings grow rapidly and may be 
tapped in four years. It grows freely without 
shade if planted close, but more rapidly under 
partial shade. The tree sends out aerial roots, 
some of which are usually removed, leaving only 
those which in time may become suitable for 
tapping. Roots and stems are tapped with a 
V-shaped cut, made with a gage, and a sharp 
knife is drawn down the center of each arm of 
the V. 

The latex is more difficult to coagulate than 
that of Para. It can be coagulated by stirring, 
or by extracting as much water as possible. 
One system is to allow it to drop on mats below 
the tree, where it coagulates and is afterwards 
removed. The amount of latex produced varies 
greatly. After heavy tapping the tree requires 
to be re.sted for a year or two. The value of 
this rubber is about the same as that of Central 
American rubber. 

Ire or silk rubber (Funtumia elastica). 

This tree grows to a very large size, and 
takes many years to come to maturity. When 
of sufficient size and age it produces rubber of 
excellent quality, but few can wait the time 
required for it to mature, which may be given 
at 1 minimum of twenty years. It might be 



RUBBER 



RYE 



559 



planned, however, between quicker-growing kinds, 
to come in later in case of the exhaustion of 
earlier-maturing kinds. The tree has attained large 
size at considerable elevations in the West Indies, 




Fig. 797. Tapping rubber trees. 

where a lower temperature prevails than on the 
plains. In Trinidad it grows at elevation.s of 130 
to 500 feet above sea level. Funtumia was for- 
merly known as Kickxia. (Hart.) 

West African rubber (Landolphia species). 

There are several species of this genus which 
yield rubber of good quality, but which do 
not respond readily to cultural treatment. They 
are for the most part high-climbing plants requir- 
ing the support of trees. The latex or rubber 
coagulates almost as soon as it exudes. It may be 
formed into rubber by smearing on a smooth sur- 
face. It is related that in Africa native collectors 
use their arms for this purpose, cutting off the 
accumulated material when it becomes sufficiently 
large to inconvenience their working. It 
may be assumed with ."some certainty that 
Landolphias are unlikely to compete with 
Hevea, Ficus, Castilloa or Manihot. (Hart.) 

Balata gutta-percha (Mimusnps globosa). 

This tree is a native of the forests of 
Trinidad and South America, and is ex- 
ported in large quantities, via Trinidad, 
from the mainland. The tree affords one 
of the most useful hard-woods known. It 
is especially valuable for railway sleepers 
and for building purposes because of its 
durability. It grows to a large size, both 
in virgin forest and under cultivation. Its 
produce is of the nature of gutta-percha 
and melts in hot water. No attempt at 
cultivation on a large scale has j'et been 
made. The tree produces a small edible 
fruit, deliciously sweet, which is sold largely in 
local markets when in season. The tree takes some 
thirty or more years to reach full maturity. The 
seed soon loses its vitality if allowed to become 
dry. (Hart.) 



LitcvG.turc 

Parkin, Annals of Botany (1900 and 1901); War- 
burg, French translation, Vilouchevitch, Plantes a 
Caoutchouc (1902) ; Seeligman, Le Caoutchouc 
(1896) ; Jumelle, Caoutchouc (1898) ; Ferguson, 
All About Rubber, Ceylon ; J. H. Hart, in West 
Indian Bulletin, Vol. II, p. 100, Rubber Planting in 
the West Indies (1901); H. Wright, Para Rubber, 
A. M. and J. Ferguson, Colombo, Ceylon (190.5) ; 
D. Morris, Cantor Lectures, Society of Arts (1898) ; 
Dr. F. V. Romburgh, Les Plantes a Caoutchouc et a 
Gutta-percha ; S. Arden, Report on Hevea Brazilien- 
sis ; W. H. Johnston, The Cultivation and Prepara- 
tion of Para Rubber ; Handbook of Commercial 
Products, Imperial Institute Series ; G. Thurston, 
India Rubber {Fieus elastiea); Agricultural Bulletin 
of the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay 
States; India Rubber World; India Rubber Journal; 
0. F. Cook. The Culture of the Central American 
Rubber Tree, Bulletin No. 49, Bureau of Plant 
Industry, United States Department of Agriculture. 

RYE. Seeale cereale, Linn. GraminecB. Figs. 799- 
801, and Fig. 562. 

By-Jared Van Wagenen, Jr. 

Rye is one of the minor cereal grains, of relative 
unimportance in America as compared with wheat, 
corn or oats. The grain is u.sed both for human and 
for stock-food, and the entire plant for soiling and, 
occasionally, as hay. It also finds a place as a 
cover -crop and green - manure, while the demand 
for the straw for bedding horises is considerable. 

In botanical relationship, physiological charac- 
ters, manner of growth and method of cultivation, 
rye is most closely comparable with wheat. The 
spikelets are two- to three-flowered, two of the 
flowers being perfect and three-stamened, the flow- 
ering glumes long-awned. The straws are much 
taller and more slender in rye than in wheat, some- 
times reaching a length of seven feet on rich soils ; 







Fig. 793. Layered trees. Ficus. 



hence, rye tends to droop or lodge more readily 
than wheat. The heads of rye are rather longer and 
much more slender and compressed, and the glumes 
and appendages are so firmly attached that com- 
paratively little chaff is formed in threshing. The 



560 



RYE 



RYE 



individual grains on the head are partly exposed 
instead of being entirely enclosed within the 
glumes, as in wheat. They are also somewhat 
lonj,'er, more slender and more pointed at the end 
which is the point of attachment to the spilie. The 
longitudinal crease or suture, which is so charac- 
teristic of wheat, is very much less marked in rye. 
Rye is darker in color, with a slightly wavy 
or wrinkled surface and exceedingly hard 
and tough in texture, requiring more power 
to mill than any other grain. 

Rye "shoots" the spike or head in the 
•spring much sooner than winter wheat, but 
the time of maturity is usually not more 
than one week earlier. As the young plant- 
lets emerge above ground they have a dis- 
tinctly red tinge, which markedly distin- 
guishes them from young wheat plants, and 
the fall growth is more spreading or decum- 
bent than in wheat, while in spring, before 
heading, the leaves take on a grayish green 
that is different from other grains. The flow- 
ering glume is always awned or bearded, 
and the large anthers shed their pollen in 
great profusion, so that 
on bright, windy days it 
may sometimes be seen 
drifting across the field 
like putfs of thin yellow 
smoke. The leaves largely 
lose their vitality before 
the grain is mature, and, 
as in wheat, the stems 
probably perform the 
physiological function of 
leaves. Rye is a more 
hardy plant than wheat 
and is grown in more ex- 
treme northern latitudes, 
and yet it seems more tolerant of hot weather also. 
It is probable that its zone of successful growth 
covers a wider range of climatic conditions than 
any other cereal. 

History. 

The culture of rye,while 
more than two thousand 
years old, is still not so 
ancient as that of wheat 
and barley. De Candolle 
states that its original 
home was between the 
Austrian Alps and the Caspian sea. The Greeks 
were not acquainted with it and Roman writers in 
the time of Pliny spoke of it as a new plant grown 
by the barbarian tribes which they had conquered. 
No rye remains are found in the middens of the 
Swiss lake-dwellers, while wheat, barley and spelt 
occur. 

According to A. de Candolle, it is doubtful 
whether rye now exists in the wild state. He held 
that the wild rye reported by travelers was either 
plants which were self-sown or a rye-like form of 
grass of an allied genus. It is certain that under 
cultivation rye has the power of perpetuating 



Fig. 799. 

Floret of rye {Secale cereale.) 

See Fig. 562, 



itself by volunteer sowing beyond any other 
grain. 

According to Hackel, however, the original form 
of rye (Secale montanum) grows wild in mountains 
of the Mediterranean countries and as far east as 
central Asia. It is perennial, with a jointed rachis, 
both of which characters have disappeared in 
cultivation. 

Rye seems to be a plant of decreasing importance 
in the economy of the world. First barley and 
later wheat have driven it out of the warmer cli- 
mates. It has always been the bread of northern 
peoples. In the United States, at least, it is mainly 
the peculiar value of the straw which still retains 
for it a place fn our agricultural practice. 

Distribution. 

While rye is of minor importance in America, it 
is the principal cereal of Russia and Scandinavia. 
It is estimated that the world's production of rye 
is equal to slightly more than 50 per cent of the 
world's wheat crop, and rather more than one-half 
of this is grown in Russia. 

The annual production of rye in the United States 
for the five years 1900 to 1904 averages a little 
less than 29,000,000 bushels, and this amount has 
shown no important increase for twenty years. 
Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, New York and Nebraska 
were the only states growing more than 2,000,000 
bushels in 1904, but the growing of rye has reached 
its highest development in New Jer-sey and in three 
or four counties of eastern New York. In New 
Jersey, the production of rye very closely approaches 
that of wheat, being the only state where this 
condition prevails. In Canada in 1901 the bushels 
of rye were 2,316,793, from 176,679 acres. More 
than two millions of bushels of the crop were 
produced in Ontario. 

Composition. 

The composition of rye grain is similar to that 
of maize and wheat, the following being the average 
of many American analyses as given by Henry : 

Percentage Composition. 





Water 


Protein 


Crude 
fiber 


Nitrogen- 
free extract 


Etlier 
extract 


Ash 


Rye ...... . 

Dent corn . . . 
Wheat 


11.6 
10.6 
10.5 


10.6 

10.3 
11.9 


1.7 
2.2 

1.8 


72.5 
70.4 
71.9 


1.7 

5. 

2.1 


1.9 
1.5 
1.8 



Rye differs from maize mainly in the less amount 
of fat ; and it has considerably less protein than 
wheat. So far as mere chemical analysis is con- 
cerned, it may probably be considered as satisfac- 
torily replacing corn in a ration. 

The composition of rye-straw is almost identical 
with that of wheat-straw, but it is much tougher 
in fiber, which gives it a special value as bedding 
and for some industrial purposes. 

Culture of rye. 

Soil. — It is true that rye will make a fair growth 
on soils which are too light and thin for the 




Plate XXI. Heads of rye 



RYE 



RYE 



561 



successful growing of wheat or barley, and this 
has tended to crowd the crop off of the more fer- 
tile soils ; but rye will repay good culture and 
liberal fertilization as well as any other grain. It is 
unfortunate that rye and buckwheat have achieved 
the reputation of being the grains of poverty. Rye 
makes its best growth on soils which contain less 
clay than some which are adapted to wheat, and it 
is very important that it have good drainage. 
Snow protection in very severe weather is scarcely 
less necessary than in wheat-growing. 

The high value of the straw is the only factor 
which makes it advisable to grow rye on soils which 
are naturally well adapted to wheat, but this fact 
has a most important bearing on the case. The 
writer, living on a farm where both wheat and rye 
are produced successfully, finds that rye is, on the 
whole, the more profitable crop to grow, and so it is 
sown on lands which are rich enough to grow maxi- 
mum crops of wheat and often to cause it to lodge. 
Rye here finds its place in a four-crop rotation of 
corn, heavily manured with stable manure, followed 
by oats with acid phosphate, this followed by rye 
with acid phosphate and grass seeded with the rye. 

Fertilizers. — The principles of fertilization which 
apply to the other small cereals hold with rye as 
well. Too much nitrogen and moisture result in 
early lodging, discolored straw and very shrunken 
grain. Applications of phosphoric acid sometimes 
give most striking benefits by counteracting this 
tendency. The writer has seen 250 pounds per acre 
of dissolved phosphate rock make all the ditference 
between a crop which "crinkled" down soon after 
heading and one that stood up until it was well 
filled ; and the straw remained fairly bright. 

Seeding. — While the grains of rye are smaller 
than those of wheat, the amount of seed used per 
acre is about the same. In the rye districts of 
eastern New York it is customary to sow seven to 
eight pecks of seed per acre, placing the seed one to 
two and one-half inches deep, dependin;,' on the soil. 
On the poorer soils, and with early seeding, some 
persons recommend less seed. It can be sown safely 
earlier than wheat, for it rarely shows any tendency 
to "shoot" the culms in the fall ; it is well known 
that when this occurs the plant will not survive 
the winter. In the latitude of Albany, New York, 
it is sometimes sown as early as the last week in 
August, while, on the other hand, sowing is some- 
times deferred so late that it barely germinates 
before freezing weather. When rye is sown early it 
sometimes gives a large amount of fall pasturage 
and an excellent crop of grain the following sum- 
mer. Early sowing is very desirable on poor soils, 
in order that the crop may get well established 
before winter sets in. 

Plaee in the rotation. — When rye is grown, it 
generally fills the place in the rotation which 
would otherwise be taken by wheat. There is 
certainly no crop better adapted for seeding down 
with grass. When both are grown, there is a 
popular idea that a good " catch " of clover is more 
easily secured with rye than with wheat. 

Varietif.'i. — Unlike the other cereals, rye has 
developed very few varieties, possibly because it 

B36 



cross-fertilizes freely. Yet corn, which cross-fer- 
tilizes with perfect freedom and is indeed almost 
self-sterile, has developed, nevertheless, a very large 
number of varieties and types. More probably, 
this lack of varieties in rye arises from the fact 
that it has less innate tendency toward variation, 
i. e., it is not a plastic form. 

There is a spring and a winter form of rye, the 
latter being raised almost entirely in America. 
New York state growers talk of "White" rye and 
"Common" rye, and a "i^Iammoth White Winter" 
has figured in seedsmen's catalogues, but the dis- 
tinction is not well marked. The grain has not 
enough commercial importance to attract much 
attention in the way of selection and improvement 
by plant-breeders. A number of wheat X rye hybrids 
have been made, but they seem to have had no 
especial value. 

Harvesting and handling. 

Owing to the fact that the culms of rye are so 
long and slender, a heavy crop is nearly always 
more or less lodged and tangled, and its harvesting 
is attended with special difficulties. It should be 
cut and bound as is wheat. When it is sown on 
fertile soil and grows thick and stout and seven 
feet tall, it will severely tax even if it does not go 
entirely beyond the capacity of the ordinary grain 
binder. The binder is not especially constructed 
for that kind of work, and the elevators will clog 
and the bundles be tied together. Still, if the 
machine has a rather long table and the straw is 
dry, it will usually be possible to handle it by 
using skill and patience and cutting on only two or 
three sides of the field. This condition obtains only 
when rye is sown on soils good enough to grow 
heavy crops of wheat. Such rye is still often cut 
with a self-rake reaper and bound and shocked by 
hand. Four active men, accustomed to the work, 
will bind rye by hand as rapidly as a reaper will 
cut it. This makes expensive harvesting, but it is 
sometimes the only way. 

Rye grain must be thoroughly dry if it is to be 
stored in large bulk, as it seems to become musty 
more readily than other grains. If straw is to sell 
well, it must be threshed without breaking or 
tangling and then rebound into bundles before 
baling. This was done by flailing long after that 
implement had disappeared for other uses. It is 
now handled by a special type of threshing ma- 
chine known as a "beater." This has a cylinder 
about six feet in length run at a very high speed, 
and armed with only slight corrugations instead of 
the usual teeth. The bundles are unbound and fed 
through this, lying parallel to the axis of the cyl- 
inder instead of endwise as is the usual way. In 
the old style of machines the straw is discharged 
on a table in shape so that one or two men can 
rebind it with bands of straw caught up from the 
bundle. In more modern machines, the binding is 
done with twine by a modified form of the ordinary 
binder. The straw is baled in the old type of open- 
topped box-press, being packed in bundle by bun- 
dle and tramped down. This is peculiarly hard, 
exhausting work, but it seems to be the only 



562 



RYE 



RYE 



acceptable method of baling rye-straw. The bales 
weigh 200 to 250 pounds each. A hay car will 
hold about ten tons of baled straw. 

Long, clean, bright straw will usually sell at 
prices appro.ximating that of good timothy hay. 
The straw must be bright if it is to bring a good 





Fig. 800. 
Eye head or spike. 

price. Straw grown on hilltops 
is generally very much brighter 
(sometimes almost white) than that 
grown in the alluvial valleys below. 
Straw grown on black soils in seasons 
of abundant rainfall is often very much 
discolored and of low value. The straw 
will also be brighter in color and will 
weigh better if cut a few days before 
complete maturity. Heavy rains after it 
has once dried seem to diminish its weight 
by washing out soluble matter. 



A ton of rye-straw per acre is accounted a 
good yield, and the usual thresherman's esti- 
mate is si.xteen to twenty bu.shels of grain 
to each ton of baled straw. The writer in 
1905 grew on one measured acre 3,305 pounds 
of baled straw and twenty-seven bushels and 
twenty -two pounds of grain, exclusive of scat- 
terings which would probably have made the 
straw about thirty-five hundred pounds and 
the grain twenty-nine bushels. This, so far 
as straw is concerned, seemed to be about all 
that could possibly grow on an acre. It was 
on soil rich enough so that in the same field 
the wheat in spots was badly lodged. While 
on good land and under favorable conditions 
the yield of rye is generally less than that of 
wheat, and while thirty bushels of rye is a 
very e.xceptional yield, yet the average pro- 
duction per acre as reported by the United States 
Department of Agriculture is larger in the ease of 
rye. On the other hand, wheat can be made to pro- 
duce more to the acre than can rye. For the five 
years 1900-1904, the average yield of rye per acre 
was 15.6 bushels, against 13.5 bushels for wheat. 
This is explained by the fact that most of the rye 
is grown in the older states where culture and soil 
preparation are more thorough, while the average 
yield of wheat is reduced by the great acreage 
in states where less careful methods of soil prepa- 
ration and fertilization result in a low average per 
acre. The average yield of rye in the South 
Atlantic states is reported as only a little more 
than seven bushels per acre. 

Marketing. 

Only one cla.ss of rye is recognized in the grain 
trade, and this grades as Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, varying 



t 



from that which is bright, dry and well cleaned 
down to that which is damp, musty or in bad con- 
dition from any cause. The legal weight of a 
bushel of rye is fifty-six pounds in nearly all the 
states. 

For the five years 1900-1904, the average price 
of export rye at New York was 56 
cents and for wheat 09.2 cents. 
While the exports of rye are very 
small as compared with other grains, 
yet during the five years 1900 to 
1904, inclusive, about 25 per cent 
of the total crop was exported. 

Uses. 

Grain for feed. — Rye constitutes 
the main bread grain of more than 
one-third of the inhabitants of 
Europe, but in America it is u.sed 
mainly as a food for animals. The 
fact that it carries comparatively 
little protein does not as a rule 
commend it for feeding dairy cows. 
Apart from its composition it has, 
for some reason, a distinctly bad 
reputation among dairymen, it being averred that 
it causes cows to "dry up," although there does 
not seem to be any real scientific basis for this 
idea. 

In the districts where rye is grown, it is often 
ground and mi.xed with wheat bran or oats as a 
feed for horses doing heavy, slow work, and they 
keep in excellent condition on it. However, owing 
to the heavy, sticky, viscid mass that ground rye 
forms when moistened, it should always be fed 
mixed with some bulky material to lighten it. 
Used as a food for hogs, especially in connection 
with dairy by-products, it is always regarded as 
very satisfactory. Poultry, however, will refuse 
rye as long as any other grain is available. 

Pasturing of rye. — The writer has learned from 
many years of experience in the fall-grazing of 
r}'e that it will force a yield of milk beyond any 
other food, young wheat only excepted. A herd 
may be well fed in the fall and be giving good 
returns, but if turned out on a luxuriant growth 
of rye for a few days the increase in milk will be 
astonishing. While such fall-pasturing of rye is an 
incidental and perhaps not very usual practice, yet 
there are years when the food thus secured will 
add very considerably to the total net income 
secured from the crop. If stock is kept ofl" in 
very wet times when the ground would poach, and 
is not allowed to graze it too closely, such pastur- 
ing does not appear greatly to reduce the crop. 
Sometimes in warm, moist falls when the plants 
have made excessive growth, pasturing may actu- 
ally be beneficial. Spring pasturing is frequent. 

Suiting. — Rye has often been employed as a 
soiling crop for feeding in the green state, and 
occasionally it has been cured into hay. Its advan- 
tage lies in the fact that it will furnish a con- 
siderable amount of green food earlier in the 
spring than any other forage plant and before the 
pasture grasses are available. 



RYE 



RYE 



563 



While green rye is exceedingly laxative, it is 
generally reported to be satisfactory for milk 
production. One objection to its use lies in the 
comparatively short period during which it is 
available. Before heading, the dry matter per 
acre is too small to amount to much, and as 
soon as the grain begins to form the straw becomes 
hard, woody and unpalatable. Probably ten or 
twelve days in late April or early May, according 
to latitude, will cover the period during which it 
is in really good coodition for green forage. When 
a system of soiling is followed, rye may be suc- 
ceeded in turn by wheat, clover, peas and oats and 
corn. However, a silo full of first-class, well-ma- 
tured corn silage will usually offer the happiest 
solution to the problem of summer feeding. 

Cover-crop and green-manure. — Rye is used as a 
cover-crop and for green-manuring. While not a 
nitrogen-gathering plant, it is perhaps one of the 
best for producing organic matter on soils of low 
fertility. When plowed under to be followed with 
a crop of corn, it should not be allowed to become 
too mature, for the exhaustion of the soil moisture 
by the rye before plowing, and the subsequent cut- 
ting otf of the capillary movement of the soil water 
by a mat of vegetable material which decays very 
slowly, may work serious injury to the succeeding 
crop, especially if the summer proves to be one of 
deficient rainfall. 

Straw. — Rye as a crop is unique in one respect, 
that is, in the East the straw is commonly about 
equal to the grain in value. This is preeminently 
the straw which is sought for bedding by fastidi- 
ous horsemen, and the outlet for this purpose is 
very large. Until a score of years ago, it was very 
largely used in the making of a coar.se brown paper 
for grocers, and for strawboard. Columbia county, 
in New York state, was once the center of a great 
rye-growing and paper-making industry. The crop 
is still very largely grown, but the mills have gone 
since the trade has changed to wood-pulp manila 
papers. The straw is also widely used in packing 
furniture and nursery stock, in making straw goods 
and in various other industrial. 

Flour. — Rye flour carries some of its protein in 
the form of gluten, and hence, unlike maize, makes 
a light, porous, but rather dark-colored bread. The 
American demand for the flour is comparatively 
small. A century ago, with corn, it entered largely 
into the dietary of the New England states. 

Rye flour is now made by the roller process simi- 
lar to the methods employed in wheat milling. A 
few mills in the East make this their specialty. All 
the milling waste ordinarily goes together into one 
feed, which contains less protein and ash than 
wheat-mill products and sells at a lower price. It 
is often wise to purcha.se it for swine-feeding. 

Liquors. — Some rye is u.sed in the production of 
alcoholic liquors, but the quantity thus utilized is 
relatively small. The distillers' refuse from rye is 
not so rich in protein and fat as from corn. 

Enemies. 

Insects. — Rye has no very specific insect or fun- 
gous enemies. The chinch-bug (Blissus leucopterus) 



will feed on it, and the Hessian fly (Ceeidomyia 
destructor) has been reported to infest it in New 
York. The former is difficult to combat. All rubbish 
near infested areas should be destroyed and infested 
grass -fields should be burned over. Grass strips 
may be planted around the rye-field and turned 
under when infested with the insects. Crop rota- 
tion helps in a measure. Migrations may be pre- 
vented and large numbers killed by means of deep 
trenches or tar strips (page 42). The Hessian fly 
is controlled by planting resistant varieties, late 
seeding, burning the stubble after harvest, and 
sowing a small strip of wheat early for a trap-crop, 
to be plowed under when infested. 

Diseases. — Rye also suffers from at least two 
kinds of rusts, — one a black rust of the stems and 
the other a reddish or orange rust of the leaves. 
These fungi are important economically, because 
they not only cause shrinkage and light weight in 
the grain, but they discolor the straw as well. 
Burning infested stubble and prac- 
ticing crop rotation are the sug- 
gested remedies. 

Smut sometimes attacks rye. It 
may be treated as for oats, which 
see. 

An interesting disease, which is 
not confined to rj'e, however, is 
ergot (Claviecps purpurea) or 
spurred rye (Fig. 801), due to a 
fungus which attacks the rye 
grains and causes them to become 
greatly enlarged with a character- 
istic appearance. Ergot is impor- 
tant from a physiological stand- 
point. As a medicine it has long 
been used in obstetrics, and when 
fed to animals it has sometimes 
caused abortion and also gangrene 
of the extremities. Wide-spread 
disease and trouble have been 
reported from its presence in rye 
used as human food in Europe. 
Ergot occurs on the seeds of vari- 
ous gras.ses and wheat as well, 
but it does not cause the grains of wheat to 
enlarge, and hence it is less conspicuous. It is said 
to be very common on rye in Germany, France and 
Spain, and is frequently reported from Iowa and 
Nebraska, but it is not usual in the rye districts 
of New York and New Jersey. The remedy lies in 
not using infested rye as seed and in not sowing 
rye on land where ergot rye has grown for two or 
three years previously. 

Literature. 

Hunt, The Cereals in America, Orange Judd 
Company ; Henry, Feeds and Feeding, pp. 132-133, 
published by the author, Madison, Wisconsin ; 
Roberts, Fertility of the Land, p. 116, Macmillan 
Company ; Wilcox and Smith, Farmer's Cyclopedia 
of Agriculture, Orange Judd Company ; Pennsyl- 
vania Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletin 
No. 52 ; Yearbooks, United States Department of 
Agriculture, Statistical Tables. 



Fig. 801. 
Ereot, a diseased 
condition of the 
grain of rye. 



564 



SAINFOIN 



SAINFOIN 



SAINFOIN. Onobrychis sdtiva, Lam, 0. vicioefolia, 
Scop. Leguminosm. (E.sparcet, Esparsette, Saint- 
foin, Holy Clover.) Fig. 802. 

By C. V. Piper. 

Sainfoin is a long-lived and deep-rooted legumi- 
nous forage plant, comparable agriculturally with 
red clover and alfalfa. The stems are erect or nearly 
so, one and one-half to 
two and one-half feet 
high, and terminated by 
dense, erect racemes of 
rose -colored flowers. 
The leaves are mostly 
basal and are unequally 
pinnate, each composed 
of six to twelve pairs 
of leaflets with an odd 
terminal one. 

The plant is a native 
of south-central Asia, 
whence it was intro- 
duced into continental 
Europe about the fif- 
teenth century and into 
England in the seven- 
teenth century. In Ger- 
many, where it is com- 
monly called esparsette, 
it was an important for- 
age crop as early as 1716. 
By some writers it has 
been supposed that the 
plant called Onobrychis 
by Dioscorides and Pliny 
was identical with the 
modern sainfoin, but 
recent investigations 
have shown conclusively 
that it was a related species, Onobrychis Capui- 
galli, which is now grown but sparingly. 

Distribution. 

Sainfoin was introduced into the United States 
at least 150 years ago and has been tested in 
an e.xperimental way in most parts of the country. 
Thus far its cultivation is exceedingly limited. 
This is due to the fact that it can not com- 
pete with red clover or alfalfa in the sections of 
the country to which these crops are especially 
adapted. To a limited extent it is being grown on 
barren soils in limestone regions, and it is probable 
that it will become important in such regions when 
its value and cultural requirements have become 
generally known. It is possible that many of the 
unsatisfactory results have been due to lack of 
inoculation, though in some experiments nodules 
have appeared on the roots where the crop has 
never before been grown and without the seed hav- 
ing been inoculated. To a limited extent sainfoin 
is grown in the West on well-drained soils under 
irrigation, particularly in British Columbia. As a 
rule, however, alfalfa yields so much more heavily 
that there is little likelihood of sainfoin becoming 
much used in this way. 




Fig. 802. Sainfoin. 



Varieties 

There are two varieties of sainfoin commonly 
cultivated in Europe, the common or small-seeded 
sainfoin (Onobrychis sativa, var. communis), which 
yields only one cutting of hay, the aftermath being 
composed almo.st entirely of leaves ; and the large 
seeded or double-cutting sainfoin (0. sativa, var. 
bifera), which yields two cuttings of hay. This 
latter variety flowers earlier than common sainfoin 
and is somewhat more vigorous. 

Culture. 

Soil. — Sainfoin is especially adapted for growing 
on dry lands too barren to produce satisfactory crops 
of clover or alfalfa. It is quickly killed out on land 
saturated with moisture. It thrives especially well 
on calcareous soils. Where the soil is not calcareous 
in nature, it is best to make heavy applications 
of lime, for, although sainfoin will succeed with 
only a small amount of lime, it reaches its max- 
imum productiveness when the lime content is 
high. In Europe large tracts of barren calcareous 
lands almost valueless for other purposes are 
devoted to the cultivation of sainfoin. This 
is particularly true of the chalk districts of 
France and England. The soil should be thor- 
oughly prepared, and as free from weed seeds as 
possible, as the young plants are weak and easily 
crowded out. 

Seed and seeding. — The seed of sainfoin occurs 
on the market almost entirely in the pod, a bushel 
of which weighs twenty-six pounds. The seed is 
usually sown at the rate of four to five bushels 
per acre, but a considerable proportion fails to 
germinate owing to the tough hull. Shelling of the 
seed is diflicult because of the toughness of the 
pericarp and the brittleness of the seed. Hulled 
seed is rarely found on the market, but if used 
forty to sixty pounds per acre is sufficient for 
seeding. Owing to the large size of the seed in the 
pod, it should be planted rather deep. Wherever 
possible it is advisable to use a drill, as this places 
the seed at a more nearly uniform depth so that it 
germinates better. 

When spring-sown. May 15 to June 30, barley 
or oats is commonly used as a nurse crop, in which 
case it is usually advisable to cut the nurse crop 
green for hay. When weeds are a serious fac- 
tor, especially in the eastern part of the coun- 
try, sainfoin should be sown in early fall. It 
is not advisable to mix sainfoin with other 
forage plants, owing to the weakness of the young 
seedlings. 

Sainfoin is not well adapted for use in rotations 
owing to its perennial character and the diiiiculty 
of establishing it. For this reason it should be 
planted only where it can be left permanently. 
Under favorable conditions fields will remain pro- 
ductive for twenty years, and some fields in France 
are said to have produced continuously for one 
hundred years. 

Harvesting and uses. 

Sainfoin is harvested in much the same way as 
red clover, but it cures out much more readily. To 



SALTBUSHES 



SALTBUSHES 



565 



prevent loss of leaves it should be turned as little 
as possible. It should not be allowed to get too 
dry before cocking but should cure in the cock 
some time before stacking. The average yield of 
hay is one to one and one-half tons per acre. The 
protein content of the hay is higher than that of 
alfalfa. 

Sainfoin is not well adapted to pasturing, owing 
to the slowness with which the plant sends out 
new shoots. It is said that when used as pasture 
it does not cause bloating, as is the case with most 
related plants. 

Literature. 

Stebler and Schroter, The Best Forage Plants, 
pp. 93-99, Translation by McAlpine ; Michigan 
Agricultural Experiment Station, Annual Report 
1890, p. 29 ; United States Department of Agri- 
culture, Division of Agrostology, Bulletin No. 22 ; 
Wyoming Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 16 ; 
Washington Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 41 ; 
Missouri Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 2 ; Bu- 
reau of Plant Industry, Bulletin No. 13 ; South 
Dakota Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 40 ; Ten- 
nessee Experiment Station, Vol. XI, Bulletin No. 
3 ; California Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 
147 ; Kentucky Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 
98 ; North Carolina Experiment Station, Bulletin 
No. 98. 

SALTBUSHES. Atriplex, spp. Chenopodiacem. 

By P. Beveridge Kennedy. 

The saltbushes, or saltbrushes, as they are some- 
times called, are low, shrubby, much - branched 
plants, valuable as forage only where the condi- 
tions of soil or moisture will not permit of the 
growing of more palatable crops, such as the 
grasses, clovers and vetches. They are among the 
few plants that are tolerant of alkali. Where the 
winters are cold they are often annual, but in 
California and the Southwest they are perennial. 

Distribution. 

Many miles of range country in eastern Oregon, 
eastern Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Nevada, Arizona 
and New Mexico are covered by saltbushes. In 
fact, a large proportion of the range feed in many 
of the western states, during the fall and winter 
months, consists of one or more of the annual or 
perennial saltbushes. The greater part of this area 
could not produce any other forage crop, owing to 
the abundance of alkali in the soil and the scarcity 
of water. 

Experiments are now in progress, notably at the 
Arizona Experiment Station, to introduce some of 
the mo.st promising native species on the depleted 
stock ranges. The efforts are meeting with some 
degree of success, and it is to be hoped that some 
sure methods of sowing on the open ranges may be 
devised. 

Native and introduced .mltbushes. 

The American species of economic value are shad 
scale (Atriplex canescens), Nuttall's salt sage (A. 



NuttaUii), spiny salt sage (.4. eonfertifolia), scrub 
saltbush, Utah saltbush (.4. truncata) and tumbling 
saltbush (.4. volutans). Of these, the shad scale is 
of most importance [see page 310]. 

Of the introduced saltbushes, several types are 
now in cultivation, all native of Australia. These 
are : the Australian saltbush (Atriplex semihaccata), 
slender saltbu.sh (.4. leptocarpa), gray saltbush (A. 
halimoideg), round-leaved saltbush (A. nummularia) 
and annual or bladder saltbush (.4. holocarpa). Of 
these, only the Australian saltbush has attained 
any large degree of prominence from an agricul- 
tural standpoint. So far it has proved of perma- 
nent value only in California and, to some extent, 
in Arizona. 

Culture. 

Saltbushes are generally raised from seeds, 
though cuttings may be used. On alkali soils the 
seed should be sown early, on the surface of the 
soil and rolled lightly. In such soils, if the seed is 
covered it usually rots and fails to come up. On 
non-alkaline soils it may be slightly covered with 
advantage. One-eighth of an inch deep is sufficient. 
If the seed is placed much deeper than this the per- 
centage of sprouted seed will be greatly reduced. 
On the alkali soils in California seeding should be 
done early in October, before the rains come. It 
may be an advantage to start the seeds in boxes 
and transplant to the field in rows about seven 
feet apart on alkali soils, and four feet apart on 
light soils, the plants being placed one to four feet 
apart in the rows. 

Uses. 

The chief use of the Australian saltbush is for 
soiling purposes. If it is fed green with straw, 
stock does fairly well on it. The best method is to 
change the feed gradually, as animals usually do 
not care for saltbush until they have acquired a 
liking for it. At first, only a little of the saltbush 
hay should be ftd with a considerable quantity of 
meadow hay ; then, by degrees the quantity of 
meadow hay should be diminished until the pro- 
portions are about equal. 

The dried-up annual species are eaten to a con- 
siderable extent during the fall and winter, and 
the .seeds which collect underneath the perennials 
are liked by both cattle and sheep as a sort of 
relish. 

Although no digestion experiments have been 
conducted to determine the nutritive value of the 
saltbushes, yet their chemical composition indicates 
that they are of good quality. 

Literature. 

Farmers' Bulletin No. 108, United States De- 
partment of Agriculture ; Wyoming Experiment 
Station, Bulletin No. 63 ; California Experiment 
Station, Bulletin No. 12.5; Division of Agrostology, 
United States Department of Agriculture, Bulletin 
No. 13, p. 24 ; Division of Botany, Bulletin No. 
27 ; Arizona Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 38, 
p. 291 ; Idaho Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 
38, p. 250 ; South Dakota Experiment Station, 



566 



SERRADELLA 



SILAGE -CROPPING 



Bulletin No. 69, p. 39 ; Bureau of Plant Industry, 
Bulletins, No. 4, p. 17 ; No. 1?, p. 68 ; No. 59, 
pp. 51, 56. 

SERRADELLA. OrnithopttS sativus, Brot. Legu- 
iniiioscE. Fig. 803. 

By C. V. Piper. 

Serradella is an annual forage and green-manure 
plant growing six to eighteen inches high. The 
leaves are odd-pinnate with numerous leaflets, and 
the flowers are pale purplish. It has been culti- 
vated in the United States only in an experimental 
way, and it is not grown extensively in Europe. 
There it is employed as a combination forage and 
green -manure plant, particularly valuable to 
precede potatoes or corn. It is eagerly eaten 
by sheep and cattle and is comparable in value 
to the clovers. It has no deleterious qualities 




Fig. 803. 

Seiradella (Omithopus 

sntivtis). 



whatever, when 
fed either green as 
pasture or as hay. At 
the Ma.ssachusetts E.x- 
periment Station, where it 
Cv I ^ // ^^^ cultivated in rows, it 
'\ 1/ ,^ ^^^ ^^^ '^^ comparison with 
) '^ 1 y^ cowpeas and vetches and 

*■ " gave more satisfactory re- 

sults than either of these for 
dairy cows, in this agreeing 
with the results of European 
experience. For late pastur- 
age it has given some promise in Michigan, espe- 
cially on sandy lands. Owing to its relatively 
small growth and light tonnage it has no place 
where other legumes will grow, and is not likely 
to find much use as a cultivated crop in this coun- 
try, although in limited localities it may be valu- 
able. Good, heavy stands yield ten to twelve tons 
of green fodder per acre, which will make about 
two tons of hay. 

Serradella is especially adapted to medium light, 
sandy soils. Even where lime is deficient it thrives. 
While it is fairly drought-resistant, it makes very 
small growth under dry conditions. The plant will 
not withstand severe cold, and therefore should be 



planted in the spring, at least in the northern 
states. It may be seeded alone, or in small grain. If 
planted alone it may be drilled in rows about five 
inches apart. Forty to fifty pounds of .seed per acre 
will be needed, sown in March or April. As for 
other legumes inoculation is important, and this 
factor accounts at least in part for the poor results 
obtained in many experiments. The growth is 
slow until the advent of warm weather. About 
the time the plant begins to bloom it tends to 
branch out rapidly and cover the 
fe?4i ground. 

SILAGE-CROPPING : Its History, 

Processes and Importance. Figs. 
804, 805. [See also page 414.] 

By J. W. Sanborn. 

No subject is of more commanding 
importance in the corn-growing dairy 
states than that of silage-cropping, oi 
the raising of forage crops for preser- 
vation in the silo. So rapid has been 
the recognition of the value of this method of pre- 
serving green feeds, notably corn, that today in 
the dairy sections one can scarcely find a farm 
without its silo. Much yet remains to be learned 
regarding the proper ordering of the ensiling pro- 
cesses, but the silo has demonstrated its indispen- 
sableness and has immovably intrenched itself in 
the economy of the American dairy-farm. 

History. 

According to the researches of Professor 
McBryde, silos reach back to Persian and Roman 
times. Varro speaks of pits in the ground made 
tight to exclude air and insects, and mentions their 
use in Thrace, Carthage, Spain and Rome. While 
the records mention the pitting of the grain crops 
and forage crops, wheat having been kept in a 
good state of preservation in the pits for fifty 
years, yet McBryde, rea.soning from historic data, 
draws the conclusion that green crops were thus 
preserved. 

While it is probable that we may not ascribe 
with historic accuracy the use of pits for the pres- 
ervation of green fodders by the ancients, there can 
be no doubt that in the early decades of the last 
century pitting of green crops was not unknown 
to the farmers of several of the European nations. 
These pits were dug as deep as twelve feet and 
lined with brick, stone or wood. As now, the en- 
siled or pitted material was heavily trodden and 
well pounded around the edges of the pit. 

To M. Goffart, of France, belongs the honor of 
having adapted the preservation of green crops to 
common modern use by storage above ground in 
stone structures known as silos. The top of the 
material was loaded by a following weight. Led 
either by J. B. Brown's translation of Goff'art's 
work or by an earlier article on the system of 
Gofl'ort's trials that appeared in the Report of the 
United States Department of Agriculture, a Mr. 
Morris, of Maryland, built in 1876 the first silo in 
this country. Soon after this, Dr. Bailey, of Bil- 



SILAGE -CROPPING 



SILAGE -CROPPING 



567 



lerica, Mass., constructed a concrete silo on his 
farm. By gatherings of the press and of public men 
at the opening of his silo, and by free writing on 
the subject of silage, coupled with extravagant 
praise of the material, he created a sudden and 
wide interest in the new method of crop storage. 
In a decade the silo came into wider use and under- 
went a more radical change than had occurred in 
the century or centuries of previous use. 

Stone loaded on plank, earth, bags of sand, screw 
pressure, and other methods of weighting, quickly 
followed each other, until it dawned on observers 
that the immense weight of the green forage sup- 
plied adequate pressure for all but the very top layer. 
Th j omission of weighting was followed by covering 
with straw or poor hay as a method of retaining in 
part the moisture of the surface of the silage, and by 
its quick decay of excluding the free access of air. 
Later this covering was generally omitted, as it 
involved cost and loss of its own substance, which 
.va3 found to equal the loss accruing to the uncov- 
ered silage. It is now found that this loss may be 
greatly reduced by spraying the top of the silage 
with water on conclusion of the filling or by fre- 
quent treading of the surface for a period after 
cutting cease.s. The last and best practice is the 
immediate and daily feeding of the surface material, 
a method in harmonious keeping with the essential 
requirements of farm stock at the period following 
the close of corn harvest when out-of-door feeding 
material is in deficiency. 

The costly stone silo, invariably accompanied by 
decay of silage around the entire inside surface, 
soon gave way to the concrete silo, and this to the 
cheaper and more perfect, though less durable 

wooden silo. These 
at first were made 
in the corners of 
the barns, double- 
boarded with 
matched boards, 
lined between 
with suitable 
paper. The cheap- 
ened silo proved 
more effective 
than the parent 
ones, and cheap- 
ening still further 
became a growing 
customuntilmany 
silos were con- 
structed with a 
single thickness 
of unmatched 
boards. As they 
were made mainly 
of the porous 
white pine lum- 
ber in the East, 
it was soon found that this material expanded 
quickly and closed the cracks, thus keeping the 
material (except in the upper few feet of the silage, 
where pressure was light and the expansion of the 
lining slow) up to the very edge of the boarding, in 



good, fairly palatable condition. Indeed, during the 
progress of ensiling it has been found that anything 
that secures rigidity to the sides of the silage will 
insure the keeping of the mass if depth enough to 
give pressure and exclusion of air is secured. So it 




Pig. 804. SmaU model silo of the oc- 
tagonal form of silo, showing 
method of ccnstniction. 




Fig. 805. Round silo attached to dairy bam, as commonly 

seen in dairying sections. 

has occurred that silage has been made after the 
stack fashion. 

It is now understood by all that the supreme end 
to be secured in ensiling is the exclusion of air. 
The more complete this exclusion, the more perfectly 
is the material kept. For this reason there has been 
a constant tendency to increase the height of silos 
to secure pressure that not only should expel air, 
but exclude it from entrance. The more recent 
critical research has shown that the more perfect 
the silo or the more perfect the exclusion of the 
air, the less the loss of the organic material of the 
fodder ensiled. 

The demonstrated economy of material in the 
better class of silos is now producing a counter 
current in silo construction, moving toward a class 
of silos that conserve best the material committed 
to them. The round silo, presenting the least sur- 
face per ton capacity, and therefore also requiring 
the least material for construction, is at present 
the popular form of structure. (Fig. 805.) It is made 
of many forms and is covered in many fashions. The 
stave silos made of 2 x 4 and held by iron hoops 
was the parent form. It was made of matched two- 
inch pine, of stuff merely beveled, and again of 
unbeveled material. This form has the demerit of 
shrinking when dry, and of occasionally collapsing 
or blowing over. It requires biennial screwing up 
of nuts and unscrewing when empty and when being 
filled. This has turned many to the round silo made 
by bending half-inch stuff to studding set on a cir- 
cular foundation. These are single-lined of matched 
stuff, or double-lined with paper between. A very 
popular modification of this construction in con- 



568 



SILAGE -CROPPING 



SILAGE -CROPPING 



siderable use in Ohio is made by boarding perpen- 
dicularly of half-inch stuff on horizontal hooping, 
this hooping being made of half-inch stuff. These 
hoops are several layers deep and of an increasing 
distance apart from bottom to top. It is loudly 
proclaimed that the coming age is to be one of con- 
crete, and, true to this propaganda, a few cement 
silos on the interlocked block plan are being erected, 
and, it is said, successfully used. 

In effectiveness and true economy the Gurler 
silo, so named from its maker, appears to offer the 
largest number of advantages per dollar of invest- 
ment. It is round, made of studding and half- 
inch stuff laid as above directed, and differing only 
in being lathed with beveled one-half-inch stuff to 
hold the cement plastering applied in the interior. 
This will not decay under the acids of the silage, 
permits free settling of the silage and excludes 
the air probably more perfectly than other 
structures. It is thought that loss of the organic 
matter of the silage in this silo is reduced to its 
economic minimum. None is spoiled on the sides, 
and if feeding begins at filling time little is lost 
from the surface. 

The rapid evolution of the silo and its quick 
adaptation to the needs of the farm are vivid 
illustrations of the versatility of the American 
farmer, and a refutation of the oft-repeated charge 
that he is slow or slower than other industrialists 
in perception and execution. 

Processes oj ensiling. 

The old or early method of thick planting of 
corn and its early harvesting for the silo, has 
given way to the reverse custom, as, according 
to investigations, a less ratio of water to handle, 
a larger ratio of digestible ear corn and a more 
complete conversion of amid bodies into their 
final and probably more valuable organic forms 
resulted from the change. The proper time to 
harvest is not to be a part of this discussion any 
further than to note that the proper preservation 
of silage depends in some measure on the time of 
harvesting. As is well shown by investigators, 
crops increase in total weight of dry matter up at 
least to the dough stage of the seed and to the 
early hardening period. If we cut corn before this 
period it is at a loss of total dry weight, and, if 
after it, at such a loss of water content of leaves 
and stems that the cells of the plant carry an 
increased volume of air in replacement of the 
evaporated water. If in our comparatively air- 
tight silo we are to have well-preserved silage, we 
must introduce fodder in a condition approximating 
closely to its fully grown state. All crops having 
hollow stems have proved unsatisfactory silage 
crops, as too much air is introduced into the silo 
and is not easily excluded. 

Remembering that exclusion of air is the sine 
qua non of well-preserved silage, it appears that 
the not infrequent method of cutting corn by a day 
or so before it is drawn in order that it may wilt, 
and its subjection to frost and rapid volatilization 
of moisture, or to slow filling, are wrong practices. 
They involve the more ready access of air, to be 



followed by an increased fermentation in the silo. 
This process is one of slow combustion and loss of 
matter. It is not alone an error of carrying air 
in the cells of plants into the silo, but equally 
one of retention of air by the lessened pressure of 
the silage due to loss of water and its added weight. 
In short, less air is pressed out of the silo or from 
between the pieces of fodder. Slow filling is 
increased burning. 

The above basic reasons call for fine cutting of 
the silage. It packs closer and therefore excludes 
more air. It has the further merit of economizing 
room. All careful owners of silos advocate heavy 
tramping around the edges to overcome the friction 
of the sides in the settling mass. Their action is in 
line with this reasoning. The proper practice of 
sprinkling over-dry fodder as it enters the silo, or 
the top at the conclusion of filling, has the same 
defense. Such scientific data as bear on this mat- 
ter, if massed here, would add much to space, and 
is so obviously well founded as to be dispensable. 

The increasing depth of construction of silos is 
but a popular recognition of the principles stated. 
Thirty-five feet has become a common depth, while 
extremes of sixty feet have been reached. Profes- 
sor King estimates the weight of silage at the first 
foot at 18.7 pounds, and at thirty-six feet depth at 
sixty-one pounds per cubic foot. The deeper the 
better the silage averages, and into this position of 
little-included air silage, .should quickly come. In 
this connection it should be said that the more air 
.the less acetic acid or sour silage, but the greater 
the loss of fodder. In open silage acid conditions 
develop, but the difference, while in favor of loose 
packing, is only one of small degree and by no 
means an offset to the extra loss of material. 

Silage cutters (By J. W. Gilmore). 

The silage cutters have grown up with the use of 
the silo in dairying regions, and, while they are 
capable of much improvement, yet they are very 
eflicient and economical in rendering what other- 
wise would be waste material on the farm into 
acceptable forage for cattle. Silage cutters may be 
divided into two classes according to the method of 
disintegrating the material : Those which cut and 
those which shred the material. In recent years 
the tendencies are in favor of the shredders, because 
the material to be put in the silo is more thoroughly 
disintegrated. Precaution must be taken, however, 
in not having the material too moist. In many 
instances when green corn is shredded, the mois- 
ture is so abundant as to be pressed out at the 
bottom of the silo and lost. On the other hand, 
with the cutters some tough and large pieces of 
the stalks may not be eaten by the cattle, and, 
moreover, the cut fodder does not pack so readily 
in the silo as that which is shredded. If the 
material can be put in the silo and enter into the 
state of silage within two or three days, it is belter 
than that which requires five or six days to become 
silage. 

Both blowers and elevators may be used in con- 
nection with either of these classes of machines 
for elevating the material into the silo. The 



SILAGE -CROPPING 



SOILING 



569 



blowers, while requiring more power, are usually 
considered tiie better, because the material is more 
uniformly distributed in the silo. It is not infre- 
quent that coarse silage put in with a cutter will 
vary from fifty to eighty pounds in weight, due to 
the butts of the corn or the ears being thrown 
in one place in the silo. This, of course, renders 
feeding less uniform and is not desirable when 
feeding experiments are being conducted. Silage 
cutters should be run with sufficient power to carry 
the heaviest loads, as in.sufficient power is a source 
of much loss in time as well as labor. 

Silage as a factor in farm practice (Sanborn). 

Silage has been derived mainly from corn and 
has become practically synonymous with the use of 
this crop. Hollow-stemmed plants are eliminated 
for reasons given, and other crops are so far in- 
ferior to corn as sources of silage as to be little 
used. Clover has been used successfully and often 
very unsuccessfully and has not come into general 
use. Other leguminous crops are grown to cut in 
with corn to give a balanced ration, so called. The 
wisdom of the practice has not reached a demon- 
stration, nor is it generally applied. 

Corn is the royal forage crop of the country. It 
is peerless in its many-sided values. As a machin- 
ery-grown and tillage crop it is unequaled. In 
productivity, certainty of a full crop, palatability, 
digestibility, as a milk- and butter-producer in 
flavor, color and te.xture, and in cost per pound of 
digestible nutrition, it heads the list of forage 
crops. The silo, especially for the East, utilizes 
this crop to the fullest advantage. In a measure, 
it solves the problem of home-grown concentrated 
feed, as it has been shown by the Vermont and 
other experiment stations that the ear can be cut 
into the silo without loss. Husking, driving to the 
grist-mill, and levy for grinding are all saved, or 
about one-fourth to one-third of the cost of produ- 
cing a bushel of corn. As but a little less than 
two-fifths of the weight of the whole corn plant is 
in its seed, the importance of this fact is made 
prominent. 

Any reasonably good farm rotation requires a 
hot weather tillage crop. The silo has done more to 
hold this indispensable crop in a prominent position 
in eastern agriculture than any other one factor. 
It has been an especially noteworthy factor in 
increasing the stock, especially milch cows, kept in 
New England. It invited an increase in area of a 
very productive plant and added the beneficent in- 
fluence of more tillage of grass-locked areas. This 
is tantamount to an increased source of plant-food 
from the soil. 

Feeding value. 

Early investigations by several state experiment 
stations give silage about the same dige-stibility as 
corn fodder and a loss in the silo exceeding good 
practice with air-dried fodder. Since the deep silo 
made tight has supplemented silage fodder cut at 
the right period into short lengths, the loss in the 
silo by fermentation has been reduced to 10 per 
cent or less, and by King and WoU is held to be 



stored at its best at a loss not to exceed 5 per 
cent. 

Many trials with dry fodder and hay make it cer- 
tain that 15 per cent is about the minimum loss to 
be expected by dry storage, while this loss may 
rise to 20 per cent or more in ordinary practice. 
Late trials give silage a digestibility slightly ex- 
ceeding fodder corn, while in milk yield it has 
become the superior of corn fodder and most dry 
fodders. In palatability it excels all dry fodders. 

Limitations of silage. 

Farming requires a well-balanced rotation, and 
corn should not exceed its mathematical share of 
arable soil, nor should an undue amount of it be 
fed. It tends in large amounts to undue looseness 
of the bowels and to an illy balanced ration in its 
ratio of carbohydrates to protein. Its heavy per- 
centage of water at times and for some classes of 
stock, as an exclusive diet in cold weather, for so 
it has been fed, would give an excess of water to 
burden the system. Its heavy growth and use con- 
centrates labor in field and barn in too brief periods. 
Thirty to thirty-five pounds per day appears to bal- 
ance all the factors of advantage found in silage. 

The writer dislikes to dogmatize, and begs to 
state that before him is a collection of the 
materials of thirty years of experiment station 
work and many years of personal work, and that 
opinions necessarily briefly expressed are based very 
largely on these data. However, he is fully aware 
that many problems relating to the silo require 
much more investigation before full ultimate 
economic truth is reached. 

Literature. 

See under Maize-growing for the silo, page 414. 

SOILING: Its Philosophy and Practice. Figs. 

806, 807. 

By F. W. WoU. 

The soiling system consists in feeding farm 
animals a succession of green fodder crops in the 
stable during the entire summer period. This 
system, which has long been practiced by European 
dairy - farmers, became known in this country 
mainly through two admirable essays on " Soiling 
of Cattle," by Josiah Quincy, prepared for the 
Massachusetts and Norfolk Agricultural Societies, 
and published in the Transactions of these societies 
for 1820 and 1852, respectively. The advantages 
of the soiling system enumerated by this writer 
are, briefly stated, as follows: 

(1) Three times as much feed can be produced 
per acre of land by this system as when the land 
is pastured. 

(2) The feed is better utilized by cattle, as there 
is no waste through treading-down, fouling, and 
the like. 

(3) The cattle are more comfortable and in 
better condition when fed green feeds regularly 
and liberally in the stable than when left to find 
their own food on the pasture, with the uncer- 
tainties as to the condition of the pasture, weather 
and the like. 



570 



SOILING 



SOILING 



(4) The system is therefore conducive to the 
production of a large and even flow of milk (or a 
uniform increase in live weight, in the case of 
fattening stock). 

(5) There is a great increase in the quantity and 
quality of the manure, since all the manure from 
the stock is saved, thus placing the farmer in the 
best position to maintain the fertility of his land. 

(6) The necessity for interior fences is largely 
done away with. 

Later experience and the results of carefully 
conducted feeding experiments have fully estab- 
lished the assertions made for the soiling system 
by Quincy, especially for feeding dairy cattle. In 
addition to the advantages stated above, it should 
be noted that the .system does not call for any 
machinery or devices that are not already found 
on nearly all dairy-farms. 

Against the.se points in favor of the system, we 
have the disadvantage that it increases consider- 
ably the labor connected with the feeding and the 
management of the herd, since the green feed 
must be cut and placed before the stock in the 
barn several times a day. In rainy weather or 
when fields are muddy the harvesting of the crops 
also presents difficulties. But these objections are 
more than offset by the advantages, which bring 
about a greater production of crops from the land 
and a better utilization of the crops, hence greater 
returns from the animals kept. In regard to the 
question of the better saving of the manure by 
the polling system! Quincy gives as his experience 
that it alone is " a full equivalent for all the labor 
and expense of raising, cutting, and bringing in 
the food, feeding, currying and other care of the 
cattle." 

The production of soiling crops implies intensive 
methods of farming, since immense quantities of 
feed are produced by this method, in some cases 
exceeding twenty to twenty-five tons per acre, and 
the land may also in the case of some crops be 
sown to two different crops in the same season, as 
will be shown presently. To guard against soil 
exhaustion, heavy applications of manure, supple- 
mented by commercial fertilizers, must therefore 
be made. It is also well to resort occasionally to 
green-manuring in order to prevent a reduction of 
the humus content of the soil; this is preferably 
done by plowing under the second crop of clover or 
other legumes so as to take advantage of the high 
nitrogen-content of these crops. 

Soiling is of special value in regions where high 
land values prevail and only small areas are avail- 
able for pasture. As the price of farm lands in- 
creases it is likely to become of more and more 
importance. The sy.stem has been recommended 
primarily for dairy cows, but is also valuable in 
steer- and sheep -feeding. It has been adopted, 
however, only to a limited extent in the past by 
American dairy-farmers and others because of the 
large amount of labor involved in feeding stock in 
this way, and owing to the fact that our farmers 
have generally had abundant pasturage. It is less 
likely than ever to become a general practice in 
the future, owing to the introduction of the silo 



during the last few decades and to the use of 
summer silage (q. v.) as supplementary feed to 
scant pastures during the latter part of the summer 
season. 

Partial soiling. 

A modification of the soiling system — so-called 
partial soiling — is practiced by many farmers, and 
is worthy of serious consideration by dairymen who 
are anxious to secure maximum returns from their 
cows. In partial soiling, green forage crops are fed 
supplementary to pasturage or to hay or straw and 
concentrated feeds, at the time when the pastures 
no longer furnish sufficient feed for the stock. This 
modified soiling system is of the greatest impor- 
tance to American dairy-farmers, and its use is 
likely to be largely extended in the future with the 
further developments of our dairy industry. 

In case of either complete or partial soiling, a 
succession of fodder crops is grown that will fur- 
nish green forage at its best stage of growth for 
feeding as the season progres.ses. This will be, in 
the case of complete soiling, from spring to late 
fall, say May 1 to November 1 ; in the case of par- 
tial soiling, during late summer and fall. Soiling 
crops are especially valuable to the dairy-farmer 
during the latter period, as pastures are then likely 
to be poor, and cows are greatly annoyed from the 
heat and flies, if left out-of-doors all day long. The 
practice has become very general among progres- 
sive dairymen to keep the cows in a darkened stable 
during the day at this time of the year, where they 
are fed green crops with some dry roughage and 
grain, and to let them out on pasture at night. The 
shrinkage in milk flow that ordinarily occurs at 
"fly-time" will be largely overcome, or at least 
reduced so far as possible by a judicious system of 
soiling and management of the herd, as suggested. 

Soiling crops. 

Among the large number of crops that have been 
recommended for soiling and have proved satisfac- 
tory for this purpose, mention of a few of the more 
important ones will suffice here : winter grains (cut 
before blooming), peas and oats, alfalfa, clover, 
vetch, soybeans, millet, cowpeas, corn, sorghum 
and rape. All these crops are valuable when grown 
on fertile land and in localities suited to their cul- 
ture. Perhaps no single crop is of more importance 
and value for soiling than alfalfa, where it can be 
. grown successfully. Peas, corn and rape also rank 
i high as soiling crops, the latter especially for sheep 
1 and hogs. 

[|| For description of methods of culture and the 
if characteristics of the various crops, reference is 
f made to the special articles dealing with the crops 
included in the tables. 

notations of soiling crops. 

j The details as to growing a succession of soiling 
crops will necessarily vary, according to the char- 
acter of the land and the crops adapted to each par- 
i ticular locality. If it is desired to feed green crops 
' through the entire season, the following is one of 
' the simplest rotations that can be adopted : 




X 
X 



i 



SOILING 



SOILING 



571 



(1) Winter wheat or rye, ready to cut and feed 
during May ; 

(2) Green clover, for feeding during the early 
part of June ; 

(3) Oats and peas, sown as early as possible in 
the spring, and later two or three times at weekly 
intervals ; available for feeding during the remain- 
der of June and in July ; 

(4) Corn or corn and sorghum planted at the 
Dsual time, for feeding in August and September ; 

(5) The land occupied by oats and peas when 
cleared may be sown to millet or barley, for feed- 
ing during the fall months. 

The following crops for partial soiling are recom- 
mended by Jordan : Three sowings of peas and 
oats in May and early June and two plantings of 
corn, one at the usual time, the other two weeks 
later. These crops will furnish a supply of green 
feed when this is most likely to be needed. Quincy 
included four crops in his system, viz., early clover 
(for feeding during May and June), oats (for July), 



corn (for August), second growth of clover or 
grass (September to October 15), tops of carrots 
and turnips, cabbages (October 15 to November). 

Special rotations for soiling crops have been 
recommended by various authorities, and the farmer 
has the choice of a variety of crops that may be 
grown for this purpose. In deciding on a system 
of rotation to be adopted, he should consider the 
kinds of crops that will do best under his special 
conditions of farming, that will furnish green for- 
age at the time when wanted and are especially 
adapted for feeding the kinds of stock kept. The 
rotations suitable for soiling included below are 
given as guides for farmers living in the states 
mentioned, or under similar agricultural conditions. 
While they need not and in many cases probably 
cannot be followed in every detail, they will prove 
useful (as helpful outline plans) to farmers located 
in different sections of the country, who intend to 
adopt the soiling system of feeding cattle and other 
classes of live-stock. 



Examples of rotations of soiling crops. 

(1) SoiuNG Crops Adapted to Northern New England States. — Lindsey. (For 10 cows' entire soiling.) 



Kind 



Rye 

Wheat 

Red clover . . . 

Grass and clover 



Vetch and oats 
Vetch and oats 

Peas and oats . 



Peas and oats , 

Barnyard millet . . . . , 
Barnyard millet . . . . . 
Soybeans (medium green) 

Com 

Corn 

Hungarian 

Barley and peas .... 



Seed per acre 



2 bushels 

2 bushels 

20 pounds 

f i bushel red-top, 1 peck tim- "I 
\ othy, 10 pounds red clover J 

3 bushels oats, 50 pounds vetch 
3 bushels oats, 50 pounds vetch 

/ li bushels Canada peas, IJ | 

\ bushels oats f 

( IJ bushels Canada peas, IJ I 
( bushels oats \ 

1 peck 

, 1 peck 

18 quarts 



1 bushel 

j IJ bushels peas, IJ bushels I 
( barley ) 



Time of seeding 



Sept. 10-15 

Sept. 10-15 

July 15-Aug. 1 

September 

April 20 
April 30 

April 20 

April 30 

May 10 
May 25 
May 20 
May 20 
May 30 
July 15 

August 5 



Area 



J acre 
J acre 
J acre 

§ acre 

J acre 
i acre 

i acre 

J acre 

J acre 
J acre 
J acre 
J acre 
J acre 
J acre 

1 acre 



Time of cutting 



May 20-May 30 
June 1-June 15 
June 15-June 25 

June 15-June 30 

June 25- July 10 
July 10-July 20 

June 25- July 10 

July 10-July 20 

July 25-Aug. 10 
Aug. 10-Aug. 20 
Aug. 25 -Sept. 15 
Aug. 25-Sept. 10 
Sept. 10-Sept. 20 
Sept. 20-Sept. 30 

Oct. 1-Oct. 20 



(2) Time op Planting and Feeding Soiling Crops. — Phelps. 



Kind of fodder 


Amount of seed 
per acre 


Approximate 
time of seeding 


Approximate time of feeding 


1. Rye fodder 

2 Wheat fodder 


2J to 3 bushels 
2| to 3 bushels 
20 pounds 

2 bushels each 
2 bushels each 
2 bushels each 
IJ bushels 

1 bushel 

1 bushel 

2 bushels each 


September 1 
September 5-10 
July 20-30 

April 10 
April 20 
April 30 
June 1 

May 25 
June 5-10 

August 5-10 


May 10-20 
May 20, June 5 


3. Clover 

4. Grass (from grass-lands) 

5 Oats and peas 


June 5-15 
June 15-25 
June 25, July 10 




July 10-20 


7. Oats and peas 

8. Hungarian 

9. Clover rowen (from 3) 

10. Soybeans 


July 20, August 1 
August 1-10 
August 10-20 
August 20, September 5 
September 5-20 


12. Rowen grass (from grass-lands) . . . 

13. Barley and peas 


September 20-30 
October 1-30 



The dates given in the table apply to Central Connecticut and reeions under approximately similar conditions. 



572 



SOILING SOILING 

(3) Soiling Crops for Pennsylvania. — Watson and Mairs. 



Crop 



Rye 

Alfalfa 

Clover and timothy 

Peas and oats 

Alfalfa (second crop) 

Sorghum and cowpeas (after rye) 
Cowpeas (after peas and oats) . 



Area for 10 cows 



i acre 
2 acres 
i acre 

1 acre 

2 acres 
i acre 
1 acre 



When to be fed 



May 15- June 1 
June 1-June 12 
June 12-June 24 
June 24-July 15 
July 15-August 11 
August 1 1-August 28 
August 28-September 30 



(4) Crops for Partial Soiling for Illinois During Midsummer.— Fraser. 



Kinds of fodder 


Amount of seed 
per acre 


Approxhn.-itc time 
of seeding 


Approximate time of feeding 


1. Corn, early, sweet, or dent 

2. Corn, medium, dent 


6 quarts 
5 quarts 
1 bushel 
1 bushel 
1 bushel each 
1 bushel each 
4 pounds 
4 pounds 
4 pounds 


May 1 
May 15 
May 15 
May 15 
April 15 
May 1 
May 1 
June 1 
July 1 


July 1-August 1 
August 1-September 30 
August 1-September 15 
August 1-September 15 
July 1-July 15 
July 1'5-August 1 
July 1-August 1 
August 1-September 1 
September 1-October 1 


4 Soybeans .. 


5. Oats and Canada peas 

6. Oats and Canada peas 

7. Rape (Dwarf Essex) 

8. Rape, second sowing 

9. Rape, third sowing 



(5) Succession of Soiling Crops for Dairy Cows for Wisconsin. — Carlyle. 



Crop 



Fall rye 

Alfalfa 

Red clover 

Peas and oats . . . 

Peas and oats . . . 

Oats 

Alfalfa (second crop) 

Rape 

Flint corn 

Sorghum 

Evergreen sweet corn 
Rape 



Pounds of 

seed per 

acre 



168 

20 

15 

•P 60 

.0 48 

P 60 

.0 48 

80 



2.5 
50 
2.5 



Time for 
sowing 



Sept. 10 
Mar. 20 



April 16 

April 26 
May 5 

May 26 
May 20 
June 1 
May 31 
July 20 



Approximate 



Time of cutting 



May 15-June 1 
June 1-15 
June 15-25 

June 25-July 5 

July 5-15 

July 15-25 
July 15-30 
Aug. 1-15 
Aug. 15-25 
Aug. 25-Sep. 10 
Sept. 10-25 
Sept. 25-Oct. 10 





II 


248 


38 


72 


36 


. . 


36 


70 


32 


70 


32 


70 


32 




36 


67 


42 


86 


40 


86 


39 


102 


39 


67 


42 



Degrees of 
maturity 



Before blooming 
Before blooming 
In bloom 

In milk 

In milk 

In milk 

Before blooming 

Mature 

In silk 

When well 

In silk 

Mature 



headed 



Palata- 
bility 



Poor 
Fair 
Fair 

Average 

Average 

Average 
Average 
Good 

Very good 
Very good 
Very good 
Good 



Remarks. — Feed in stable during day and turn cows on pasture at night, or feed carefully in the pasture, spreading the 
forage. After cutting rye, use same ground for the rape, flint corn and sorghnni. and after cutting peas and oats, use same ground 
for evergreen sweet corn and rape. After oats, sow peas and barley. In this w.-ty a single acre only is required (except alfalfa, 
which is permanent), and the forage produced is ample succulent feed for ten cows for nearly half the year. 



(6) Mississippi. — "One of the best, surest and 
safest crops for soiling is sorghum, planted thick, 
and with the rows not over two feet apart. The 
sorghum may follow a crop of oats or some other 
early crop, and will withstand dry weather better 
than most other plants. Cowpeas are good, and 
corn may be used satisfactorily on land that will 
produce fair to large yields." (Moore.) 

(7) Kansas. — Dates when soiling crops are avail- 
able : Alfalfa, May 20 to September 30 ; wheat, 
June 1 to June 1.5 ; oats, June 15 to June 30 ; 
sweet corn, July 15 to July 31 ; field corn. Augu.st 



1 to September 15 ; sorghum, August 1 to Septem- 
ber 30 ; kafir, August 1 to September 30 ; wheat 
and rye pasture, until the ground freezes. (Otis.) 

The development of dairying in the southern states 
means more attention to care and feed of the live- 
stock ; and the advance of land values and compar- 
ative cheapness of labor should bring southern 
dairymen to consider the many ways in which soil- 
ing, or at least partial soiling, may be of advantage 
under their special conditions. Cost of labor is the 
greatest item against the soiling .system, and even 
this may be largely overcome by judicious planning. 



SOILING SOILING 573 

(6) Dates fob Planting and Using Soiling Crops in Western Oregon and Western Washington. — Hunter. 



Crops 


When planted 


When used 


Rye and vetch 

Winter oats and vetch 

Winter wheat and vetch 


September 1-15 
September and October 
September and October 


April 1-May 15 
May 15-July 1 
May 15-July 1 
May 15-July 1 
During June 
During June 
June 15-July 15 
During July 
During July 
During August 
During August 

During August, September and October 
Late fall and ear y winter 
October 15-April 1 

October 15-April 1 (fed from bins, pits cr 
root-houses) 


Alfalfa 




Oats and peas 

Oats and vetch 

Oats and peas 

Rape 

Oats and peas 

Rape 

Corn 

Turnips 

Thousand-headed kale 

Mangels, carrots and rutabagas .... 


February 

February 

April 

May 1 

May 

June 

May 10-20 

July 1 

March 15 and trans. June 1 

April 



(7) The following rotation has been used successfully by a large number of practical dairymen in 
the middle latitudes (40° N.). 



Crop 


Seeding time 


Seed per acre 


In prime feeding condition 


Rye and vetches 

Wheat and vetches 

Red and alsike clover 

Oats and Canada peas 

Very early sweet corn 

Late sweet corn 

Sorghum and cowpeas 


September 

September 

April or August 

April 

May 

May and June 

June 


2 bushels rye, i bushel vetch 

2 bushels rye, J bushel vetch 

25 to 30 pounds 

2 bushels oats, 2 bushels peas 

8 quarts 

6 quarts 

10 qts. sorghum, 50 qts. peas 


April 25 to May 10 
May 10 to June 1 
June 1 to June 25 
June 25 to July 10 
July 10 to July 25 " 
July 25 to August 25 
August 25 to frost 



Feeding soiling crops. 

The cereals are ready for feeding when the kernels 
are in the milk stage, while the legumes may be 
cut in full bloom or before. Ordinarily, a soiling 
crop cannot be fed to advantage for a longer period 
than ten to fifteen days, so that a change of feed 
should be provided at this interval. A few crops, 
such as corn and sorghum, may 
be cut every second or third day, 
but most soiling crops must be 
cut daily for feeding in the stable. 
This work can be systematized so 
as to save labor by the use of a 
mowing-machine, hor.se-rake, and 
low-feed truck, so that the feed 
may be hauled directly into the 
stable and unloaded in front of 
the cows in one handling. Soiling 
crops are u.sually fed uncut ; but 
green corn and sorghum, if left 
in the field till nearly mature, are 
preferably run through a feed 
cutter before being fed. If the 
pastures are greatly dried up, so 
that it is necessary to place the 
animals on soiling crops only, with some dry 
roughage, it is well to feed green crops three or 
four times a day. 

Cows will eat fifty to one hundred pounds of 
green forage, depending on the kind of crop at 



hand and its stage of maturity. In planting a rota- 
tion of crops it is safe to allow about one-half a 
square rod per day of such crops as oats and peas, 
clover, alfalfa and millet for each full-grown ani- 
mal (cows or steers), and a quarter of a square rod 
of corn or sorghum. 

A very important advantage of "soiling" dairy 




Field of com for soiling. 



cows lies in the fact that it enables the farmer to 
keep his cows up to a uniform standard of produc- 
tion during nearly the entire lactation period, as 
they may be furni.shed a variety of palatable and 
nutritious feeds throughout the growing season. 



574 



SOILING 



SORGHUM 




Fig. 807. Rack for sheep-feeding. 
(See also Pigs. 186 and 187, Vol. I.) 



and by feeding silage and roots in winter the con- 
ditions of both summer and winter feeding are such 
as are most conducive to a large and profitable 
dairy production. 

Care of stock under soiling. 

Cleanliness in the stable and the grooming of 
the cattle are important factors in soiling. When 

in pasture the hair 
of the stock is kept 
clean through rain 
and wind, but when 
confined the waste 
thrown off by the 
skin must be re- 
moved by currying 
in order that the 
skin secretion of 
the animals be not 
interfered with, 
and that they may 
thrive under the rather artificial conditions under 
which they are kept, with the incidental heavy 
system of feeding and production. 

Literature. 

Quincy, Essays on the Soiling of Cattle, New 
York (out of print) ; Shaw, Soiling Crops and the 
Silo, New York (1904) ; Peer, Soiling Crops and 
Ensilage, New Y'ork (1900) ; Nielsen, Ueber Som- 
mer-stallfutterung, Bremen (1880). Experiment 
Station publications : Soiling crops for cows : 
Storr's (Conn.), Bulletin No. 9, Reports 1891, 1895 ; 
Iowa, Bulletins Nos. 15, 19, 2.3, 27; Kansas, Bulletin 
No. 125 ; Maryland, Bulletin No. 98 ; Massachusetts, 
Reports 1887-1891, 1893; Mississippi, Bulletin No. 
95; New Jersey, Reports, 1897-1904, Bulletins Nos. 
122, 158 ; Pennsylvania, Reports 1889, 1904, 1905, 
Bulletins Nos. 65, 75 ; Wisconsin, Report 1885, Bul- 
letin No. 103; Ontario (Guelph), Report 1890. 
Soiling crops for steers : Massachusetts, Report 
1893 ; Utah, Bulletin No. 15. Soiling crops for 
sheep : Utah, Bulletin No. 15, Report 1892 ; Wis- 
consin, Report No. 7. Soiling crops for swine : 
Michigan, Bulletin No. 223 ; Oregon, Bulletin No. 
80. Fig. 807 from Farm Buildings, Sanders Pub. Co. 

SORGHUM. Andropngon Sorghum, Brot., or Sor- 
ghum vulgare, Pers. Gramineos. Figs. 808-814. 

By Carleton R. Ball. 

Agriculturally the term sorghum is commonly 
restricted to the sweet or saccharine varieties.' 
Botanically the species, Andropogon Sorghum, is 
held to include all groups of cultivated sorghum, 
such as the broom-corns, sweet sorghums, kafirs and 
durras. All other specific names which have been 
applied to cultivated sorghums are regarded as syn- 
onyms. A. Sorghum is not certainly known in a wild 
state, and all the cultivated forms referred col- 

' For this reason the methods of culture and handling 
given by Mr. Warburton, in the succeeding article, are for 
the sweet sorghums only. For the methods applicable to 
the other groups, see Broom-corn and Kafir and Durra, 
respectively. 



lectively to this species are thought to have been 
derived from the wild A. Halepensis, Brot. (P^igs. 518, 
673). This species, well known in the southern 
states as Johnson-grass, is widely distributed in trop- 
ical and subtropical regions. In Africa and Asia it 
presents a number of striking forms varying from 
each other in the same directions as do the chief 
groups of cultivated forms. A few of the cultivated 
forms of India are said to be directly traceable to 
the wild .4. Halepensis. The differences usually cited 
between the two species are the slender habit, lax 
open panicle and stout, jointed, perennial rootstocks 
of A. Halepensis. However, in rich soil A. Halepensis 
is often more robust than some forms of ^4. Snrghum, 
as for example, certain kaoliangs from China or 
some forms of Amber sorghum in this country. 
The lax, open panicle is also characteristic of 
Amber sorghum, of some kaoliangs and of some 
varieties of African origin, as Collier. The stout 
rootstocks are not possessed by any cultivated 
variety of sorghum so far as known, though our 
annual varieties not infrequently become perennial 
under favorable climatic conditions. Another sepa- 
rating character, emphasized by Hackel, is the 
jointed pedicel of the spikelet in the wild species 
and the continuous pedicel in the cultivated species. 
However, he states that a cultivated form, refer- 
able to A. Sorghum in other characters, was found 
to have the jointed pedicels of A. Halepensis, thus 
breaking down the last distinction separating the 
two so-called species. 

Cultivated sorghum is known to have originated 
in the tropical or subtropical regions of the Old 
World and to have, been many centuries in cultiva- 
tion for human food. From the abundance and 
diversity of its forms and their very extensive 
cultivation and use, tropical Africa is generally 
considered the birthplace of the species. For the 
same reasons it may be held to be indigenous to 
India also. In either case, it was probably culti- 
vated in the Orient long before the beginning of 
the Christian era. 

Botanical description. 

Annual grasses, 3-15 feet in height, with stout, 
erect, jointed stems, 2-21 inches in diameter, 
stooling little or much from the base, simple above 
or producing a single, simple, fruiting branch from 
each of 1-5 upper nodes, except the uppermost; 
nodes 7-20 in the forms cultivated in this country; 
internodes normally longer than or about equaling 
the sheaths, or sometimes shorter, the sheaths then 
overlapping, as in kafirs; leaves in two opposite 
ranks (distichous), large, 1-5 inches in width, 
1-3| feet in length, acute at the apex, broadest 
about the middle, somewhat to considerably 
narrowed at the base or broad and more or less 
clasping, depending much on vigor of growth. 
Peduncles slender or stout, 10-36 inches long, 
erect or recurved ("goosenecked"). Seed-head a 
panicle, 5-28 inches in length, of widely different 
color and shape in different cultivated varieties: a 
corymb or umbel in form, as in broom-corns, 
Collier sorghum, and the like ; a true panicle in 
Amber sorghum, in Shallu and others; a close and 



SORGHUM 



SORGHUM 



575 



spike-like panicle in Orange and Sumac sorghums, 
kafirs, and others ; and a dense, ovate or globose, 
head-like panicle in many durras; the rachis or 
central axis of the panicle 
greatly shortened in the corym- 
bose forms, as broom-corns, 
from one-half as long as to 
equaling the panicle in sweet 
sorghums, and nearly equaling 
it in kafir and durra varieties; 
spikelets in pairs, one sessile, 
fertile, prominent, the other 
stalked, sterile, slender, less 
conspicuous, and falling off 
readily at maturity; seeds oval, 
obovate, subglobose or lenticu- 
lar in shape; white, pearly, yel- 
lowish, reddish yellow, red or 
reddish brown in color ; shorter 
than the empty glumes (in- 
cluded) or longer (exserted); 
empty glumes (hulls or outer 
chaff) usually thick, leathery, 
much shorter than to long«r 
than the seed, rounded or acute 
at the apex; normally greenish 
white while immature, some- 
times remaining so in maturity, 
in other varieties becoming dif- 
ferent shades of red, brown and 
black, more or less silky-hairy, 
at least while young, some 
forms almost glabrous at ma- 
turity ; flowering glume thin, 
transparent, awned or awnless. 

Groups. 

The cultivated sorghums of 
this country may properly be 
divided into five groups, as 
follows : broom-corns, shallu, 
sweet or saccharine sorghums, 
and durras. Popularly 




some of the kafirs have a fairly sweet juice and 
could doubtless be developed into saccharine 
varieties. The term kaoliang, mentioned on page 
572, designates Chinese varieties in general, it 
being the Chinese name for sorghums. 

KEY TO GROUPS 
A. Pith dry : 

Head loose, 10-28 inches long ; 
spikelets oval or obovate, 
small : 
Rachis very short ; seeds 

reddish I. Broom-corn 

Rachis as long as head ; seeds 

white or pearly .... II. Shallu 
Head compact, 4-9 inches long ; 
spikelets broadly obovate, 

large V. Durra 

AA. Pith juicy : 

Juice abundant and very sweet. III. Sorghum 
Juice scanty, subacid or some- . 
what sweet : 
Heads erect, cylindrical ; 

spikelets oval, small . . IV. Kafir 
Heads pendent, ovate ; spike- 
1 e t s broadly obovate, 
large V. Durra 

I. Broom-com. (Fig. 809 ; also Fig. 309.) 

Description. — Pith dry ; internodes u-sually longer 
than the sheaths ; peduncles erect ; panicles corym- 
bose or umbelliform, 10-28 inches ; rachis one to 
two inches long; spikelets obovate, mostly awned ; 
glumes acute or obtuse, equaling the seeds. 

History. — The origin of broom-corn is not known. 
It was probably derived by selection from a sweet 
sorghum having elongated branches and a shortened 
rachis. This selection was very probably made in 
Italy several centuries ago. The first mention of 
the use of this plant in broom-making is from an 
Italian source, and sorghums have been cultivated 
in Italy for eighteen centuries or more. 

Varieties. — There are only two recognized agri- 
cultural varieties of broom-corn, the standard and 
the dwarf. The standard is characterized by stalks 
10-15 feet high and a panicle or brush 15-28 inches 
long, usually fully exserted from the upper sheath 
or "boot." Its seed is sold under several names, but 
these do not represent forms with recognizable dif- 
ferences. The dwarf form grows only 3-6 feet 
gh, with a panicle 10-18 inches in length, 
usually partly enclosed by the upper sheath. 
[See Broom-corn, page 216.] 



they are classed as broom-corns, saccharine sor- 
ghums and non-saccharine sorghums, the last class 
including both kafirs and durras. The term non- 
saccharine is cumbersome and not distinctive, as 



II. ShaUu. 

Description. — Pith dry ; internodes 
about equaling the sheaths ; pe- 
duncles erect ; panicle large, 
10-15 inches long, ovate- 
pyramidal, loose and open, 
pale yellow, 
branches com- 
monly droop- 
ing ; rachis as 
long as the panicle ; spikelets elliptical-lanceolate, 
awned ; empty glumes straw-colored, hairy, becom- 
ing gaping and inrolled at maturity ; seeds oval, 
flattened, white or pearly, hard, fully exposed at 



576 



SORGHUM 



SORGHUM 



maturity by the spreading and inrolling of the 
glumes; awns long, yellowish and rather persistent. 
History. — A peculiar sorghum introduced from 
India, where it is extensively cultivated in Bombay 
and the Deccan under the 
native name, Shallu, usually 
as a winter crop. It was 
imported and tested by the 
Louisiana Agricultural Ex- 
periment Station more than 
fifteen years ago. It is now 
'I'/^l found growing at scattered 
points from Kansas to Texas 
under such names as "Cali- 
fornia wheat," "Egyptian 
wheat," and "Mexican 
wheat." The source of these 
culture areas is not known, 
but probably from the 
Louisiana importation. 

Varieties. — But a single 
variety is found in this 
country. The stalks are slen- 
der, 5-7 feet tall, with rather 
small leaves. It requires 
100 to 120 days to reach 
x'maiuiimiii maturity. Its value is not 

)^l|||^Hjw|p' yet known. 

III. Sweet sorghums. 

Description. — Pith juicy 
and sweet; intern odes about 
equaling the sheaths ; pe- 
duncles erect (recurved in 
Gooseneck); panicle vari- 
able, loose and ovate to 
compact and cylindrical ; 
rachis variable in length ; 
spikelets ovate, oval or 
obovate, awned or awn- 
less ; glumes equaling or 
shorter than the seeds ; 
seeds pale orange to deep 
red. 

History. — The sweet 
sorghums of the United 
States were obtained 
originally from two widely 
separated regions, — China 
and Natal. The Chinese 
variety reached this coun- 
try in 1853, by way of 
France. It was at first called sorgho. 

From it has since been derived our well-known 
Amber sorghum. The Natal varieties, fifteen or 
sixteen in number, collectively called Imphee, were 
brought from Europe in 1857, and were first grown 
in South Carolina and Georgia. From them have 
descended our Orange (Neeazana), Sumac (Koora- 
bana) and Gooseneck (native name not certain). 
These are varieties in common cultivation today. 
Three other little-grown varieties, Collier, Planter's 
Friend and Sapling, are probably of the same origin. 
Many additional forms and so-called varieties have 
since arisen through sports, selections and natural 



./ 



0' 



Fig. 809. 
Broom-corn. Seed-head or 
linisli, and seeds in de- 
tail at riglit. 



crossing. The sweet sorghums are not sharply sep- 
arated from the kafirs. 

KEY TO VARIETIES OF SWEET SORGHUM 

A. Peduncle and panicle erect : 
I. Panicle loose, open, branches 
spreading to horizontal or 
drooping : 
Rachis two-thirds as long as 
to equaling the panicle ; 
spikelets usually awned : 
Stems slender ; panicle 
ovate - pyramidal or one- 
sided ; empty glumes 
deep red or black : 
Empty glumes black : 
Empty glumes rigid, long, 
more or less hairy, pure 
black, usually awned . 1. Amber 
Empty glumes longer and 
thinner, glabrous, usu- 
ally glaucous when ma- 
ture, never awned . .1. Minn. Amber 
Empty glumes deep red . 2. Red Amber 
Stems stout; panicle oblong, 
elongated ; empty glumes 

light brown 3. Honey 

Rachis less than one-half the 

length of the panicle : 
Panicle light weight, red- 
brown, branches 6-10 
inches long, drooping ; 
glumes with pale margins, 
acute ; seeds deep orange 

to red 4. Collier 

Panicle heavy, pale orange 
or darker ; glumes pale 
straw - color or darker, 
never all dark; seeds 
pale orange to deep 

orange 5. Planter's Friend 

II. Panicle close, compact', obo- 
vate-oblong or cylindrical ; 
branches appressed or the 
uppermost spreading : 
Panicle oblanceolate or ob- 
long, 5-7 inches long ; 
stems 5-7J feet high : 
Empty glumes about equal- 
ing the large seeds : 
Color of panicle pale or- 
ange or darker ; glumes 
pale straw-color or darker 
but never all dark, acute ; 
seeds pale orange or 

darker 5. Planter's Friend 

Color of panicle reddish 
brown or deep brov\Ti ; 
glumes red to black, all 
dark ; seeds pale orange 

to red 6. Orange 

Empty glumes about half as 
long as the small seeds : 
Panicle veiy compact ; 
glumes black, seeds dark 

red 7. Sumac 

Panicle cylindrical, elongated, 
10-14 inches long; stems 
8-10 feet high : 
Empty glumes narrow, some- 
what shorter than the red 
seeds 8. Sapling 



SORGHUM 



SORGHUM 



577 









AA. Peduncle strongly declined or 
recurved (goosenecked), or 
sometimes erect; hence, 
panicle horizontal or pen- 
dent, or erect : 
Panicle black, ovate or tri- 
angular, awned ; stems tall 
and stout, reddened below 9. Gooseneck 

Descriptions of varieties of sweet sorghum. 

1. Amber. (Pig. 810.) This is the earliest vari- 
ety, maturing in about 90-100 days ; stems slender, 
5-7 feet tall, averaging 8-10 nodes, branching 

^ freely late in 

«»^(^ the season ; 

leaves rather 
slender. Pani- 
cles black, 
loose and very 
open, 8-12 
inches long,ob- 
long or ovate- 
pyramidal in 
outline, fre- 
quently one- 
sided (secund) 
and triangular 
through the 
leaning of the 
stalks, the 
lowerbranches 
usually droop- 
ing. Typically 
awned, but 
awns decidu- 
ous at matur- 
ity, and some- 
times entirely 
wanting. Glumes broad, jet black, more or less 
silky-hairy, e.xceeding and enclosing the orange or 
reddish, oval seeds. Exceeding variable. Forms 
with contracted panicles are common, especially in 
the Plains region and the extreme North, where 
lack of moisture and short season prevent luxuriant 
growth. It is known commercially under many 
names, as Early Amber, Minnesota Amber, Ira- 
proved Amber, Wisconsin Amber, Black Dwarf, and 
others. Is found in cultivation on every continent. 
Amber is very subject to blight and smut. 

Minnesota Amber was originated through selec- 
tion more than forty years ago by Mr. Seth H. 
Kenney, of Waterville, Minn. It is distinguished 
by more slender panicles with longer branches and 
larger spikelets, by glabrous and usually glaucous 
or bluish-white glumes which are less rigid in 
texture, and by absence of awns. 

Folgers Early was developed as a specially pro- 
ductive syrup strain, and when true to name is said 
to be somewhat later. 

2. Red Amber. This differs from Amber mainly 
in the red empty glumes, but is also 5-10 days 
later. It is now cultivated in this country only spar- 
ingly if at all, but was probably in more general 
use at one time. The seed has recently been re- 
ceived from Australia under the name Orange. 
The value is the same as for Amber. 

B37 




Fig. 810. Amber sorghum. 



3. Honey. This is a very distinct variety re- 
cently discovered in the Southwest. Stalks 7-10 
feet high, averaging 13-18 nodes in different 
localities, stout, 1-lh inches in diameter at the 
base, very sweet. The stems are markedly tender 
in comparison with other stout varieties. It is, 
however, the latest variety known, requiring 130- 
140 days to mature. For the southern states it is 
likely to prove one of the best syrup varieties. 

4. Collier. This is a tall slender variety, 7-10 
feet high, less than an inch in diameter, averaging 
12 or 18 nodes, medium late, requiring 110-130 
days to ripen. True Collier may be recognized by 
the resemblance of its panicle to a small broom- 
corn panicle, 6-10 inches long, the rachis much 
shortened or occasionally half or more than half 
as long as the panicle; branches long and slender, 
drooping on all sides or, when the slender stalks 
are leaning, drooping on one side only; seeds deep 
orange or red, slightly exserted from the dark 
glumes with pale margins. 

5. Planter's Friend. This is a fairly tall and 
stout variety, erect, 7-9 feet high, averaging 13 
or 14 nodes, |-li inches in diameter at the base, 
yellowish green in color ; leaves large ; panicle 
usually compact but not heavy, 5-8 inches long, 
lighter in color than that of Orange, the glumes a 
light straw-color and the seeds very pale orange 
in dry regions, glumes and seeds both strongly 
reddened in more humid climates. The top of the 
panicle is often flaring through the spreading of 
the longer upper branches; the rachis is normally 
more than two-thirds as long as the panicle but 
occasionally much shortened, and the long branches 
are then more or less drooping. 

The origin of this variety has not been ascer- 
tained, but it is probably one of the original Natal 
varieties, grown in Kansas as early as 1889, in 
India in 1875, and now in common cultivation in 
Australia. It is found in local cultivation in many 
of the southern and southwestern 
states under such names as Improved 
Orange, McLean, Silver, Silver-drip, 
Silver-rind, Simmon's Cane, Sourless 
and "Straightnecked Ribbon Cane." 
The seed is not obtainable commerci- 
ally. A variety known as Sugar-drip, 
locally cultivated in North Carolina 
and Texas, is a probable hybrid of this 
variety with BlackhuU kafir. Plant- 
er's Friend ripens at about the same 
time as Orange, to which it is most 
closely related, and is likely to have 
about the same value as a syrup and 
forage plant. 

6. Orange. (Fig. 811.) The Orange 
is a rather stout, erect variety, 6-8 
feet tall, §-li inches in diameter, yel- 
lowish green, with an average of 12- "oTanEe' 
14 nodes and rather large leaves. sorghum. 
Panicles compact and heavy, oblong 

or cylindrical, 6-9 inches long, in color a mixture 
of the red or black glumes and the slightly ex- 
serted, orange or reddish seeds. The top is occa 
sionally open or flaring by the spreading of the 




578 



SORGHUM 



SORGHUM 



elongated upper branches. It is one of the original 
Natal varieties, introduced and at first grown 
under the native name, Neeazana. It matures in 
105-125 days, about 15 days later than Amber, 
and, after it, is the most widely grown variety in 
this country, where it is one of the most valuable 
for forage, silage and syrup. It is found abroad 
only in France and Australia. 

Colman, as now grown, is apparently identical 
with Orange. It is said to have been a cross be- 
tween Amber and Orange, 
but now shows almost none 
^k5*> of the Amber characters. 

Kavanaugh is also an Orange 
sorghum. 





Fig. 812. 
Sumac sorghum. 



Fig. 813. 
Gooseneck sorghum. 



7. Sumac. (Fig. 812.) The Sumac is a stout, 
erect variety, 6-9 feet high, about one inch in 
diameter, with an average of 14-16 nodes, good 
foliage and short, very compact, cylindrical, red 
heads, 4-8 inches long. Glumes very short, black. 
Seeds deep red, obovate, smaller than in any other 
variety, but much exserted from the very short 
glumes. It is also one of the original Natal varie- 
ties, introduced under the native name, Koombana, 
but apparently not long grown under that name. It 
matures at about the same time as Orange or slightly 
later, and is an especially valuable variety for for- 
age, silage and syrup. For forty years this has 
been the most popular variety in the South, espe- 
cially in the Piedmont districts. It is now largely 
grown in Texas and Oklahoma also. It has been 
variously known as Liberian and Red Liberian, 
Redtop African, Redtop and Sumac. It is the 
most uniform of our varieties, apparently not 
being crossed readily by pollen from other va- 
rieties. 

8. Sapling. This is a tall and slender variety, 
8-12 feet high, i to 1 inch in diameter, with 12- 
15 nodes and slender, cylindrical panicles, 10-14 
inches long, with long and mostly appre.ssed 
branches. Glumes narrow, elliptical, red to black, 
about three-fourths as long as the oval, red and 
well-exserted seeds. It matures in 110-125 or 130 
days. Owing to its tall, slender habit of growth, 



and consequent tendency to lodge, it is, like Collier, 
not likely to prove a valuable variety. 

The origin and history are unknown, but it is 
probably one of the original Natal introductions. 
It was first grown at the sorghum-sugar experi- 
ment stations in Kansas many years ago, under the 
name of Red X or Red Cross, and is still grown at 
Fort Scott, and locally in Missouri and Texas. It 
has recently been found in the mountains of north- 
ern Georgia and in Texas (from North Carolina 
seed) under the name of Sapling. 

9. Gooseneck. (Fig. 813.) This is the largest 
and one of the latest varieties in cultivation. The 
stalks are 8-12 feet tall, 1-2 inches in diameter at 
the base, with 12-20 nodes ; lower internodes usu- 
ally red ; leaves very large, frequently over three 
feet long and nearly four inches wide, often red or 
purple at the base. Peduncles recurved ("goose- 
necked") or erect ; panicles black, contracted, 
rather dense, ovate or one-sided (secund) and tri- 
angular, 10-50 percent pendent; spikelets broadly 
obovate, awned ; seeds small, reddish, shorter than 
the black, more or less silky glumes. It requires 
120-135 days to reach maturity. 

Gooseneck is one of the original Natal varieties, 
but the native name is not known. It was a favor- 
ite in the South many years ago, and is still spar- 
ingly cultivated there. Four years ago this variety 
was brought to public notice in Texas under the 
name, "Texas Seeded Ribbon Cane," erroneously 
said to be a seed-producing variety of the true 
sugar-cane or ribbon cane. Since then it has been 
widely advertised and grown in the Southwest 
under that name. It is a very valuable variety be- 
cause of the large yield of syrup, but it is too late 
to mature north of Tennessee and southern Missouri. 

IV. Kafir. 

Description. — Stems stout, 1-2 inches in diame- 
ter, 4J-6 or 9 feet tall, with 12-15 nodes ; pith 
semi-juicy but juice subacid or only slightly sweet ; 
internodes much shorter than the sheaths (equal- 
ing them in Old kafir), the leaves thus closely 
crowded ; peduncle erect ; rachis about as long as 
the heavy, compact, oblong or cylindrical panicle ; 
glumes about half as long as the seeds, never 
awned. With the exception of Old kafir, the kafirs 
form a very uniform and well-defined group of low, 
stout, stocky, heavily-.seeded plants, most closely 
related to the sweet sorghums. 

History. — The kafirs are native to eastern 
Africa, from Abyssinia to Natal. Old kafir was in- 
troduced about 1875, and distributed by the " Rural 
New-Yorker" in the spring of 1881 as Rural 
Branching Sorghum. It soon after became known 
as milo maize or White milo maize, and later as 
African millet. Two varieties, one the White kafir 
and the other probably the Red, were exhibited by 
the Orange Free State at the Centennial Exposi- 
tion, Philadelphia, in 1876. Seed of the White 
kafir was secured by the Department of Agricul- 
ture of Georgia and transmitted in February, 1877, 
to Dr. J. H. Watkins, still living at Palmetto, Ga. 
He grew and selected it for several years and 
began to distribute it in 1885. It was widely dis- 



SORGHUM 



SORGHUM 



579 



tributed by the Georgia Department of Agricul- 
ture and by the United States Department of 
Agriculture from 1886 to 1889. The seed of the 
Red variety was apparently not distributed for 
about ten years, when it was sent to Mr. A. A. 
Denton, in Kansas. 

KEY TO VARIETIES 

A. Seeds white : 

Glumes greenish white or some 

darker 1. White kafir 

Glumes black or nearly so : 
Stalks 5-G feet tall ; inter- 
nodes much shorter 
than the (overlapping) 

sheaths 2. Blackhull kafir 

Stalks 7-10 feet tall ; inter- 
nodesequaling or 
longer than the sheaths 3. Old kafir 
AA. Seeds red ; glumes deep red to 

black 4. Red kafir 

Description of varieties. — Old kafir differs from 
the others in the greater height, 7-9 feet, caused 
by longer internodes, and hence in having the 
leaves not crowded. It is also a later variety. It 
has been on the market for many 3'ears under such 
names as Rural Branching Sorghum, African mil- 
let, White milo and others. By some it is thought 
to be the form from which Blackhull kafir has 
been derived. 

White kafir is distinguished by the pale glumes 
and the heads usually not fully exserted from the 
sheaths. Blackhull kafir, now the most promising 
variety, is marked by the black glumes, and heads 
almost always fully exserted. Red kafir is very 
similar to the White and the Blackhull except in 
the red seeds and the longer, slenderer heads. [See 
Kafir and Durra, pages 384-388.] 

V. Durra. 

Description. — Stems medium to stout, 4-7 feet 
tall, ^ to IJ inches in diameter ; nodes 8-11, aver- 
aging 9 ; internodes usually shorter than the 
sheaths, sometimes equaling them ; pith dry to 
semi-juicy, not sweet ; leaves broad and short ; 
peduncle stout, recurved or sometimes erect ; pani- 
cles compact, ovate or broadly elliptical, mostly 
pendent, sometimes erect or inclined ; spikelets very 
broad, obovate or rhomboid, awned or awnless ; 
seeds large, flattened, lenticular or subglobose. 

History. — The durras have been cultivated since 
historic times as sources of human and animal 
food. They are found abundantly today in north- 
ern Africa, southwestern Asia and India. Some 
were brought from Mediterranean regions to 
America in early colonial days, but only sparingly 
cultivated. The White durra and the Brown durra 
at present cultivated in this country were intro- 
duced from Egypt into California in 1874 and 
known as White and Brown Egyptian corn, respec- 
tively. Yellow milo is of Egyptian origin, but the 
circumstances of its introduction are not known. 
The Blackhull durra, only sparingly found in this 
country, is either an importation from India or, as 



is certainly true in some cases, a hybrid between 
Blackhull kafir and White durra. 

KEY TO VARIETIES 

A. Seeds white : 

Glumes greenish white, silky ; 
seeds much flattened, len- 
ticular ; floret awned . . 1. White durra 

Glumes black, scarcely hairy ; 
seeds smaller, less flat- 
tened, rare 2. Blackhull durra 

AA. Seeds yellowish, reddish or red- 
dish brown : 

Glumes short, transversely 
wrinkled, reddish to black, 
not silky ; seeds yellowish 
brown ; florets awned . . 3. Yellow milo 

Glumes as long as the seeds, 
greenish white, silky ; 
seeds reddish brown ; not 
awned 4. Brown durra 

Description of varieties. — Except in color of 
seeds and glumes, these varieties are very similar. 
White durra and Brown durra are most closely 
related, differing only in the color of the seed and 
the presence or the absence of the awn. Yellow 
milo, now a very important crop, differs in the 
much shorter, transversely wrinkled glumes and 
the less flattened seeds. All three of these durras 
have fewer leaves than the kafir varieties. The 
stalks are less juicy and the juice less sweet. The 
pendent, or goosenecked heads of all three and the 
easily shattered seeds of White durra and Brown 
durra put them at a disadvantage in comparison 
with the kafirs. The seed of Yellow milo does not 
shatter, and this variety has now become a staple 
crop in western Texas, Oklahoma and adjacent 
sections. It is there commonly know as Dwarf 
milo, owing to its small size in that dry and ele- 
vated region. [See Kafir and Durra, pages 384- 
388.] , 

Literature. 

C. C. Georgeson, Kafir Corn, Characteristics, 
Culture and Uses, United States Department of 
Agriculture, Farmers' Bulletin No. 37 (1896); H. 
M. Cottrell, D. H. Otis, and J. G. Haney, Kafir 
Corn, Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, 
Bulletin No. 93 (1900); Thomas Shaw, Forage 
Crops Other Than Grasses, Chapters III and IV, 
Orange Judd Company (1902); Same, Soiling Crops 
and the Silo, Chapters III and IV, Orange Judd 
Company (1902); C. P. Hartley, Broom-corn, United 
States Department of Agriculture, Farmers' Bulle- 
tin No. 174 (1903); Thomas F. Hunt, The Cereals 
in America, Chapter XXVI, Orange Judd Company 
(1904); Carleton R. Ball, Saccharine Sorghums 
for Forage, United Stated Department of Agricul- 
ture, Farmers' Bulletin No. 246 (1906): C. W. War- 
burton, The Non-saccharine Sorghums, United States 
Department of Agriculture, Farmers' Bulletin No. 
288 (1907); A. A. Denton, United States Department 
of Agriculture, Farmers' Bulletins Nos. 90 and 135, 
Sorghum Syrup Manufacture ; H. W. Wiley, United 
States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Chem- 



580 



SORGHUM 



SORGHUM 



istry, Bulletins Nos. 14, 20, 26 and 34, Experiments 
in the Manufacture of Sugar from Sorghum. For 
an interesting historical treatise, see "Sorgho, or 
the Northern Sugar Plant," by Isaac A. Hedges, 
Cincinnati, 1863 (204 pages, illustrated). 

Sorghum-growing. 

By C W. Warburton. 

Sorghum is a drought-resistant crop largely 
grown in the southern and southwestern United 
States, and to some extent in other sections, for 
forage and for the production of syrup. The for- 
age is used as fodder, hay, silage, pasture or for 
soiling. Sorghum out-yields the best varieties of 
fodder corn in the South, and is generally con- 
sidered superior to them for forage production. In 
the corn-belt it is little grown as a forage crop, 
but formerly was extensively used in the produc- 
tion of syrup. The use of sorghum for this latter 
purpose has rapidly decreased in the last few years 
owing to the presence on the market of large 
quantities of cheap glucose syrups, until now the 
sorghum-syrup industry is an unimportant one. 

Culture. 

Soils. — Sorghum is not particular as to soils ; it 
does well on any rich, well-drained land, but gives 
best returns on sandy loams or clay loams. As 
the crop is comparatively a surface feeder, it 
responds readily to manuring. It has an extensive 
root system, however, and produces fairly good 
crops on poor land. Sorghum draws heavily on the 
moisture and plant-food in the surface soil, and so 
should not be followed by fall -sown crops. The 
prevalent idea that this crop is " hard on the land " 
is largely due to the bad physical condition in 
which it leaves the soil. If the land is plowed in 
the fall and put in good condition, the following 
crop should not be materially lessened because of 
the sorghum which preceded it. 

Fertilizers. — For the production of forage, barn- 
yard manure and the use of leguminous fertilizers, 
such as cowpeas, give best results. In semi-arid 
sections the manure should be well distributed, as 
large lumps will cause the soil to dry out very 
rapidly, with consequent injury to the crop. If a 
green-manuring crop is used, it should be plowed- 
in some time before the sorghum is planted, in 
order that the ground may become well settled and 
in good condition to retain moisture. 

Preparation of the land. — No special preparation 
is necessary for this crop other than that given for 
corn. The land should be thoroughly plowed some 
weeks before planting, preferably in the fall. A 
few days before planting time it should be disked 
and harrowed until the surface is fine and mellow. 
The young plants grow very slowly, so that land 
reasonably free from weed seed should be used, and 
harrowing just before the seed is planted is desir- 
able to kill any weeds which may have started. 

Varieties. — The best known varieties of the sac- 
charine sorghums are Amber (Fig. 810), Orange 
(Fig. 811) and Sumac (Fig. 812). Of these, Amber 
is the earliest, and produces a fair amount of for- 



age . Orange and Sumac are later in maturing and 
yield more heavily. All make good syrup. Amber 
being most popular in the North, because of its 
earliness. Sumac is most largely grown in the 
Southwest, while Orange is the prevailing sort in 
many sections in the southern and central states. 

Seeding. — When the crop is to be used for hay 
or pasture the seed is sown either broadcast or 
with a grain drill, using one-half to two bushels to 
the acre. The larger quantity is used in the south- 
ern states ; the smaller one in regions of light 









,^^^i 






Fig. 814. Field of sorghum in shock. 

rainfall. If the seed is sown with a grain drill, all 
or only a part of the holes may be u.sed. For silage 
and soiling, and for fodder and syrup as well, it is 
customary to plant in rows three to four feet 
apart, using special sorghum plates in a corn- or 
cotton-planter, and planting six pounds to one-half 
bushel of seed per acre. 

Cultivation. — When planted in rows, sorghum 
should be cultivated the same as corn. One or two 
harrowings lengthwise of the rows soon after 
planting will aid in keeping down the weeds, and 
this treatment should be continued until the plants 
are large enough to enable the u.se of any of the 
ordinary cultivators. After that time the crop 
should be handled like corn. If the weeds have been 
allowed to get a start, hoeing in the rows may be 
necessary. If the seed is sown in drills, harrowing 
a few days after seeding is often of benefit in 
checking the growth of weeds. 

Harvesting. — For silage and fodder, and for 
syrup, the sorghum should be cut when the seed is 
in the dough stage. The silage will be much im- 
proved, if cowpeas are grown and harvested with 
the sorghum. For soiling, the crop may be cut at 
any time it is needed, but can be cut most profit- 
ably only after the plants begin to head. The fod- 
der is usually cut with the corn-binder, shocked 
and stacked, or fed from the shocks the same as 
corn fodder. It is not usually advisable to stack 
the fodder until early winter, as the stalks are 
very succulent and are not thoroughly cured until 
that time. An acre will produce three to six tons 
of fodder or eight to twenty tons of green forage 
or silage. 

When the seed has been sown broadcast or with 
a grain drill, and the crop is to be used for hay, it 
may be cut at any time after the heads have 
appeared. The best quality of hay can usually be 
obtained by cutting when the plants are just past 
the blooming stage, or before the seed hardens. la 



SORGHUM 



SORGHUM 



581 



dry sections a grain-binder may be used and the 
bundles shocked, cured and stacked like wheat. 
In humid sections this is inadvisable, as the bundles 
are likely to mold. Ordinarily, however, the hay is 
cut with a mower, allowed to cure in the swath a 
short time, raked into windrows, cocked and the 
curing completed in the cock. When well cured it 
is stacked or put in barns. Considerable care is re- 
quired in curing, as the stems are very succulent. 
In the South two or more cuttings may be made 
from a single seeding in favorable seasons. The 
yield of cured hay ranges from two to eight tons 
per acre. 



Sorghum makes excellent pasture for hogs, but 
in many sections it must be pastured sparingly, if 
at all, by sheep and cattle. After periods of extreme 
drought, or when growth is stunted from other 
causes, the leaves of the sorghums often contain a 
large amount of prussic acid (p. 388). A small quan- 
tity of this poison is fatal to stock, and death 
frequently results soon after the sorghum is eaten. 
Normal growth seldom contains prussic acid in 
appreciable quantities, and it largely disappears in 
curing, so that cured sorghum may be fed with 
little danger. There is also some danger from bloat- 
ing ; cattle and sheep should not be turned on 
sorghum pasture when hungry or when the plants 
are wet. With the exercise of care, however, the 
crop can usually be pastured with safety. It should 
be at least two feet high before stock are turned 
on it ; for cattle, sheep and horses it may be much 
more mature than for hogs. 

The hay and fodder may be fed in the same way 
as other coarse hays. The fodder compares favor- 
ably with corn fodder in feeding value. Sorghum 
silage is slightly less nutritious than corn silage, 
as it contains less protein. Kafir and sorghum fod- 
der are usually considered about equal in value ; 
fodder from the other non-saccharine varieties is 
rather less palatable and usually contains more 
fiber. The grain of the non-saccharine sorghums is 
less valuable for feeding purposes than corn, five 
bushels of kafir being considered about equal to 
four of corn. Seed of the saccharine sorghums 
ranks lower in feeding value than that of the non- 
saccharine varieties, as it contains a larger per- 
centage of hulls and the astringency of the seed- 
coat causes the grain to be less relished by animals 
than that of the non-saccharine sorts. 

Syrup production. 

Extent of the industry. — When sorghum was first 
introduced into this country and for many years 
thereafter, it was used almost wholly for the pro- 
duction of syrup or molasses. This industry reached 
its greatest height between 1880 and 1890, when 
twenty-five to thirty million gallons were produced 
annually. About 1885 the production of syrup 
began to decrease, the Census of 1900 showing 
only 24,000,000 gallons from the crop of 1889, 
while ten years later, in 1899, the production had 
further decreased to 17,000,000 gallons. This 
decrease was due largely to the great increase in 



the production of the cheap glucose syrups. The 
cost of manufacture of sorghum syrup necessarily 
remains high, owing to the large amount of impurity 
which must be removed from the juice. 

Grinding the cane. — For syrup production sor- 
ghum is grown rather thinly in rows three and 
one-half feet to four feet apart. The stalks are 
cut for grinding when the seed is in the dough 
stage or about the time it begins to harden ; if cut 
earlier the syrup has a green taste, while if not 
cut till fully ripe the juice carries more impurities 
and is more difficult to make into good syrup. The 
cane is frequently cut as it stands, hauled to the 
mill, and ground. When possible, especially when 
the crop is grown on a small scale, it is better to 
strip the leaves and remove the heads from the 
stalks before grinding, as grinding the leaves and 
seed with the stalks injures the quality of the syrup. 
The stalks are usually ground with a horse-power 
mill, though often gasoline or steam engines are 
used to furnish the power. The mills ordinarily in 
use do not extract more than 60 per cent of the 
juice from the cane. 

Clarification. — The sorghum juice as it comes 
from the mill contains about 25 per cent of im- 
purities of various kinds. This material must be 
removed by clarification in order to secure syrup 
of high quality. Some of the impurities rise to the 
surface when the juice is heated and may be 
removed by skimming ; others settle to the bottom 
of the pan and may be removed by drawing off the 
juice from above, leaving the sediment undisturbed. 
Filtering aids in removing foreign material, while 
the addition of some substance, such as milk, which 
coagulates on heating and rises to the surface, 
carrying with it some of the suspended matter, is 
used to remove others. The substance most used 
for this purpose, however, is dry medium-grained 
clay, using about ten pounds of clay to fifty gallons 
of juice. The particles of clay on settling to the 
bottom of the pan carry with them much of the 
impurity suspended in the juice. The clay may be 
added to the juice either before or after heating. 
Liming to neutralize the natural acids in the 
syrup is sometimes practiced. The processes most 
frequently employed are skimming, settling and 
claying. 

Making the syrup. — The juice is reduced to syrup 
by heating, the water being driven off by evapora- 
tion. Shallow pans are used for this purpose, the 
juice usually being about three inches deep in the 
pans. The evaporation should be rapid and the 
juice should be cooled quickly after evaporation. 
Six to eight gallons of juice are required to make 
one gallon of syrup, which weighs about eleven 
and one-half pounds. The molasses, after being 
reduced to the proper density, may be stored in 
barrels or put up in tin cans. Its salability in most 
markets is greatly increased if the packages con- 
taining it are attractively labeled. The average 
production of syrup to the acre is fifty-eight gal- 
lons, though this yield is greatly exceeded under 
favorable conditions. 

Sugar production. — The production of sugar from 
sorghum has never been practiced commercially, 



582 



SORGHUM 



SOYBEAN 



though it has been found possible to make sugar 
of good quality from this plant. Until a strain 
of greater sugar content than we now have is 
developed and improved methods of handling the 
juice are perfected, little sugar will be made from 
this crop. 

Selecting and storing the seed. 

While the great bulk of the seed planted is not 
selected at all, yet the time required to select 
seed-heads from stalks having desirable charac- 
teristics is comparatively slight, and when only a 
few acres are grown the yield and quality of the 
crop can be materially increased with little trou- 
ble. When the crop is grown on a large scale it is 
a good plan to select seed enough to plant a few 
acres and use the progeny of this selected seed for 
planting the main crop the ensuing year. 

The heads should be removed when fully ripe ; 
after they are well cured they may be threshed, or 
stored without threshing. In either case the seed 
should be kept in a dry place where it will not 
heat or mold. In the South it is often necessary 
to store in a tight box and treat with carbon bi- 
sulfid or some other insecticide to prevent the de- 
struction of the seed by weevils. The seed weighs 
fifty to sixty pounds per bushel, according to the 
proportion of hulls. 

Enemies. 

The sorghums are not often seriously affected 
by insects or diseases. Chinch-bugs sometimes 
cause trouble, especially when they migrate from 
adjoining grain-fields. In some sections of the 
South the green aphis attacks the growing parts 
of the plants, but usually little damage is done. 
Remedial measures are seldom necessary, other 
than the avoidance of continuous cropping with 
the sorghums on any given piece of land. 

The grain smut of sorghum {Phacelotheea diplo- 
sp)ra) and the whole-head smut {Phacelotheea rei- 
liana) attack the plants, but the resulting damage 
is usually comparatively slight. Both smuts can 
be kept in check by rotation and by selecting the 
seed ; the grain smut can be further held in check by 
treating the seed with hot water, formalin, or any 
of the other well-known smut remedies.. [See Index.] 

SOYBEAN. Glycine hispida, Maxim. Leguminosm. 
Soja bean. Pig. 815. 

By ./. F. Duggar. 

The soybean is an annual leguminous plant, valu- 
able as human and stock- food, and as a soil renovator. 
In botanical relationship and in appearance it is 
close to the cowpea. It is an erect, hairy plant, two 
to four and one-half feet high, branching freely, 
and of bush form. The leaves are trifoliate, the 
leaflets in size and shape resembling those of ordi- 
nary beans and cowpeas. The small flowens, in 
clusters of two to five, are usually purplish or 
whitish. The seed-pods are short, one to two inches 
long, downy, usually cream-colored or whitish, and 
contain one to three seeds, usually two. The pods 
are clustered on the main stems and main branches. 



When mature, they split and drop the seeds. The 
seeds are generally roundish, in some varieties flat- 
fish, and are without any indentation on the surface. 
The scar is long. In shape and size the .soybean 
seed somewhat resembles that of the Canada pea 
or Marrowfat pea. The usual colors of the seed 








Fig. 815. Soybean [Olycine hispida). 

are cream or yellowish white, green, black, and 
shades of brown. 

The soybean in the United States is used for the 
same purposes as the cowpea, and possesses the 
following advantages over it : 

(1 ) Being erect and without runners, the for- 
age does not tangle. 

(2) The seeds are removed by threshing and not 
by hand-picking, since the seeds usually do not 
split so easily in threshing. 

(3) After falling on the ground, soybeans re- 
main sound longer than cowpeas, thus giving a 
longer season for hogs to subsist on the field in 
the fall. 

(4) Certain varieties of soybean mature earlier 
than cowpeas, and are thus better suited to the 
northern states. 

(5) Soybeans give larger yield of grain than do 
cowpeas. 

(6) The grain, or seed, is much more valuable 
for stock-feeding than that of the cowpea. 

In general, in the North and West the soybean 
is preferable for grain and the cowpea for hay, 
but in the South both may be regarded as hay 
plants as well as grain plants. The soybean, how- 
ever, is not usually considered as valuable as the 
cowpea as a hay or forage plant or for use as a 
catch-crop, since sometimes it is less productive of 
forage and has less adaptability to various condi- 
tions such as wet or dry land, or poorly prepared 
seed-bed. Rabbits are also very fond of feeding on 
the soybean and it is impracticable to plant this 



SOYBEAN 



SOYBEAN 



583 



crop in small fields in localities where this pest is 
common. 

Geographical distribution. 

The soybean is thought to be native of south- 
eastern Asia. It is thought to be derived from 
the wild Glycine Soja of Japan, being itself not 
known in a wild form. It is grown extensively 
in China and Japan. The varieties differ widely 
in maturity, requiring 70 to 166 days, thus per- 
mitting different varieties to be grown through- 
out the greater part of the United States, 
from Massachusetts and Michigan to the Gulf 
of Mexico. The northern limit of cultivation 
of the soybean coincides nearly with that of 
corn. 

Composition. 

The following tables from Farmers' Bulletin No. 
58, of the United States Department of Agricul- 
ture (compiled from various sources), give the 
composition and digestibility of the various kinds 
of forage from the soybean plant : 



From these tables it will be seen that all parts 
of the soybean plant are rich in nitrogen. The 
hay is similar in composition to cowpea hay. Soy- 
bean seeds are much richer in protein and fat 
than the seeds of the cowpea. 

Culture. 

Soil. — The soybean is adapted to a wide range of 
soils, sandy to clay. In high latitudes a well-drained 
sandy or sandy loam soil is preferred, as hastening 
maturity. The crop is quite resistant to drought 
and yet able to grow in a soil that is rather wet. 

Ordinarily, the fields should be plowed and 
harrowed and level or surface planting practiced. 

Fertilizers. — In case fertilizer is used in quantity, 
it is desirable for it to be mixed with the soil 
without coming in immediate contact with the 
seed. For drilled soybeans, fertilizer should be 
applied in the drills. When fertilizers are needed, 
it will usually be advisable to apply both i)hosphate 
and potash, using, in the South, for example, 200 
or 300 pounds of high-grade aci 1 phosphate and 50 
pounds of muriate or sulphate of potash per acre. 



Chemical Composition op the Various Kinds op Forage Made From the Soybean. 



Soybean forage 



Fodder (early bloom to early 
seed) 

Soybean hay (Japanese) . . . 

Soybean hay (Mass.) .... 

Soybean-straw (Mass.) . . . 

Soybean-straw (hulls and vines 
after threshing) .... 

Soybean seed 

Soybean meal 

Soybean silage 

Corn and soybean silage . . . 

Millet and soybean silage . . 



13 
1 
4 
3 



Fresh or air-dry substance 



76.5 
16.0 
12.1 
11.4 

.5.7 
10.8 
10.4 
74.2 
76.0 
79.0 



3.6 

16.9 

14.2 

4.9 

4.0 
34.0 
36.0 
4.1 
2.5 
2.8 



1.0 
2.2 

4.1 
1.9 

0.8 
16.9 
18.9 
2.2 
0.8 
1.0 



10.1 
23.1 
41.2 
37.8 

36.0 

28.8 
27.0 

7.0 
11.1 

7.2 



6.5 
35.9 
21.1 
37.6 

49.5 
4.8 
2.6 
9.7 
7.2 
7.2 



2.3 

5.9 
7.3 
6.4 

3.9 

4.7 
5.1 
2.8 
2.4 
2.8 



Water-free substance 



15.3 

20.1 

16.2 

5.5 

4.25 
38.1 
40.2 
15.7 
10.4 
13.3 



4.1 
2.6 
4.7 
2.2 

0.85 
18.9 
21.0 
8.7 
3.3 
4.8 



43.0 
27.5 
46.8 
42.7 

38.2 
32.2 
30.2 
27.0 
46.3 
34.3 



27.6 
42.7 
24.0 
42.4 

52.6 
5.4 
2.9 
37.6 
30.0 
34.3 



10.0 
7.0 



5.3 

5.3 

5.7 

11.0 



Digestibility of Soybean Forage. 



Soybean forage 



Soybean fodder 

Soybean meal and timothy hay 

Soybean meal alone (calculated from the 

above mixture) 

Soybeans (seed) 

Soybean pods 

Soybean-straw 

Soybean hay 

Soybean silage 

Corn and soybean silage 

Barnyard millet and soybean silage 



Kind of animals 



Sheep . . . 
Sheep . . . 

Sheep . . . 

Ruminants . 

Ruminants . 

Ruminants . 

Ruminants . 
f Goats . . . 
\ Steers . . 

Sheep . . . 

Sheep . . . 



75.1 

77.7 

85.8 
87.0 
44.0 
50.0 
70.0 
76.0 
55.0 
65.0 
57.0 



54.0 
73.6 

84.9 
94.0 
57.0 
60.0 
30.0 
72.0 
49.0 
82.0 
72.0 



73.2 
66.2 

73.4 
62.0 
73.0 
66.0 
67.0 
52.0 
61.0 
75.0 
59.0 



47.0 
61.3 



51.0 
38.0 
56.0 
55.0 
43.0 
65.0 
69.0 



64.5 
69.1 

78.0 
85.0 
63.0 
55.0 



18.9 
47.1 

21.3 



584 



SOYBEAN 



SOYBEAN 



The soybean seems to profit by the addition of 
nitrogenous fertilizers, but these should not be 
needed after the soil becomes thoroughly inocu- 
lated. If nitrogen be used it may well be in the 
form of nitrate of soda and in small quantities, 
chiefly to stimulate very young plants. 

Seeding. — For seed, the rows should be thirty to 
thirty-si.x inches apart, and one plant should be 
left every two or three inches in the North, or 
every three to eight inches in the South. For 
forage, the drills may be of the above width on 
poor land, while on rich land the seed may either 
be drilled, sown broadcast, or planted with a grain- 
drill as is wheat. For seed-growing, about one-half 
bushel of seed per acre will suffice. For forage in 
drills wide enough for cultivation, three pecks will 
be required, and for broadcast-sowing more than 
one bushel. For drilling the seed, one may employ 
hand-dropping, a one-horse planter, a corn-planter, 
or a grain-drill with enough of the tubes stopped 
to leave thirty to thirty-six inches between the 
rows. Soybeans are sometimes planted in the South 
between the rows or hills of growing corn. 

Time to plant. — Soybeans must not be planted 
until all danger of frost is past and the soil has 
become warm. In the northern part of the United 
States the planting of this crop occurs just after 
corn-planting. In the Gulf states the best time 
is from the beginning of May to the middle of 
June. Planting may continue to the middle of 
July, but germination and early growth and yield 
are less satisfactory from this delay. From Kansas 
southward it is practicable under favorable con- 
ditions to mature soybeans grown as a catch-crop 
after wheat or, in the Gulf states, after oats. 

Cultivation should be shallow and level, and 
similar to that given corn. 

Inoculation. — No soybean plant is doing its best 
work for the farmer unless its roots bear a number 
of tubercles or root nodules. On this plant, the 
root tubercles are roundish enlargements that 
when fully developed are about the size of peas 
(Fig. 590). On any soil in which root tubercles 
fail to develop spontaneously, it is advisable to 
effect artificial inoculation by the introduction 
into the soil or on the seed of the nitrogen-fixing 
germs appropriate to soybeans. This may be done 
by moistening the seed with a dilution of pure 
cultures of the germ, directions for which accom- 
pany each package; or, more certainly, by the use 
of soil from a field where soybeans have recently 
produced abundant tubercles. 

If this soil be drilled in with the seed, in a dry, 
finely powdered condition, 600 to 1,000 pounds per 
acre may suffice, but if applied broadcast, and not 
in immediate contact with the seed, at least one 
ton will be required. If only a very small quantity 
of soil is available, a peck of it may be stirred in 
about ten gallons of water, and the same day the 
seed moistened with this liquid. By this process, 
apparently a smaller number of plants become 
inoculated than by the use of larger quantities of 
dry soil. It has been found that it is less easy to 
cause a sufficient number of germs to adhere to 
soybeans than to cowpeas, for the reason that soy- 



beans are so smooth and free from indentation or 
cracking. Hopkins prefers not to attempt thorough 
inoculation the first year, but to use only about 
100 pounds of inoculating soil per acre, reseeding 
the land to soybeans the second year and relying 
on the natural spread of the germs from the decay- 
ing tubercles produced by this partial inoculation. 

In Kansas, Connecticut, Illinois, and apparently 
in most states, the soybean when first grown 
developed no tubercles, but when grown for several 
years in succession in the same land, inoculation 
gradually increased. On lime soil at Lexington, 
Kentucky, tubercles were abundant the second 
year, but not the first; in experiments in Connecti- 
cut, there were no tubercles for at least three 
years. The gradual self-inoculation of soils is 
probably due to germs carried on the seed in such 
small numbers as to produce an insignificant num- 
ber of tubercles the first year, which few would 
constitute the parent stock of a far larger number 
the second year, and so on. On medium and poor 
soils, inoculation may greatly increase the yield 
of seed or forage and the extent of soil-impove- 
ment. On rich land, soybean plants without tuber- 
cles are sometimes as thrifty and productive as 
plants bearing nodules. But even here inocu- 
lation is beneficial in decreasing the draft on the 
soil and in the enrichment of the land for future 
crops. 

Inoculation sometimes greatly improves the com- 
position of soybean forage and seed. At the Michi- 
gan Experiment Station there was little difi^erence 
in the appearance and yield between plants with 
and those without root tubercles, but the pres- 
ence of nodules increased the percentage of nitro- 
gen in the dry matter of the leaves and stems 
from 1.77 to 2.78, and in the seed from 5.41 to 
6.20, while the percentage of nitrogen was de- 
creased in the roots from which nodules had been 
removed. At the Kentucky Experiment Station, 
the roots contained in the air-dry material 1.81 
per cent of nitrogen when not inoculated and 2.7 
per cent of nitrogen when covered with tubercles. 
At the Connecticut (Storrs) Experiment Station, 
the presence of tubercles raised the nitrogen per- 
centage in the seed from 6.28 to 7.08. 

Place in the rotation. — The place of soybeans in 
the rotaticm is as a cleaning or fallow crop, put- 
ting the land in good condition for an immediately 
following crop of small grain, alfalfa or other 
crop. In the South, soybeans may be grown as a 
catch-crop after wheat or oats. Hopkins suggests 
(Illinois Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 99) sev- 
eral rotations for the southern part of Illinois, in 
which the soybean may enter ; for example, four- 
year rotation : 

First year, corn, with cowpeas or soybeans as a 
catch-crop. 

Second year, cowpeas or soybeans. 

Third year, wheat (with clover to be seeded in 
spring). 

Fourth year, clover. 

Varieties. — There are many varieties of soy- 
beans, differing chiefly in the time of maturity, 
size of plant, and color and shape of seed. In the 



SOYBEAN 



SOYBEAN 



585 



latitude of Massachusetts only the early varieties 
mature seed, and even in Kansas an early variety 
is required. The standard variety in that state is 
Early Yellow, which matures there in about three 
months. Among the early varieties are Early Yel- 
low, Ogema, Ito San and Early Brown, maturing 
in seventy-five to ninety days ; among the varie- 
ties of medium maturity are Medium Black, 
Medium Green, Green Samara and Olive Medium, 
requiring a growing period of 95 to 110 days ; 
among late varieties are Late or Mammoth Yel- 
low, Flat Back, Tamarat Sukun, Nalrade, Asahi 
and Best Green (United States Department of 
Agriculture No. 4914). The Late Yellow matures in 
the Gulf states in about 130 days, while the other 
varieties of this late group are credited with a 
growing period of 114 to 166 days, the last men- 
tioned being the latest variety on record. Gener- 
ally, the varieties of the second or medium-matur- 
ing group have afl'orded the largest yield of for- 
age in the northern states, especially the Medium 
Green. In the Gulf states, the late varieties are 
decidedly the most productive both of seed and of 
forage. The standard variety here is the Late 
Yellow, also known as Mammoth Yellow. Farther 
north, either the early or the medium varieties are 
used for seed production. 

Harvesting. — When soybeans are grown for seed, 
it is necessary to harvest the plant as soon as the 
earliest beans ripen ; otherwise the pods split and 
shed the beans. Harvesting may be done by the 
use of a self-binder, self-rake or reaper or by the 
use of a corn knife. The small, early varieties are 
too low for the use of binder or reaper, and are 
best harvested for seed by a bean harvester or an 
equivalent home-made implement, consisting of two 
knives bolted to the shanks of a cultivator and 
sloping backward, thus cutting the plants just be- 
low the surface. If this is not available, the small 
varieties must be pulled by hand. 

In cutting soybeans for hay, the mower is com- 
monly used, but it is sometimes desirable to cut the 
large varieties with a corn knife, in which case the 
cut plants are placed in loose small bundles, which 
are turned over just before the upper e.xposed 
leaves become crisp. A few days later these loose 
bundles or hands are piled in cocks, butts inward, 
thus making a large cock with a rather open center. 
The open center is then capped by the use of several 
bundles placed with the leaves near the center of 
the top of the shock. In cutting soybeans for hay, 
they should be past full bloom and the .seed-pods 
formed, but not filled. For the silo the date of har- 
vesting may be a little later, but before any seeds 
have ripened. 

When soybeans are cut for hay with the mower, 
the method of curing is the same as with other 
legumes, — cowpeas, clover and the like. Soybeans 
grown for seed should be cured with as little hand- 
ling as possible, and this handling, if practicable, 
should be in the early morning and late afternoon 
to reduce shattering to a minimum. The plants 
must not be bulked when damp. The threshing is 
done with an ordinary grain thresher, with blank 
concave. The seeds after threshing should not be 



bulked, as they heat easily, but should be kept in 
thin layers to insure soundness. 

Yield. 

The yield of seed is usually twelve to twenty bush- 
els. In Massachusetts and Wisconsin and on lime- 
stone soil in Kentucky and Alabama, yields of more 
than thirty-four bushels per acre have been secured. 
At the Kansas E.xperiment Station, the average 
for twelve years was twelve bushels of soybeans 
as compared with 81.6 bushels of corn and 43.8 
bushels of kafir, the soybeans, however, afl:'ording 
the largest amount of protein per acre. On poor 
soils in the Gulf states, yielding twenty bushels of 
corn or less per acre, the yield of soybeans will 
ordinarily equal or exceed that of shelled corn. The 
usual yield of hay is one and one-half to three tons 
per acre, and of green forage or silage six to ten 
tons per acre. In both Connecticut and Massachu- 
setts, the weight of soybean silage has been about 
two-thirds that of corn silage from the same area. 

Uses. 

As a feed. — The soybean is valued as a grain or 
seed crop for domestic animals, as a crop for the 
silo, for hay, and in Asia as a food for mankind. 
The seeds constitute the richest natural vegetable 
food known, being nearly equal to cottonseed meal. 
They have been fed with entire satisfaction to milch 
cows, steers, calves, hogs, sheep, horses and poultry. 
They should not be fed alone, but mixed with four 
or five times their weight of corn, kafir, or other 
starchy foods, thus taking the place of cottonseed 
meal, linseed meal and gluten meal. When fed to 
milch cows, the production of milk and butter has 
been entirely satisfactory and the flavor of these 
products faultless. The butter from soybeans is 
somewhat softer than that from cottonseed meal. 
For cattle and horses it is advisable to grind the 
seed, but this is unnecessary for hogs and poultry. 
For hogs, threshing is unnecessary, the entire ma- 
ture plants being fed on tight floors. If the beans 
begin to shatter in the field before it is practicable 
to harvest the crop, hogs can be turned in to con- 
sume them. The seeds thus shed remain sound on 
the surface of the ground for several months, or 
much longer than cowpeas. In a number of experi- 
ments at the Kansas Experiment Station, a mix- 
ture of a small proportion of soybeans in the food 
for hogs resulted in a. saving of about 30 per cent 
in the total food required to produce a given 
amount of growth. 

The soybean is a very useful crop for soiling, 
a succession of plantings afl'ording green food 
throughout July and August. 

As silage. — The use of the soybean as silage gen- 
erally has been satisfactory, especially when mixed 
in the silo with twice its weight of corn silage. 
When placed alone in the silo, there have been in- 
stances of a strong objectionable silage which 
imparted a disagreeable flavor to milk and butter, 
even though the silage itself was sound. In Michi- 
gan, 13,500 pounds of green soybean plants, placed 
in the silo in September, had shrunk by the latter 
part of the next April to 11,285 pounds. When one 



586 



SOYBEAN 



SPICE-PRODUCING PLANTS 



part of soybeans is mixed in the silo with two 
parts of corn, the average protein content of the 
resulting silage is increased from 2 per cent with 
corn silage to about 2.7 per cent for the mixed 
silage. 

As a land renovator. — Like the other legumes 
bearing tubercles, the soybean plant assimilates the 
nitrogen of the soil air, and thus may improve the 
nitrogen content of the land. For this purpose, the 
large varieties are most satisfactory. When the 
entire growth is plowed under or pastured, the in- 
crease in the succeeding crop of wheat or oats has 
been very large at the Alabama Experiment Station, 
while the plowing under of the stubble alone has 
increased to a moderate extent the yield of the suc- 
ceeding crop. The analyses on record seem to indi- 
cate that soybeans usually contain more nitrogen 
to the acre than a crop of cowpeas, but that the 
stubble of an acre of soybeans contains a smaller 
amount of nitrogen than the stubble of cowpeas. 
This is doubtless due to the thinner planting of 
soybeans, to the smaller number of leaves dropped 
and to the smaller number of branches that escape 
the harvesting machine. 

At Fort Hays, Kansas, the yield of wheat fol- 
lowing wheat was 12.33 bushels, while following 
soybeans removed for grain the yield was L5.78 
bushels per acre. At the Michigan Experiment 
Station, rye yielded 13 per cent more grain where 
soybeans had just been plowed under than where 
buckwheat had been plowed under. At the Massa- 
chusetts Experiment Station, the stubble of soybean 
was decidedly inferior to that of red clover for soil 
improvement. [See page 214.] 

As human food. — As human food the soybean 
ha3 not come into general use in Europe and 
America, but it is extensively used for this pur- 
pose in .Japan, where soybean dishes supplement 
the usual rice diet. Lang^'orthy gives the method 
of preparation of a number of Japanese dishes 
made from soybeans, with analyses of each food. 
Generally, the seeds are boiled for a long period 
and then subjected to fermentation. 

Enemies. 

The soybean is relatively free from insect in- 
juries. The seeds are not eaten by weevils or 
other granary insects. Rabbits are the worst 
enemy of the young plants, and a sufficient area 
must be planted for both farmer and rabbits. The 
crop is not attacked by chinch-bugs, and insect 
enemies of the foliage are not numerous or seri- 
ous. Garman (Kentucky Experiment Station, Re- 
port 1902) lists the following insects as attacking 
the foliage in Kentucky, but apparently none of 
them has done serious harm : Grasshoppers, a red- 
dish brown hairy caterpillar {Spilosoma Virginica), 
and grubs of a small beetle (Odontota sp.). He 
also found on the roots of a few plants the bean 
root-louse (Tyehea phaseoli). Nematode root-worms 
{Heferodera radicicola) next to rabbits constitute 
the principal animal enemy of the soybean on cer- 
tain old sandy fields in the Gulf states. 

Among vegetable parasites, the most serious 
pest of soybeans at Auburn, Alabama, is a sclero- 



tium disease which forms white threads over the 
stem just below the ground and whitish to brown- 
ish tiny, spherical masses clustered around the stem 
at the surface of the ground. The plant attacked 
by this disease is killed at any time between early 
growth and the period of pod formation. 

Literature. 

Alabama College Experiment Station, Bulletins 
Nos. 114 and 123 ; Alabama Canebrake Experi- 
ment Station, Bulletin No. 20; Connecticut (Storrs) 
Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 22 ; Delaware 
Experiment Station, Bulletins Nos. 60 and 61 ; 
Georgia Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 17 ; In- 
diana Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 108; Kansas 
Experiment Station, Bulletins Nos. 18, 92, 100 and 
123; Report 1889 ; Kentucky Experiment Station, 
Bulletins Nos. 98 and 125 ; Report 1902 ; Louisi- 
ana Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 8 ; Massa- 
chusetts Experiment Station, Bulletins Nos. 7 and 
18 ; Michigan Experiment Station, Bulletins Nos. 
224 and 227 ; North Carolina Experiment Station. 
Bulletin No. 73; South Carolina Experiment Sta- 
tion, Report 1889 ; Virginia Experiment Station, 
Bulletin No. 145 ; United States Department of 
Agriculture, Farmers' Bulletins Nos. 58 and 121. 

SPICE-PRODUCING PLANTS. 

By R. H. True. 

It is somewhat difficult to separate spices from 
other aromatic flavoring agents, such as ani.se 
seed and bay leaves. As a rule, however, spices 
have a sharp, pungent taste modified by other 
flavors characteristic of each sort. Most of them 
are used in a ground state, owing to the necessity 
of using them in small quantities because of the 
intensity of the taste-sensations which they im- 
part. Many aromatic products are much milder and 
can be used in a whole state without the develop- 
ment of too powerful sensations. These more 
powerful flavoring agents, by common usage known 
as spices, are here briefly discussed. 

Botanical sources. 

The common spices are derived from almost as 
many botanical families as there are spices, and 
nearly all products here concerned are of tropical 
origin. The Banana family (Scitaminaeeo') includes 
a series of perennial, herbaceous, rather succulent 
plants, having strong flavoring properties distrib- 
uted more or less widely throughout the plant, as 
ginger, turmeric (Curcuma) and cardamons. The 
Nutmeg family {Myristicaeea) furnishes nutmegs 
and mace, products derived from the fruit of the 
nutmeg tree. The Myrtle family {Myrtaeem) sup- 
plies two of our most important spices, — cloves and 
allspice or pimento. The Laurel family (Lauraeecc) 
yields cinnamon bark and cassia buds, products of 
a number of species of the genus Cinnamomum. 
Black and white pepper are derived from the same 
plant. Piper nigrum, a member of the Pepper 
family (Piperaeecr). Red pepper is not a member 
of the Pepper family, belonging, rather, to the 
Potato family (Solanacem). [See under Medicinal, 



SPICE-PRODUCING PLANTS 



SPURRY 



587 



Condimental and Aromatic Plants.] Mustard is fur- 
nished by members of the Mustard family (Crucif- 
era:), the black mustard being produced, supposedly, 
by Brassica nigra, and the white mustard by 
B. alha. 

Parts used, and method of preparation. 

The parts of the plants used in making spices 
seem to be determined by three points : (1) The 
part must contain the pungent or aromatic prin- 
ciple in large quantity. (2) It must be accom- 
panied by other tastes giving a pleasant combina- 
tion, or it must at least lack unpleasant constitu- 
ents. (3) The texture of the product must not be 
too hard, tough or woody for proper grinding and 
use. Consequently, in general, spices consist of 
the tenderer parts of the plants, such as the inner 
bark, seeds capable of ready grinding, buds, 
rhizomes and fruits. 

Among the spices above mentioned, ginger and 
its near relative, turmeric, are made from the 
younger, tender parts of the rhizome. Cinnamon 
consists of the carefully cleaned and dried inner 
bark of the smaller branches of the tree. Cloves 
consists of the unopened iiower-buds picked and 
carefully dried. Cassia buds represent immature 
fruits enclosed in the calyx of the flower. =^ 
AU.spice consists of the full-sized but im- 
mature fruit picked from the pimento 

tree while still rich in the pungent 
principles. These in part disappear on 
ripening. 

Black pepper consists of the small 
round fruits of the pepper vine, plucked 
when the color has changed from green 
to red. These hardly ripe berries are 
more pungent than when fully ripe. 
White pepper is prepared from this fruit 
after it has ripened. The berries are 
soaked in water and the dark pulpy cov- 
ering bruised off. The remaining part 
is less aromatic and pungent than the 
black pepper. Red pepper is obtained by 
grinding the dry ripe fruit. 

Mustard consists of the ground ma- 

ture seeds, usually of the white sort. 
Nutmegs are the hard inner kernel of the fruit of 
the nutmeg tree. The entire fruit, having the size 
of a small apple, consists of three parts: an outer, 
fleshy, pulpy covering, beneath which is found the 
mace, occurring as a partial covering over the 
kernel or nutmeg proper. All parts are aromatic, 
but the mace and kernel are especially so. 

Geographical sources. 

With the exception of a small part of the red 
pepper and of the mustard, these spices are all 
imported products. 

Red peppers and mustard grown in the United 
States are to a small extent articles of commerce as 
spices, the former being grown especially in South 
Carolina, Louisiana and California, the latter in 
California. Black and white pepper together form 
an important agricultural interest in India, Malay 
peninsula, Ceylon and other points of tropical 



eastern Asia. Cloves form a very valuable resource 
in Zanzibar, also in the Molucca islands, and are 
widely cultivated in other parts of the tropics. 
Cinnamon products are secured chiefly from Cey- 
lon and Indo-China and other regions in tropical 
Eastern Asia. Allspice is derived chiefly from the 
Antilles, Central America, northern South America 
and Jamaica, whence the name sometimes used, 
Jamaica pepper. Ginger is widely cultivated the 
world over in tropical and subtropical regions, 
Jamaica, India and parts of Africa, including 
Sierra Leone and Egypt. Turmeric has a similar 
range but is secured in commerce chiefly from 
India. 

Nutmegs and mace were for a long time grown 
chiefly in certain islands of the Indian archipelago, 
but the culture is said to have reached the Antilles 
and parts of South America. The chief commercial 
sources continue to lie in tropical eastern Asia. 

Importations. 

The extent of the commerce of the United 
States in spices may be judged from the following 
table, taken from the Customs reports of the 
United States, giving the imports during the year 
ended June 30, 1905 : 



Article 



Mu-stard seed 

Cassia buds 

Cassia and cinnamon vera .... 
Cinnamon and cinnamon chips . . 

Cloves 

Clove stems 

Ginger root (not powdered nor can- 
died) 

Mace 

Nutmegs 

Pepper, black and white 

Pimento (allspice) 

Capsicum (red pepper or cayenne) . 
Mustard (ground or prepared) . . . 



Total . 



Quantity 



Pounds 




6,366,706 


$189,894.18 


86,564 


11,538.00 


4,626,617 


406,152.00 


621,948 


78,425.11 


4,998,770 


535,901.00 


163,184 


99,216.00 


6,928,187 


269,345.96 


328,646 


84,788.00 


2,379,118 


339,368.00 


19,604,253 


1,982,4.56.00 


10,511,568 


418,1.57.00 


3,509,444.30 


259,630.69 


1,079,523.38 


286,246.00 


61,204,528.68 


$4,961,117.94 



Value 



Literature. 

The products serving as spices are also drugs, 
and works on the latter subject treat of them. 
See Medicinal, Condimental and Aromatic Plants. 
See also, H. W. Wilev, Foods and their Adultera- 
tions, Philadelphia (1907); A. L. Winton, The Micro- 
scopy of Vegetable Foods (with collaboration of 
Dr. Josef Moeller), New York (1906); Henry G. 
Greenish, An Anatomical Atlas of Vegetable Pow- 
ders, designed as an aid to microscopic analysis of 
powdered foods and drugs, London (1904). 

SPURRY. Spergula arvengis, Linn. Caryophyllaceue. 

Fig. 816. 

By a V. Piper. 

Spurry is used for forage and as a green-manure. 
In the genus are three to eight species, widely 
distributed throughout the temperate regions of 



588 



SPURRY 



SUGAR-BEET 




the Old World. Only two species have been culti- 
vated, one of which is the common or sand spurry 
{Spergida arvensh) and the other the giant spurry 
(S. maxima). The latter differs principally in its 
larger size and by some botanists is considered a 
mere variety of the former. Because of its large 
size it is a more valuable species under cultivation. 
S. arvensis is an annual, 
growing twelve to fifteen 
inches tall, and producing a 
mass of stems bearing numer- 
ous whorls of narrow, linear 
leaves. The spurrys are 
closely related to chickweed. 
Spurry is cultivated con- 
siderably by dairy farmers, 
especially on sandy soils, in 
Holland and to a less extent 
in Great Britain and Ger- 
many. The common spurry 
occurs throughout this coun- 
try and is sometimes trouble- 
some as a weed in grain, espe- 
cially on sandy lands. About 
Sitka and other places on the 
Alaskan coast it is the most 
troublesome weed yet intro- 
duced. The seed yield is eight 
rV'^lr* /jf^ ^^ twelve bushels or more per 
valfe^ acre, and it is largely owing 

to its enormous seed produc- 
tion that it becomes trouble- 
some. 

Spurry has been largely 
te.sted in this country in an 
experimental way and great hopes were enter- 
tained that it would become an exceedingly valu- 
able crop on the sandy jack-pine lands of Michigan, 
which, however, has not proved to be the case. In 
the light of our present knowledge it can not be 
recommended as a farm crop in any part of the 
United States. 

The value of spurry depends largely on its 
rapid growth, the crop maturing in six to ten 
weeks from seeding. It is mostly fed green and is 
considered an especially good feed for dairy cattle 
and sheep. It is not infrequently refused by live- 
stock at first, but animals soon become used to it 
and eat it readily either as hay or as pasture. It has 
also been used as a green-manure crop on sandy 
soils, and in exceptional cases has yielded as much 
as twenty tons of green .substance per acre. 

It is hardly worth while to experiment with 
spurry, except as a catch-crop, on other than loose 
sandy .soils. The seed should be sown at the rate of 
six to eight quarts per acre and lightly covered 
with a harrow when grown for hay or pasture or 
for green-manure. About half this quantity of seed 
is required when the crop is raised for seed. It is 
most commonly planted in early spring, but in 
Germany it is also planted in early fall on grain 
stubble. It is somewhat drought-resistant. A good 
seed-bed should be prepared, as for clover. Germi- 
nation takes place quickly, and in two months the 
crop will have ripened seed. It may be cut for hay 



Fig. 816. Spuny 
iSpergula arvensis). 



at the end of six weeks from sowing, and may be 
pastured as early as one month from sowing. If 
the crop is allowed to stand until the seed is fully 
ripe, enough seed will shatter to ensure a succeed- 
ing crop. 

Literature. 

Bulletin No. 91, Michigan Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station ; Bulletin No. 2, Division of Agros- 
tology, United States Department of Agriculture ; 
Handbook of Experiment Station Work ; Schmidlen- 
Schuler, Putter and Wiesen Krauter. (Illustrations 
are given in the first and last mentioned citations.) 

SUGAR-BEET. Beta vulgaris, Moq. Chenopodi- 
aceie. Figs. 817-825. 

By C. 0. Townsend. 

The sugar-beet is a " root crop," grown chiefly 
for the manufacture of sugar from the roots, and for 
stock-feeding. It is one of the small-growing varie- 
ties of Beta vulgariif, with medium tops. The roots 
are small to medium, usually fusiform, smooth and 
nearly always yellowish or whitish. Other forms 
of beet-root are mangels [.see article on Root Crops], 
garden beets, chard and ornamental-leaved beets. 
All of them, probably, are developed from the wild 
Beta maritima of the coasts in Europe. 

History. 

Both the red and the white beet were known at 
least three centuries before the Christian era, but 
it is only within comparatively recent times that 
any variety of beet has been recognized as a sugar- 
producing plant. About the middle of the eight- 
eenth century, Marggraff, a member of the Berlin 
Academy of Sciences, succeeded in separating sugar 
from a large number of plants, including beets. 
He found more sugar in the beet than in any other 
plant which he investigated, and at once advocated 
the manufacture of sugar from the beet root on a 
commercial scale. Nothing was done, however, 
until a half-century later, when Achard, a former 
pupil of Marggraff, took up the investigation and 
modified and cheapened the process of extracting 
the sugar. As a result of Achard's investigations, 
much interest in producing sugar from beets was 
awakened throughout the civilized world, so that, 
at the beginning of the nineteenth century, we find 
a large number of investigators endeavoring not 
only to improve the methods of extraction and 
purification of sugar from beets but also by selec- 
tion and cultivation to improve the beet itself both 
in size and in quality. This interest was further 
stimulated and encouraged by governmental aid, 
especially in France, and by prizes offered by nu- 
merous scientific and industrial societies in vari- 
ous countries, with the result that as early as 1812 
beet-root sugar was offered for sale in commercial 
quantities, about thirteen tons being placed on the 
market at that time. From this small beginning 
the beet-sugar industry has advanced in spite of 
many difficulties, until the beet-sugar factories now 
in operation throughout the civilized world number 
more than 1,300, and the total quantity of sugar 



SUGAR-BEET 



SUGAR-BEET 



589 



produced from beet roots aggregates upward of 
7,000,000 tons annually. 

Beginnings in the United States. — The first at- 
tempt to introduce sugar-beets into the United 
States for sugar-producing purposes was made in 
1830, by some persons living near Philadelphia. 
This and many subsequent attempts to establish 
the beet-sugar industry in this country failed. A 
small quantity of sugar, less than one ton, was 
made from beets at Northampton, Mass., in 18.38, 
but this venture proved unprofitable and was soon 
abandoned. During the thirty years that followed, 
several attempts were made to establish beet-sugar 
factories in diff'erent parts of the United States, 
but none of them proved successful, owing to un- 
fortunate location or to an imperfect knowledge of 
the methods of sugar-beet-growing and beet-sugar- 
making. The first successful beet-sugar factory in 
this country was established at Alvarado, Califor- 
nia, in 1869, having been removed to that point 
after several unsuccessful attempts to establish it 
elsewhere. This factory has been in operation every 
year but one since its erection, and may well be 
considered the pioneer factory of the country. 

In the decade that followed the building of the 
Alvarado factory, four other factories were estab- 
lished, one in each of the following four states : 
Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Delaware ; 
but none of them survived the struggle through 
which they were obliged to pass. As late as 1892 
only six factories were in operation, by which it 
appears that the early growth of the industry in 
this country was slow. Several states tried to en- 
courage the development of the sugar industry by 
offering bounties on all sugar produced within the 
state. While, for a time, this plan seemed to stimu- 
late the industry, the difficulties that arose in 
regard to paying these bounties made it inexpedi- 
ent to continue them, in most instances. Neverthe- 
less, in spite of the many difficulties that have 
attended its early development in this country, the 
beet-sugar industry has steadily progressed since 
1890, until, at the present time, sixty-four facto- 
ries and three slicing stations are in operation. The 
combined capacity of these factories is, approxi- 
mately, 50,000 tons of beets daily. They are dis- 
tributed among sixteen states, as follows : Arizona, 
1 ; California, 8 ; Colorado, 15 ; Idaho, 4 ; Illinois, 
1 ; Kansas, 1 ; Michigan, 17 ; Minnesota, 1 ; Mon- 
tana,! ; Nebraska, 2 ; New York, 1 ; Ohio, 1 ; Ore- 
gon, 1 ; Utah, 5 factories and three slicing sta- 
tions ; Washington state, 1 ; Wisconsin, 4. 

The possibilities of beet-sugar-making in this 
country are practically unlimited. The growth of 
the industry thus far has not kept pace with the 
increased rate of consumption of sugar per capita. 
Assuming that the cane-sugar industry will main- 
tain its present output, the United States will not 
be able to make all the sugar it requires for home 
consumption until at least 400 beet-sugar factories 
are operated at full capacity each year. 

Culture. 

Land. — A special soil, that is, a soil radically 
different from that needed by other crops, is not 



required by sugar-beets. Any good land will produce 
sugar-beets when the climatic conditions are suit- 
able, if the seed-bed is prepared properly and the 
plants are thinned and otherwise cared for in a 
timely and workman-like way. 

Experience has shown that virgin lands, even of 
good quality, are not generally satisfactory for 
sugar-beets ; hence it is advisable to get the land in 
good tilth by growing other crops for two or more 
seasons before planting to sugar-beets. Clay loam 
has been found to be one of the most satisfactory 
types of soil. A sandy loam will frequently give 
equally good returns, but if there is too much sand, 
so that the soil approaches lightness, the beets are 
likely to be low in sugar content. Furthermore, 
sandy soil frequently loses its moisture too rapidly, 
thus allowing the beets to wilt and become retarded 
in growth, or even to die if the dry conditions con- 
tinue too long, especially in those sections where 
the soil moisture is dependent on rainfall. Another 
serious objection that has been found to sandy soils 
in localities where strong winds prevail, is the 
likelihood of the young plants being covered with 
sand, causing the loss of many, so that the stand is 
seriously reduced. 

In some of the sugar-beet areas of the West and 
Southwest an adobe soil is common, and when 
properly handled this gives satisfactory results 
both in regard to the quality and the quantity of 
beets. An adobe soil can not be plowed when it is 
very dry; on the other hand, if plowed when too 
wet it bakes and becomes almost unmanageable. 
Another difficulty lies in its readiness to form a 
hard crust after the surface has been moistened by 
rain or irrigation. As these conditions for crust- 
formation frequently prevail in the spring soon 
after planting, the seedlings that form under the 
crust are unable to get through to the light with- 
out assistance. The crust is easily broken without 
serious injury to the young plants by the use of a 
light drag harrow or other suitable implement. 
Even after the plants are up they are sometimes 
"bound off" by the formation of a crust that 
prevents growth at the line of contact with the 
surface. 

Muck soils are usually unsatisfactory. They fre- 
quently produce a large tonnage but the quality of 
the beets is usually poor, although some exceptions 
to this statement have been recorded. 

One of the least satisfactory soils is the gravelly 
type, probably because of its inability to retain 
moisture. A soil that is of considerable importance 
in some of the sugar-beet areas of the West is the 
alkali land. While this crop is capable of making 
satisfactory growth in soils too strongly alkaline 
for many other farm products, there are thousands 
of acres of otherwise good soil where the percent- 
age of alkali is too strong even for existing strains 
of beets. Much has been done toward reclaiming 
this land by washing out large quantities of the 
alkali. Efforts are also being made to develop a 
strain of sugar-beets that shall be so resistant to 
excessive quantities of alkali that the\ will thrive 
in many areas that are now useless for agricultural 
purposes. 



590 



SUGAR-BEET 



SUGAR-BEET 



Climate. — In regard to climate, two points have 
been found to be of vital importance to the growth 
and quality of sugar-beets, — temperature and 
moisture. In general, high temperatures are 
detrimental to the best development of the sugar 
content of the beet. It has been observed that an 
average temperature of about 70° Fahr. during the 
growing months has a marked influence in produc- 
ing satisfactory sugar content of the beet. Abnor- 
mally cold weather at any time during the growing 
season has a tendency to retard the development 
of the beets. The danger from this source de- 
creases as beets develop, since they become more 
resistant to cold as the season advances. While a 
certain amount of moisture is necessary to enable 
the seeds to germinate, an excess of moisture will 
often cause the seeds to rot or will aid in bringing 
about a damping-off of the seedlings. When sugar- 
beets become well established, they will stand more 
moisture than most other farm vegetation crops, 
but, like other crops, they do best in well-drained 
soil. 

Excessive moisture accompanied by growing 
temperature at or near the close of the growing 
season when the beets are ripe, or nearly ripe, will 
often cause a renewed growth of foliage which 
has a tendency to reduce the sugar content of the 
beets. This reduction varies from a fraction of 
one per cent up to two per cent or more. If circum- 
stances are such that the beets can be left undis- 
turbed after norma! conditions are restored, the 
sugar content will be gradually increased again. 

Tlie seed-bed. — The seed-bed for sugar-beets, 
when properly prepared, consists of a deep, well- 
drained but moist, firmly-packed surface soil cov- 
ered with a layer of well-pulverized but looser 
soil, which will admit the air freely around the 
roots of the plants and which at the same time 
acts as a blanket to prevent too rapid evaporation 
of moisture from the lower part of the seed-bed. 
In order to produce a seed-bed that will fulfil the 
required conditions, drainage should receive first 
attention. The ground should therefore be broken 
to a good depth, eight to eighteen inches, depend- 
ing on the nature of the soil. As with other crops, 
not much raw soil should be turned up at one time, 
but the seed-bed should be brought gradually to 
the proper depth in order to get the best results. 
The subsoil plow, though not so commonly used as 
formerly in preparing ground for sugar-beet seed, 
would be advantageous in many instances where 
greater depth is desired. Fall-plowing is generally 
recommended and frequently practiced by sugar- 
beet-growers, but the time of plowing must be 
governed largely by soil and climatic conditions. 
In many sugar-beet sections the ground is too dry 
in the fall to be plowed to advantage. Having 
broken the ground under the best possible condi- 
tions, the most important point is to conserve the 
moisture; to this end the ground should be rolled 
or harrowed immediately after plowing and no 
crust allowed to form on the surface. Previous to 
planting, the ground should be worked thoroughly 
with such implements as will pack the seed-bed 
below and leave a loose layer of soil on the surface. 



In most instances, a float and a harrow properly 
adjusted as to depth will produce the desired 
result. A thorough preparation of the seed-bed 
has the secondary advantage of materially lessen- 
ing the labor in the subsequent care of the beets, 
by destroying many weeds that must otherwise 
be removed by hand. 

Fertilizers. — Three kinds of fertilizer are in com- 
mon use for sugar-beets : green fertilizers, stable 
manures and chemical or so-called commercial fer- 
tilizers. The green fertilizer most commonly used 
with sugar-beets is alfalfa. It is becoming more 
and more common to use alfalfa in a system of ro- 
tation with sugar-beets, plowing the alfalfa under at 
the end of three or more seasons. A crop of alfalfa 
may or may not be plowed under, depending on 
the requirement of the soil for humus. The roots 
of the alfalfa necessarily furnish more or less 
humus and should be broken up long enough before 
beet-seed-planting to allow them to rot, otherwise 
they will be very troublesome in the cultivation of 
the young beets. Usually alfalfa sod plowed in the 
fall is in proper condition for beet seed the follow- 
ing spring, but with some growers it is customary 
to use another crop in the rotation between the 
alfalfa and beets. For this purpose potatoes or one 
of the small grains are generally used. Other green 
crops are sometimes used in rotation with beets; of 
which clover, rye or rape are employed when a 
supply of humus is desired as quickly as possible. 

So far as any exact data have been secured, 
stable manures give better results with sugar-beets 
than do commercial fertilizers. While it is true 
that different kinds of stable manures produce dif- 
ferent results with sugar-beets, the same kind of 
manure will give even more variable results, de- 
pending on the time of its application and the con- 
ditions under which it was kept previous to using. 
A good crop has generally been secured by apply- 
ing well-rotted manure Just before plowing, and 
incorporating it thoroughly with the soil. 

In regard to commercial fertilizers, the best re- 
sults have generally followed the use of a complete 
fertilizer, although when a certain element is 
known to be present in the soil in sufficient quan- 
tity and in an available form, nothing seems to be 
gained by applying that particular element in the 
form of a chemical. 

The time of applying the commercial fertilizer 
must be governed by its solubility. If it is ground 
bone, or other material that dissolves with difii- 
culty, the best results are secured by applying it 
long enough before the beets are up to allow the 
material to begin to break down and become 
soluble. On the other hand, if the material is 
easily soluble, as nitrate of soda, the results are 
more satisfactory if several applications are made 
at intervals of several weeks. Nitrate of soda has 
a tendency to prolong the growth of the beets and 
thei-efore should not be used very late in the season, 
as in such case the beets would fail to ripen 
properly. 

The seed. — Beet seeds are produced from flowers 
that occur, for the most part, in groups of two to 
seven, giving rise to seed-balls which usually con- 



SUGAR-BEET 



SUGAR-BEET 



591 




Fig. 817. Longitudinal (dia- 
grammatic) section of beet 
flower, d. glands: t. liract; 
k\ tissue suiTouudintl un- 
developed seed. 



tain as many germs as there were flowers in the 
cluster. Occasionally a flower stands by itself and 
develops a single seed ; in other instances, one or 
more of the flowers, either singly or in groups, 
fails to produce seed, 
thus reducing the num- 
ber of seeds, or the num- 
ber of germs, in the 
seed-ball. The flowers 
are five-parted ; that is, 
there are five stamens 
and five parts to the 
corolla. The petals are 
wanting and the pistil is 
three-parted. Fig. 817 
shows the construction 
of the beet flower as 
seen in longitudinal sec- 
tion. The sepals persist 
and form a part of the 
seed-coat, giving to the 
single - germ seeds the 
form of a five-pointed 
star. The individual 
seeds in the seed-balls 
are made up in the same way, but the star-shape 
is not so apparent when the seeds are welded to- 
gether in the form of balls. Seed plants are shown 
in Figs. 818, 819. 

Beet plants are biennial, that is, they produce 
seed the second season. In those countries where 
the beet is indigenous, the winters are warm 
enough so that the plants will live over from the 
first to the second season ; but in most of our com- 
mercial .sugar-beet sections it is necessary to pro- 
tect them from frost during the winter. This is 
usually done by placing them in some form of a 
silo or pit. One of the common and most satisfac- 
tory methods of pitting consists in piling the beets 
in the form of a cone or a pyramid on the surface 
of the ground, having selected for the purpose a 
well-drained spot. The piles are then covered with 
straw, which, in turn, is covered with earth; as the 
temperature falls with the advance of winter, more 
earth is added to keep the frost from reaching the 
beets. (Fig. 820.) As soon as the danger of kill- 
ing frosts is over in the spring, the beets are taken 
from the silo, tested for sugar if they were not 
tested before pitting, and, if up to the standard or 
above, are planted for seed production ; but if 
below the standard, they are discarded. 

The sugar test is considered necessary in order 
to keep the descendants of the seed of the parent 
beets from deteriorating in quality for successful 
sugar-making. Fifteen per cent of sugar is usually 
taken as the standard, although many of the beets 
planted for seed test much higher. Many other 
factors enter in to influence the quality, so that 
from roots possessing a given sugar content there 
are often secured beets much richer as well as 
much poorer than the original seed. Beets possess- 
ing a minimum amount of certain salts are also 
desired for seed, since such salts taken up by the 
beets are dissolved with the sugar and prevent a 
part of the sugar from crystallizing in the process 



of sugar-making. This quality, like the sugar con- 
tent, is influenced by other factors than the quality 
of the parent. 

Having selected the beets that are up to the 
standard in quality, they are planted in the early 
spring in rows three feet apart, the beets standing 
two to three feet apart in the row. Each acre thus 
contains appro.ximately 5,000 to 7,000 beets. 

The seed-stalks vary within wide limits both in 
regard to number and size. Some beets produce 
but a single stalk, others will send up several 
dozen. Sometimes the stalks are large and upright, 
while others are small and spreading. (Figs. 818, 
819.) The flowers usually open in June and the 
seed is ripe in August, when the stalks are cut off 
near the ground and left to cure. As soon as it is 
thoroughly dry, the seed is removed by some con- 
venient Biethod ; frequently, an ordinary threshing 
machine is used. It is then put through the cleaner, 
which removes all leaves, stems and other foreign 
matter, and is then sacked for shipment. The aver- 
age seed yield per acre varies from season to season, 
but is usually 1,200 to 1,500 pounds. 

The sixty-four factories now in operation in the 
United States require for the use of their growers 




Fig. 818. 



Beet seed-stalk, with Dowers growing singly 
and in clusters. 



more than 5,000,000 pounds of sugar-beet seed 
annually. Less than 2 per cent of this amount is 
produced in this country at pre.sent. However, the 
possibility of growing and maturing sugar-beet 
seed in several of the western states has been 



SUGAR-BEET 



SUGAR-BEET 



demonstrated beyond question, and it is undoubtedly 
only a matter of time when all beet seed required 
by American growers will be produced on American 
soil. 

Planting. — After the seed-bed has been thor- 
oughly prfipared in the way already indicated, the 




Fig. 819. Small, spreading beet seed-stalks (about five 
feet across). 

seed is planted, usually in solid rows, by means of 
a four-row planter. Occasionally a hill dropper is 
used, but this has not yet come into general use, 
since the growers are afraid that this method of 
planting will injure the chances for a good stand. 
For the solid-row method a drill planting four rows 
at a time is commonly used. The space between 
the rows varies from fourteen to twenty-eight 
inches, eighteen or twenty inches being the most 
common. The distance between the rows is deter- 
mined largely by the quality and condition of the 
soil, especially as regards moisture ; and by the 
method of cultivation that is to be employed. 

Fifteen to twenty pounds of seed per acre is 
recommended in order to insure a good stand, — a 
condition on which the tonnage and the sugar per 
acre depend in a large mea.sure. A much smaller 
quantity of seed is required with the hill dropper. 
The seed is planted just deep enough so that it 
comes into contact with the moist earth and is cov- 
ered with a thin layer of fine soil one-half to one 
and one-half inches deep. Under favorable condi- 
tions of moisture and temperature, the plants are 
up in four to ten days. Ine.xperienced growers 
should be cautioned against planting the seed too 
deep, since the inability of the .seedlings to push 
their way through a too thick layer of soil may 
result in a very unfavorable stand. In the irrigated 
sections it is not uncommon to irrigate the plants 
up, but in tho.se areas where moisture depends on 
rainfall it is necessary to wait until the soil is 
sufficiently moist before planting. 



Blocking and thinning. — As soon as the D'ants 
are large enough so they can be handled, i. e., 
when they have about four leave.?, they are blocked 
and thinned. Blocking consists in cutting the stcd- 
ling beets out of the solid row, leaving small tufts 
or bunches of beets at intervals of eight or ten 
inches. This operation is usually performed by 
means of a hand hoe, although blocking machines 
operated by horse-power are coming into use in 
some localities. 

Having blocked the beets, the ne.xt process, called 
thinning, consists in pulling from these remaining 
clumps or tufts all the beets but one, thus giving 
the remaining beet every possible chance to develop. 
Thinning is one of the most laborious and at the 
same time one of the most important operations in 
growing sugar-beets. If the thinning is not done 
properly, or if it is delayed too long, the yield per 
acre is greatly reduced. The clo.seness of the seed- 
ling beets in the clumps that are left after blocking 
makes it necessary to do the thinning by 
hand. The structure of the seed-balls ren- 
ders it impassible to plant the seeds far 
enough apart in the row to get one plant 
in a place. As already pointed out, only a 
few of the seeds are separate, most of them 
being produced in balls of two to seven. The De- 
partment of Agriculture has undertaken to produce 
a plant that will yield only single-germ beet seed. 
If such seed can be produced in quantity sufficient 
for commercial use, hand-thinning may be aban- 
doned, since the seeds can then be planted close 
enough together to insure a good stand and at the 
same time far enough apart in the row so that the 
resulting plants can be cut out with a hoe or other 
implement. 

Hoeing and cultivation. — Sugar-beets receive two 
to four hoeings in the season. The first hoeing is 
frequently given at the time of thinning ; but often 
the beets, more or less disturbed by the thinning, 
are allowed to ree-stablish themselves first. Hoeing 
serves the twofold purpose of destroying the weeds 
and of keeping the soil and the plants in condition 
to conserve mois- 
ture, hence indi- 
rectly inducing 
the plants to feed 
or grow. It is a 
common saying 
among the Ger- 
man beet-grow- 
ers that the 
sugar is hoed 
into the beet. 

Cultivating is begun as soon as the beets are 
large enough so that the rows can be followed, 
and is repeated at longer or shorter intervals until 
the tops cover the ground. Owing to the narrow- 
ne.ss of the rows as compared with most field crops, 
specially constructed cultivators are required. 
Some are made so that they will cultivate a single 
row at a time, but those most commonly in use 
will work two rows at a time. They are iisi;:illy 
provided with two sets of teeth, namely, "weeders" 
and "duck feet." The weeders are thin blades of 



,ss>x;-;>,. 




■1^ 



mn^M^^m 



'',:^-^.^- 



, 820. Pile of seed beets, as seen 
when opened in the spring. 



SUGAR-BEET 



SUGAR-BEET 



593 



metal so adjusted that they move along just below 
the surface of the ground and destroy the weeds 
over the entire space between the rows. The duck 
feet are more or less triangular in shape and can 
be set so that they will work to any desired depth. 
Some growers hold that deep cultivation is neces- 
sary for the production of long, well-shaped beets, 
but shallow cultivation is generally practiced. The 
cultivation of beets, like hoeing, is twofold in its 
purpose — to accomplish the destruction of weeds 
and the conservation of moisture. When the tops 
become too large or for other reasons the hoeing 
and cultivating ceases, the crop is said to be 
"laid by. 

Irrigation. — Very few field crops are able to 
adjust themselves to the extremes of moisture 
supply in the soil more readily than sugar-beets 
after they have become well established. However, 
a certain amount of moisture is necessary, not only 
for the germination of the seed, but also for the 
subsequent development of the beets. There is, 
therefore, no question of greater importance to the 
beet-growers of the semi-arid sections than that 
of water rights and the proper use of irrigating 
waters. Irrigation by flooding, that is, allowing 
the water to flow over the entire surface of the 
field, is not usually practiced in sugar-beet-growing. 
The furrow method of irrigation is employed almost 
entirely, in which case small ditches or furrows 
are made between each two rows, or between alter- 
nate rows, extending across the field from the 
higher to the lower side. The water is then turned 
on and allowed to flow until the ground around the 
beets is well supplied with moisture. In case only 
alternate rows are furrowed at the first irrigation, 
furrows are made at the next irrigation between 
the row.-, not previously furrowed, so that the rows 
are watered fir.st on one side and then on the other. 

The number of irrigations necessary to bring 
a crop through successfully depends on soil and 
climatic conditions and on methods of cultivation. 
Usually, two to five irrigations are necessary, but 
some areas are so situated with respect to the 
surrounding country that the crops are watered 
naturally from below, and no water in any form 
need be applied to the surface. This may be 
called natural subirrigation. Such sections are very 
limited, however, as compared with the vast areas 
of land to the .surface of which water must be 
applied, either in the form of rain or of surface 
irrigation, in order to produce satisfactory crops. 

Harvesting (Fig. 821). — The harvesting of beets 
consists of four distinct operations, — lifting, pull- 
ing, topping and hauling. In the first operation the 
beets are simply loosened in the ground. In per- 
forming this work, two distinct types of implements 
are in common use. One of these is a side plow, 
which is usually operated with three horses, and is 
so held that it runs along one side of the row to be 
loosened and close enough to the roots so that each 
beet is disturbed as it progresses. The most serious 
objection to this lifter is that it frequently breaks 
the beets, which are very brittle at harvest time, 
and leaves the lower part in the ground, thus caus- 
ing considerable loss in tonnage 

B38 



The other form of lifter is a double-pointed plow 
with the points so adjusted that one passes on either 
side of the row. Each point extends backward in 
the form of a shoe. These shoes approach each other 
by degrees without meeting, and are gradually 
elevated from the toe toward the heel. The con- 
struction and arrangement of the parts of this 
implement are such that, as it progresses, each beet 
in turn is caug.ht between the shoes and lifted 
several inches from its original position. In either 
case the beets are loo.sened so that they are easily 
pulled. The pulling is usually done by hand, in 
which case the beets are picked up and thrown in 
piles, or in rows, depending on the method later to 
be employed in topping. The most common method 
is to thrciw the betts in piles at convenient inter- 
vals. With some growers it is the practice to 
throw them so that all the tops lie in the same 
direction ; this practice takes no more time in pul- 
ling and greatly facilitates the work of topping. 

Topping is also a hand operation and is usually 
performed by means of a straight, heavy knife, 
which should be kept sharp. It consists in remov- 
ing the leaves and crown at the line of the lowest 
leaf scar. The proportion of the beet thus to be dis- 







^:a''Jj^:i^'^:\(ix>- 



Fig. 821. Sugar-beets topped and ready for the factory. 

carded depends on the habit of growth of the plant. 
Beets with long crowns should not be selected for 
seed, since this is an undesirable quality to propa- 
gate. The reason for removing the crown is that 
this part contains so much mineral matter in com- 
parison with the sugar, that it has been found ad- 
visable not to use it in sugar-making. The mineral 
matter prevents the sugar crystallizing and often 
more sugar would be lost than gained by using the 
crown. When the beets are topped, they are thrown 
into piles where the ground has been previously 
freed from tops and other refuse matter, so that 
they can be forked into wagons ready for the fac- 
tory. Numerous attempts have been made to con- 
struct a machine to be operated by horse-power, 
which shall lift, pull and top the beets, but, while 
success has been achieved in some instances, such 
machines have not come into general use. 

Hauling the beets to the factory is usually done 
by wagon if the fields are within a few miles of the 
factory. If the distance is too great, they are 
loaded on the cars at the nearest station and trans- 
ported by rail. In either case they are first forked 
on the wagon, and then unloaded in the beet sheds 



594 



SUGAR-BEET 



SUGAR-BEET 



or into cars. Most shipping stations are provided 
with dumps, so that the wagons are unloaded by 
machinery directly into the cars. (Fig 822.) This 
method avoids the necessity of forking the beets by 
hand from the wagon into the cars, but is open to 
the objection that all the dirt, more or less of which 
clings to the beets when pulled, goes into the cars 




Fig. 822. Use of wagon-dump in unloading sugar-beets. 

and is hauled into the beet sheds. If the cars are 
dumped at the sheds, as is frequently the case, the 
dirt goes with the beets into the bins. 

If the harve.st progresses more rapidly than the 
factory is able to handle the beets, it frequently 
becomes necessary to pit them temporarily in the 
field. These pits differ somewhat from those used 
for seed beets. In these field pits, the beets are 
dumped in long piles about three feet high and pro- 
vided with some light covering to keep out the 
frost. As soon as the beets are needed, they are 
reloaded and taken to the factory. 

Causes of injury to the crop. 

Hail. — Factory beets andseed beets are frequently 
damaged by severe hail-storms. Fortunately these 
storms are usually local, so that comparatively few 
fields are seriously injured in a single season. The 
storms occur most frequently in the early part of 
the season, when the beets are small and tender. 
It sometimes happens that a field of beets will have 
its foliage entirely destroyed. Since nothing can 
be done to prevent the storms, every effort is made 
to enable the beets to produce new foliage, and it 
seldom happens that the beets themselves are de- 
stroyed, although their growth is retarded to the 
detriment of the harvest. 

With seed beets the damage is considerable if 
the hail-storm occurs after the seed-stalks have 
begun to form, since it may either break down 
the seed-stalks or cut off the flowers or seeds, de- 
pending on the time the storm occurs and on its 
severity. 

Wind. — In some sugar-beet sections, strong 
winds prevail. These are not injurious except in 
certain localities where the soil is light. In such 
instances, the young beets are sometimes covered 
with sand and smothered, or their growth greatly 
retarded. The real losses from this source have 



been slight but sufficient to emphasize the impor- 
tance of avoiding light soils for sugar-beet produc- 
tion, especially in those sections where high winds 
usually prevail in the early part of the growing 
season when the beets are small and easily covered 
with shifting sand. 

Rain. — Few crops can withstand excessive rains 
with less injury than sugar-beets, especially if 
heavy rains do not occur until after the beets are 
well established. The greatest damage is done 
when such rains occur soon after planting, and 
either the seed or the seedling beets are actually 
washed out of the ground. Excessive rains falling 
on improperly drained fields must necessarily be 
injurious, since under such conditions the roots 
cannot receive the proper amount of air. The only 
remedy for this evil is proper drainage. Warm 
rains sometimes occur when the beets are ripe. 
This condition frequently causes a new growth of 
foliage and a consequent reduction of the sugar 
content. If it is impossible to harvest the beets 
before .such rains occur, it is often advisable to 
let the beets remain in the ground until the sugar 
content is again re.stored to its maximum. The 
effect of rainfall on adobe soil, with the remedy 
therefor, has already been mentioned. 

Insects. — According to Bulletin No. 43, Division 
of Entomology, United States Department of Ag- 
riculture (entitled A Brief Account of the Princi- 
pal Insect Enemies of the Sugar-beet, by F. H. 
Chittenden), about one hundred and fifty insects 
feed more or less exclusively on sugar-beets, of 
which perhaps one-third are noticeably destructive. 
A more or less complete account of these pests, 
together with the means of combating them, will 
be found in Bulletins Nos. 19, 23, 29, 33, 40 and 43 
of the Bureau of Entomology, United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture. 

Diseases. — There are very many specific diseases 
of the sugar-beet ; some of them are due to bac- 
teria, some to fungi, some to physiological or other 
cause.s. Only two of the diseases have proved es- 
pecially serious in this country up to this time, 
namely, the leaf-spot, due to the fungus Cercospora 
bcticola, and the western blight or curly top, the 
cause of which is not known. The leaf-spot may 
be controlled by thorough spraying with Bordeaux 
mixture. Rotation is to be advised. The most sig- 
nificant fact in regai-d to the curly top is that it 
seldom occurs in two succe.ssive seasons in the 
same locality or in the same field. 

Literature. 

Some of the important treatises on sugar-beets 
follow : Hermann Briem, Die Entwicklungsge- 
schichte der Riibensamenzucht (1889) ; same, Der 
praktische Riibenbau (1895) ; C!. J. Eisbein, Der 
Zuckerriibenbau (1894) ; J. Piihling, Der praktische 
Riibenbauer (1877) ; Herzog, Monographic der 
Zuckerriibe (1899) ; Fr. Knauer, Ueber Riibensa- 
menzucht (1857) ; W. Kriiger, Die Entwicklungs- 
geschichte, Werthbestimmung, und Zucht des Rii- 
bensamens (1884) ; E. 0. von Lippman, Die En- 
twicklung Der Deutschen Zuckerindustrie von 1850 
bis 1900 (l-<^00) ; G. Marek, Die Ergebnisse der 



SUGAR-BEET 



SUGAR-BEET 



595 



Versuche iiber den Zuckerriibenbau (1882) ; W'm. 
McMurtrie, Report on the culture of the sugar- 
beet and the manufacture of sugar therefrom in 
France and the United States, United States De- 
partment of Agriculture, iSpecial report No. 28 
(1880); F. Roditzky, Der Riibenbauer (1889); G. L. 
Spencer, Handbook for chemists of beet -sugar 
houses and seed-culture farms (1897); Lewis S. 
Ware, Sugar-beet, including a history of the beet- 
sugar industry (1880) ; H. Werner, Der praktische 
Zuckerriibenbauer (1888) ; Harvey W. Wiley, Sugar- 
beet Industry, Culture of the sugar-beet and 
manufacture of beet-sugar. United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, Bureau of Chemistry, Bulle- 
tin No. 27 (1890) (in collaboration with twelve 
experiment stations) ; Influence of environment on 
the composition of the sugar-beet, together with a 
summary of the five-year investigation. United 
States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of 
Chemistry, Bulletin No. 96 (1905). Some of the 
magazines are : American Sugar Industry and 
Beet-Sugar Gazette ; The Sugar-Beet ; Blatter fiir 
Zuckerriibenbau ; Centralblatt fiir die Zuckerin- 
dustrie der Welt ; Die Deut-sche Zuckerindustrie ; 
Jahresbericht der Zuckerfabrikation ; La Bette- 
rave ; Neue Zeitschrift fiir Riibenzuckerindustrie ; 
Oesterreichisch-ungarische Zeitschrift fiir Zuckerin- 
dustrie und Landwirthschaft ; Zeitschrift des Ve- 
reins fiir die Riibenzuckerindustrie ; Zeitschrift fiir 
Zuckerindustrie in Bohmen. 

The Manufacture of Beet-Sugar. Figs. 823-825. 

By G. M. Chamberlin, Jr. 

A century has now passed since the first sugar 
was made from the sugar-beet, and the develop- 
ment of the industry has been of such great mag- 
nitude in the past twenty-five years that, with the 
steady perfection of the various parts of the 
machinery necessary in an up-to-date sugar mill, 
it has become possible to produce a high grade of 
sugar at a very reasonable price. 

Details of beet-sugar-making. 

The crop. — The seeds of the sugar-beets are 
planted in the spring in order that the beets will 
mature before the frost gets into the ground. The 
date of the campaign does not always depend on 
the maturity of the beet, but rather on the capac- 
ity of the factory and the .saccharine quality of 
the beet, which is determined by chemical tests. 

Storage sheds. — Having reached the proper 
period in their growth, the beets are brought to 
the storage sheds of the factory either in cars or 
wagons, and unloaded by hand or with the aid of 
automatic dumps into the various bins especially 
constructed for them until they can be brought 
into the factory to be worked into sugar. These 
sheds are built like a "V," with a flume extending 
the entire length of each, in order that the beets 
may be carried into the factory with the aid of 
water. This prevents the beets being bruLsed and 
at the same time assists in cleaning them of 
adhering dirt. The water for this purpose comes 
from the condensers of the evaporators and vacuum 



pans, as well as from the overflow of the main 
water-supply tank. 

Slonc-catehers. — As the beets enter the factory 
they pass over the large stone-catchers, so built as 
to remove the stones and dirt that come from the 
sheds with the beets, and which, if allowed to pass 
on, would cause much trouble as well as material 
loss to the knives in the slicing machine. Not 
only would the knives be injured, but the beets 
would be torn instead of being cut into good, clean 
strips, which are necessary for the perfect working 
of the battery in the process of the extraction of 
the sugar, as well as in the treatment of the 
juices at the various stations in the mill. 

The washer. — Passing over the stone-catcher, 
the beets are carried by the aid of an Archimedean 
screw, or a beet wheel, up into the mechanical 
washer, where they are entirely freed of all remain- 
ing dirt. This washer consists of a large tank in 
which arm-agitators revolve. As the beets have 
had most of their impurities removed in the 
hydraulic transportation from the sheds, the 
agitation in the washer renders excellent service 
in removing the particles that still adhere. 

Slicing. — During the entire operation of washing, 
fresh water is being run in at one end and the 
dirty water out at the other. The beets enter the 
washer at one end and are thrown on an endless 
carrier at the other end and carried to the bucket 
elevator, which elevates them to the slicer several 
floors above. Here they are cut into strips, or slices 
as they are called, and emptied into the various 
cells of the diffusion battery for the extraction of 
the sugar which they contain. 

The sliecr. — In order that the greatest amount of 
surface may be exposed to the action of the water 
in the extraction of the sugar, it is necessary to 
cut the beets into long, slender strips, or cossettes, 
by the aid of knives made especially for this pur- 
pose. These knives vary in shape as regards their 
cutting surfaces, but all types tend to secure one 
result, that of producing a long slender strip, cut 
lengthwise of the beet, and having a smooth, uni- 
form surface. To secure this, a special apparatus 
is used which generally consists of a cylinder, or 
hopper, at the bottom of which is a circular disk 
with openings for knife attachments, and having a 
rotary motion. This is the slicer. The beets are 
fed into the hopper from the automatic scales, if 
these are used, otherwise directly from the beet- 
elevator, and, falling on the knives, are cut into 
cossettes. These drop either from a spout into the 
cells of the battery direct or else on a moving belt 
conveyor, as in the case of a longitudinal battery, 
and from this are fed into the various cells as is 
necessary. 

Diffusion battery. — The diffusion battery consists 
of a series of ten to fourteen iron tanks, or cells, 
known as diffusors, which are arranged in a circle 
or in a straight line. Each diffusor is connected 
at the bottom by means of a pipe with the top of 
the next in the series, so that a continual flow of 
water passes through the mass of sliced beets as 
long as they remain in the cell of the battery. 
Their shape is that of a round tank set on end, 



596 



SUGAR-BEET 



SUGAR-BEET 



which permits of the extraction of the sugar from 
the cossettes regardless of how they lie in the dif- 
fusors, and at the same time does not retard the 
circulation of the juice. There are openings at the 
top for filling the cells and at the bottom for 
emptying after the sugar has been extracted, tight- 
fitting doors being used in all cases to close these 
openings. Near the bottom of each cell and above 
the opening of the pipe there is a screen of heavy 
sheet iron for the purpose of preventing the cos- 
settes entering the juice as it leaves the diffusor, 
thus resulting in a stoppage of the pipe. 

The principle of diffusion is based on the theory 
of osmosis, and, as sugar belongs to the category 
of crystaloids, the advantage of the diffusion pro- 
cess over all others for the extraction of the sugar 
from the sugar-beet will be easily understood. 
Owing to the fact that a certain number of the 
cells in the beet become either broken or cut in the 




Fis. 823. Carloads of sugar-beets at the factory. 

course of their passage through the slicer, thus 
allowing the contents of the cells other than sugar 
to pass into the juice, which would otherwise be 
absent, it will be seen why it is necessary to 
watch the knives and to take such precautions as 
will tend to keep them in the finest possible condi- 
tion. Keyr estimates that about 6.41 per cent of 
all the cells of the beets are either crushed or torn 
in the slicing. 

Care must be taken in the way the battery is 
worked, for, should the water remain too long in 
contact with the tissue of the beet, or reach too 
high a temperature, other impurities than those 
which pass into the juice from the broken cells 
would be ab.sorbed by the water and produce 
trouble in the further treatment of the juice. The 
cell walls of the cossettes contain organic salts of 
lime and potash, and pectic compounds which be- 
come dissolved under the influence of too high tem- 
perature. As an example : A.sparagine and gluta- 
min, by heating in the presence of an alkali, are 
converted into apparetic and glutaminic acids, 
which, in the combination with alkalis, remain as 
salts in the juice ; by the above heating, ammonia 



is constantly given off, which tends to show a 
higher percentage of alkalinity than is really 
present. This interferes with the work at the car- 
bonatation stations. The best working temperature 
of the battery is between 75° and 80° Centigrade, as 
above 80° there is a tendency for the pectine and 
the pectates to be absorbed from the cellulose of 
the beet, and this, as well as the high alkalinity at 
the carbonatation stations, tends to make the presses 
slimy and hard to wash. Frozen beets take an en- 
tirely different temperature from those that are 
fresh from the field. The size of the slices as well 
as their thickness has an influence on the circula- 
tion of the water through the cells if the tempera- 
ture is not right. 

One of the most important stations in the sugar- 
house is the ditt'usion battery, and when that is in 
good working order, with everything moving 
smoothly, it can safely be said that the entire 
house is working all right. 

Starting the. operations. — In 
starting the factory at the be- 
ginning of the season, it is neces- 
sary to fill eight or nine cells of 
the battery before making the 
first draw of juice that is to be 
sent to the first carbonatation 
station for treatment. When 
the proper number of difl^usors 
have been filled, a certain num- 
ber of hectoliters of the juice, 
containing sugar extracted from 
the beets, are measured off and 
sent to the first carbonatation 
station, for the purpo.se of clari- 
fying and thus rendering the 
juice in a condition more easily 
to be treated for the process of 
boiling, when the sugar is se- 
cured by crystallization from a 
highly concentrated syrup. 
As the juice is drawn off and the cossettes be- 
come more and more exhausted of their sugar con- 
tent, it becomes necessary to replace them with 
fresh cossettes. This is done by shutting off the 
circulation in the cell to be refilled, emptying it by 
opening the door at the bottom of the cell, clos- 
ing this door and refilling as at the beginning. 
This is continued at regular intervals in order that 
the process of diflfusion may be continuous and that 
the best results may be secured. The beets remain 
in contact with the water at the temperature of 
70° to 80° for one hour, when nearly the entire 
amount of the sugar has been extracted. The ex- 
tracted cossettes are carried to the pulp pile and 
can be used to good advantage in the feeding of 
stock. 

F^irst earbonafation. — The first carbonatation sta- 
tion consists of several tanks into which the juice 
is pumped and milk of lime added, having the den- 
sity of 18° to 22° Baume, the amount being figured 
at the rate of 3 per cent of dry lime to each ton of 
beets, and in terms of liters of juice. The addition 
of the lime to the diffusion juice is the most impor- 
tant operation in the sugar mill, and experience 



SUGAR-BEET 



SUGAR-BEET 



597 



has shown that unless it is added and the juice then 
treated according to established rules, the final 
yield of sugar is affected, both as to color and 
amount. 

The effect of the lime on the raw juice is both 
mechanical and chemical. Mechanically, it clears 
the juice by causing those particles held in sus- 
pension to settle with the precipitate. In the 
chemical action, the lime has the power to decom- 
pose the non- sugars, neutralizing the free acids 
and acid salts, forming insoluble salts with the 
oxalic and phosphoric acids pre.sent, as well as 
many other compounds with the organic substances 
present. By the carrying down of the impurities 
with the lime a large number of bacteria and fer- 
ments are separated and sink to the bottom of the 
tank on standing, leaving the juice clear, of a light 
amber color and perfectly sterilized, thus reducing 
the tendency of sugar inversion. 

77(6 linie. — The lime required for 
the purification of the juice is se- 
cured from the purest grade of 
limestone. This stone is burned in 
specially constructed kilns in the 
presence of coke. The limestone is 
composed of a lime - carbonate 
which is broken up into lime and 
the carbonic acid gas which is 
used in the treatment of the juice 
in the fir-st and second carbonata- 
tion. Impure limestone often 
causes much troubie. 

While the operation of running 
a lime kiln is simple in itself, there 
are few persons who know how to 
do it to produce the best results, 
and it is important to dwell a little 
on that point. In loading the kiln, 
start at the bottom, using consid- 
erable oily waste, some shavings, 
small sticks, and the like, — enough 
in one's judgment to start a good fire. Then work 
up for some distance with gradually larger pieces 
of wood, until just below the damper holes proper. 
Beginning at that point, start loading again with 
fine material, as below, arching over the space in 
front of the holes, filling with more oily waste 
directly in front of the holes. Then continue, as 
below, gradually putting in heavier stuff and work- 
ing in wood to a distance of six or seven feet above 
the damper holes. Then loading about one foot of 
pure coke on top. Above that, for a distance of five 
to seven feet, loading with coke and rock, using 20 
per cent coke to rock. Now fill the kiln about 
three-fourths full with 105 per cent coke to rock. 

In touching off the kiln, always light the fires at 
the damper holes, thus beginning at once to burn 
the coke and the rock, and continue burning as the 
wood burns downward. This has a twofold advan- 
tage, as, should the fire go out for any reason, the 
kiln can be lit again at the bottom. Never use 
the gas-pump in starting the kiln, if it is possible 
to avoid it, as the tar coming over causes a great 
deal of trouble in the pump ; but use the draft 
pipe in the top of the kiln for giving the draft 



until most of the wood has been burned, when the 
pump can be put on to produce a forced draft. 

Alwaj's draw enough and only enough lime to 
last the factory until about the time of the next 
draw. In this way the lime will be drawn cold, 
which is much to be preferred to the drawing of 
the hot lime, as it will then be in the form of cold 
ashes and be burned thoroughly. It is only in extra- 
ordinary cases that more than 10 per cent coke 
to rock is necessary, and more than that amount 
is dangerous, as it often culminates in fuzing 
the rock too much, and a consequent bridging of 
the kiln. 

About half an hour before charging the kiln, the 
kiln-boss should look in at the peek holes above the 
top of the rock, and see whether the fire is coming 
through. If so, half an hour afterward would be 
the time for charging the kiln ; but, should the fire 




Sugar-beet pulp at sugar factory. 



not have broken through, the time for charging 
should be delayed until the fire shows. On the con- 
trary, should the top of the rock be red hot, the kiln 
should be charged at once. If, in looking into the 
kiln, one side be found hot and the other dark, the 
lower charging doors on the dark side should be 
opened, while the others should be closed, thus 
forcing the draft up through the dark side and 
producing an even fire. 

The kiln should always be charged and run in 
conjunction with the gas analysis. Should the gas 
by analysis show a large percentage of oxygen, the 
pumps should be allowed to slow down ; should the 
analysis show a large quantity of carbonic oxid, 
the pumps should be speeded up. In drawing in this 
way, — that is, drawing simply enough lime to keep 
the house running, — one will find that the amount 
of gas will always take care of itself. 

A rock having over one per cent of magnesium 
should be carefully watched, as it causes great 
trouble in the juices ; and a rock containing a large 
percentage of silica should be avoided, as it fluxes 
and helps to bridge in the kiln. A rock of 96 per 
cent carbonates, as a rule, is considered excellent. 



598 



SUGAR-BEET 



SUGAR-BEET 



At all times it is very desirable to load the kiln 
with nothing but uniform sizes of rock. No rock 
smaller than one-half the size of a man's fist should 
be put into the kiln, as the small pieces will tend 
to stop the draft ; and no pieces much larger 
than the size of the two fists should be used, as the 
very large rocks will not be burned through entirely. 
The top of the rock should always be four to six 




Fig. 825. backs of beet-sugar ready tor shipment. 

feet below the gas pipe in the kiln. The coke should 
be of open grain, and at the same time be fairly 
compact, for then it will hold its heat during the 
required time to give the best results. The coke 
should be free from sulfur, as there is a possibility 
of sulfuretted hydrogen being generated, which, 
when carried into the carbonatation tanks, might do 
considerable harm. 

The importance of care in addition of lime to the 
juices cannot be overe.stimated, and, if the liming 
is not done according to the various rules that have 
been applied only after years of experience, the 
succeeding operations will prove failures and the 
final product will be of little value as a marketable 
commodity. The changes which take place during 
the carbonatation are both mechanical and chemical. 
In the chemical nature, the lime forma compounds 
with the sugar and the impurities present in the 
juice. Some of these compounds are of complex 
combination, while others are very simple in their 
composition. 

The gas. — The gas which is produced in the kiln 
and pumped into the tanks of this first carbonatation 
station has a great affinity for the lime, breaking 
up the compound it forms with the sugar and form- 
ing an insoluble lime carbonate, thus setting the 
sugar free and leaving it in solution in the juice. 
The gas is pumped into the tanks through pipes 
which extend to the bottom of the tanks and are 
there divided into three .sections. From each of 
these sections it passes through the perforations in 
the pipes and bubbles upward through the juice. 
The moment the gas comes in contact with the juice 
it causes a change to take place ; there is a thicken- 
ing of the juice in proportion to the degree of con- 
centration and the amount of sugar present. Dur- 
ing this period there is no precipitation, but rather 
a gelatinous consistency, which decreases with the 
length of time that the juice is acted on by the gas. 
At the beginning of the carbonatation there is ex- 



treme frothing, which gradually diminishes and 
finally ceases altogether. At this point the precipi- 
tate forms, settling rapidly and easily, and is read- 
ily filtered. The juice is then ready for filtration, 
and is pumped through the filter presses, leaving 
behind the heavy deposit, while the translucent yel- 
lowish liquid passes on into the second carbonatation 
tanks. 

The filter. — The filter presses consist of a series 
of iron frames, every alternate one of which is 
hollow. The solid frames are covered with heavy 
duck cloth, which allows the juice to pass through 
but prevents the passage of the heavy deposit 
formed in the tanks. This deposit is called lime- 
cake and is an excellent material for fertilizing 
the farm lands. After the presses have been 
filled with lime-cake, they are washed, emptied of 
the cake and made ready for filtering more juice. 
The presses are screwed together under great pres- 
sure in order to prevent the possibility of any loss 
due to leaky joints in the press. 

Second carbonatation. — From the presses of the 
first carbonatation the juice passes to the second 
carbonatation station to be treated as before, with 
the exception that only a small quantity of lime is 
added and the time of carbonatation is not so long. 
The action of the lime and the introduction of the 
gas at this station produce a clear liquid of bright 
amber color which filters with more ease than at 
the first station, and is then ready for the treat- 
ment with sulfur gas. As the juice leaves the first 
presses it has a high alkalinity, which must be 
reduced before it is ready for boiling. The greatest 
epurating action has been found to be after the 
lime has been added twice to the juice and the 
juice carbonated after each addition. Usually .25 
per cent to .50 per cent of lime is used in the 
second carbonatation. 

In all operations in the process of making the 
sugar the juices must be kept hot and at specified 
temperatures. The cake formed at the second 
presses is softer, whiter and more chalky than that 
of the first presses, but at the same time it is 
inferior for agricultural purposes. • 

Sulfuring. — Leaving the second presses, the 
juices are pumped to the sulfur station to be 
further treated before the first evaporation. Here 
the juices are brought into contact with the gas 
secured by passing air over burning sulfur. This 
gas is carried into the tanks in the same way as in 
the tanks of the first and second stations. The 
action of this gas on the coloring substances that 
are in the beet juices varies, destroying only in 
part the coloring matter present. While sulfuring 
has hardly any efl'ect on the purity of the juices, it 
gives a sparkle and has a brightening influence, 
and causes the juices to crystallize better. It is also 
important to note that the sulfurous acid decom- 
poses the organic lime salts, while the carbonic 
acid does not. 

Evaporating. — After sulfuring, the juices are 
filtered through special filter presses, or mechanical 
filters, and are then ready for the evaporators, in 
which they are boiled under a vacuum in order to 
concentrate them without the danger of destroying 



SUGAR-BEET 



SUGAR-CANE 



599 



the sugar. About 80 per cent of the water in the 
original juice is taken out in the evaporators. The 
"ett'ects," as they are called, are built in a series, 
usually four in number, and so connected with a 
vacuum pump that the heat of the first efl:ect, 
where the juice boils at the ordinary temperature, 
causes the juice in the second to boil, but under a 
vacuum ; the second heats the third, the third heats 
the fourth. The following table will illustrate this : 



No. effect 


Ste.'im 


Vacuum 


Tempera- 
ture °C. 




Pounds 


luches 




1 


4-6 


. . . 


110°C. 


2 


000 


8-14 


90°C. 


3 


000 


16-18 


80°C. 


4 


000 


24 


62-65°C. 



Having reached the density of about 32° Baume, 
the juice in the fourth eH:ect is pumped to the 
sulfur station for further treatment. The sulfuring 
of the "thick juice" takes place as with the thin 
juice. Having been reduced to the required alka- 
linity, the thick juice is then ready for filtration 
and boiling in the pan. 

Securing the massecuiic. — The pan is a large tank 
built of cast iron, fourteen feet in diameter and 
fifteen feet high on the average. It is connected 
with a vacuum pump in order that the boiling of 
the juices may take place at low temperatures 
without the danger of destroying the sugar. As 
long as the juices have been treated properly in 
the first part of the process, there will be no trouble 
in producing a good grade of sugar in the pan. In 
order to get a high-purity massecuite from the first 
pan, it is necessary to have juices of high purity to 
start with. The massecuite is a mixture of sugar 
crystals, which are formed in the process of boiling, 
and sirup from which all of the sugar has not been 
crystallized. This mixture of sugar crystals and 
sirup secured from the first pan is run through the 
centrifugal machines, revolving at the rate of 1,200 
revolutions per minute. The sirup is thrown out 
through the fine perforations in the walls of the 
machine and carried into tanks used only for col- 
lecting this product. In the bottom of the centrif- 
ugal machine is a covered opening through which 
the sugar is dropped into a scroll that carries it up 
to the sugar box, from whence it is passed through 
the drier before it is put in the sacks for the 
market. 

The sirup is then sent to the pan floor to be 
boiled in the second pan, in order that it may 
be further concentrated and more sugar secured. 
When of the necessary density, it is run into large 
tanks and allowed to remain until all the sugar 
possible has been crystallized. This is the second 
massecuite, and the sugar from it is used to get a 
higher grade of sirup from which to produce a 
high grade of white sugar. 

Treating the molasses. — The molasses from this is 
treated in various ways to get all the sugar pos- 
sible, either by the "osomose process " or by the 
" Steffens process." The osmose consists of a series 



of frames separated by parchment paper ; the hot 
molasses passes through the press on one side of 
the paper and the hot water on the other side. The 
principle employed is the same as that of the diffu- 
sion battery, with this exception, that in this case 
the impurities, or salts as they are called, are dis- 
solved instead of the sugar. In the Stert'ens process, 
the molasses is treated with powdered lime, and the 
sugar forming a combination with the lime in the 
cold is separated from the mother liquor by means 
of presses, and is then diluted to a certain density; 
it is run into the juice of the first carbonatation 
and the combination of lime and sugar is broken 
up, setting the sugar free while the insoluble lime 
carbonate is formed as the lime-cake. 

This, in general, is the process by which the 
sugar in the sugar-beet is converted into the gran- 
ulated sugar used on our tables. 

SUGAR-CANE. Saccharum officinarum, Linn. 
GraminecB. Figs. 826-836 ; also Fig. 517, page 
367. [See, also, the articles on Porto Rico, Hawaii, 
and Philippines in Vol. I.] 

By iV. A. Cobb. 

Sugar-cane is a gigantic perennial grass grown 
for its stems, the juice of which is extracted for 
the making of sugar and molasses. The plant 
grows 8 to 15 feet tall, producing solid heavy 
maize-like jointed stalks. The flowers are perfect, 
very numerous in large silky terminal panicles ; 
stigmas 2, spreading ; stamens 3. The genus to 
which the plant belongs contains several species, 
and it is even a moot question whether the various 
varieties of sugar-cane do not 
include representatives of more 
than one of these. In an article 
of this nature it is impossible 
to consider the biology of the 
sugar-cane further than is 
necessary graphically to por- 
tray the main industrial fea- 
tures of the subject. We must 
be content, therefore, with the 
statement that all of the dozen 
species belonging to the sugar- 
cane genus are Old World 
plants. It is doubtful whether 
wild sugar-cane has been seen 
by any scientist. It is thought 
that its natural habitat was 
southeastern Asia or the adjacent large tropical 
islands. Several varieties of the species are enu- 
merated by agrostologists. 

Sugar-cane has been cultivated so long that its 
origin is lost in antiquity. Its parts are so perish- 
able that it is extremely improbable that any fossil 
evidence will be discovered showing its connection 
with man in prehistoric times. The probabilities 
are that it was used by man ages before there is 
any record of such a fact, and that its culture was 
among the first Tindertaken by tropical peoples. In 
these early times, however, its use was confined 
almost exclusively to such varieties as could be 
eaten raw. Only with the art of extracting the 




Fig. 826. 
Spikelet of sugai-cane 

iSaccliaruin nffici- 
iiuniiii). opened to 
show floret. 



600 



SUGAR-CANE 



SUGAR-CANE 



juice and converting it into sugar and molasses, 
did the plant take on its modern high rank in 
agriculture. As a source of sugar it stood practi- 
cally alone until the beginning of the last century, 
and, notwithstanding the immense increase in the 
culture of other sugar-yielding plants, it still 
maintains in most countries its preeminence in this 
respect. 

The plant is grown under so many various con- 
ditions, is handled by such a great variety of 
machines, and converted into sugar by such intri- 
cate methods, that it is doubtful whether there is 
another crop plant whose various features are the 
subject of so much discussion from a practical 
point of view. The crop is grown where labor is 
cheap, and by hand methods, or, at least, with simple 
machinery adapted to cheap ignorant labor. It is 
also grown where labor is much more expensive, 
and where intricate and costly machinery has to 
take the place of the ordinary simple agricultural 
implements. Furthermore, the plant is usually con- 
verted into sugar, — even refined sugar, in some 
cases, — on the plantation where it is grown, and 
usually under the same management, by means of 
machinery of the very largest and most costly 
description, and by exceedingly intricate methods 
requiring expert knowledge of a high and varied 
order. The adaptation of the crop to these various 
methods involves the consideration of hundreds of 
features that are never, or at least rarely, con- 
sidered in connection with any other plant. Most 
important among these features are the structure 
and physiology of the plant. It is only by a clear 
understanding of these matters that the rationale 
of the culture of cane and its conversion into sugar 
can be properly understood. From an industrial 
point of view, we need to consider the structure 
of the root, stalk, leaf and blossom. [For other 
botanical characters, see page 367.] 

Physiological considerations. 

Root. — Among the numerous roots of the cane 
plant, there is no single prominent taproot. The dis- 
tribution of the system under ground is for a short 
distance, at least, somewhat uniform in the space 
available, various individual roots, however, pene- 
trating to a distance of several feet. The nodes of 
the stalk are supplied with incipient roots ; and the 
lower nodes are particularly active in rooting, so 
that it is very common for them to produce roots 
successively from the base up, that enter the 
ground and actively function in promoting the 
growth of the top. It is common for the older roots 
to perish, and be replaced by new roots derived in 
part, at least, in this way. As a rule, the roots of 
the cane branch but little. The root-cap presents no 
novel features, except that it is now known to be 
a vulnerable point in some varieties for the entrance 
of various fungous parasites. When the end of the 
root is thus infested and killed, it is not uncommon 
for buds to be produced higher up on the same 
root, the new root thus originated taking up the 
functions of the destroyed part. The structure of 
the roots of some varieties is such that they are in 
other ways susceptible to various pests inhabiting 



the soil. Though destruction of the roots is accom- 
plished for the most part by fungous pests, in 
many cases an entrance is made for these pests by 
wounds caused by soil-inhabiting nematodes and 
insects. These facts have been brought to light by 
the most modern researches and emphasize the 
necessity of giving greater attention to methods of 
culture that will diminish losses of this nature. 

Stalk. — The industrial value of the cane-stalk 
depends on a great variety of features, all related 
to the amount and nature of the saccharine matter 
that can be extracted at a given cost, and the 
ability of the stalk to reproduce itself with its 
properties unimpaired. This subject is very com- 
plicated, and only a brief outline can be undertaken. 
Two main features will be discussed : (1) The amount 
and nature of the saccharine matter ; (2) The struc- 
ture of the stalk. These two are closely related. 

(1) Amount and nature of the saccharine matter. — ■ 
The saccharine matter is distributed in the stalk 
according to a definite law which may be roughly 
expressed by saying that it reaches its maximum 
near the middle of the stalk and is at a minimum 
near the ends, the decrease being least toward the 
ground and greatest near the top. At a certain 
period of growth, varying widely with climate, 
the total saccharine matter reaches a maximum. 
This is the ripening period, and, of course, the 
period at whose termination the cane should be 
crushed. Judging this stage is a crucial test of the 
grower's skill. Not only does it vary with the gen- 
eral climate, but al.so with the particular season 
and with the soil and the variety. In general it 
may be said that the ripening is governed by the 
temperature and the sunlight. Two plantations 
having the same conditions otherwise, but the one 
subject to more cloud shadow than the other, will 
vary in the richness of the juices extracted from 
the cane. In a similar way any change in the tem- 
perature will work a like change in the yield of 
sugar. One plantation, irrigated with cold spring- 
water derived from high mountains, will vary 
materially from another irrigated with rain-water 
brought from a distance in open ditches, and there- 
fore applied at a higher temperature. 

After reaching their maximum, the extractable 
saccharine matters decrease as the cane grows 
older and begins to form its inflorescence. In fact, 
it is for the work of flowering that the cane plant 
stores up saccharine matter. In the efl^ort to har- 
vest the cane at its maximum saccharine content, 
the planter is aided by the chemist who makes 
analyses of sample stalks of the crop. This test, 
however, is not always resorted to, as the planter 
learns by experience to judge the ripeness of the 
cane by its outward appearance, i. e., its color, the 
stage of its inflorescence, and the like. 

Because of the expensiveness of the modern mill, 
it is necessary for economic reasons to prolong the 
crushing season as much as possible, and for this 
reason the planter resorts to various methods to 
prolong the ripening of his fields in such a way 
that they reach their maximum sugar yield in suc- 
cession during the crushing season, which may thus 
last for several months. By using several varieties 



SUGAR-CANE 



SUGAR-CANE 



601 



of differing degrees of earliness, by varying the 
planting season, by taking advantage of low land 
and high land and other natural conditions, it is 
possible to extend the crushing season so as to get 
a maximum result from the capital invested in the 
mill and from the laboring force of the plantation. 
As we shall see later (page 602), the time of ripen- 
ing, i. e., the distribution of the sugar in time, as 
well as the distribution of the sugar in the stalk, 
have much to do with the selection and preparation 
of seed-cane. 

The kind of sugar present in the cane, as well 
as the amount of it, determines its industrial 
value. The propei'ty that makes the saccharine 
substance of the greatest industrial value at the 
present time, is that of its being extractable 
loy the known processes of crushing, concentra- 
tion and crystallization. Preeminent among the 
extractable saccharine substances of this nature 
is sucrose. This crystallises out as "cane-sugar," 
and is the same substance as that obtained from 
sugar-beets and a variety of other plants. In fact, 
from a practical point of view, at the present time, 
we may say that the amount of extractable .sucrose 
determines the value of the cane more than any 
other factor except that of ability of the cane 
economically to reproduce itself with this sugar- 
content unimpaired. We must not forget in this 
connection, however, that the ease with which the 
sugar can be extracted is also an important factor. 
The presence of saccharine matters other than 
sucrose is deprecated by planters because their pres- 
ence generally indicates a lowering of the sucrose, 
the energy of the plant having been consumed in 
producing sugar or saccharine matter that is not 
extractable, in place of a certain amount of sucrose 
that might have been produced. The extractability 
of the sucrose depends to a certain extent on the 
absence of certain organic substances which tend 
to cause the sucrose so to change its molecular form 
as to become unextractable or of less value. To a 
large extent, these difficulties are surmounted by 
the application of hydrate of lime to the juice as 
soon as possible after it is removed from the cane. 

For practical purposes it is often convenient to 
consider the cane as composed of juice and fiber, 
leaving out of mind the composition of these two 
component pai'ts. Pi'oceeding on these lines, we 
may say that the amount of juice in a given volume 
of cane will be the greater, the le.ss the amount of 
fiber. The fiber of the cane-stalk exists in the form 
of strands or fibrovascular bundles distributed in 
the stalks as follows : (1) A part in the form of 
fine parallel fibers in the internodes, and (2) a part 
woven together at the nodes. Prom this it follows 
that a cane having numerous nodes close together, 
so that the internodes are short, contains the great- 
est amount of fiber, because it is at the nodes or 
joints that the fiber is most compact, and the sugar- 
bearing tissue is at its minimum. Cane with long 
joints is therefore generally looked on with favor by 
planters as being likely, other things equal, to con- 
tain the greatest amount of sucrose. It frequently 
happens when the growth of the cane is hindered 
by cold weather or by drought, that the slower 



growth is marked by an abundance of joints or 
nodes near together. Such cane is usually charac- 
terized by a lower percentage of sugar. The prac- 
tical application of this fact is illustrated by all 
those methods of culture that tend to keep the cane 
growing uniformly, as, for example, in the appli- 
cation of irrigation water to piece out the irregu- 
larity of the natural rainfall, and the application 
of artificial manures to stimulate the growth dur- 
ing periods when the growth would naturally be 
slow. 

In general it may be said that the varieties 
that are lowest in fiber are such as give the 
highest yield of sucrose and are the varieties 
preferred where the conditions are suitable for 
them. They are, however, what may be termed 




Fig. 827. To show action of a plow employed to burst up the 
big ratoon stools of sugar-cane. Lccutinn of root disease 
is iudieated by tha curved line. This plow cuts the stool 
into six pieces, as shown by the lines. Tlie more ohliquely 
the disks are set the more squ.irely the stubble is cut 
across. The more squarely it is cut the quicker it dries, 
thus creating conditions unfavorable to root disease. 
(Redrawn frotn Bulletin No. 5, Division of Pathology, 
Hawaiian Sugar Plauters' Association.) 

delicate canes, and it frequently happens that 
through the attacks of diseases they are made 
unproductive, so that in time they have often been 
replaced by other varieties with more fiber, but 
more resistant to disease. Examples of this are 
the Bourbon cane of the West Indies, the Lahaina 
cane of Hawaii, and the Rappoe cane of Australia. 
When, however, these canes meet with the right 
conditions, they are still preferred to any others. 
With strong sunlight, fertile soils, high tempera- 
ture and uniform conditions, all of which favor 
the growth of the cane and are not particularly 
favorable to fungous pests, these canes are the 
most profitable. Good cane, as it comes to the 
mill in most tropical countries, contains up to and 
sometimes even beyond 20 per cent of sucrose, 
averaging 15 to 18 per cent. The extracted juice 
contains, under favorable conditions, 17 to 18 per 
cent of sugar. 

It will have been noted that the amount of 
extractable sugar depends on its own nature and 
that of the collateral products, and not altogether 
on the structure of the stalk. Modern mills are so 
powerful and modern methods so efficient that the 



602 



SUGAR-CANE 



SUGAR-CANE 



sugar extracted has reached as high as 97 per 
cent of the total sugar content, so that the abso- 
lute limit has been very nearly reached. The 
economic limit has even been much more nearly 
reached, since the extraction of the last traces of 
sugar would be too costly to render it practicable. 
The average of good mills is not far below 95 per 
cent. 

The importance to the planter of understanding 
the distribution of the sucrose in the stalk is also 
shown by the bearing this distribution has on the 
matter of harvesting. Cutting close to the ground 
results in saving more sugar, and it frequently 
happens that attention to this matter rei;ults in a 
material increase in the profits at a cost small in 
proportion to the gain. So, too, it sometimes happens 
that in certain soils and under certain conditions, 
when the land afterward is to be plowed and re- 
planted, it is profitable to pull the stalks, in spite of 
the fact that the operation is more expensive than 
cutting. These details of the management are de- 
pandent on the fact that the lower part of the stalk 
contains considerable amounts of sucrose. Again, it 
sometimes happens that the planting and the har- 
vesting can go on simultaneously for months at a 
time. Under such conditions it is possible to secure 
seed-cane for the new planting from the tops of the 
cane that is being harvested. Now the tops, above 
a certain point that has accurately to be deter- 
mined, contain comparatively little extractable 
sucrose. The point at which to cut off the top for 
seed purposes therefore becomes an important 
matter, especially as it is precisely the parts that 
contain the less amount of sugar that are particu- 
larly good for seed. By cutting the tops too low, 
tons of sugar may be lost without any correspond- 
ing gain to the seed. 

(2) Structure of the stalk. — The nature and dis- 
tribution of the fiber in the stalk determine the 
resistance of the cane to various adverse influences, 
so that these qualities become of great importance. 
If, owing to the nature of the fiber, the stalk is 
brittle, this fact will cause the cane to break more 
easily during wind-storms, so that for windy 
locations canes of this character are unsuitable. 
The toughness of the stalk is also related to the 
access of certain pests. Strong fibrous varieties 
are more resistant to certain insect borers than 
are the varieties with less fiber, so that, although 
the latter may be higher in sucrose, it is some- 
times more profitable to grow the former. Where 
the attacks of these pests are severe, the actual 
yield and the profits may be greater with the 
poorer variety, owing to the fact that the ravages 
of the pests are less. 

In a somewhat similar way, it appears that the 
infestation by certain fungous pests is determined, 
to a certain extent, by the nature of the rind of 
the stalk where the fibrous matter is in exce.ss, 
and, the presence of epidermal cells assisting, the 
resistance of the cane to the fungous pests is in a 
degree proportional to the amount of the fibrous 
matter so located. 

Another matter connected with the structure of 
the stalk, and one of great practical importance, is 



its size. By a mathematical law, the larger the 
stalk the greater strength will be imparted to it 
by the distribution in its outer layers of a given 
amount of fibrous matter. Further, the larger it 
is, in view of the foregoing fact, the more space is 
available for the storage of sucrose in the interior 
tissues. Hence, varieties with large stalks are 
generally viewed with more favor than those with 



'"'^■-'-^-?""*-'"--\t^'"''SVfc 




■^ ^ fe ^ ^' 'ml' i-, 



^[0.-' Ill 



Fig. 828. Planting cane in Louisiana. 

small stalks. Certain varieties of cane produce a 
comparatively small number of long stalks, while 
other varieties tend to produce a larger number of 
shorter stalks. It is evident that the.se characters 
adapt the various varieties to various conditions. 
Short-stalked varieties are better adapted to certain 
windy locations. 

Not only is the location and distribution of the 
joints important in determining the value of a 
variety, as above mentioned, but the size, location 
and germinating power of buds and roots situ- 
ated at the joints are al.so important factors. This 
is so for two reasons: First, the growth of the 
roots is at the expense of the sucrose near by, so 
that, if a variety has a tendency to root unneces- 
sarily at the base, then the sugar-yield is lessened. 
Second, it is the nature of the bud that determines 
the value of the cane for seed purposes. This 
factor is important in proportion to the frequency 
of planting. In some localities ratooning is dis- 
pensed with, so that after each crop is harvested 
the land is at once replanted. In many localities 
the cane is allowed to ratoon only once or twice 
and then replanted. Of course, in such localities 
the que.stion of seed is one of greater importance 
than in those localities where the cane ratoons for 
a long series of years, and is not often replanted. 

Varieties of cane differ to a remarkable extent 
in respect to the germinating power of their eyes. 
In some varieties eyes in any part of the stalk 
germinate readily ; in others, only those eyes near 
the top can be relied on to germinate promptly and 
vigorously, and these latter are by far the more 
numerous among the best-yielding varieties. Then, 
some varieties germinate much better as plant-cane 
than as ratoon, while other varieties show much less 
difference in this respect. The germinating power 
of a variety depends on the vigor of the buds and 
on the vigor of the root-tissues developed at each 
node, but this is not the whole of the matter. It 
happens that there are insects whose special habitat 
is the buds of the cane-stalk, and resistance to the 
attacks of these pests constitutes an important part 
of the value of cane for seed purposes. Buds, other- 



SUGAR-CANE 



SUGAR-CANE 



wise good, are rendered worthless by the attacks of 
these pests, so that resistance to them may deter- 
mine the value of the cane for seed purposes almost 
as much as the production of vigorous buds. 

The handling of cane is necessarily rough, and 
prominent buds are often bruised or broken during 
the handling. From this it follows that canes with 
low flat buds are to be preferred to those with 
round and prominent buds. This is especially the 
case where the cane has to be flumed for long dis- 
tances, as the effect of the water is to soften the 
buds and they are then more easily rubbed off as 
they pass along the tlume. 

To prepare cane for seed purposes, it is cut into 
sections, each having one or more buds which it is 
intended shall germinate and start a new stool. 
While the new plant is establishing itself, it grows 
at the expense of the sucrose and other matters 
stored up in the cutting. It is important, there- 
fore, that this store of food shall be preserved for 
the use of the plantlet. If the cane is brittle, it is 
likely to shatter when cut for seed ; that is to say, 
the stroke of the knife causes each piece to split at 
the end in the manner familiar to everybody in chips 
of wood produced by the axe. These cracks afford an 
opportunity for various organisms to enter the cut- 
ting after it is planted, and cause it to decay much 
more rapidly than it otherwise would. For this 
reason a cane that is brittle is one that is of less 
value as seed than one that is not. For this reason, 
also, the tops of stalks are more valuable than 
other parts because they are more succulent, and 
therefore less liable to shatter. To avoid shat- 
tering, or even cutting, it is the custom of some 
planters to use whole cane for seed. 

Leaf. — The microscopic structure and the chem- 
ical composition of the leaves determine the 
amount of resistance they will offer to the attacks 
of the various fungi that are peculiar to this part 
of the plant. This subject is one that has not yet 
been sufficiently studied to determine the precise 
nature of the various factors, but it is known to 
growers that certain varieties are more susceptible 
to leaf diseases than others. For example, the yellow 
varieties are more susceptible to many leaf diseases 
than the red and green varieties. It is now known 
that the various structures indicated vary to a 
considerable extent in the different varieties, and 
it is reasonable to suppose that some of these vari- 
ations are correlated to resistance to disease. The 
thickness and the chemical composition of the cell 
walls will determine the resistance of the internal 
cells to the dissolving effect of parasitic fungi. So, 
too, the thickness of the cuticle and its chemical 
composition will determine the resistance to such 
fungi as dissolve their way through the cuticle. No 
doubt many of the fungi that enter the cane-leaf 
do so by way of the stomata. It is known that these 
vary in number and structure in the various varie- 
ties and thus offer various degrees of ease with 
which the parasites may enter. Again, it is through 
the stomata that a number of these parasites make 
their exit for fructification. Here, again, the num- 
ber and size of the openings determine the degree 
of resistance to the formation of fructifications. 



Resistance to drought is largely a function of 
the leaves, for it is through the opening and closing 
of the stpmatic openings that transpiration is con- 
trolled. A variety that promptly and eff'ectually 
closes its stomata under dry conditions is one that, 
other things being equal, resists drought best. 

At certain periods of its growth, it is customary 
in some localities to strip the stalk of its lower 
leaves in order to facilitate the ripening processes. 
The attachment of the leaf is a factor of impor- 
tance in this connection. In some varieties the leaf 
comes away with ease, and leaves a beneficent scar, 
while in other varieties when the leaf is removed 
the connection is such that there is a tendency to 
tear away some of the tissue of the stalk, and thus 
leave wounds which may be entered by wound- 
parasites that work injury to the cane in reducing 
the sucrose. The attachment of the leaves is also 
related to disease in another way. In some varieties 
the sheath of the leaf is so related to the stalk as 
to resist the entrance of both insect and fungous 
parasites, while other varieties admit of the early 
entrance of mois- 
ture and injurious 
parasites. 

It is the large- 
leaved varieties 
that, as a rule, 
are the most pro- 
lific, although, un- 
fortunately, also 
generally the 
most subject to 
disease. It ap- 
pears that the 
rapid growth re- 
sulting in the pro- 
duction of large 
leaves is more or 
less incompatible 
with the produc- 
tion of disease- 
resistant tissues. 

Flower. — Of re- 
cent years, the 
structure of the 
flower of the cane 
plant has assumed 
great imjiortance 
because of the at- 
tempts to produce 
new canes by 
crossing known 
varieties. These 
attempts and the resulting studies have disclosed 
a number of very interesting facts with regard to 
the anatomy and physiology of the blossom. Until 
recent years it was thought that the blossoms of the 
cane plant were infertile and that such a thing as 
a cane seedling was an impossibility. In the latter 
eighties, however, seedling canes were reared, and 
from that time much progress has been made in the 
art of producing new varieties. In the following 
countries and in the following order, approximately, 
the subject has received attention: .lava, Australia, 




Fig. 829. Sugar-cane. Stripping and 
cutting. 



604 



SUGAR-CANE 



SUGAR-CANE 



West Indies, Hawaii. The making of definite crosses 
was first successful, it is thought, in the West 
Indies. The greatest amount of this work has thus 
far been accomplished in the West Indies, although 






/O-'^^.oi^: 




Fig. 830. Harvesting tlie cane crop. Hawaii. 

it has now begun in Hawaii and elsewhere. The 
following facts have been slowly developed : 

The number of fertile seeds produced in a panicle 
of cane is relatively small, as is the case with 
many other grasses. The germinating power is very 
transient, being at a maximum a few days after 
ripening and rapidly decreasing thereafter so that 
at the end of a few weeks it is often wholly lost. 
An examination of the seeds of cane discloses the 
fact that a large proportion of them are shrunken, 
and this seems to indicate that a large proportion 
of them are not fertilized. Nearly all the plump 
seeds germinate when they are a few days old if 
they are soaked in water for 12 hours and placed in 
a saturated air of 100° Fahr. These are probably the 
properly fertilized seeds. It is rare for certain vari- 
eties to produce fertile seed ; in fact, a large num- 
ber of varieties are not yet known to produce them, 
though this may be due to insufficient observa- 
tion. On the other hand, it has been established 
by observation that the pollen of certain varieties 
is incapable of germination and therefore of prop- 
erly fertilizing the ovaries. This fact is deter- 
mined by the structure of the pollen, and by the 
fact that it will fail to develop when given the 
proper conditions. In some instances the anthers 
appear never to ripen properly, as they are thin, 
off color, and never open at all. On other occasions 
they appear to contain pollen mother-cells only, the 
growth appearing to be arrested at that stage. 
Attempts to secure fertile seed with such anthers 
end in failure. It is possible that the method of 
propagating cane solely by means of cuttings has 
ended in a deterioration of the seed -producing 
powers, and that perseverance in the effort to 
secure successive generations of seedlings may 
resuscitate this power. It is to be hoped that this 
is the case, as it is some of the very best varieties 
that have apparently failed hitherto to produce 
good seed. 

Thus far three methods have been used in the 
production of seedlings : First, seed has been har- 



vested in a haphazard way from varieties that it 
was desired to propagate This method has pro- 
duced a large number of seedlings whose parent- 
age pollen is unknown. Second, an attempt has 
been made artifically to fertilize certain pani- 
cles by giving them an e.xcess of pollen of a given 
kind, such as by placing near them, at the proper 
time, panicles of other plants, either by removing 
these latter from distant canes or by previously 
having planted the canes near by. This has re- 
sulted in the production of a considerable number 
of seedlings, whose parentage pollen is uncertain, 
but less so than by the first method. Third, by emas- 
culating definite blossoms before the ripening of 
their pollen, and by supplying fertile pollen of 
another sort at the proper time. Owing to the diffi- 
culty of accomplishing this the numlser of such 
seedlings has thus far been limited to a few hun- 
dred. By far the greater proportion of these have 
been produced in the West Indies, notably at the 
experiment station of Harvard University, where 
it is said that several hundred such crosses have 
been made. 

The third method is the only scientific one, and it 
is probable that the difficulties will be so much les- 
sened by e.xperience that it will soon be possible 
to produce crosses of definite parentage with ease. 
As such can then be repeated at will, a definite 
knowledge of cane pedigrees can be established. 
This will lead to accuracy in the breeding of new 
varieties. It is probable that the rapidity of our 



^?fM^_ 












Fig. 831. Sugar-cane at harvest time. Louisiana. 

progress in this direction will be in proportion to 
the accuracy of our knowledge of pedigree, as is 
the case with other species. 

With regard to the improvement of present 
varieties by these methods, there can be no doubt 



SUGAR-CANE 



SUGAR-CANE 



605 



about the great value of the improvements already 
effected. Reports show that disease-resistant varie- 
ties have been produced, and the analysis of cer- 
tain seedlings in their first, second and succeeding 
years, indicate that the sucrose content of sugar- 
cane can be increased in much the same way as 
illustrated in the recent history of the sugar-beet. 

Varieties. 

There has been no satisfactory study of the 
varieties of cane, and, in consequence, there is no 
satisfactory system of classification of the varie- 
ties. The division most usually spoken of by plant- 
ers, and that which may therefore be inferred to 
be the one they find 
most useful, is based 
on the color of the 
stalk. Three color- 
groups are recognized: 
(1) the green and yel- 
low group, in which 
the stalk is more or 
less uniformly green 
or yellow; (2) the red 
group, in which the 
stalk is more or less 
uniformly reddish in 
color ; and (3) the 
striped group, in which 
the stalk is more or 
less distinctly striped. 
This grouping is 
wholly, or almost 
wholly arbitrary, and 
presents little to rec- 
ommend it from a 

scientific standpoint. With the multiplication of 
varieties following on the production of new 
crosses, it is to be hoped that increased knowledge 
will result in improvements in nomenclature. It is 
manifest that the color scheme mentioned above 
includes in its striped division canes so closely 
related to each of the other divisions as to require 
its division into two coordinate parts, each on a 
par with the uniformly colored divisions. Many 
other objections to the above classification might 
be pointed out. The gi'eat objection to the system 
is that it leads to the assumption that striped 
canes, for example, have some important property 
in common, which is far from being necessarily the 
case. 

Culture. 

Soil. — Soil that is good for average agricultural 
purposes is good for cane. It should be naturally 
well drained, or if not, drainage should be provided. 
It is usual to provide drainage by means of open 
ditches, comparatively little cane land being 
drained by means of tiles. Soils naturally acid are 
frequently corrected by the application of lime, 
and often with very profitable results. Exceedingly 
stony lands are sometimes profitably used. 

The plowing should be deep, the deeper the 
better, so that the depth is limited only by the 
kind of plow and the nature of the land, the deep- 



est and best plowing is accomplished with steam 
plows, the depth reached within economic, limits 
being eighteen inches to two feet. Sometimes sub- 
soil tools are alleged to go below two feet, but that 
is rare. The limitations are often determined by 
the nature of the subsoil, which in some localities 
is such that it is inadvisable to turn it up to the 
surface except in small quantities. In some volcanic 
soils, for example, the iron compounds in the sub- 
soil are injurious to the growth of cane. 

Good surface tillage after plowing pays as well 
with cane as with any other crop. All the labor- 
saving implements connected with big-scale agri- 
culture are in use in some regions. 




Fig. 832. Hauling sugai-cane from field in wagons. In the old days all cane was 
handled iu this way. 

Fertilizers. — Stable manure is one of the best 
fertilizers, but it is seldom to be had in sufficient 
quantity, and artificial manures are widely used. 
Where animal traction is in use there is much 
stable manure plowed or harrowed in. When com- 
bined with irrigation, the application of commer- 
cial manures may be reduced almost to an exact 
art. Cane-planters establish their own standards 
of manure value, and make contracts on the basis 
of their own analyses, less often making use of 
state fertilizer control. The proportion of the dif- 
ferent elements used in the fertilizers is influenced 
to a large extent by the peculiar nature of the 
industry, which consists of extracting from the 
crop and sending away from the plantation only 
the sugar, a carbohydrate containing none of the 
three most valuable elements in manure, namely, 
nitrogen, phosphorus and potash. The burning of 
the trash destroys much nitrogenous fertilizer, but 
the potash and phosphorous compounds remain on 
the plantation for future use, and if they are not 
lost through leaching maybe utilized over and over 
in successive crops. It follows that the most com- 
monly purchased ingredient for cane-fertilizer is 
nitrogen. The soluble artificial fertilizers are ap- 
plied in small quantities to the surface and with 
more or less frequency, according to the require- 
ments of the crop. The less soluble artificial 
manures, such as dried blood and fish refuse, are 



606 



SUGAR-CANE 



SUGAR-CANE 



applied slightly below the surface of the soil, where 
the conditions are favorable for their decomposi- 
tion. 

Lime is used extensively as a manure in nearly 
all cane-growing regions. It is used in large quan- 
tities in the mill and appears in the by-products, 
which are applied to the soil, mi.xed with other 
ingredients to form fertilizers. Natural lime in the 
form of limestone is also applied, as is also quick- 
lime. Many tropical soils are sufficiently rich in 
humus to permit the free use of lime, and its use is 
beneficial in connection with potash compounds. 
Recently, a modification of the application of lime 
has been recommended to counteract the accumu- 
lation of those fungous pests of the cane that 
inhabit the soil, — the pests that have been called 
"root-disease." In these cases the lime is applied 
unslaked, or partially slaked, and is applied only to 
the bases of the ratoon stubble a few days or 
weeks before plowing out the latter. The after-cul- 
ture is calculated to spread the lime through the 
soil, and it then e.xercises its customary manurial 
effects in proportion to the perfection of the dis- 
tribution. 

Seed and planting. — The rows of cane-stools are 
usually four to six feet apart, five feet being a 
common distance. The aim in planting is to pro- 
duce a stool of cane at about every two feet in the 
row. In the hill-planting system the distances are 
greater. The planting varies widely in various 
regions, according to the way the seed is prepared. 
In some localities great carelessness prevails in the 
preparation of the seed, so that it is necessary to 
allow for the failure of a large proportion of the 
eyes. In such cases the planting is nearer together 
than when the seed is more carefully prepared and 
gives a better percentage of germination. In any 
case, it is the general practice to replant all the 
failures so as to secure as even a stand as possible. 

The practice in reference to seed varies from 
planting whole cane to the planting of a single eye 
every eighteen inches to two feet. It is most com- 
mon to lay the seed-cane horizontally in a row, with 
the eyes facing laterally so that in sprouting the 
shoot from, each eye grows at first horizontally and 
then turns upward. As it is usual to have more 
than one eye on each cutting or set, this position 
gives all the eyes the same opportunity. The 
method gives to the roots on the upper side of the 
cutting small opportunity to succeed, those on the 
under side only having a fair opportunity. Another 
method is to place the cuttings on a slant of about 
40°, with the end protruding from the soil. Still 
another method is to set the cuttings vertically in 
the soil, with the end protruding, the protruding 
end, of course, being always the upper end of the 
cutting. These latter methods are used when the 
cuttings are grouped in "hills," or when it is desired 
to secure a specially good or quick germination. 

In regions where the cold season is so severe 
that all the cane has to be cut before winter, the 
planting is sometimes done in the spring. This 
necessitates preserving the cane-stalks over winter. 
This is done by a process that may be compared to 
the first stages of ensiling. The stalks with th-j 



leaves left on, are cut and covered in some way so 
as to keep them cool and moist, but not wet. The 
stalks are sometimes laid in piles and the trash of 
the cane used as a cover to keep out the excess of 
cold and to prevent too rapid evaporation. Another 
method is to windrow the cane. The stalks, with 
the leaves on, are laid on the ground between the 
rows and so arranged that the leaves completely 
cover the stalks. The rows of stalks thus arranged 
are covered over by plowing furrows on either 
side and turning the soil onto the cut cane. The 
covering is completed by hand. Where the plowing 
cannot well be done because of dryness, it is cus- 
tomary to complete the operation with rollers so as 
to pulverize the lumps and compact the soil above 
the cane-stalks. When this operation is favored by 
the season, it results in well-preserved seed-cane 
for the spring-planting. Often, however, owing to 
the nature of the season, there is a severe loss of 
seed-cane so treated. These methods all have their 
advantages and their disadvantages, although the 
most widely prevailing practice is that first 
described. 

The seed is very lightly covered where irrigation 
is practiced, the covering being half an inch to one 
inch. The covering is greater where cane is grown 
with the natural rainfall, although even here the 
covering is light. The germination and growth of 
the seed requires for its best result strong heat, 
and moisture represented by at least two inches of 
rainfall per week. In regions where diseases of 
cane are common, it is best to preserve the cuttings 
from contact with any trash from the previous 
crop since trash is liable to contaminate the new 
crop. As the seed is usually covered by hand, it is 
possible to do this at a comparatively small cost. 

Of late years a practice of treating the cuttings 
previous to planting is springing up. This is owing 
to the attacks of a disease that rots the cuttings 
before they have opportunity to grow, or at least 
injures them sufficiently seriously to diminish the 
stand. This treatment consists in covering either 
the end alone, or the whole surface of the cutting, 
with some fungicide. Tar is applied to the ends 
of the cuttings, or Bordeaux mixture of double 
strength is used to soak the cuttings for a few 
minutes or a few hours. Such treatments are use- 
less unless the .seed itself is carefully selected, for, 
if the cutting is already diseased, such treatment 
will not save it from further ravages of the dis- 
ease already established. The treatment simply 
prevents the rots present in the soil attacking 
the cuttings as soon as they otherwise would. 

The selection of the seed should begin in the field 
(i. e., the best cane should be cut for seed) and 
continue through the process of preparing the 
seed. All defective seed should be discarded if the 
best and most profitable results are to be secured. 
It is best in some localities to grow cane especially 
for seed, so that at sowing time there will be at 
hand plant-cane of the right degree of maturity. 
The question of seed is one whose importance is 
directly proportional to the frequency of planting. 
When the cane can be ratooned for a long series of 
years, the securing of sufficient first-class seed h 



SUGAR-CANE 



SUGAR-CANE 



607 



an easy matter. On the other hand, when cane is 
not ratooned, the seed question is of the greatest 
importance. 

Subsequent care. — For the first few months after 
planting, the cane is actively cultivated. The com- 











Fig. 833. 



An old cane shed ; placing cane on a carrier by 
hand in the old method. Louisiana. 



monest tool is a one-horse cultivator. This is 
followed by boys with hand -hoes. Cro.ss-cultiva- 
ting with machines is not much practiced, and, in 
consequence, the work of the horse-machines is 
completed by hand. The horse cultivators are 
mostly of the tooth pattern, but recently disk- 
cultivators have come into vogue and promise 
to prove very useful in certain cases. In one ma- 
chine these consist of two disks run on either side 
of a light beam, like that of a single-furrow plow. 
In regions where the original timber was heavy 
it often happens that for some years the crop has to 
be cultivated by hand throughout. This is also 
the case on certain rocky lands that neverthe- 
less yield good crops of cane. The object of the i 
culture is to keep out weeds and to encourage 
the growth of the cane. The methods vary ac- i 
cording as the crop is grown without or with 
irrigation. In the latter case it is necessary to 
keep the rows of cane at the bottom of a furrow 
so as to accommodate the irrigation water. The 
land usually becomes " covered in " by the cane 
at the end of four to si.\ months, and machine 
cultivation then ceases. 

Harvesting and handling. 

Cane is harvested by hand. Machine cutters 
have been invented and tried, but so far no 
machine has been a great success. It is hardly 
unsafe to predict that a cane-harvester will yet 
be invented. Tho cane-knife and the machete 
are the tools with which cane is cut. Where 
ratooning is frequent, the ratoon-cane is .somi'- 
times pulled in order to secure as much stalk 
as possible. The gain, however, is not great, as 
good cutters leave very little of the stalk in the 
ground. Immediately after the cane is cut it is 
started for the mill and, as a rule, is ground within 
twenty-four hours, as, owing to fermentation, the 
sucrose content diminishes at the rate of about one 
per cent per day. 



Hand labor is necesi^ary in loading the cane on 
to the carriers that take it to the mill. The cut 
ters lay the stalks in rows after tojipiiig them. 
The roughness of the fields is such that a large load 
cannot economically be transported over them, and 
hence small loads are taken short distances to the 
carriers which are arranged on definite transporta- 
tion lines that radiate from the mill as perfectly as 
the conformation of the plantatiim admits. These 
intermediate carriers vary all the way from laborers' 
shoulders, through small two-mule sleds to carts 
and wagons of small capacity. The permanent ways 
are roads, canals, wire cables or flumes. The roads 
may be for teams of horses, mules, o.\en, or steam 
traction-engines, or they may be railroads for loco- 
motive engines hauling lines of trucks, varying in 
capacity up to twenty tons. The commonest arrange- 
ment is the Litter, and much ingenuity has been 
exerci.sed in the invention of engines, trucks and 
portable rails adapted to this purpose. When the 
cane lands are along river-banks the various creeks 
emptying into the river are utilized to carry punts, 
and artificial canals for the punts are sometimes 
provided. The latter are as a rule adapted also to 
furnish additional drainage. The punts and tugs 
present no peculiar features. The mill carriers 
come to the waterside and the cane is dumped on 
to the carriers with the aid of machinery, or more 
often without. On certain plantatiims having steep 
grades, gravity cable-ears are in operation, the 
loaded cars at the top of the incline drawing up the 
empties, thus affording an economical power. 
Plantations of this character are sometimes sup- 
plied with overhead cable-systems for carrying 
light, single-wheel trolleys capable of taking several 
hundredweight of cane. The cane is hauled to the 








Fig. 834. Wilson-Webster cane loader. A recent method. 

upper trolley-.station, attached to the trolley in 
bundles of requisite size, and sent by gravity to the 
mill with great speed. The trolley wheels are 
packed back up the hills on the backs of mules. 
Where water h abundant, the cane is sent down to 



608 



SUGAR-CANE 



SUGAR-CANE 



the mill in wooden flumes carrying a stream several 
inches deep, the distant flumes being V-shaped and 
of two boards, the mill flumes larger and of three 
boards. 

Machine loaders are coming into use for trans- 
ferring the bundles of cane from the primary car- 
riers to those on the permanent ways. Chains or 
wire cords of the requisite length are provided, 
and these are fastened about the bundles of cane 
as they are assembled on the primary carriers. 
When these latter reach the permanent-way car- 
riers, mechanical loaders attach their tackle to the 
bundles and lift them to the trucks, trolleys, or 
punts, as the case may be. These loaders are usu- 
ally portable derricks. Where plantation railways 
are in use, they often have portable derricks 
attached to trucks. These are run on to sidings 
and from thence the trucks of the main train are 
loaded in succession. Naturally, all the mechanical 
contrivances are in use just in proportion to the 
price of efficient labor. Where labor is high they 
are in more common use than where it is cheap. 
In some countries that produce much sugar the 
modern labor-saving machines and implements are 
almost unknown. That they will be further per- 
fected and come into wider use is certain. 

There are more patterns of unloaders than of 
loaders, as might be expected from the fact that the 
problem is simpler. One of the commonest unloaders 
is a series of sprocket chains arranged on a frame 
and carrying at intervals perpendicular steel fingers 
a foot in length. The moving chains are lowered 
over the truck of cane and the motion of the steel 
fingers slides the cane off on to the mill carriers. 
As these fingers can be raised or lowered at will, 
the cane can be unloaded to accommodate the speed 
of the crushers. Another unloader consists of a fif- 
teen-foot mechanical finger with a universal move- 
ment. The end is forked and hooked downward, 
so that the cane can be raked off the truck on to 
the mill carrier. 

Manufacture of cane-sugar. 

To produce sugar from sugar-cane it is necessary 
to extract the juice, purify it, and then evaporate 




primitive wooden or stone rollers driven by direct 
animal power, will express much of the juice from 
good ripe cane, and it may be concentrated without 
purification in simple open pans. The result is a 
poor sugar, much molasses, and the extraction of 
only a part of the sugar, much of it remaining in 
the bagasse and going to waste. The most perfect 







Fig. 835. Sugar-cane loading-derrick in action. 

it until the sugar will crystallize. Formerly these 
operations were conducted with very simple 
apparatus, and even now such crude methods are 
in use in the less progressive countries. The most 



Fig. 836. Loading cane into cars. Hawaii. 

mills are only improvements of this simple process. 
The use of more powerful rollers was the first 
improvement; then came the multiplication of the 
rollers, not only because the repeated pressings 
would remove more juice from the already pressed 
fiber, but because between the crushings the fiber 
could be treated with hot liquids, that on being 
removed by the next set of rollers left the su- 
crose in a more dilute solution in the bagasse. 
The amount of moisture that is left in the ba- 
gasse is determined by the pressure; the amount 
of sugar is determined, however, by the con- 
centration of the solution of sucrose in that 
moisture. 

Shredding and crushing. — Endless carriers, 
several feet wide, receive the stalks and elevate 
them twelve to fifteen feet and dump them into a 
shredding machine or its equivalent. Here the 
cane-stalks are torn into fragments by revolving 
cylinders that somewhat resemble a peg-drum 
threshing machine in their action. The cane frag- 
ments pass without further alteration to the first 
set of rollers. These three corrugated steel rollers 
are set to press out about three-fourths of the 
sucrose, an operation easily possible with the best 
mills. The fiber or bagasse from these rollers is 
macerated during about two minutes, as it passes 
on carriers to the second rollers, the macerating 
liquid being the heated juice from the final set 
of rollers used at about 150° Fahr., and sprayed 
at the rate of about six cubic feet per minute. 
About 10 per. cent more of the sucrose is pressed 
from the macerated bagasse as it passes through 
the second set of rollers, which are like the first in 
action. These operations are repeated between thQ 
second and third sets of rollers, except that the 
macerating liquid is hot water in this case. The 
third rollers extract another 3 to 4 per cent of 
sucrose. 

The bagasse from the third rollers is carried to 
the furnaces and is mechanically dumped into 
them at a rate that can be regulated, so that the 



SUGAR-CANE 



SUGAR-CANE 



e09 



possible excess may be saved to supply any defi- 
ciency that may occur when richer cane is being 
crushed. The average amount of bagasse produced 
furnishes sufficient fuel to keep up steam for the 
mill. With rich cane there may be a deficiency of 
bagasse, which compels the use of some other kind 
of fuel. 

Purifying the juice. — The mixed juices are 
strained and then heated by being passed at once 
through a super-heated steam heater, with the 
result that some of the coagulable matter is thus 
coagulated and the remainder rendered more 
susceptible to purification by the addition of freshly 
slaked lime, which constitutes the next operation. 
The lime-water is added in measured quantities, 
according to the composition of the juice, and at a 
temperature of nearly 212°, this being the temper- 
ature at which the maximum purification is 
secured. The impurities settle rapidly, or rise as a 
scum or " blanket," and the juice, often further 
purified by boiling or skimming, is drawn off 
into the evaporating pans. The blanket and pre- 
cipitate go to the filter presses, where the re- 
maining juice is pressed out through a long 
series of cloth filters. Each element of the filter 
press is a metal frame with its accompanying 
cloth filter. The pressure is applied to the whole 
series at once, usually by means of screws. The 
filtered juice goes to the evaporators. The resulting 
filtrate, known as press-cake, is used to form 
fertilizer for the cane-fields. It is rich in lime and 
nitrogen. 

If the evaporating plant breaks down, there is 
danger of losing juice through fermentation. This 
is prevented by the use of antiseptics, such as 
formaldehyde. 

Concentration. — The juice is concentrated in a 
series of evaporating pans enclosed separately in 
vacuums of varying degrees, that of the first pan 
(6-inch vacuum) being less than that of the second 
{15-inch vacuum), and that of the third being 
nearly the highest that can be practically main- 
tained by large pumping machinery (26- to 28-inch 
vacuum). These pans are raised on a high plat- 
form so that the later operations may take advan- 
tage of the force of gravity. The product of the 
evaporating process, known as massecuite, is a 
thick, grainy mass composed of crystallized sugar 
and molasses. 

Crystallization. — The operation of converting 
the sucrose into the crystalline form in which it is 
sold, under the name of sugar, is carried out in 
what is known as the vacuum pan, a cast-iron 
cylinder with a conical bottom and domed top, the 
bottom containing the pan and its coils of steam- 
pipe for heating the syrup and apparatus for keep- 
ing the boiling mass in motion, and the top being 
supplied with large delivery pipes for the vapors 
which must move off slowly so as to prevent syrup 
entrainment. The highest possible vacuum must be 
available in the pan, and it must be under complete 
control, so that the temperature of the boiling can 
be promptly altered as required during the crystal- 
lization of the sugar. This latter operation follows 
the known laws of crystallization, in that the prea- 

B39 



ence of crystals in a crystallizable sj'rup has much 
to do with the formation of new ones, and in that 
the presence in .'i syrup of a multitude of minute 
crystals determines the accretion of further sugar 
on these crystals as a base. As the syrup ap- 
proaches the necessary consistency, small samples 
are drawn off and tested for physical properties, — 
grain, consistency and the like. The approach of 
the boiling mass to this point is controlled by 
varying the vacuum and temperature, and by add- 
ing more syrup, this latter being derived from the 
molasses. At the proper moment the " boiling " is 
"struck"; that is, the massecuite is delivered from 
the bottom of the pan through a valve at as low a 
temperature as possible, part, however, being left 
in the pan as a basis for the next boiling. Through- 
out all the apparatus for concentrating and 
crystallizing the syrup, are placed vacuum gages 
and temperature gages, and strongly glazed peek- 
holes are provided for viewing the different pro- 
cesses. 

The proper manipulation of the vacuum pan 
determines not only how much sugar is secured by 
the centrifugals from the massecuite, but the ease 
with which it may be done. Improperly grained 
sugar may be difficult or even impossible of sepa- 
ration in the centrifugals. The amount of sugar 
that crystallizes out, and the rapidity of the crys- 
tallization, depend also on temperature and the 
perfection of the purification of the juice. Gummy 
matters not removed from the juice, for example, 
may delay or prevent crystallization of part of the 
sucrose. The massecuite may contain as low as 5 
per cent of water. The cooled massecuite is dried 
in centrifugal machines about thirty inches in 
diameter, run at the rate of 800 to 1,300 revolu- 
tions per minute, 1,000 being standard for thirty- 
inch machines. The sugar passes down from the 
centrifugals as " first " sugar and, after weighing, 
is at once bagged. 

Bagging. — For this operation the sugar is some- 
times elevated again and spouted on to more or less 
automatic weighing machines. The bags into which 
it is spouted are sewed by machinery, being carried 
in succession on a horizontal carrier so that the 
free upper ends pass a horizontally-acting sewing- 
machine needle. 

Molasses. — The molasses extracted by the cen- 
trifugals is cooled and allowed to stand days, weeks 
or even months, the result being that a further 
amount of sugar crystallizes out, yielding "second" 
and even " third " sugars. According to the com- 
pleteness of the crystallizing, the molasses is rich 
or poor in saccharine substance. With the best 
work so little utilizable saccharine matter remains 
that the molasses is thrown away, or at best is 
used for fertilizer because of the mineral matter it 
contains in solution. Where the cry.stallization is 
imperfect, molas.ses of commercial value is a sec- 
ondary product and may be marketed as such, or 
be converted into rum or alcohol. With the reduc- 
tion of the duty on denatured alcohol, recently 
enacted by Congress, more attention is being given 
to the manufacture of such alcohol from the poorer 
grades of molasses. 



610 SUGAR-CANE SUGAR-CANE 

Yield — Tons of Sugar Produced in the World, 1900 to 1906. Estimated by Willett and Gray, New York. 





1901 


1902 


1903 


1904 


1905 


J 

1906 


Louisiana 

Porto Rico 

Hawaii 


275,000 

80,000 

321,461 


321,676 

85,000 

317,509 


329,226 

85,000 

391,062 


215,000 
130,000 
328,103 


335,000 
145,000 
380,576 


300,000 
210,000 
370,000 






676,461 


724,185 


805,288 


673,103 


860,576 


880,000 


Philippines (Export) . . . 


52,000 


78,637 


90,000 


84,000 


106,875 


135,625 


Cuba 


635,856 


850,181 


998,878 


1,040,228 


1,163,258 


1,300,000 




North and South America . 

Asia 

Australasia and Polynesia . 


2,235,569 

784,120 

144,554 

305,147 

33,000 


2,742,191 

860,767 

169,858 

278,926 

28,000 


2,777,530 
947,812 
133,126 

277,473 
28,(100 


2,746,611 

984,561 

163,328 

321,706 

29,000 


3,007,248 

1,145,775 

223,688 

232,101 

29,000 


3,258,000 

1,144,525 

232,000 

295,000 


Europe (Spain) 


28,000 


World 


3,502,390 


4,079,742 


4,163,941 


4,244,206 


4,636,812 


4,957,525 


World, with beet-sugar added 


9,648,243 


10,993,346 


9,920,661 


10,333,674 


9,559,510 


12,172,525 


United States (beet-sugar) . 


76,859 


163,126 


195,463 


208,135 


209,722 


285,000 



Enemies. 

The sugar-cane crop is subject to the depreda- 
tions of animals, insects and fungous parasites. 
Of the animal pests the rat is the most important. 
It is combated by the usual means, and, besides, is 
fought by fire and the mongoose. When burning 
off tra.sh it is possible to entrap the rats of infested 
fields in a circle of fire. This is sometimes done 
most successfully. Opinion is divided as to the 
mongoose. The drawback to its introduction is 
the fact that it attacks poultry and native birds 
and useful small animals. By some these depreda- 
tions are reckoned more than to offset any good it 
may do in destroying rats. There is no way of 
exterminating the mongoose, once it is introduced. 

Insects. — The list of insect enemies of the cane 
is a rather formidable one. The worst are the bor- 
ers, for the most part the larvae of beetles. These 
are fought by hand-picking and by agricultural 
methods, such as the rotation of crops, or the rest- 
ing of the land, or the use of fire in destroying the 
"rotten" cane-stalks, which at considerable expense 
are sometimes gathered together and burned in 
heaps. Borers are sometimes hand-picked at a cost 
of hundreds of dollars per annum. Occasionally 
trap-crops are used, i. e., crops are planted at times 
calculated to attract the borers and are then cut 
green and destroyed by fire. In some regions one 
of the principal items of expenditure in connection 
with harvesting is that connected with the control 
of borers. 

More than twenty beetles, several ants, several 
flies, about thirty butterflies and moths, numerous 
bugs, hoppers, aphides and scales, and several 
grasshoppers and crickets attack cane. Mites of 
various kinds are troublesome. 

In fighting the insect pests various methods are 
employed. Where hand methods are applicable 



they are used. The use of insecticides is for the 
most part out of the question, the crop being so 
extensive and bulky, and impenetrable. The intro- 
duction of insect and other parasites has been 
attended with marked success in some instances, 
and work in this line continues to promise well. 

Stripping is closely related to certain insect 
pests, as it favors some and hinders others. This 
is one of the reasons for the great diversity of 
opinion and practice in connection with stripping. 
The leaf-hoppers are being fought successfully in 
Hawaii by the introduction of insect parasites and 
predaceous insects. 

The underground parts of the cane plant are 
attacked by a great variety of free-living and 
parasitic nematodes, and it has been recently 
shown that their attacks are a potent factor in 
various root diseases. The attacks of the parasites 
cause galls. These worms can be combated only 
by agricultural methods, one of the chief of which 
is a method of culture that exposes the soil as 
much as possible to the action of air and sunlight. 

Diseases. — Twenty-five to thirty fungous pests of 
the cane are known, some of these being the most 
wide-spread and destructive of all the pests of the 
crop. Of these, two of the most serious, namely 
sereh and gumming, are not known to do serious 
damage in the United States or its possessions. 
Most of the others are probably as prevalent on 
American plantations as elsewhere, due regard 
being had to climate and other local conditions. 
The following is a list of the fungous diseases of 
cane somewhat in the order of their seriousness: 
Root diseases, rind disease, sereh, pineapple disease, 
red-rot, top-rot, smut, rust and various leaf and 
leaf-sheath diseases. 

The nature of the cane crop precludes the use of 
fungicides e.xcept in connection with the rots that 



SUGAR-CANE 



SUNFLOWER 



611 



attack the cuttings after planting. Here fungicides 
come into play as explained on page 606. The 
remainder of the pests are fought by modifications 
of agricultural practices. Where the pests are 
abundant it is generally advisable to burn over 
the fields after each crop is removed. This results 
in the destruction of a vast amount of diseased 
material that would otherwise remain to infest the 
succeeding crop. Where the pests are not preva- 
lent, the plowing in of such refuse is permissible. 
The destruction of infested cane of all kinds is 
sometimes accomplished by passing it through the 
mill at convenient times, as at the end of the week 
where the run is a weekly one. The crushing and 
heat kill everything thus treated and it seems prob- 
able that this method will come into wider use. 
It is possible that in a large mill, it would pay to 
maintain a small set of rollers for this purpose. 

Careful attention to the seed, its selection in the 
field and its careful preparation and planting, 
constitutes a strong defense against these pests. 
Special plows and other tools have been devised 
for use in fighting these enemies. Quicklime is 
used as a soil fungicide. 

Literature. 

Culture: Leon Colson, Culture et Industrie de la 
Canne a Sucre (Hawaii and Reunion), Second Edition, 
xxii, 431, illustrated, Paris, Challareul (1905); Noel 
Deerr, Sugar and Sugar-cane, viii, 395, illustrated, 
Manchester, N. Rodger (1905) ; Wilhelm Kriiger, Das 
Zucker-rohr und seine Kultur, 580, illustrated, 
Magdeburg (1899); W. C. Stubbs, Sugar-Cane, 
Baton Rouge (1897) ; Bulletins of the Experiment 
Stations of Java, East and West, Mededeelingen and 
Kagok te Pekalongon, Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Ex- 
periment Station, Louisiana, Cuba and Porto Rico 
Experiment Stations, British Imperial Department 
of Agriculture, Barbadoes. Fungouspests: Bulletins 
of Barber, Cobb, Howard, Janse, Lewton-Brain, 
Tryon, Wakker, Went. Insect pests and nematodes: 
Bulletins of Cobb, Comstock, Kobus, Perkins, Tryon, 
et al. Manufacture: P. Von Bieroliet, L'Industrie 
Sucriere aux Etats-Unis, Brecht (1901); R. Frilling 
& J. Sehulz, Anleitung zur Untersuchung der f iir den 
Zuckerindustrie in betracht kommenden rohmater- 
ialen, produkte, neben-produkte, und hiilfssubstan- 
zen, Fifth Edition, xxi, 505, illustrated, Braun- 
schweig (1903) ; Herbert Myrick, The American 
Sugar Industry, viii, 232, Orange Judd Company, 
New York (1900) ; H. L. Roth, Guide to the Literature 
of Sugar, 159, London (1890); W. L. Bass, Sugar 
Manufacture, New York (1900) ; H. Claassen and 
Bartz, Die Zuckerfabrikation, B. G. Teubner, Leip- 
zig and Berlin ; J. G. M'Intosh, The Technology of 
Sugar, xiv, 408, illustrated, D. Van Nostrand, New 
Y'ork ; A. Rumpler, Ausfiihrliches Handbuch der 
Zuckerfabrikation, Braunschweig, F. Verweg & 
Sohn (1906) ; G. S. Spencer, Handbook for Cane 
Sugar Manufacturers, Fourth Edition, viii, 331, illus- 
trated, J. Wiley and Sons, New York ; F. Stolle, 
Handbuch fiir Zukerfabrikats-Chemiker, xix, 583, 
P. Parey, Berlin (1904) ; R. Teyssier, Manuel-Guide 
de la Fabrication de Sucre, 425, illustrated, C. 
Naud, Paris (1904). 



SUNFLOWER. Helianthus annuus, Linn. Com- 
positm. Fig. 837. 

By A. M. TenEyck. 

The sunflower is a native annual plant, the seeds 
of which are used for bird and poultry food, and 
to some extent for stock-food and for the manu- 
facture of oil. The entire plant is also used for 
feeding dry and for ensiling. The seeds of the 
large-seeded variety are sold in Russia as pea- 
nuts are sold in this country, except that they are 
to be eaten raw. The stems are 3-20 feet high, 
rough-hairy, often mottled; leaves 4-12 inches 
long, broadly ovate, acute, and the lower cordate, 
coarsely serrate, 
rough on both sides; 
flower - heads 3-6 
inches wide in wild 
specimens, often 14- 
22 inches in culti- 
vated specimens. 

Although the sun- 
flower is native in 
Kansas and the 
Great Plains region 
from Nebraska to 
Mexico, it has re- 
ceived little develop- 
ment by culture as 
a farm crop in this 
country. The Ameri- 
can Indians culti- 
vated and developed 
it, using the seed 
for food and to 
make oil which they 
used on their hair. 
These cultivated 
varieties were first 
introduced into Eu- 
rope about the mid- 
dle of the sixteenth 
century. In western 
Europe and America 
the plant has been grown chiefly for ornamental 
purposes, or occasionally for poultry food, and, ex- 
cept in recent years, has hardly risen to the dignity 
of a farm crop; but in -Russia, sunflower seed has 
come into general use as a staple article of human 
food and for the production of oil, which resembles 
olive oil and which is used in cooking and for other 
domestic purposes in that country. In recent years 
some exportation of this oil is being made from 
Russia to other countries. In Russia the plant has 
come to be extensively cultivated ; improved va- 
rieties have been developed, and the best varieties 
now grown in the United States are those intro- 
duced from that country. The crop is also grown 
extensively in India and Egypt. 

Sunflowers have a wide adaptability, and could 
be grown successfully throughout a large part of 
the country. For growing on a commercial scale, 
however, the Ohio valley and Kansas and Missouri 
seem to be best adapted. Sunflower seed is very 
rich in fat and protein, containing four to fiv3 




Fig. 837. 
Sunflower {Helianthus annuus). 



612 



SUNFLOWER 



SUNFLOWER 



times as much fat as corn and more protein than 
any of the cereal grains. In protein, it compares 
well with peas, cowpeas and soybeans. 

Varieties. 

Aside from the common sunflower, two other 
varieties are grown in this country. The largest 
flowered of the three is the Black Giant, in which 
the heads may reach a diameter of twenty-two 
inches. In the Mammoth Russian the heads may 
reach a width of twenty inches. The seeds of the 
former are about three-eighths of an inch long, 
and black ; the seeds of the latter are slightly 
longer, and bear dark stripes. 

Culture. 

Soil. — Sunflowers may be grown successfully on 
any good corn land in those states which are best 
adapted for growing corn. For the largest crops 
the land should be fertile, and especially rich in 
humus and nitrogen. The crop exhausts the nitro- 
gen of the soil in producing the large amount of 
protein stored in the seed, though the most valu- 
able constituent of the plant, the oil, is formed 
during growth from the elements carbon, hydrogen 
and oxygen, which are secured by the plant from 
the water and the air without diminishing the fer- 
tility of the soil. The crop has succeeded on alkali 
soil in California. 

Planting. — Sunflowers -should be planted at about 
the same time as corn, though somewhat earlier 
planting is safe, as slight frosts are not injurious 
to the young plants. The seed may be planted with 
a grain drill or drill planter in rows three to three 
and one-half feet apart. Usually to insure a good 
stand the seeds are dropped three to four inches 
apart in the drills, and later the plants are thinned 
to twelve to eighteen inches apart in the row. 
The seed is planted in a well-prepared seed-bed, a 
little shallower than corn would be planted under 
similar conditions. Six to twelve pounds of seed 
per acre are used. Shallow cultivation is given, 
and the subsequent care is much the same as for 
coi-n. It is advised to remove all but three or four 
heads per plant when the plants are in bloom, in 
order that the best development may be secured. 

Harvesting, threshing and storing. 

The sunflower heads should be harvested before 
the seeds are fully ripe. As soon as the seeds are 
ripe they begin to shatter, and before the crop is 
mature it i.s likely to be damaged by birds which 
gather in flocks to feast on the rich seeds. As 
ordinarily gathered the seeds will not be dry 
enough to shell and store, but the heads should bs 
cured for a week or so before threshing or sh3ll- 
ing. If only a small quantity is grown the heads 
may be spread out on the barn floor or in a loft or 
shed. At the Kansas Experiment Station has been 
followed the plan of cutting ofl" the heads with a 
sickle or corn knife and putting them in shallow 
, windrows in the field for several days, when they 
are hauled in and threshed or stored in large piles. 
More or less loss attends the handling of the crop 
in this way 



There seems to be no satisfactory or economical 
method of threshing out the seed. Often the seeds 
are shelled out by hand, or they may be pounded 
out with a flail. Some farmers construct a wooden 
disk or wheel arrangement, hung and operated in 
the same way as the ordinary grindstone. The 
sides of the disk are driven very full of nails, 
against which the sunflower heads are held as the 
disk revolves, thus removing the seeds quickly. 
These methods are slow and cumbersome. Although 
the writer has not seen it tried, it seems probable 
that when the heads are fully dried the seeds may 
be threshed out by the ordinary grain separator. 
At least some cheap and more rapid method must 
be found for harvesting and handling the crop be- 
fore it can be grown successfully in a large way. 

If the seed is fully dry when it is threshed it 
may be stored safely in large bins, but if the heads 
are yet green and the seeds not fully dry when 
threshed, the seed must be spread out and dried 
before storing in large quantities. Often the seed 
may be stored safely in sacks, barrels or small 
bins before fully dry. Fermentation must be 
avoided, otherwise the quality of the oil will be 
lowered. 

Yield. 

By the reports of farmers who have grown 
the crop, an average yield appears to be 1,000 
to 1,500 pounds of seed per acre. W. S. Dean 
reports a yield on his farm of 2,250 pounds of 
seed per acre in 1894, while other growers report 
yields as low as 600 pounds per acre. The yields 
of green matter per acre is four to five tons. 
The average weight of a bushel of seed is about 
thirty pounds. 

Uses. 

Feeding. — No experiments in feeding sunflower 
seed to stock have been published by any of our 
experiment stations. Some experiments were made 
several years ago in Maine, Vermont, and at some 
of the Canadian experiment farms, in ensiling sun- 
flower heads in combination with other crops, and 
feeding the silage, but, on the whole, the results of 
these experiments seem to have been unsatisfac- 
tory. By the reports received, so far as sunflower 
seed has been fed by farmers in this country the 
results have been satisfactory. The whole seed 
ground and fed with other grains makes a rich 
and palatable food for growing and fattening 
stock. If sunflower seed can be produced in suffi- 
cient quantity and cheaply enough, it should be- 
come a valuable feed for stock in this country. In 
Russia, the stalks of the plant are ground up and 
fed as roughage to horses, cattle and sheep. 

In the manufacture of sunflower oil, "oil-cake " 
is left as a by-product, and meal made from the oil- 
cake makes an excellent food for stock. The cake 
is rich in protein and oil and is well relished by 
stock. 

Robertson mixture. — The Robertson mixture is a 
combination of corn, sunflower heads and broad 
beans in the form of silage, in the proportion of 
one-half acre of sunflower heads to two acres of 



SUNFLOWER 



SWEET-POTATO 



613 



broad beans and corn. The corn and beana are 
harvested when the corn in the ear is beginning to 
glaze. Fifty pounds of this mi.\ture may take the 
place of the corn silage in the ration, using about 
four pounds less grain than ordinarily goes with 
the corn silage. [See Bcati, Broad, p. 212.] 

0)7. — The small-seeded variety is preferred for 
the manufacture of oil. When cold-pressed, a yel- 
low, sweet oil is secured that is considered equal 
to olive or almond oil for table use. If this resi- 
due or " oil-cake " is warm-pressed it yields an oil 
that is useful for lighting purposes, and for wool- 
len-dressing, candle- and soap-making. The per- 
centage of oil ranges from 1.5 to 28. 

Medicine. — Sunflower seed also has some medici- 
nal use. When ground and mixed with other food 
products and fed to animals it improves their 
digestion and keeps them in good physical condi- 
tion. The ground seed is said to be used exten- 
sively as an important constituent of condition 
powders and stock-foods. 

Paper and fiber. — Sunilower stems are used for 
fuel, though they would make excellent paper stuff 
and yield a iine fiber if industries were developed 
thus to utilize them. 

Commercial status of the crop. 

Up to this time sunflower seed has been u.sed 
mainly for poultry food and in the manufacture of 
stock-food. For these purposes the limited amount 
grown has usually found a ready sale at an aver- 
age price of about two cents per pound. Sunflow- 
ers may be grown at about the same cost per acre 
as corn, but by the methods now employed the har- 
vesting and threshing of sunflower seed is a rather 
slow and expensive process, and until better meth- 
ods and improved machinery for handling the crop 
are secured, it is not practicable to grow sunflow- 
ers on a large scale. 

Literature. 

The best publication on the sunflower which the 
writer has seen is Bulletin No. 60 of the Division 
of Chemistry, United States Department of Agri- 
culture. This bulletin has been used in the prepa- 
ration of this article. 

SWEET-POTATO. Ipoma;a Batatas, Poir. (Con- 
volvus. Batatas, Linn. Batatas edulis, Choisy.) 
Convolvulacecs. Figs. 838-847. 

By M. B. Waite. 

The sweet-potato is an edible tuberous root, 
much valued in this country, especially in the 
southern states, where it is a staple. It is used 
chiefly for human food as a table vegetable, for 
canning and for pies. It is more valuable for 
stock-food than the Irish potato because of its high 
content of fat, sugar (4-6 per cent) and starch 
(16-18 per cent). Hogs can be turned in the patch 
and will root out the sweet-potatoes for themselves. 
The sweet-potato is sometimes fed to cattle and 
hor.ses, for which purpose it is sliced. 

This plant belongs to the morning-glory family. 
The trailing vine closely resembles some of the 




Fig. 838. 
Flowers and leaf of sweet- 
potato {Iponuea Batatas). 



wild species, especially Ipom/ea pandurata, and it 
is ditticult to distinguish the latter when it grows 
as a weed in the sweet-potato patches. The flowers, 
which are rarely produced in the North, resemble 
very closely those of the common varieties of 
morning-glory, but are smaller. The leaves are 
ovatj-cordate, usu- 
ally angular or 
lobed, petioled and 
exceedingly varia- 
ble ; the peduncles 
equal or exceed the 
petioles, several- 
flowered, the corol- 
las one to two 
inches wide. The 
flowers are pur- 
plish, 3 or 4 on 
each peduncle or 
branches of the 
peduncle ; stamens 
5 ; pistil 1, ripening 
into a pod with 
four 1-seeded cells. 
The nativity of 
the sweet-potato is 
unknown, but it is 
probably tropical America. It was cultivated in 
the tropics of both hemispheres when authentic 
records began. DeCandolle inclines to an American 
origin. The species Ipomaa Batatas is nowhere 
known in a wild aboriginal state ; it has been sug- 
gested that it may be a derivative of some other 
species, as Lfastirjiaia. Safford saw models of the 
sweet-potato in the pre-historic Yunta graves of 
Ancon, Peru, which exhibited the pentagonal form 
often seen in certain varieties. 

Distribution. 

The sweet -potato is essentially an American 
crop, but it is now in cultivation in many of the 
islands of the Pacific. Some of the varieties in 
cultivation in the United States have come back 
from China. Commercially, the northern limit of 
sweet -potato -culture on the Atlantic coast of 
America is about the middle of New Jersey. This 
line, extended westward, barely takes in southern 
Ohio and Kansas. At Muscatine island in the Missis- 
sippi river and in certain other warm, sandy soils 
from there southward, a few districts compete with 
the southern growers. Sweet-potato-culture practi- 
cally disappears on the Rocky mountain plateau 
and the arid regions of the West, except in irri- 
gated sandy soils far to the southward, as in 
southern New Mexico, Arizona and in California. 
The crop is grown extensively in southern Cali- 
fornia under irrigation, both in the Imperial val- 
ley and in the Los Angeles district. It is also 
grown under irrigation on some .sandy soils of the 
lower San Joaquin, especially near Merced and At- 
water, and to a limited extent at other points in 
the great interior valley of California. The crop 
does not appear to be adapted to the cool nights 
and dry atmosphere of the Rocky mountain plateau, 
or the great basin, or even in the higher parts of 



614 



SWEET-POTATO 



SWEET-POTATO 



Arizona and California, in spite of the fact that 
the total heat is more than ample and the warm 
sandy soils supply ideal conditions, with irrigation 
water to maintain the soil moisture. Sweet-potato- 
culture, therefore, even in the warm parts of arid 
America is pursued commercially only at a few 
points. Sweet-potatoes may be grown in the north- 
ern states by careful attention, but neither the 
quality nor the quantity of the crop is satisfactory 
when compared with that of the South. 

According to the Twelfth Census, the sweet- 
potato is the most extensively grown vegetable 
in the United States, next to the Irish potato. In 
1899 it was reported by 1,001,877 farmers, oi- 
more than one-third of the number reporting Irish 
potatoes. The acreage, including that of yams, was 
537,447, and the value of the crop in 1899 was 
$19,876,200. The five leading states in production 
were North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Alabama 
and South Carolina. They produced 52.1 percent 
of the aggregate crop. Georgia, North Carolina, 
Alabama, South Carolina and Texas cultivated, in 
the order named, 70,620, 68,730, 50,865, 48,831, 
43,561 acres, which constituted 52.6 per cent of 
the acreage of the crop of 1899. The' acreage of 
the south Atlantic division was 49.1 per cent 
of the total ; the south central, 39.9 ; the north 
central, 6.2 ; the north Atlantic, 4.5, and the 
western division only 0.3. 

Culhire. 

Climate. — The sweet-potato demands, for best 
results, a rather warm, moist climate in the 
growing season. An ideal season is one which has 
frequent showers from April and May, when the 
crop is planted, into .July or early in August; then 
when the crop is maturing in August and Se[5tem- 
ber, rather dry weather should follow. This is 
particularly true of the much-grown Yellow Jersey 
type of sweet-potato, which is retarded by drought 
before the plants are established and requires con- 
siderable moisture for proper growth. On the other 
hand, cold rains on the young plants are objection- 
able. North of the cotton-growing districts heat 
seems to be the important and frequently lacking 
requirement. In the cotton-belt, however, the tem- 
perature conditions are more favorable. 

Soil. — The sweet-potato likes a warm, sandy 
soil that is well drained and well aerated. Light 
sandy soils may sometimes be benefited by artifi- 
cial drainage if the subsoil is slowly pervious. The 
highest yields are often secured on sandy knolls on 
which corn would fire or burn, and other crops 
suffer from lack of water. New, cleared land on 
which a crop of corn has been grown raises fine 
crops of sweet-potatoes. Successful crops are often 
grown on soils that are not ideal, provided they 
lie on hill slopes and are otherwise exceptionally 
well drained. The red clay hills in the Piedmont 
region of the Atlantic and Gulf states grow good 
crops, although, as a rule, commercial cultivation is 
not attempted on these soils. Some clays are 
crumbly and grainy so that they allow the neces- 
sary aeration, and the droughty character of the 
soil may prove favorable. 



Fertilizers. — The sweet-potato is especially sus- 
ceptible to artificial fertilizers and manures, and on 
droughty soils where weak vine-growth is likely 
they should be employed. Humus is e.ssential. For 
old land, growers sometimes haul pine leaves or 
"woods trash" to the fields in the winter and plow 
it under to supply humus. Light straw manure is 
very favorable. Crimson clover sod is especially 
valuable for this purpose when old land is to be 
used. If used as a cover-crop, crimson clover 
should be plowed under when it has made half its 
growth. Cowpeas are excellent, but they disinte- 
grate rather too rapidly ; and while the cowpea 
land works up well in the spring, it does not retain 
its humus through the season so well as the clover. 
As a rule, the cowpeas should be left on the ground, 
or perhaps, pastured by hogs, and plowed under in 
the spring two or three weeks before planting. 
Rye plowed under when it is just shooting into 
head is also excellent, though by no means as good 
as the clover. [See below, under Preparation of the 
land.] 

Plaee in the rotation. — Sweet-potatoes do very 
well after corn, cantaloupes, tomatoes and most 
other field and garden crops, with the exception, 
perhaps, of root crops. In general, planting after 
fall-dug root crops is not to be recommended. 
Corn, melons, tomatoes and certain other crops 
give an opportunity for sowing crimson clover at 
their last cultivation, and there is nothing better 
for the sweet-potato crop than to plow under crim- 
son clover when it is about six or eight inches 
high. Early dug potatoes and early harvested 
vegetable crops can be cleared from the land and 
crimson clover sown. Cowpeas may be sown in the 
same way, but for the later crops this is not so 
desirable. 

With heavy manuring and fertilizing sweet- 
potatoes can be grown on the same land for several 
years with good results, but this practice is not to 
be recommended. The writer has had excellent 
crops for three years in succession, but generally 
the second crop has been the best. This is doubt- 
less the result of the accumulation of manure and 
fertilizer from the previous crop. The third crop 
begins to feel slightly the injurious effect of con- 
tinuous cropping. One evil of successive crops of 
sweet-potatoes on the same land is that too little 
opportunity is afforded for cover-crops and for the 
addition of humus. Sweet-potato vines decay so 
completely that they add little humus to the soil. 
With early dug sweet-potatoes, however, especially 
toward the South, crimson clover or rye, or even 
winter oats, can be sown to supply organic matter. 

Preparation of the land. — As a rule, very deep 
plowing is not best for sweet-potatoes. The com- 
mercial demands are for a short, thick root as 
nearly round as possible, and deep preparation, 
though increasing the total yield, tends to make 
long roots. On the average, five or six inches may 
be regarded as the proper depth, although seven 
inches would answer very well ; some growers pre- 
fer to plow only three or four inches. The plowing 
.should be done shortly after the land comes into 
condition in the spring ; as the sweet-potato is an 



SWEET-POTATO 



SWEET-POTATO 



615 



intensive money crop, it is often possible to select 
the most favorable time for plowing for this crop. 
When the soil reaches a certain condition, neither 
too wot nor too dry, it crumbles nicely before the 
plow and harrows down into a fine garden condition. 
Since the sweet-potato plants have to be trans- 
planted into the soil, specially fine preparation is 
required. It is seldom safe to postpone the harrow- 
ing of sweet-potato land. A spike-tooth harrow 
should be run over the land the same day that it is 
plowed, thoroughly pulverizing the surface. In 
certain very light sandy soil best adapted to sweet- 
potatoes, the preparation is so simple and easy that 
no special care is required. But many sandy soils 
have enough clay in them to bake and form clods, 
and hence need careful attention. 

After the field is plowed and harrowed, the fertil- 
izer can be drilled in, or sown broadcast if it is 
desired to make a large application. The writer 
uses 1,200 pounds per acre, 800 pounds of which is 
drilled in after the harrowing. This is done prefer- 
ably at least two weeks before planting, so that, 
if possible, one or two rains will intervene, thor- 
oughly dissolving and diflfusing the caustic parts of 
the fertilizer. If there is a rain sufficient to wet 
down the plowed land, and this is particularly desir- 
able at this time, as soon as the soil comes into 
condition it is thoroughly and deeply harrowed with 
a di.sk-harrow or one of the cutaway or spading 
harrows. The disk is then followed either at once 
or in a short time by the acme, spike-tooth or some 
surface pulverizing harrow. Land in this condition, 
finely pulverized and full of moisture, is ready to 
resist any reasonable drought, and the plants can 
be set out in all but the most intemsely dry weather. 
A week or two before planting time, furrows three 
to five inches deep should be run with a one-horse 
plow. The distance may be three feet six inches 
to four feet, or even slightly more. In these fur- 
rows, 400 pounds per acre of commercial fertilizer 
is applied. This can be put in most economically 
with one of the little distributers of the wheel- 
barrow type. The manure can then be distributed 
in the bottom of the furrow. The quantity of 
manure naturally varies ; the average would be a 
strip four inches wide and one inch deep. If the 
manure is light and strawy, of course the depth 
would be greater. 

In applying such a quantity of manure an average 
forkful reaches three or four feet in the drill, and 
the amount used per acre is about eight tons. The 
manure can be applied previous to plowing. It may 
be spread on crimson clover sod in the fall, with 
excellent results, or it may be distributed on the 
ground in the winter. Care should be taken, how- 
ever, not to haul heavy loads over the land when it 
is very wet. Most sweet-potato-growers prefer to 
put the manure in the furrow under the crop. The 
greater economy of fall and winter distribution in 
labor and teams is an argument forthelattermethod. 
If possible, the drills should be opened, the fertilizer 
and manure applied and then a ridge bedded over the 
fertilizers by a one-horse plow the same day, unless 
the soil is very moist. In dry weather it is also 
necessary to bed up the ridges several days before 



planting, while in a tolerably moist time planting 
can proceed at once after bedding. 

Starting the plants (Figs. 8.39-841).— While the 
preparation of the soil is in progress, the propaga- 
tion of the plants should be proceeding. Sweet- 
potato plants can be purchased in quantity, and 
some growers prefer to buy them from men who 
make a business of growing the plants. Formerly, 
in the southern states parts of the sweet-potato 
roots were sometimes cut and planted after the 
method commonly used for Irish potatoes. As a 
rule, however, plants are grown in the hotbed, 
pulled from the potatoes when they are the proper 
size and transplanted into the field. The propagation 
of these plants in the hotbed becomes one of the 
important features of the growing of this crop. 




Fig. 839. Bedding sweet - potatoes on a large fire hotbed, 
twenty feet in width. Sweet-potutoe-s rest on four iuclies 
of soil and are covered two iuelies deep. 

Ordinarily, the small potatoes, three-fourths inch 
to about one and three-fourths inches in diameter, 
are stored separately and are used as seed-roots. 
Generally the seed-roots are saved from the ordinary 
crop and more or less selection is practiced by choos- 
ing the short, smooth shapely roots, or, at any rate, 
by rejecting the misshapen, ribbed or crooked pota- 
toes. " Slip-seed " is generally preferred to " seed- 
roots " saved from the crop. This is produced by tak- 
ing cuttings from young vines, varying in length 
from eight to ten inches up to twenty inches, and 
thus avoiding fungous diseases which are carried 
over on the roots. "Slip-seed" is also supposed to be 
more vigorous and productive. Usually " slip-seed " 
may bring nearly double the price of ordinary "seed- 
roots." This is particularly true in New Jersey, 
Maryland and elsewhere, where propagation from 
cuttings is not so easy as it is further south where 
there is a longer season. In the South, it is not 
unusual for a man who is to plant ten acres of 
sweet -potatoes to bed a barrel or two of roots, 
plant a couple of acres and then make cuttings for 
the remainder of the crop. These cuttings may 
consist of two or three joints of the vine with a 
single leaf on the upper joint, or, possibly, of a 
longer piece. When short cuttings are used they 
are set out just like plants, leaving the single leaf 
and bud above ground. When longer cuttings, a 
foot or two in length, are used, the cutting is 
usually planted about half its length in the ground. 
Some growers use a long cutting and loop it, put- 
ting both ends in the ground. These cuttings can 



d16 



SWEET-POTATO 



SWEET-POTATO 



be planted out in moist weather the same way as 
plants, and in a favorable "season" appear to leaf 
and root almost as well as rooted slips. 

The roots should be bedded in the hotbed a month 
or six weeks previous to planting time. In the 
latitude of Washington, where planting begins May 
10, the roots should be planted in the hotbed about 
April 1 to 10. Usually in the first two weeks in April 
there is a warm-wave which hurries out the peach 
blossoms, and these are followed a week later by 








£~^^ 



^a^fS 



Fig. 840. Fire hotbed in operation, with four inches of straw-covenng 
and without the tent. Teut should replace the .straw after the 
plants are up. 



the pears. The bedding season, therefore, may be 
considered as the time when peaches and pears are 
in blossom. In the northern states it is necessary 
to bed the potatoes in hotbeds a month or more 
earlier than the climate will permit them to live 
in the field. 

Various types of hotbeds are in use. The sim- 
plest arrangement for the southern states is a little 
pit or frame sunk in the ground ; about six inches 
or more of manure is carefully filled in; and a four- 
to-flve-inch layer of good sandy loam is placed on the 
manure. This should be moistened, after lying about 
forty-eight hours for the first heat to pass off, es- 
pecially if the manure is new; the potatoes can 
then be bedded. Bedding or planting sweet-potato 
"seed-roots" consists simply in laying them on the 
soft sandy soil, preferably with their ends all in 
one direction, and cross-ways of the bed ; when 
the potatoes are curved, the convex side should be 
upward, thrusting the points in the sand. They 
are then covered with the same sandy loam to a 
depth of about one and one-half inches above the 
upper surface of the roots. Some growers prefer 
to cover them lightly, say one-half inch ; then, after 
the tips appear, to add the additional inch of soil. 
The simplest protection consists of a layer of pine 
leaves six inches thick. This has to be carefully 
watched, however, and removed as soon as the 
sprouts begin to appear, otherwi.se slender white 
" drawn " sprouts will result. A better covering is 
a cheap grade of white cotton cloth, and a still 
better one is the ordinary hotbed sash. Extensive 
beds, utilizing several dozen sashes, are in use by 
some growers. 

Wherever glass sash is used, careful attention 



has to be given on the first warm days, especially 
after the sprouts appear, to ventilate the beds by 
placing a block under the end of one sash and under 
the opposite end of the next sash, and so on. 

Before the plants are up a warm spell may be 
had, or, through some unusual activity of the fer- 
menting manure, sufficient heat may be generated 
to cause the roots to decay. Old-time gardeners 
trust to their sense of feeling in changing the heat. 
A better method is to use a thermometer and to 
keep the temperature as low as 90° Fahr., 
preferably between 80° and 90°. 

The best method of propagating the 
sweet-potato in the North is through the 
fire hotbed (Fig. 840). The intense bottom 
heat, with the exposure of the plants to 
the open air during a large part of their 
growth, not only makes this an efl'ective 
method of getting large quantities of 
plants, but with proper attention to the 
covering and watering the plants will be 
of the most desirable quality. Briefly, the 
fire hotbed consists of a floor or bed on floor 
beams or joists with a two-foot air space 
underneath and with a brick furnace at one 
end, from which tile flues carry the heat 
part way across the bed. At the oppo.site 
end a wooden flue, some ten feet in length, 
carries off' the smoke and furnishes a draft. 
The bed should be sunk in the ground nearly 
to the level of the soil and should have a tilt or in- 
cline of about one foot to every twenty or thirty feet 
of length. Since the upper half of the bed, or rather 
the air space beneath it, serves as a chimney, this 
inclination is required to carry the smoke and hot 
air from the furnace to the far end of the bed. With 
this inclination the bed will be but little warmer 
over the furnace than it is at the opposite end. 
The brick arch or furnace should be depressed so 
that its top is three feet below the floor beams. 
It is then covered with a foot of soil, making the 
two-foot air space continuous. In an average- 
sized bed, say sixty to eighty feet long and twelve 
to fourteen feet in width, the furnace should be 
six feet by two feet six inches inside, so as to burn 
cord-wood. The flues should be of six-inch tile and 
should extend for about thirty feet, gradually 
rising to the surface of the ground until at the 
outlet it is raised one inch above the ground. At 
thirty feet from the furnace the smoke and the 
fumes will be sufficiently cooled to permit dis- 
charging into the air space without danger. An 
inch or two more of soil, however, should be placed 
under the plants in that part of the bed directly 
over the furnace and over the discharge of the tile 
flues. No wood construction can be used in touch 
with the furnace. The end wall has to be built of 
brick or stone. To avoid digging a pit in which 
rain may collect, it is best to place the bed just at 
the crest of the hill, allowing the furnace end to 
extend over the crest. 

The remainder of the walls of the hotbed may 
be built of wood, cement, brick or stone. The 
floor beams should be of some rot-resistant wood, 
such as chestnut, cypress, or whatever it is custom- 



SWEET-POTATO 



SWEET-POTATO 



617 



ary to use as posts in the vicinity. The walls 
may be built of wood by setting posts two or three 
feet apart and spiking slabs or planks on the out- 
side. A rough floor is laid over the floor beams, 
four or five inches of soil is put on, and then the 
roots and the covering are applied in exactly the 
same way as with the manure hotbed. A cover 
may be conveniently con.structed by placing raf- 
ters eight or ten feet apart and connecting them 
with the ridge-pole, forming a skeleton roof; over 
this u stretched ordinary unbleached cotton. (Fig. 
841.) There is no great necessity for heavy cloth 
such as tents are made of, except that it will last 
longer. The cotton cloth should be sewed into a 
single sheet and a roller made by tacking together 
strips three-fourths-inch by one-and-three-fourths- 
inch, fastening the edges of the cloth between 
them. The gable end may be of boards or of 
cloth. 

After the potatoes are bedded the cloth tent is 
put in place and kept there until the plants begin 
to push through, which should be in about ten days 
to two weeks. Sometimes a few precocious sprouts 
will be through in less than a week. After the 
plants begin to break the soil, attention should be 
given to ventilating the bed on very hot days. A 
thermometer should be placed at some average 
point in the bed, and when the outside temperature 
is in the eighties, as often happens in the latter 
part of April or May, the cover should be rolled up, 
and unless the night is unusually warm it should 
be lowered at sunset. As warm weather and plant- 
ing time comes on, the cover may be rolled up and 
the bed kept open to the air the greater part of 
the time. 

After the roots are bedded the bed should be 
moistened by watering. It is a great mistake to 
bed the roots in rather dry sand or sandy soil and 
leave them several days without watering. Moisten- 
ing the soil and the roots starts them into activity 
and prevents rotting. It is not desirable, however, 
to keep the hotbed very moist until the plants are 
up. When the plants are breaking the crust a good 
watering should be given, or, better yet, the cover 




Fig. 841. Fire hotbeds in operation, showing furnace end. 
The cloth covers are here shown iu place. 

should be raised while a spring shower is passing. 
All experienced sweet-potato-growers agree that 
no watering is so beneficial to the growing plants 
a=i a warm rain. If too much rain is falling, espe- 
cially if followed by a cold wind, the covers may be 
rolled down as soon as the bed is moistened. As 



the plants begin to form leaves and draw heavily 
on the soil moisture, they will stand a great deal of 
watering. In fact, up to a certain limit the output 
of the bed is largely determined by the amount of 
water given. Too much water makes rank, sappy 
and tender plants. It is a good plan to keep the 
bed somewhat dry for two or three days before 
using the plants for setting out, but serious losses 
in the next pulling will result if this is carried too 
far. 

When the planting season arrives and the plants 
are four inches above the ground, making their 
total length with roots about six to seven inches, 
the bed may be gone over and all plants of .suffi- 
cient size carefully pulled. Usually, when the fin- 
gers are thrust below the soil-line and the plant 
skilfully pulled sidewise it will come out without 
dislodging the root. In pulling those plants which 
are up to size, it is important to disturb as little as 
possible the root and the other growing plants. As 
soon as a given area is pulled over, it should be im- 
mediately watered to wet down the disturbed roots 
and prevent injury to the remaining plants. 

An average barrel of seed-roots will cover fifty 
to sixty square feet of space on the hotbeds. The 
larger the roots the smaller the space covered, and 
vice versa. At the fir.st pulling the product of a 
barrel of roots under favorable conditions will be 
3,000 to 5,000 plants, or sufficient for a half-acre 
or more of ground. As soon as the bed is pulled 
over, by watering and perhaps adding a little soil 
and giving the necessary attention, the remaining 
plants continue to grow and new sprouts are pushed 
out from the same roots. In this way the bed is 
ready to pull over again in ten days to two weeks, 
or perhaps even less time, depending on how closely 
it was pulled at first. Three pullings are commonly 
taken from the hotbed during the planting .season, 
but sometimes more. The first pulling is usually 
regarded as slightly superior to the others. 

When plants are grown for sale they are com- 
monly tied in bundles of one hundred, when they 
may be packed and shipped about the country by 
express. If they are to be used on the farm, it is a 
good plan to have a tub of mud batter made by 
mixing some good clay soil or river mud with 
water, preferably with the addition of fresh cow 
dung. The plants are then dipped in bunches of 
about twenty into this batter and kept in the shade 
in baskets or trays until they are used. It is nec- 
essary always to set them in a vertical position, or 
they will curve to the light. 

Transplaniing. — It is a problem to get the plants 
set out in a proper and timely way. The old method 
was to depend on a "sea.son," or a rainy time, and 
with a mild spring shower and a set of active men 
results can be secured in this way equal to the 
very best. For hand-planting it is usually best to 
throw up a ridge four to six inches higher than 
necessary, and then a boy with a garden rake can 
flatten the top of the ridge to six or eight inches 
in width nearly as fast as he can walk. A better 
way is to fasten a board, five or six feet long, on 
an old cultivator frame ; by this means a boy and 
a horse can knock off the tops of two ridges at once. 



618 



SWEET-POTATO 



SWEET-POTATO 



In dry weather, if the ground has been properly 
prepared so as to maintain its moisture, and the 
ridges have been thrown up several days before 
so as to allow the subsoil moisture to rise, plants 
can be set with perfect success without a "season." 
The tops of the ridges are knocked off just ahead 
of the planting, exposing the moist soil, and the 
plants, having been lightly dipped at the hot- 
bed, are dipped in a rather thick batter, so ^"'' 
that a considerable mass of mud clings to 
each plant. They are then dropped and fj,^ 
planted at once. Some growlers prefer in dry 
weather to have an extra boy drop a small 
dipper of water with every plant, and this is 
undoubtedly a good practice. The object in 
transplanting is not only to have the plants 
live, but to have them prosper, and atten- 
tion to the care of the plants, especially the 
prompt dipping and the proper watering, will 
result in the prompt response of the plant. 

The customary distance apart in the row 
for sweet-potatoes is eighteen inches. With 
the big-stem Jersey variety the writer pre- 
fers to plant sixteen inches apart to keep down 
the size. Some men are able to guess this 
distance accurately, but as a rule a marker should 
be made. A common and convenient form is that 
shown in Fig. 842, which consists of a strip of wood 
six feet long, on which five cleats, IJxf inch, are 
screwed. A handle and brace complete the struc- 
ture. The whole should be light so as readily to be 
carried by a boy in one hand. One boy goes ahead 
and marks the places, and another follows with a 
bundle of plants, dropping the plants at each mark, 
while a man either with a trowel or dibble, or on 
very soft ground with the hand, sets out the 
plants. The handiest tool to use in this way is a 
rather small mason's trowel. The trowel is thrust 
into the soft ground with the right hand, the plant 
slipped in position with the left hand, and while the 
top is still held the trowel is withdrawn and with 
a single punch of the fist, the earth is driven com- 
pactly about it. An average worker, with boys to 
drop and mark, should set an acre of 7,000 to 8,000 
plants a day. This is such tiresome work that few 
men are able to keep it up for many days in suc- 



advantage of the transplanting machine is that it 
carries its water, enabling the planting to proceed 
in dry weather ; in fact, it can be used only when 
the ground is dry enough to cultivate. As a rule, 
the ridges need to be a little higher and wider with 
the machine than with hand-planting. A slow, 
steady team and a skilful driver are necessary to 



^^lj,:i^-f,_..ss^ 





Ta — ^a ^~ 

Fig. 842. Hand-marker for the proper spacing of sweet- 
potato plants. 

cession. The writer has had men set 15,000 plants, 
or two acres in a day. 

For setting out large areas, say twenty acres or 
more, it will usually pay to get a transplanting 
machine. Several of these transplanters are on the 
market, and work with a fair degree of success 
when operated by a well-trained crew. One great 



Fig. 843. Transplanting machine setting sweet-potatoes. 
See Figs. 230, 871. 

make straight rows. Two boys quick with their 
hands are required. When the outfit is working 
properly, twenty-five to thirty thousand plants a 
day can be transplanted. 

There are several other methods used in setting 
out plants, particularly by the New Jersey growers 
in their soft, sandy soils. One of the simplest 
planting machines is a lath or stick about the 
length of a cane, one end of which is two inches 
wide and distinctly concave; over this concave end 
a piece of soft leather is tacked. As the boy drops 
the plant as nearly as possible in its proper place, 
the man following simply pushes it into the ground 
by dropping the leather-covered staff over the 
root-end of the plant. A second thrust is made to 
force the soil around the plant. More elaborate 
tongs and planters are used in some places. 

Cultivation. — The first operation in the cultiva- 
tion of the sweet-potato is ordinarily the splitting 
out of the middles. A round trip is made with a 
one-hor.se plow, throwing against the sides of the 
ridges the additional soil left undisturbed in mak- 
ing the ridge. This is done within a week from 
planting time, or as soon as convenient, and before 
weeds have .started. It is followed before weed- 
growth begins, and usually within two weeks of 
planting, by the first cultivation. The cultivator 
used by the writer is an ordinary five-tooth garden 
cultivator of the Planet Jr. type, having a narrow 
(one and one-fourth-inch) tooth to go next to the 
plants. The rear tooth can be a broad one, so as 
to throw the dirt to some extent toward the ridge. 
Straight rows are very necessary for good cultiva- 
tion. With care, the ground can be disturbed the 
first time within two inches of the plants. 

The next operation ordinarily is hoeinar. Hand- 
hoeing is one of the most expensive operations and 
may exceed the cost of planting. To keep down 
the expense, the writer has used a weeder exten- 
sivelv. It is rather difficult to use the weeder to 



SWEET-POTATO 



SWEET-POTATO 



619 



accomplish the purpose without destroying many 
plants. It is important to have the ridges broad, 
so that the cultivator tooth will not tear down too 
much of the soil. Furthermore, the weeder must 
be used before the earth becomes too firmly com- 
pacted by the rain, or before the weed seedlings 
have come up. In other words, the weeds must be 
killed while the seeds are germinating in the soil. 
Hand-hoeing is much cheaper when it is done 
promptly than when deferred until the weeds and 
crab-grass form a thick mat on the uncultivated 
strip. As a rule, two hoeings may be made cheaper 
than one. If the first hoeing is timely, just as the 
weeds are beginning to come up, the second one 
will be e.xtremely light. 

Three or four cultivations are commonly prac- 
ticed, although in the South sometimes two are 
sufficient. In the second cultivation the ordinary 
cultivator tooth is used and kept at a distance of 
four or five inches from the plant. On the third or 
fourth cultivation the vines should be beginning 
to run. A vine-turning attachment, a special tooth 
and rod, enables the cultivator to pass through, 
lifting the vines from its path. Cultivation in Mary- 
land ordinarily ceases early in .July. The method 
usually pursued is to keep the crop clean until the 
vines begin to cross the rows, then lay by, when 
the ground will be quickly covered and weeds will 
stand a poor chance. If occasional bunches of 
crab-grass or weeds still escape, it is necessary to 
go over the patch and hand-pick them, as these, 
especially crab-grass, draw heavily on the yield and 
are a nuisance in digging. 

The vines root at the joints very commonly, 
especially the Nansemond or the Yellow Jersey, 
and form numerous potatoes, usually of the size of 
one's finger or smaller. Little attention need be 
paid to this by the commercial grower. The Big- 
stem .Jersey and many other varieties, while rooting 
freely, deposit nutriment wholly in the hill. 

Digging, storing and marketing. 

Digging, .storing and marketing the sweet-potato 
may be considered as two types of operation — 
digging and marketing from the field in the sum- 
mer and fall, and storing the crop and marketing 
in the winter. 

(1) Marketing from the field. — Harvesting the 
crop to ship direct from the field is a comparatively 
simple operation. It is best, even with a small 
patch, either to plow out the crop or to dig it with 
a machine-digger, which is essentially a modified 
plow. If the vines are very heavy it may be nec- 
essary, when using the common plow, to make a 
trip on one side to cut the vines, and then follow 
with a furrow, throwing out the potatoes. As soon 
as the potatoes are plowed out they are lifted and 
broken from the vines or left on the ridge to dry. 
After they are surface-dry the pickers gather them 
in baskets. It is customary to sort the potatoes as 
they are picked. The picker carries two baskets, 
— one for primes and the other for seconds. The 
latter are the small, inferior or misshapen roots. 
Some growers put all grades together, but this 
usually is not considered good marketing. The 



potatoes are barreled in the field, usually in open- 
head truck barrels, which may be regarded as the 
commonest package for sweet -potatoes. Where 
fancy stock is being sold to discriminating mar- 
kets, the potatoes may be put in double-head or 
special barrels, such as flour barrels, and the heads 
pressed in, as is customary in barreling apples. 
The greater part of the crop, however, goes in 
truck barrels covered with burlap. 

Great care should be taken not to keep the po- 
tatoes e.xposed too long to a very hot sun ; when 
digging in hot weather it is a good plan to keep 
the potatoes covered up closely, and haul the bas- 
kets either to the shade of the packing house or to 
a grove of trees and pack under cover. It is nee- 




Fig. 844. Field of sweet-potatoes. Delaware. 



essary in hot weather to use ventilated barrels, 
both in case of the open-head truck barrels and the 
double-head barrels. Sometimes the potatoes are 
hauled directly to the city markets in peach baskets 
or crates. 

(2) Su'eet-putato storage and winter marketing. — 
In digging sweet-potatoes for .storage, much care 
is required not to bruise or injure them. The po- 
tatoes are dug preferably just before the first 
frost, when the crop is as nearly ripe as possible 
and has nothing further to gain by remaining in 
the field. This stage at Washington, D. C, is 
reached about the 5th to the 10th of October. 
Warm weather is necesf?ary in digging. The pota- 
toes are plowed or thrown out by the digger and 
are allowed to surface-dry in the sun. Usually, 
this requires one to two hours, but if the soil is 
very dry the potatoes may lie picked up into bas- 
kets at once and will be surface-dried before they 
reach the bins. 



620 



SWEET-POTATO 



SWEET-POTATO 



Two methods are employed in sorting the pota- 
toes. It is usually necessary for those who sort for 
seed to separate the seed or small potatoes from 
the shipping potatoes, and also to cull out strings 
and other defective roots, fit neither for seed nor 




Fig. 845. Sample hiU of sweet-potatoes, showing six or more 
merchantable potatoes and two seed-roots or "seconds." 

market. This may be done in the field, when those 
gathering the potatoes sort them in separate ba.s- 
kets. When first-class help is used in gathering 
this is the most satisfactory way, as the potato is 
handled only once and is then placed in its proper 
class. On the other hand, with careless and indif- 
ferent labor, such as is often necessary, the sort- 
ing can best be done by a few picked hands work- 
ing on benches at the storage house. The crop is 
then gathered promiscuously by the field hands, 
and, when dry, is hauled to the storage house, 
dumped on the tables and there sorted. By this 
means the best results in grading can be secured 
and the additional e.xpense is not very great. The 
field pickers, having no discrimination to make, can 
gather the crop more quickly than 
when they are required to decide on 
the class of each potato. Five or six 
good sorters at the house will handle 
a couple of hundred barrels per day 
and often save, by careful and accur- 
ate grading, many times their hire. 
The main requisite for the storage 
of sweet-potatoes in the middle states 
is a warm, tight building in which 
the crop can he placed when dug in 
the fall. This building may be a sin- 
gle small room or may be of large 
size suificient to hold several thou- 
sand barrels, provided it can be heated 
and ventilated throughout. A single 
room in the cellar or in a building of 
any kind in which a stove can be 
placed and ventilation can be pro- 
vided will suffice. For ordinary farm 
purposes, however, where sweet-pota- 
toes are a main crop, a building of a 
size sufficient to meet the demands should be con- 
structed especially for this purpose. One of the 
most desirable types of building is built on the plan 
of a bank barn. The lower or basement story is of 
stone or brick and sits mostly in the ground, except 
the one exposed side or front in which are the 
windows and door. The .stove may be placed in the 
center and bins arranged so that the nearest are 



some three feet from the stove. It is advisable to 
have the bins raised at least six inches from the 
floor, and it is best to have an air-space of a few 
inches between the bin-boards and the walls of the 
building. Ventilation can be arranged through the 
doors and windows, or ample top ventilation in the 
form of one or more trap-doors through the ceiling 
should be provided. If a second story is to be used, 
and this is very convenient, the top floor can be 
level with the ground above, and the upper room 
can be heated by an extra stove or by means of 
registers in the floor from the stove in the lower 
room. The bins may be large, even large enough 
to hold five or six hundred barrels, but as a rule it 
is better to divide the bins so that more or less air 
can get around and through the potatoes or under- 
neath them. The building should be warm and 
tight, should have but few windows, which, if pos- 
sible, should be on the south and east rather than 
on the north and west sides. Other conveniences 
in the way of passageways, platforms for handling 
the potatoes and sheds under which the wagons 
may be loaded and unloaded, add to the utility and 
success of the sweet-potato storage house just as 
may be the case with any warehouse. 

For heating, a common wood stove answers fairly 
well, but some of the air-tight sheet-iron heaters 
have proved very successful. A good hard-coal stove 
with a self-feeding arrangement is a satisfactory 
type of heater. Hot-water heating is almost ideal, 
inasmuch as the hot-water pipes can be run around 
the floor, warming the cold exposed corners of the 
room. 

When hauled from the field or taken from the 
sorting benches the potatoes are dumped into the 




Fig. 846. Sweet-potato field as the hills have been lifted from the soil alter 
the digger. The field will run at least 400 bushels per acre. 

bins. All handling should be done as carefully as 
possible. The two prime requisites of success in 
getting the crop into the house are to have the 
potatoes well dried, clean and free from dirt and 
to handle them without bruising. It is a good plan 
to place a bed of pine leaves six inches deep on the 
bottom of the bins and around the sides?, and by 
proper management with a plank, a carpenter's 



SWEET-POTATO 



SWEET-POTATO 



621 



saw-horse and a sack or two filled with straw, the 
potatoes can be piled in the bins to a height of 
eight or nine feet with very little bruising. 

The storage house should be thoroughly heated 
and dried out for two or three days before the first 
potatoes are put in it. The weather is usually warm 
at that time, so that the temperature may easily be 
run up to 80° or 90°, or even 100°. While the 
potatoes are being put into the house, it should be 
heated to about 90°; any temperature from 80 to 
100° will do. Considerable ventilation should be 
allowed. Under no conditions should the house be 
heated above 90° for long periods without rather 
free ventilation. With temperatures above 80° 
the newly dug potatoes undergo a sweating process 
and give off much moisture, which often condenses 
on their own surfaces. The air of the room becomes 
extremely damp, and if not removed the house soon 
reeks with moisture. The purpose is to warm the 
house by passing currents of warm air over the 
potatoes and out through the ventilators. A tem- 
perature of about 90° should be maintained day 
and night while the potatoes are being put into the 
house, and for ten days to two or three weeks after 
the last potatoes are in. When the house is thor- 
oughly dried the air feels dusty and dry and the 
potatoes feel soft and velvety, when they are said 
to be kiln-dried. Whatever bruises may have been 
given them and the broken ends where they were 
snapped from the vines are thoroughly dried and 
healed over, and they are then in a condition to 
keep through the winter. As a result of this dry- 
ing they have shriveled slightly and undergone 
some physiological change not fully understood. 
The young or immatured roots sometimes shrivel 
seriously, but well-matured potatoes remain plump. 
Frequently there is considerable sprouting in the 
bins, which may be regarded as a sign of too 
much moisture or too-long delayed movement of 
the moisture out of the bins. But the sprouting is 
not a bad sign, since sprouting potatoes do not 
decay. 

When the house is found to be thoroughly dry, 
the temperature may be reduced. About this time 
of the year cool weather naturally comes on and 
this, in connection with lighter firing, should allow 
the hou.se gradually to cool down. The drop should 
be made slowly ; the first week it may be down to 
7-5°, the next week to 70°, until finally a stationary 
temperature between 5.5° and 60° is reached. This 
is maintained throughout the winter. Temperatures 
above 60° cause slightly more shriveling than may 
be necessary and are conducive to more sprouting 
than is desirable. Temperatures below 55° may 
not prove injurious, especially if they are only of 
short duration, but they are not advisable. Some 
growers keep their houses for weeks at a tempera- 
ture of only 45° ; but the margin between freezing 
and chilling temperatures is dangerously small 
when a house is kept so cool. No matter how mild 
the winter day, it is necessary to keep some fire in 
the house in order to keep the movement of mois- 
ture toward the outside. If the house becomes 
co)ler than the outside air the moisture condenses 
i.i the house. On the other hand, some growers 



prefer to keep their sweet-potatoes at 70° or ?5°, 
or about the temperature of the ordinary living- 
room. It may be said in a general way that the 
conditions of the ordinary living-room are ideal for 
sweet-potato storage except that the temperature 
is 10° to 15° too warm. 

Light is suppo.sod to be objectionable, but seems 
not to be seriously so. As a rule, the windows of 
the storage house should be covered with shutters 
to keep out the light. After the potatoes are 
thoroughly dried out, and while the house is being 
gradually cooled, the amount of ventilation should 
be reduced correspondingly, and finally, when the 
temperature is settled for the winter, the venti- 
lators may be closed or nearly so. If under these 
conditions on a cool night there is pronounced 




,847. Sweet-potato Storage house. Note sorting benches 
and the sorters grading as crop is received. 

sweating on the windows, it is better to continue 
slight ventilation for a few days longer, especially 
when it is sunny and dry outside. When a rainy or 
damp spell occurs during the process of drying, it 
is better not to let in much of the outside damp 
air, and this will necessitate corresponding reduc- 
tion in the firing. On the other hand, on a dry day 
a very hot fire can be built and plenty of venti- 
lation given. The process of curing under these 
conditions proceeds rapidly. 

When the house is once thoroughly cured, ship- 
ping can begin at any time, when the price or 
market demand justifies. As a rule, stored potatoes 
are not shipped until about Thanksgiving tim?, 
when the ordinary unstored stock is either used up 
or is of such poor quality as to ofl'er no competition. 
Some growers prefer to hold their entire supply of 
potatoes until late winter or early spring, but ordi- 
narily shipping begins as soon as cool weather comes 
on. The bin should never be disturbed until ship- 
ment is to begin. The potatoes in storage will not 
stand moving. Unfortunately their life is limited 
after being taken from the storage bin. While a 
stored sweet-potato may keep until May, if left in 
the place where cured, when taken out and barreled 
it will probably rot in about a month. Even at the 
end of a week a barrel of stored potatoes may be- 
gin to show some rot, and at the end of two or 
three weeks a good many rotten ones may be found. 
On the other hand, a single potato may often be 
taken from the top of the bin, carried into the 
house and kept for weeks. Even the movement or 



622 



SWEET-POTATO 



SWEET-POTATO 



disturbing of the potatoes in tlie bin results in 
their destruction. It is necessary, therefore, when 
a bin is once opened to keep shipping continuously, 
say two or three times a weelc, otherwise the exposed 
potatoes may begin to decay. 

A large part of the sweet-potato crop is shipped 
in three-bushel barrels, the same size as the apple 
or Hour barrel. Occasionally "snide" or irregular- 
sized barrels are used, but these do not ordinarily 
pay the shipper. On the other hand, potatoes may 
be shipped in sugar barrels and large packages of 
any kind when they are sold by weight. In New 
Jersey, Delaware and Maryland a one and one-half- 
bushel basket made or fashioned after the Delaware 
peach basket has come into use. Some of these hold 
a bushel and some one and one-fourth bushels. 

In shipping in winter it is necessary to use con- 
siderable care to avoid having the stock frozen, 
though it will stand considerable cold if not too 
long exposed. On the other hand, sweet-potatoes 
frequently suffer from the heat. The disturbance 
of sorting and barreling causes them to sweat. If 
they are shipped in open-head truck barrels under a 
burlap cover, the cover should be removed on their 
arrival on the market. In warm weather it is often 
better to bore several ventilating holes an inch in 
diameter or with a hatchet to remove a chip from 
several parts of the barrel. 

The Yellow Jersey type of potato is usually pre- 
ferred by northern markets. On the approach of 
warm weather, however, in March and April, this 
sweet-potato ordinarily loses quality and becomes 
slightly out of season. Of late years the trade in 
the so-called yam or sticky sweet type of potato 
has increased, especially for the spring and early 
summer trade. Southern people usually prefer the 
yam type of sweet-potato at all seasons. Some of 
the yams keep better, or actually improve in quality 
in the spring of the year, and these yams may be 
kept through to June or July, when sweet-potatoes 
from Florida and the Gulf coast begin to arrive. 
The result is that the market is continually sup- 
plied with this vegetable throughout the year. As 
a rule, growers of the Yellow Jersey close out their 
stock in March. April is the season for bedding, so 
that attention is then given to the seed bins. 

Enemies. 

The crop of sweet-potatoes grown in the field is 
generally remarkably healthy and free from both 
fungous diseases and insect enemies. However, 
there are some pests on the foliage and some very 
serious diseases on the roots. 

Black-rot {Ceratocystis fimbriata). — This disease is 
more troublesome in the storage house and hotbed 
than it is on the crop in the field. It is a pronounced 
fungous disease and usually appears as large, irreg- 
ular black spots, slightly sunken in the skin of the 
potato. On cutting or breaking them open, these 
spots are found to be deep, usually extending 
through the skin and sometimes into the central 
part of the potato. They are of a peculiar blue- 
black tint, ordinarily distinguishable from ordinary 
rots or other fungous diseases. Even though sweet- 
potatoes may be apparently free from disease when 



placed in the storage house in the fall, this rot 
often develops badly. The infected potatoes are 
rendered bitter and worthles.s, and are unsalable 
when the spots are bad. Black-rot is particularly 
objectionable in the seed-roots, as when these are 
bedded the disease is started in the hotbed producing 
the so-called " black shank " or black-rot of the 
plants. The failure of black-rot-infected plants is 
more pronounced during the cool, moist weather 
than during a hot spell. In fact, on a vigorous 
variety the disease is largely outgrown during 
favorable hot weather. 

The best remedy for black-rot is the use of slip- 
seed. It is advisable to grow the crop of vine 
cuttings on new land which is not infe.sted, or on 
land which has never grown sweet-potatoes or has j 
not been in sweet-potatoes for several years, thus I 
making an absolutely clean start, even though the 
vine cuttings are taken from an infected crop. 
Another remedy is to clean and sweep the storage 
house both overhead and underneath before putting 
in the potatoes, and whitewash the entire interior 
of the house with a spray pump. The addition of 
boiled lime and sulfur to the whitewash would 
undoubtedly be an improvement. The whitewash 
would then consist of the ordinary lime-sulfur wash 
thickened with lime. The hotbed should have all 
the old soil removed, and the boards and (in the 
case of a fire hotbed) the floor thoroughly white- 
wa.shed with freshly slaked lime before new earth 
is put in. The new soil should be from ground that 
has never been in sweet-potatoes. Early bedding 
and early planting out in the field are objectionable, 
as they put the crop at a disadvantage. In the same 
way, digging late in the fall encourages black-rot, 
while early digging just before the first frost, when 
the weather is still warm, seems to be particularly 
desirable. The black-rot is the worst of the dis- 
eases of the sweet-potatoes. 

Soil rot (Acrocystis Batatas) is injurious to young 
roots in dry seasons. The diseased part ceases to 
grow. Crop rotation and the application of kainit j 
or sulfur at the rate of 300 pounds per acre are M 
suggested remedies. Soft rot {Rhizopus ninrieang) ' 
occurs in the storage house during the curing pro- 
cess. If the potatoes are dry before storing it is 
not likely to be troublesome. Aff'ected potatoes 
should be destroyed. Other diseases of little im- 
portance are white rust, white rot, stem rot, dry 
rot, scab and leaf spot. 

Among insects, sweet-potatoes are attacked by 
the weevil, plume moth, tortoise beetles, sawflies, 
cutworms, flea-beetles, crickets and tobacco worms 
[See Index]. The weevil (Cylas formicarius) is a 
small bluish black insect that deposits its eggs in 
recesses at the base of the vine or at the upper 
end of the root. The white grubs burrow in the 
vine and down into the roots, which they destroy. 
The remedy is to feed or completely destroy all 
infested vines and roots. The plume moth (Ptero- 
pkorus monodactylus) is a silver-brown insect bear- 
ing black lines on the forewings. It is the larva 
of this that is destructive to sweet-potatoes by 
feeding on the leaves. The use of arsenical sprays 
(one pound to twenty-five gallons of waterj will 



SWEET-POTATO 



TANNING MATERIALS 



623 



control this pest. The larva is of a green color and 
bears a dark stripe along the middle of the back. 
Several kinds of tortoise beetles feed on the leaves 
soon after the plants are set. As a protection the 
plants may be dipped before setting in a solution of 
arsenate of lead, one pound to twenty-five gallons 
of water. Paris green of a strength of one-fourth 
pound to forty gallons of water, to which is added 
one-fourth pound of lime, is also effective. Flea- 
beetles may be controlled by the ansenical treat- 
ment, and .sawfiies by either the Paris green or 
the arsenical treatment. 

Literature. 

Wilcox & Smith, Farmer's Cyclopedia of Agri- 
culture ; Bailey, Cyclopedia of American Horticul- 
ture ; Fitz, Sweet Potato Culture ; Price, Sweet 
Potato Culture for Profit ; Farmers' Bulletins, 
United States Department of Agriculture, Nos. 26, 
129 ; Arkan:^as Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 
72 ; South Carolina Experiment Station, Bulletin 
No. 63. Numerous other publications can be traced 
through the Experiment Station Record. 

TANNING MATERIALS. Figs. 848-851. 

By F. r. Veitch. 

Nearly all plants contain an astringent princi- 
ple known as tannin, which is distinguished by its 
property of forming with proteid matter, such as 
animal skins, an insoluble compound called leather, 
which is strong, flexible, and resistant to wear. 
Because of the many uses of leather, there is great 
demand for large quantities of tannin with which 
to make it. While many plants contain tannin in 
considerable quantities, practically all the tannin 
is secured from a few, and these few are as a rule 
those from which the tannin can be secured in 
commercial quantities most economically. In this 
country, bark of hemlock, chestnut or rock oak 
has been and still is the chief source of tannin, 
but as the supplies of these barks are exhausted 
and are farther removed from the tannery, other 
materials are used in constantly greater quanti- 
ties, particularly in eastern tanneries where sup- 
plies of bark are most diflicult to secure. This con- 
dition has encouraged the importation of foreign 
materials and the use of extracts which can be 
made where the tanning materials grow, and trans- 
ported to the tannery much cheaper than the raw 
materials. In addition to hemlock and oak bark, 
the use of chestnut wood, quebracho, palmetto, 
mangrove and sumac extracts, as well as of other 
materials, is rapidly increasing, so that products 
at present but little known or used are men- 
tioned in the following list, as the time is fast 
approaching when many of them will be used 
in considerable quantities. Very few plants are 
cultivated for their tannin and, with the possible 
exception of canaigre, none are cultivated in the 
United States. 

Tanning extracts. 

Until within recent years all tanneries prepared 
their own tanning liquors directly from the raw 



materials, each having its own lea'^h house and 
maintaining immense ricks of bark. With rapidly 
decreasing supplies of bark and other native tan- 
ning materials, this is no longer possible in some 
of the older settled parts of the country, and many 
tanneries rely in part or entirely on extracts 
which are simply tanning liquors made where the 
raw material is still accessible and cheap, and con- 
centrated to a small bulk for the sake of economy 
in handling and transportation. The most com- 
monly used extracts produced in this country are 
made of chestnut oak and hemlock barks, chest- 
nut and quebracho woods, sumac, palmetto and 
mangrove. 

In preparing liquors or extracts, the material 
must first be ground ; how fine is largely deter- 
mined by experience, the aim being to secure the 
maximum quantity of tannin at the lowest cost. 
If the material is too finely ground it will pack in 
the leaches and extraction will be too slow to be 
economical. The ground material is carried by 
conveyors to the leaches, which are large round 
wooden vats about fourteen feet high and fourteen 
feet in diameter, each holding about ten tons of 
bark. These leaches are provided with a fal^-e per- 
forated bottom through which the tanning liquor can 
pass, an opening in the bottom through which the 
exhausted material passes in emptying the leach, 
and which, when the leach is working, is closed with 
a long plug reaching to the top of the leach. Each 
leach also has a vertical spout rising from under 
the false bottom to near the top and connected 
with the next adjoining leach, so that the liquor 
from the bottom of one leach may pass to the top 
of the next succeeding one. The leaches are 
arranged in the form of a battery, and six to four- 
teen leaches are used. In extracting the tanning 
material, very hot water is run on the top of the 
material in a leach which has previously been 
nearly exhausted of its tannin. This is known as 
the "tail leach." From the bottom of the tail 
leach the liquor passes to the top of the next 
leach, the material in which has not been so com- 
pletely exhausted as that in the tail leach. The 
liquor passes successively from the bottom of one 
to the top of the next leach, each containing 
material less exhausted than that in the previous 
leach, until it passes on to the "head leach," con- 
taining material from which no tannin has been 
removed. 

From the head leach the strong tanning liquors 
run to the settling cooler where much susi)ended 
matter as well as that which is insoluble in cold 
water settles out, or the liquors are carried imme- 
diately to the evaporating pans to be concentrated. 
In a long battery of leaches it is customary to 
pump the liquors from one leach to another and often 
to reheat them at least once. To avoid repeatedly 
reheating the liquoi's between the leaches, a copper 
coil is often placed in the bottom of each, and the 
contents heated by steam. 

It is customary partly to decolorize extracts. 
For this purpose dried blood is chiefly used, though 
blood albumen, casein, and other albuminous ma- 
terials, as well as lead acetate and salts of alumina, 



624 



TANNING MATERIALS 



TANNING MATERIALS 



are used to a certain extent. In decolorizing, the 
dilute liquor from which the suspended matter has 
settled out is run into a vat provided with a stir- 
ring gear and steam coil, and to the liquor the 
decolorizing material dissolved in a little water is 
added and the whole well stirred. The temperature 
is raised to 70° C, when the albumen coagulates 
and carries down part of the coloring matter with 
it. The solution is allowed to settle in another 
tank, the clear liquor drawn off and sent to the 
vacuum pans, ami the sediment filter pressed to 
recover the remainder of the liquor as well as the 
tannin-blood compound which it contains and 
which is used as a fertilizer. Tanning liquors may 
also be decolorized, or rather bleached, by passing 
sulfur dioxid through them before concentrating. 
The color thus temporarily removed is likely to 
return. 

The material that goes out of solution when the 
dilute liquor is cooled in the settling tanks con- 
sists largely of tannin which is difficultly soluble, 
but is capable of tanning leather. After being 
decolorized, or directly from the leaches, the liquor 
passes to the vacuum pans where it is concentrated 




Fig. 848. Vacuum pans usea in making tannin extracts. 

to about 45° Twaddle, for liquid, or until the 
extract will solidify on cooling, for solid extracts. 
To avoid excess of color and the destruction of 
tannin the concentration is done at low tempera- 
ture and without access of air. Liquid extract is 
sold in barrels or in tank-cars, the solid extract in 
bags or bales. 

Future tanning materials. 

The native tan-barks of the eastern and northern 
part of the United States are rapidly decreasing 
under a heavy demand, which amounted to 1,42.5,- 
000 cords in 190.5, and it is only a question of com- 
paratively few years when a large part of the 
supply must come from other sources. There are 
three ways in which the material may be supplied, 
and doubtless all of them will contribute a part. 
They are : (1) larger use of foreign and little-used 
materials ; (2) more careful handling of tan-bark 
trees ; and (3) cultivation of tannin-containing 
plants as regular farm crops. 

The growing of plants primarily for the tannin 
they contain will probably develop slowly, because 



other crops pay better. For this reason canaigre 
has failed in the South and We.st. So, too, the 
growing of woods or of barks rich in tannin, except 
on land that cannot be otherwise regularly 
cropped, does not promise at present to be a profit- 
able undertaking. At present the most promising 
plant for cultivation is sumac, which may be 
planted, cultivated and harvested by machinery 
and handled in much the same way as other farm 
crops. Its cultivation is conducted successfully in 
Italy, where labor is much cheaper than it is here, 
but it remains to be demonstrated that sumac can 
compete with other farm crops under conditions in 
this country. On lands not suitable for general 
agriculture chestnut wood and chestnut oak bark 
may be grown or allowed to reproduce profitably 
within a period of twenty to thirty years. It is 
probable, however, that the price of raw tanning 
materials must rise considerably before their culti- 
vation will develop to any extent. 

Wild-grown materials will undoubtedly continue 
to be the almost exclusive source of tannin, but to 
meet the demand many materials but little u.sed 
will be developed, and more care be exercised in 
gathering and marketing all kinds of tanning 
materials now used. 

Literature. 

Davis, Manufacture of Leather, Philadelphia ; 
Proctor, The Principles of Leather Manufacture, 
London, 1903 ; Fleming, Practical Tanning, Phila- 
delphia, 1903 ; Modern American Tanning, Chicago, 
1905 ; Watts, Leather Manufacture, London, 1906. 



Sources of Tanning Materials 
Conifers. 

Hemlock (Tsuga Canadensis). Hemlock hark is still the 
chief American tanning material. It contains 8 to 14 per 
cent of catechol tannin. The tree is native from Nova 
Scotia to Minnesota and Wisconsin, and southward in the 
Alleghany mountains to Northern Alabama and Georgia. 
Michigan and Pennsylvania furnish about GO per cent of 
all the hemlock bark now secured. The bark is used 
extensively alone or in combination with oak bark in the 
production of sole leather. Hemlock leather is harder and 
less pliable but more permeable to water than oak leather. 
The total quantity of hemlock bark used in 1905 was 
1,000,000 cords, worth $8,-170,000. An extract is also 
made of which about 52,000 barrels were used in 1905. 

Western, hemlock (Tsuga heterophi/lla) is found from 
Alaska to Idaho and Montana, and southward in the 
Cascade and Coast ranges of Washington, Oregon and 
California, where it may constitute 13 per cent of the 
forest growth. The bark contains 8 to 20 per cent of 
tannin and is somewhat thinner than that of eastern hem- 
lock. The wood contains less than one per cent of tannin. 

California swamppine (Pinus muricata) is native along 
the coast of upper and lower California. The bark con- 
tains about 13 per cent of tannin. 

Monterey pine (Pinus radiata) is native on the coast 
of California. The bark contains about 14 per cent of 
tannin. 

Pine bark is used largely in Austria, Bavaria and 
southern (Jermany. Aleppo pine (Pinus Halepensis) con- 
tains about 15 per cent of tannin very similar to hemlock. 
The inner part of the bark is called Snoubar and contains 
as much as 25 per cent of tannin of lighter color than the 



TANNING MATERIALS 



TANNING MATERIALS 



62b 



outer bark. Other pine barks contain 2 to 7 per cent of 
tannin. 

Sitka spruce {Picea Sitchensis) is native along the coast 
from Alaska to northern California. The bark contains 
about 17 per cent of tannin. 

Norway spruce (Picea excelsa). The bark contains 7 to 
13 per cent of catechol tannin and much fermentable 
sugar. It is used largely in Austria and is the source of the 
so-called larch bark extract. White spruce (P. alba), native 
in northern United States and Canada, is very similar. 

Silver fir (Abies pectinata) is used to a limited extent. 
The bark contains 6 to 1.5 per cent of iron-bluing tannin. 

Lowland fir (Abies grandis) is native along the coast 
from Vancouver island to northern California, and inland 
to Idaho and Montana. The bark contains about 9 per 
cent of tannin. 

Larch (Larix Europcea) coTAaxas 9 to 10 per cent of a 
pale catechol tannin and is suitable for light leathers. 

Dwarf juniper (Juniperus communis) bark is used in 
Russia. Several members of the Taxaceae or yews are 
used in Australasia for tanning and contain 20 to 30 per 
cent of tannin. 

Redwood {Sequoia sempervirens) is native along the 
coast and thirty miles inland from southern Oregon to 
south of Punta Gorda, California. The wood contains 
about 2 per cent of tannin and the bark probably some- 
what more. 

Big tree (Sequoia gigantea) produces a gum which 
exudes from the tree and which may contain as high 
as 70 per cent of tannin. 

The oak tannins. 

Ckesnut oak (Quercus Prinus) is found from southern 
Maine to Maryland and in the mountains southward to 
northern Alabama and Georgia, and westward to Lake 
Erie and central Kentucky and Tennessee. Chestnut oak 
bark is next in importance to hemlock bark in this 
country, and contains 8 to 14 per cent of tannin, probably 
both catechol and pyrogallol. The wood contains 2 to 5 
per cent of tannin. An extract is also made from the 
bark. It is customary to cut all trees when the sap is 
rising if the bark is to be used, as it can be most easily 
peeled at this time. All barks should be carefully piled in 
the woods as peeled, as otherwise there is considerable loss 
of tannin from exposure to the weather. The quantity of 
oak hark used in 1905 was 422,000 cords, valued at 
$3,765,000 ; in addition, 214,000 barrels of extract, valued 
at $2,300,000, was also used. 

Tanbark oak (Quercus densiflora) is found in southern 
Oregon and southward to Mariposa county, California. 
The tree is also known locally as chestnut oak. The bark 
contains 9 to 22 per cent of tannin and averages about 18 
per cent. The foliage and twigs contain about 5 per cent 
of tannin. 

The barks of other American oaks contain considerable 
tannin. White oak (Quercus alba) contains 3 to 9 per cent; 
red oak (Q. rubra), 3 to 5 per cent ; black oak (Q. nigra), 
largely used as a source of quercitron, a dyestuff, but of 
little value for tanning ; California black oak (Q. Cali- 
fornica), about 10 per cent of tannin ; Highland oak (Q. 
Wislizeni), about 7 per cent ; California white oak (Q. 
lobata), about 12 per cent ; Canyon live-oak (Q. chryso- 
lepis), about 10 per cent ; Pacific post oak (Q. Garryana), 
about 8 per cent. 

Other oak barks used largely abroad are the following : 
English oak (Quercus pedunculata), common in Eng- 
land, Ireland, Scotland and Slavonia. It is used for 
making oakwood extract. The bark contains 8-15 per 
cent of tannin. Q. sessilifiora, the bark of which con- 
tains 10-14 per cent of tanning matter, possibly both 
catechol and pyrogallol groups. The yield of tannin is 
less from trees over twenty-five years of age, and cop- 
pice barks, from absence of ross, are often strong, and 

B 40 



also contain less coloring matter and more fermentable 
sugar. Oakwood contains only a very small percentage 
(2-4 per cent) of tannin, practically identical with that 
of chestnut. Turkey oak (Q. Cerris), of southern Europe ; 
Q. pubescens, in mountain districts and scattered in south- 
ern Europe, 8-15 per cent of tannin ; Evergreen oak (Q. 
Ilex), south Europe and Algeria, 5-11 per cent of dark 
colored tannin, well adapted to sole leather ; cork oak 
(Q. Suber), the outer bark of which is cork ; the interior 
bark contains 12-15 per cent of tannin, which is redder 
than that of ordinary oak ; African oak (Q. pseudosuber) , 
of Algeria, 10-14 per cent of tannin ; Q. Mirbecki, of 
Algeria, 8 per cent of tannin in the bark ; Q. Toza, 
of the Pyrenees and south France, 14 per cent of tannin 
in the bark ; Kermes oak (Q. coccifera), of south Europe 
and Algeria, has an average of 10-18 per cent of tannin, 
giving a firm, dark, sole leather. 

Valonia (from Quercus JEgilops and probably other 
species, Q. macrolepis, Grceca, Ungeri, coccifera), is the 
commercial name of the acorn cups of these several kinds 
of oaks. Best Smyrna valonia contains up to 40 per cent, 
Greek 19-30 per cent, Candia valonias up to 41 per cent, 
and Caramanian 17-22 per cent of pyrogallol tannins or 
pyrogallol derivatives, and deposit a great deal of bloom 
consisting of ellagic acid. The acorn contains a considerable 
amount of fermentable sugar and but little tannin. Valo- 
nia is hand-picked in three grades. The beard sometimes 
contains over 40 per cent of tannin. Valonia is especially 
suitable for the manufacture of sole-leather. It deposits 
much bloom, and is used as a dusting material. It makes 
the leather solid and compact, but leaves the grain some- 
what rough and hard to work. In mixture with gambier 
and other materials, as it is generally used, it is an excel- 
lent tannin for dressing leather, and with proper manage- 
ment deposits little or no bloom. 

" Nut galls " is the term applied to the excrescences 
on plants produced by insects for the purpose of deposit- 
ing their eggs. "Turkish" or Aleppo galls, from Q. in- 
fecloria, are developed from the young shoot of the oak, 
and are best before 
the insect has escaped, 
as they contain in this 
stage up to 50 or 60 
per cent of gallotannic 
acid. These galls and 
those of Rhus semia- 
lata are the principal 
sources of the pure 
tannin of commerce. 
Q. infectoria also 
bears a large gall like 
an apple, called " Ap- 
p 1 e s of Sodom," or . 
" rove," caused by a 
different insect, which 
contains 24-34 per 
cent of gallotannic 
acid. 

Knoppem are galls 
produced on the im- 
mature acorns of vari- 
ous species of oaks, 
principally Quercus 
Cerrisin Hungary ,and 
contain up to 3.5 per cent of gallotannic acid. Like all 
purely gallotannic materials, they naturally give a soft 
and porous tannin, ill-adapted for sole leather. 

The bark of a number of Indian oaks yields tannin, Q. 
incana containing about 22 per cent. 

The chestnuts. 

Chestnut (Castanea Americana, Fig. 849) is native 
from southern Maine and Ontario to Delaware, Maryland, 






m 







Fig. 849. Chestnut bark and foliage. 



626 



TANNING MATERIALS 



TANNING MATERIALS 



Ohio and Indiana, and in the mountains to Alabama and 
west to Michigan. The wood contains 3 to 10 per cent of 
tannin, giving blue-black with iron salts. The older trees 
contain the highest percentage of tannin. The bark con- 
tains about 8 per cent. The wood is used for making 
extracts which give a firm leather, with a good deal of 
bloom if used strong, and a more reddish tint thanvalonia. 
The extract often contains dark coloring matters, and the 
color of leather tanned with it is readily darkened by 
traces of lime. Like all wood extracts it tans rapidly, the 
color penetrating first and the tan following. Decolorized 
chestnut extracts, sometimes mixed with quebracho and 
other materials, are often sold as " oakwood " extracts. 
There were 187,000 barrels of chestnut extract made in 
1905, and the use of this material is steadily increasing. 

Spanish chestnut (Castanea vesca) bark contains up to 
17 per cent of tannin. The wood contains 3 to 6 per cent 
of tannin and is used abroad for making extract. 

Sumac and related plants. 

Sicilian sumac {Rhus Coriaria) leaf contains 20 to 35 
per cent of tannin which is principally gallotannic, with 
some ellagitannic acid, and is the best tanning material 
known for pale color and soft tanning, and hence is used 
for moroccos, roans, skivers and the like. Sumac is fre- 
quently adulterated with ground leaves and twigs of Pis- 
tacia Lentiscus, Ailanthus glandulosa, Vitis vinifera, and 
some other species of the Rhus family, but Pistacia Len- 
tiscus is used to a much larger extent than any of the 
others. The stem contains but little tannin. Between 
SOO.OOO and 400,000 tons of sumac leaf are imported 

annually. The Sicilian 
sumac is cultivated 
in Italy and Sicily. 
The best leaf grows 
on stony calcareous 
mountain soils near 
the sea and is known 
as "Masculine," 
while the leaf which 
contains much less 
tannin is called 
feminella. 

Smooth sumac 
(Rhus glabra, Fig. 
850), Dwarf sumac 
{R. copallina) and 
Staghorn sumac {R. 
hirta or R. typhina) 
are native from the 
St. Lawrence river 
to the Gulf of Mexico 
and west to the Mis- 
sissippi river, in poor 
soils, waste places, 
and on the hills and 
mountain sides. The 
leaf contains 15 to 
30 per cent of tan- 
leather of a rather darker color than 




Fig. 850. 
Smooth sumac {Ithus glabra) 



nin and makes 
Sicilian sumac because it contains more coloring matter. 
The leaf is extensively gathered in the mountains of 
Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia and sells to the tan- 
ners at $35 to $45 per ton. The leaf should be gathered 
in July before it begins to turn red, as the percentage of 
tannin is higher and it produces a lighter colored leather 
than the leaf gathered in August and September. Better 
prices wi uld be renlized if the leaf were gathered earlier 
than it now is. After drying, the leaf is ground under 
mill-stones, sifted to get out stems, and the leaf bagged or 
baled for market. Sumac is not cultivated in this coun- 
try. It is possible, however, that the American sumac 
could be cultivated as a profitable farm crop. 



Other tannin-bearing species of Sumac or Rhus are : 
R. aromatica, 13 per cent tannin ; R. Uetopium, 8 per 
cent; R. pumila; R. Canadensis; R. Toxicodendron. 
Venetian or Turkish sumac (R. Colinus) is more impor- 
tant as a dyeing than as a tanning material. The leaves 
contain about 17 per cent of tannin. Kliphout (R. 
Thunbergii), from the Cape of Good Hope, contains 28 
per cent of catechol tanning matter of reddish color. R. 
semialata, containing 5 per cent of tannin, yields Chinese 
and Japanese galls, containing up to 70 per cent of gallo- 
tannic acid. They are caused, not by a fly, but by the 
attack of an aphis, as are those of the allied Pistacia. 

Japanese or Chinese galls, made on leaves of Rhus 
semialata by the sting of a plant-louse, contain 70 per cent 
of tannin. 

French sumac (Coriaria myrlifolia) is a poisonous 
shrub of the south of France; the leaves contain about 15 
per cent of tannin and are used for tanning and as a 
sumac adulterant under the name of " stinco." Tutu (Co- 
riaria ruscifolia) bark, of New Zealand, contains 16 to 17 
per cent of tannin. 

Quebracho (Loxopleryngium Lorentzii). The wood 
contains about 20 to 28 per cent of a red, difficultly 
soluble tannin, yielding " reds," and containing catechol 
and phloroglueol. It gives a firm, reddish leather. Que- 
bracho is obtained from Argentina, whence large 
quantities of logs, or extracts made therefrom, are 
exported to Europe and the United States. 

Pistacia Lentiscus, grown in Sicily, Cyprus and Algeria. 
The leaves contain 12 to 19 per cent of a catechol tannin, 
and are used chiefly in the adulteration of sumac. Leather 
tanned with sumac adulterated with lentiscus darkens and 
reddens on exposure to light and air, and for this reason 
its use in cases where a good color is desired is objection- 
able. P. orientalis, Terebinthus, vera, and others of India 
and the Mediterranean region, bear various aphis galls 
yielding 30 to 40 per cent of tanniu. 

Pepper Tree or Molle (Schinus Molle) , oi Buenos Ayres. 
The leaves only are used, and are said to contain 19 per 
cent of tannin. The wood contains le.ss than 3 per cent, 
and the bark 5 to 10 per cent of tannin. S. Aroeira, of 
Brazil, is said to contain 14 per cent of tannin. 

Palm tannins. 

Saw palmetto. Dwarf palmetto (Sabal Adansoni, S. 
serrulata), grows freely in the southern states and is 
especially abundant on the east coast of Florida. The 
plant is an evergreen, the stem of which grows flat along 
the ground and is held in place by numerous small roots. 
The leaves are fan-shaped and ribbed. The plant is very 
hardy and the leaves may be cut without damaging the 
plant. The average yield is stated to be about one-half 
ton of stems to the acre, but in good seasons and with 
rich land over a ton per acre has been secured. The air- 
dried stems contain 5 to 20 per cent and average about 
13 per cent of tannin, and are used in making an extract 
which produces a very soft and mellow leather of good 
color. The extract contains noticeable quantities of 
common salt and organic salts of soda. The leaf also con- 
tains tannin. There were 3,500 barrels of extract made i 
in 1905. 

Coconut palm (Cocas nucifera) contains tannin in the i 
roots. 

Gambier extract. 

Gambier or " Terra Japonica," also called Pale " Cate- 
chu," is a solid extract made from Uncaria (or Nauclea), 
Gambier, an East Indian climbing shrub. The plant is 
crudely cultivated but yields rapid returns. As the plants 
do not receive proper attention, a plantation is exhausted 
in ten to fifteen year.s. Cropping begins three years 
after planting, and is continued two to four times annually. 
In preparing the extract, the leaves and twigs are put in a 



TANNING MATERIALS 



TANNING MATERIALS 



627 



boiler, heated, with water, till the liquid, which is con- 
stantly stirred, becomes sirupy. The leaves are removed, 
drained, and the liquor returned to the boiler. The liquor 
is strained into small shallow tubs, where it is allowed to 
cool, with constant stirring, until the catechiu crystallizes. 
When cool, the pasty mass is turned out of the tub, cut 
into one-inch cubes and dried. A commoner quality, 
called " block-gambier," is marketed in large, oblong 
blocks of about 250 pounds weight, which are wrapped in 
matting and exported in a pasty condition. These contain 
35 to 40 per cent of tannin, while the best cubes reach 
50 to 65 per cent. The tannin is a catechol-phlorglucol 
derivative and is used with other materials in tanning 
light and heavy leathers. 

The myrohalans. 

Myrobalan (Terminalia Chebula), the fruit of a tree 
forty to fifty feet high, which is found in India, Ceylon, 
Burmah and elsewhere, is the source of all the ordinary 
varieties, which differ only in the district from which 
they are secured and the state of maturity of the fruit. 
The nuts contain 30 to 40 per cent of tannin. Those 
known as Bombays are the ripest, while " lean greens" 
are least ripe. The unripe fruit is the richest in tannin. 
Neither the stones nor kernels contain tannin, but the 
latter have an oil which gives a peculiar odor to leather. 
The tannin exists in the pulp which surrounds the kernel, 
and is not very easily extracted. The bark is almost as 
rich as the fruit, and the tree also yields galls. Myro- 
halans are used in combination with other materials. By 
itself it produces a soft and porous leather. T. BeUcrica 
yields Beleric or "Bedda nuts," which contains about 12 
per cent of tannin. It is used as an adulterant of ground 
myrohalans. The nuts of T. tomentosa contain about 10 
per cent of tannin and the bark 10 to 36 per cent of 
tannin. "Badamier bark" (7*. Catappa), of Mauritius, 
contains 12 per cent of tannin. "Jamrosa bark" {T. 
Mauritiana) contains about 30 per cent of tannin. 
"Thann leaves" {T. Oliveri), of Malay Archipelago, yield 
an extract used as a cutch substitute ; the tannin is a 
catechol derivative. The bark contains about 31 per cent 
of tannin, the leaves about 14 per cent. 

Mangrove tannins. 

Mangrove, or Mangle (Rhizophora Mangle), grows on 
tropical coasts all round the world. In the United States 
it is grown on the southern coast of Florida, the Missis- 
sippi delta, Texas coast, on the east and west coasts of 
Mexico and Central America, and in the West Indies. It 
is now being used in Florida for making extract. The 
barks vary much in strength, from 15 per cent up to 40 
per cent in different species. The leaves, used in Havana, 
are said to contain 22 per cent of tannin. Young plants 
contain the highest proportion of tannin. R. Mangle 
seems to yield a bark inferior to several other species. 
The catechol tannin, which is easily extracted, is of deep 
red color, and allied to that of the mimosas. In admixture 
with other materials the red color has a much smaller 
effect, and mangrove bark is now largely used in combi- 
nation with pine, oak and mimosa. Rhizophora mucronata, 
of India and Burmah, has bark that contains 4 to 50 per 
cent of tannin. 

Bakau or Tengah bark of the East Indies, " Goran " 
of Bengal. It contains up to 27 per cent of tannin and 
yields an extract which promises well as a substitute equal 
to cutch, for dying purposes. The solid extract contains 
up to 65 per cent of tannin, making a good but dark 
red leather. Ceriops Roxburghiana bark is very similar 
in strength and character to the above. 

Eucalyptus barks. 

Blue gum {Eucalyptus Globulus) and other species of 
Eucalyptus are common in Australia. Blue gum has been 



introduced into the United States, in southern California 
and Arizona, and is found in Algeria and southern Europe. 
The Eucalyptus is more or less rich in catechol tannins, 
the sap being the source of Botany Bay or Australian 
kinos, which contain up to 79 per cent of tannin. Sev- 
eral species of Eucalyptus afford astringent extracts ; 
those from the "red," "white," or "flooded" gum {E. 
rostrata), the "blood-wood" (i7. corymbosa), and E. cit- 
riodora, being quite suitable for replacing the official 
kind. The bark of E. occidentalis contains 35-50 per 
cent of tannin and is now being used under the name 
Mallet bark, from which the tannin is readily soluble. It 
makes a light brown leather. The bark of E. longifolia, 
the "woolly-butt" of Australia, contains 8.3 per cent of 
tannic acid, and 2.8 of gallic acid. The bark of the 
"peppermint" tree contains 20 percent of tannic acid. 
The "stringy-bark" (E. obliqua) gives 13 J per cent of 
kinotannic acid. The Victorian " iron-bark " (E. leueoxy- 
lon) contains 22 per cent of kinotannic acid, but is avail- 
able only for inferior leather. 

Ccesalpinia. 

Divi-divi (Ccesalpinia Coriaria). This is a tree of 20- 
30 feet high, native in central America and introduced suc- 
cessfully into India. The dried pods contain 40-45 per 
cent of a pyrogallol tannin, mainly ellagitannic acid, and 
would be a most valuable tanning material but for a lia- 
bility to fermentation and sudden development of a deep 
red coloring matter. If used in strong liquors it gives a 
heavy and firm leather, but is principally employed as a 
partial substitute for gambler on dressing leather. The 
seeds do not contain tannin. Tari or teri pod (C. digyna) 
occurs in parts of India and Burmah, where it is used as a 
drug. The pod-case is said to yield over 50 per cent of 
tanning material. C. digyna promises to become a valuable 
tanning material if it proves free from the tendency to 
ferment. It yields a leather quite as white as sumac. Cas- 
calote (C. Cacalaco) is found in Mexico. The pods are rich 
in tannin, in some instances containing 55 per cent. The 
tannin is similar to that of divi-divi. 

Algarobilla (C. [or Balsawocarpon] brevifolia) is 
found in Chile. This is one of the strongest tanning ma- 
terials known, containing an average of 45 per cent of a 
tannin very like that of divi, but less prone to discolora- 
tion. The tannin lies loose in a very open skeleton of 
fiber, and is easily soluble in cold water ; the seeds con- 
tain no tannin. 

Logwood (C. [or Hcematoxylon.] Campechianum) is 
found in Central America. It contains about 3 per cent 
of tannin. Its principal use is in dyeing blacks with iron 
or chorme mordants. 



Turwar or Tanghadi bark (Cassia auriculata) is 
found in southern India. It is used for tanning so-called 
" Persian " sheep and goat-skins, and contains about 17 
per cent of a catechol tannin. Leather tanned with it is 
of a pale yellow color, but rapidly reddens in sunlight. C 
Fistula is found in India. The husk of the pod contains 
17 per cent tannin. 

Mimosas. 

" Babool," or "Babul " (Acacia Arabica), is found in 
India and Egypt. The bark contains about 12 to 20 per 
cent of catechol tannin and considerable red coloring 
matter. It is extensively used in India for tanning kips 
and heavier leathers. The pods contain about the same 
amount of tannin as the bark but of a different kind. 

Cutch is derived from the wood of A. Catechu of India. 
A lighter colored variety called kath is made in northern 
India, and used principally for chewing with betel. The 
extract or cutch is made by boiling the chips with water 
in earthen jars over a mud fireplace. As the liquor 



628 



TANNING MATERIALS 



TANNING MATERIALS 



becomes thick and strong, it is decanted into another 
vessel and the evaporation continued until the extract 
will set on cooling, when it is poured into moulds made of 
leaves or clay, the drying being completed by exposure to 
the sun and air. Kath, or pale cutch, is made by stop- 
ping the evaporation at an earlier point and allowing the 
liquor to cool and crystalize over twigs and leaves thrown 
into pots for the purpose. Good cutch contains about GO 
per cent of tanning matter, and is principally used for 
dyeing browns and blacks with chrome and iron mordants. 
It contains quercetin, a yellow coloring matter. " Pilang" 
(^A. leucophlcea) is found in India and Java. The pods and 
bark contain about as much tannin as A. Arabica. 
" Golden wattle," or " Broad-leaved wattle" (.4. pyc- 
nantha), is found in South Australia. It has one of the 
strongest tanning barks known, containing 30 to 50 per 
cent of tannin. It has been cultivated successfully in Cal- 
ifornia and Hawaii. The Golden wattle (.4. longifolia), 
of New South Wales, contains only half as much tannin 
SB A. pycnantha. Black wattle (il. moZ/issima), with its 
two varieties, A. decurrens and A. dealbata, is among 
the most important of the Wattle family commercially. 
The bark contains 30 to 50 per cent of tannin and is 
grown successfully in Natal and in California. Hickory 
bark (.4. penninervis) contains about 30 to 40 per cent of 
tannin. A.binervata, another Black wattle, contains up to 
30 per cent of tanning matter, as does also the Weeping 
willow (A. saligna). The bark of A. prominens contains 
14 per cent of tannin. 

In Natal the Australian wattles (especially A. mollis- 
iima) have been cultivated with success. The barks con- 
tain about 30 per cent of tannin. The bark of A. mollis- 
sima from trees growing on limestone soils contains 10 
to 25 per cent less tannin than that from other soil for- 
mations. An acre of ten-year-old trees will yield five or 
six tons of bark, so that the tree promi.ses to be valuable 
for growing in California and other western and southern 
states as a future source of tan bark. 

Acacia Cavenia, Espinillo. Native in South America. 
The bark contains 6 per cent and the pods 18 to 21 per 
cent, or more, of tannin. A. 
Cebil, the Red Cebil, has 10- 
15 per cent of tannin in the 
bark and 6 to 7 per cent in 
the leaves. It is found in 
Argentine Republic. A. Gua- 
rensis, the Algarobilla of 
Argentine Republic, is said 
to contain tannin in the bark, 
pods and flowers. A. Timbo 
is found in Buenos Ayres. 
A. Angico, or Piptadenia 
macrocarpa, of Brazil, yields 
" angica bark," containing 
20 per cent of tanning matter. 
Acacia horrida, " Doorn- 
bosch," of the Cape of Good 
Hope, contains 8 per cent of 
tannin. /713a Feuillei, " Pay- 
pay," of Peru, is said to have 
12-15 per cent of tannin in 
the pods. Elephanlorrhiza 
Burchellii, Elandsbochjes, 
Tugwar or Tulwah, of South 
Africa, is a papilionaceous 
plant, the air- dry root of 
which contains 12 per cent 
of tannin and a great deal of red coloring matter. 

Canaigre. (Fig. 851.) 

Canaigre (Rumex hymenoscpalus) , also called Gona- 
gra, Red Dock and wild pie-plant, is common in the sandy, 
semi-arid plains of Mexico, Arizona and Texas, as far 




Fig. 851. Canaigre iRmnex 
hy nienosi'palus) . 



north as Indian Territory and Utah, and westward to 
southern California. It considerably resembles rhubarb. 
The roots, when air-dried, contain 20-35 per cent of a 
catechol tannin, probably allied to that of mimosa. The 
fresh roots contain about 68 per cent of water and 8 per 
cent of tannin. The tannin produces leather of bright 
orange color, having considerable weight and firmness. 
Sandy soils, subject to inundation or irrigation, seem best 
suited to its culture. In California and Arizona, the 
growth begins in October or November with the winter 
rains. The plant blooms about the end of January, while 
the leaves die down in May and no growth takes place 
during the dry hot summer. Planting is done in autumn, 
in rows 30 inches apart, with ten inches between each 
two roots. Roots for " seed " should be kept in the ground 
or stored in dry sand. The yield in an average season is 
10-20 tons of green roots per acre. The plant has been 
grown successfully in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and 
California, but as a rule larger profits can be made irom 
the land by growing other crops, so that its cultivatii n 
has not been a commercial success. The roots should be 
harvested when two years old, as they contain the most 
tannin at this age. If allowed to remain longer they 
become darker and deteriorate. The roots should be 
sliced and extracted at once, or dried at a low tempera- 
ture if this is not possible. 

Other rumexes and polygonums containing consider- 
able tannin. 

Rumex maritimus is found in Central Europe, England 
and Ireland. After drying, it contains 22 per cent of 
tannin. 

Polygonum amphibium is very abundant in the 
United States, growing vigorously in wet soils. It is par- 
ticularly abundant in the upper Mississippi valley. The 
loots contain 22 per cent and the branches 17 per cent of 
tannin. Polygonum Bistorta is common in damp places 
in England. The roots contain 16-21 per cent of tannin. 
Smartweed (P. Hydropiper) is common in damp ground in 
northern and central United States, and contains about 5 
per cent of tannin. 

Coccoloba uvifera, the Seaside Grape of the West 
Indies, is the source of West Indian kino. The entire 
plant is rich in tannin. 

Less important tannin plants. 

Bearberry (Aretostaphylos Uva-Ursi) is used in Russia 
and Finland. The twigs and leaves contain about 14 per 
cent of tannin. 

Manzanila {Aretostaphylos Manzanita) is found in the 
coast region from British Columbia to California. The 
wood containing about 5 per cent, twigs about 8 per cent 
and leaves about 12 per cent of tannin. 

"Curtidor" bark {IVeinmannia glabra, Linn.) of Vene- 
zuela, (Weinmannia macrostachya, D. C), of Reunion and 
New Zealand Towai or Tawheri bark ( Weinmannia race- 
mosa) contain 10 to 13 per cent of iron-bluing tannin, and 
have been practically used , but are not of much importance. 

Tamarix (Tamarix Africana) is secured from Egypt 
and Algeria. The galls contain 26 to 56 per cent of 
tannin. The small twigs, which contain about 9 per cent 
of tannin, are collected in Tunis, and dried, ground and 
imported into Sicily where they are used for the adultera- 
tion of sumac under the name of "Brusca." T. articulata 
from Morocco yields galls produced by aphides, stated by 
Vogel to contain 43 per cent of tannin. 

Churco (Oxalis gigantea) is secured from Chile. Its 
thin, brittle, dark red bark contains about 25 per cent of 
an easily extracted dark red tannin, giving green-blacks 
with iron. 

Cleistanlkus collinus, "Kodarsi," is found in the Deccan. 
The bark is said to contain 33 per cent of tannin. 

Phyllanthus Emblica, of India, yields emblic myro- 



TANNING MATERIALS 



TARO 



629 



balans, which in an immature condition contain consid- 
erable tannin. The leaves and bark are used for tanning. 
The leaves contain 18 per cent of tannin. 

Willow bark (Salix species). The bark of willow 
shoots grown for basket-making contain 7 to 12 per 
cent of tannin, but the quantity of bark thus available 
is small. Salix arenaria and S. Russelliana. The bark of 
these is used for tanning in Russia, and for Danish grove 
leather. Some barks contain up to 12 to 14 per cent of 
iron-bluing tannin. They impart a strong odor to leather. 

Poplar barks have been used for tanning, but contain 
only 2 to 3 per cent of tannin. 

Persea, or Laurus Lingue. The bark is used in Chile 
for tanning Valdivia leather. It contains 17 to 19 per 
cent of a catechol-phloroglucol tannin. 

Cape Sumac or Pruim Bast (Osyris compressa, 
Fusanus compressus, Colpoon comprcssum, Thesium 
Colpoon) is found on the Cape of Gool Hops. The leaves 
contain about 23 per cent of tannin and are used as 
a substitute or adulterant for sumac. 

Quandony {Fusanus acuminatus, Santalum acumi- 
natus), of Australia, contains 18 to 19 per cent of dark 
colored tannin. The bark of Exocarpus cupressiformis, 
of Australia, contains 1.5 per cent of ta.inin. 

Heath honeysuckle (Banksia serrata), of Australia, 
contains 11 to 23 per cent of tannin. Banksia integri- 
folia, of Queensland, has 11 per cent of tannin in the 
bark. Grevillea striata, of Australia, has 18 p^r cent of 
tannin in the bark. Kruppelboom, or Knotted tree (Leu- 
cospermum conocarpum), of the Cape of Good Hope, con- 
tains 10 to 22 per cent of tannin. Sugarbush (Protea 
mellifera), of Cape of Good Hope, yields 18.8 to 25 per 
cent of tannin. Waagenboom (Protea grandiflora) yields 
\o to 2.5 per cent of tannin. Silver tree (Leucadendron 
argenteum), of the Cape of Good Hope, has 9 to 16 per 
cent of tannin in the bark. 

Marsh Rosemary (Statice Limonium), of the south of 
Russia, contains 22 per cent of tannin. Saa Lavender 
{Statice Limonium), of the coasts and salt marshes of 
Europe and America, yields about 20 to 25 per cent of 
tannin. It is used in France, Spain and Portugal. 

Nancite or Mangrntta (Malpighia punicifolia), grown 
in Nicaragua. The bark contains 20 to 30 per cent of 
light colored tannin. 

Casuarina equisetifolia, Linn. (C. leterifolia. Lam.) 
The bark is known as Filao bark in Reunion. It is the 
Tjamara laut of Java and the Casagha or Tinian pine of 
Ceylon. It gives blue-blacks with iron and contains 11 to 
18 per cent of tannio. It is one of the beefwoods. 

Sweet fern (Mijrica [Comptonia] asplenifolia) grows 
wild on many thousands of acres in Michigan. It yields 
40 per cent of " e.xtract." The leaves contain 4 to 5 per 
cent and the roots 4 to 6 per cent of tannin. Myrica 
Nagi (Hind. Kaiphal), of India, contains 13 to 27 per 
cent of tannin in the bark. 

The common alder {Alnus glutinosa) contains 16 to 
20 per cent of iron-green tannin, with much red coloring 
matter. Old barks may be as low as 10 per cent in tannin. 
When used alone it gives a red, hard and brittle leather, 
but, with galls and valonia, it produces a satisfactory 
tannin. 

Hannoki (Alnus maritima) and Minibari (A.firma), 
of Japan. The fruits (yashi) contain 25 per cent of iron- 
bluing tanning matter and little coloring matter. A. 
Nepalensis and A. nitida are used in India for tanning 
purposes. 

White or eommon birch (Betula alba). The inner bark 
is used in Scotland (in conjunction with larch for tanning 
fheep-skins), Norway, Russia and elsewhere. It contains 
only 2 to 5 per cent of iron-greening tannin, and much 
fermentable sugar. It is used to produce the birch-bark 
tar used to give scent and insect-resisting power to 
"Russia-leather." 



Pomegranate (Punica Granatum). The peel of the 
fruit is employed in Spain and the East as a substitute 
for sumac, and contains up to 25 per cent of tannin. The 
bark is said to contain 25 per cent of tannin. Balaustines, 
or wild pomegranates, are found in the East Indies The 
fruit is said to contain 46 per cent of tannin. 

Bloodroot or Shepherd's Knot (Tormentilla erecta, 
Potentilla Tormentilla). The root is variously stated to 
contain 20 to 46 per cent of tannin. It produces a red 
colored leather. 

Mountain Ash (Sorbus or Pyrus Aucuparia). The bark 
is said to be stronger than oak. 

Butea frondosa, with Pterocarpus Marsupium, fur- 
nishes East Indian kino. The flowers are used in India as 
a dye, under the name of Tesu. The bark is fairly rich in 
tannin. 

Pterocarpus, or Drepanocarpus Senegalensis, is the 
source of African kino, which contains up to 75 per cent 
of tannin. 

Mango (Mangifera Indica) is widely distributed in the 
tropics. The bark and leaves are rich in tannin which 
gives green-blacks with iron. 

TARO. Colocasia antiquorum, var. esculcnta. (Ca- 
ladium Colocasia.) Aroidcm. Figs. 852, 853 ; also 
Figs. 131, 132, 135, in Vol. I. 

By /. E. Higgiiis. 

The taro plant is cultivated for the thickened 
starchy underground parts. The plant is a peren- 
nial herb, with large cordate-peltate leaves. The 
spadix terminates in a club-shaped appendage des- 
titute of stamen.s, half as long as the staminate 
inflorescence. The species, in some forms, is in 
common cultivation for ornament. Taro is the 
chief food plant of the natives of Hawaii and other 
of the Polynesian races. It is supposed to be a 
native of India, whence it has been distributed to 
Malay, Sumatra and the Polynesian archipelago. 
It reached Hawaii, no doubt, with the early migra- 
tions from the south. 

Varieties. 

Although propagated by ase.xual parts, the taro 
has run into many varieties. In the ancient 
Hawaiian cultivation there were thirty to fifty 
named varieties, more or less distinct. They varied 
in size, form, color of flesh, color of leaf and leaf- 
stalk, in te.xture and flavor, and in the period 
required for maturity. There was a variety known 
as the Royal taro, which was used by the kings 
and high chiefs. Most of these varieties are not 
exten.sively cultivated to-day, but a large number 
could doubtless be collected among the native 
Hawaiians. 

There are two general types of taro, the one 
growing partly submerged, and known as water 
taro, and the other growing on uplands which are 
abundantly supplied with moisture, but not sub- 
merged. The latter is spoken of as dryland taro. 

Culture of water taro. 

Soil.'^The soil for water taro should be heavy 
and retentive of moisture. Muck soils of the valley 
bottoms are usually selected. The whole valley 
bottoms in Hawaii are frequently laid out in taro 
patches. These vary in size and shape, no two of 



630 



TARO 



TARO 



them being alike, and are so arranged that the 
water may pass over the higher patches, through 
those adjoining, to the lower fields. 

To prepare a new taro patch, dikes must first be 
thrown up around it and the bottom prepared so 




Fig. 852. Taro. To tlie left is a *' hull"; two last on riglit show disease liiiown 
as " root-rot " of taro; the others are normal roots. 

that it will hold water. To do this the land is 
plowed, water is turned on, and the subsoil packed 
to make it tight. This puddling, of course, is not 
necessary for an old taro patch. When the land 
has been thoroughly prepared, and the water has 
been partly drawn off, the taro patch being a mass 
of mud, it is ready for planting. 

Planting. — Taro is propagated by planting the 
crown of the former plant. An inch or two of the 
crown, together with about six inches of the leaf- 
stalks, is planted in the mud. This cutting or 
plant is known as a "huli." The hulls are set 
about one foot apart in a row, and the rows one to 
two or three feet apart, according to variety and 
method of cultivation. Some growers plant in hills, 
four or five hulls being placed in a little circle 
slightly elevated. 

The lower part of the huli beneath the soil 
sends out roots and enlarges, forming the central 
taro plant around which are arranged the younger 
plants, which arise from buds on the corm of the 
parent. 

Subsequent care. — The after cultivation consists in 
pulling the weeds, which is usually done by hand or 
with a hoe, in removing the outer and dead leaves, 
and in keeping the patch supplied with water. In 
hoeing, the weeds which are not likely to grow 
again, and the outer and dead leaves of the taro 
plant, are buried in the soil under the water, and 
thus used as fertilizer. No horse tillage is used in 
cultivating the water taro. The water must be kept 
running continuously,or must be changed frequently. 

Harvesting. — The crop matures in thirteen to 
fifteen months, according to variety. It frequently 



is gathered before it is mature because of the de- 
sire to reap rapid returns. This fact may be respon- 
sible, in part, for the deterioration of taro. The 
laborers pull the plant by hand, throwing it out on 
the banks, where the tops are removed and the 
corms are bagged for marketing 
for the manufacture of poi. If it 
is to be marketed as a vegetable, 
it is tied in bunches by the tops, 
there being three to five corms in 
a bunch. 

Culture of upland taro. 

The so-called dry -land taro 
might better be known as upland 
taro, since a dry soil is in no way 
suitable for its cultivation. It re- 
quires abundant moisture and is 
cultivated only where there is a lib- 
eral rainfall. The land is prepared 
as for any root crop. It should be 
plowed, harrowed and furrowed, 
making the rows about three feet 
apart, to allow for tillage by horse- 
power. The method of propagation 
is the same as that employed in the 
growing of water taro. 

Uses and manufacture. 

Poi. — The chief use of taro in 
Hawaii has always been in the man- 
ufacture of poi. For this purpose the corm, or root- 
stock, is cooked by steam. The skin is then removed 
and the taro beaten on a long boat-shaped taro- 
board, with stone pounders. This is the ancient 
method and is still in vogue, but has been replaced 
to some degree by machinery. In this method, suffi- 
cient water is added to the taro by moistening the 
stone pounder. 

In the modern method, essentially the same 
results are obtained by machinery. The taro is 
steamed and run through a machine similar in con- 
struction to a meat chopper, a small quantity of 
water being added as necessary. The consistency 











i^:Kfe^: 






Upland laro. Hilo, Hawaii. 

of this poi in the old days was varied by the use of 
more or less water, and if very thin was known as 
" two-finger " poi, or if thick as " one finger " poi, 
since it could readily be eaten according to the 
Hawaiian method, with the use of one finger. In 
the absence of spoons the Hawaiians dip one or two 



TARO 



TEA 



631 



fingers in the poi, giving it a twirling motion, and 
dexterously convey it to the mouth. Poi is not con- 
sidered ready for use by the Hawaiians until it has 
fermented for one or two days. 

As a regctable. — The taro corm is also much used 
as a vegetable, being a good substitute for potatoes. 
As such it is steamed, boiled or baked. 

The young and tender leaves from the center of 
the growing taro plant are also used for food. 
When boiled they make an excellent pot-herb, not 
unlike spinach. The unopened floral spathes are 
also cooived. 

Flour. — The manufacture of poi flour from the 
corm is an industry which has received some atten- 
tion. Taro in all forms being a most wholesome 
and nouri.shing food, and particularly easy of 
digestion, has commended itself as a health food. 
Practically the only way to put it on the market as 
such is in the form of flour, since the taro itself 
does not keep well. Taro flour, if pure, is simply 
the "root" cooked, dried, and ground to a powder. 
It is sold under various proprietary names. 

Enemies. 

There are no serious insect enemies of taro. A 
fungous disease known as " root-rot" is a somewhat 
serious hindrance to successful taro-growing, but 
may be controlled by judicious methods of culti- 
vation, including proper selection of hulls, rotation 
of crops, fallowing and fertilization. [For further 
notes on taro, see Index, Vol. I.] 

TEA. Camellia Thm, vars. Link. (Thca Sinensis, 
T. Bohea, and T. riridis, Linn.). Tcrnstrwmiacea. 
Figs. 8.54-857 ; also Figs. 173, 174. 

By Charles U. Shepard. 

Tea is a shrub grown for its leaves, which are used 
in the preparation of the well-known beverage by the 
same name. It sometimes becomes a tree, reaching 
a height of thirty feet ; leaves elliptic-lanceolate 
or obovate-lanceolate, acuminate, serrate and gla- 
brous, sometimes pubescent beneath ; flowers white 
and fragrant, one to one and one-half inches broad; 
petals five ; stamens many. It is largely grown in 
China and India. 

Tea-culture in America, 

One hundred years ago the French botanist' 
Michaux, set out the first tea plant in America at 
the beautiful gardens of Middleton Barony on the 
Ashley river, near Charleston, S. C; its subsequent 
thrifty growth to nearly twenty feet in height 
attested the congeniality of the climate. Some 
forty years thereafter a South Carolina woman 
ob.served the striking similarity of the climate and 
flora in the tea-producing region of British India 
with those of her home, and thus led her father, 
Mr. .Junius Smith, of Greenville, S. C, to undertake 
on his plantation his most interesting experiments 
in the cultivation of tea. Unfortunately, these 
efl'orts were brought to an early close by the sudden 
death of that pioneer. Just previous to the civil 
war, and probably as a result of the "boom" in 
East Indian tea, the United States government in- 



troduced considerable quantities of tea seed into 
the southern coast states. This gave rise to many 
small domestic gardens, and clearly demonstrated 
the feasibility of profitably producing tea of excel- 
lent quality and amply sufiicient for household 
wants. But the ravages of war destroyed most of 
these little gardens. A few, however, survived 
hardships and neglect ; and as the plants had 
escaped pruning, they grew into "seed-groves" as 
distinguished from "tea gardens," where the bushes 
are systematically restricted in size. About twenty 
years later, Hon. Wm. G. LeDuc, United States 
Commissioner of Agriculture, started a tea experi- 
ment station on a part of the same "Newington" 
plantation from which ten years afterwards " Pine- 
hurst," near Summerville, South Carolina, was cut 
off. After a few years of existence and the further 
confirmation of 
the suitability 
of the tea plant 
to this region, 
the station was 
abandoned by 
Dr. Loring, the 



next commis- 
sioner. 

Thus far, 
then, by ade- 
quately supply- 
ing the family 
wants from do- 
mestic gardens 
and furnishing 
small samples 
of approved tea 
for tasting by 
experts, the 
first step in the establishment of a tea industry 
had been taken successfully. But the question re- 
mained unanswered whether tea as a commercial 
commodity might be raised profitably in this sec- 
tion, and to its solution have been devoted the activ- 
ities and means of "Pinehurst," greatly assisted 
and encouraged by the United States Department 
of Agriculture and the Secretary of Agriculture. 
Indeed, it may be very properly added that the 
local work has received the greatest attention and 
cooperation from the public. The effort will not be 
relinquished, whether Pinehurst be acknowledged 
a success or not. Today, as the sole representative 
of American-gi-own teas in our markets, it must 
stand for the new industry; consequently, what 
follows as relating to Pinehurst should be regarded 
as of possibly wider application in the future. 

The promise of the new industry. 

There were many reasons for undertaking the 
investigation. It was questionable whether sufii- 
cient data supported the official dictum that the 
commercial cultivation of tea in the United states 
was impossible. The climate certainly should suit. 
In Pinehurst and the vicinity are found clumps 
of Berberis Japoniea, Cleyera Japoniea, Camellia 
Japonica, Pyrus .Japoniea and many other plants 
(persimmons, plums, walnuts, evergreens,) from 




Fig. 854. Tea flower [Thea viridis). 
Adapted from Botanical Maeazine, 
Vol. VI, Plate 3148. 



632 



TEA 



TEA 



Japan. If, therefore, the same flora prospers in 
Japan and here, there can be no natural difficulty 
in substituting in our markets American tea for 
the 40,000,000 pounds annually imported from that 
insular empire. 

It is very evident that great good must follow 
the introduction into the southern states of a new 
industry, whereby an easy, outdoor employment 
may be afforded to women and children unable to 
bear harder labor and yet needing remunerative 
occupation, especially as tea -leaf -plucking but 
slightly infringes on the gathering of the great 
southern staple, cotton. And there are great tracts 
of fertile land in the vicinity of Pinehurst, now idle 
or worse from the lack of drainage, and therefore 
impregnated with malarial fevers, which tea culti- 
vation might render safe and profitable. The 
people of the United States are paying the Orient for 
tea upwards of $15,000,000 annually, which sum 
might better be kept at home by local production. 
Indeed, the present small consumption of tea in this 
country, as compared with other English-speaking 
peoples, amounting to one and one -third pounds 
per capita per annum, and of late years diminish- 
ing rather than increasing in quantity, might be 
greatly enlarged by more confidence in the purity 
of the home product than now exists in the im- 
ported article, and the quality of the beverage 
improved by avoiding the deleterious efl^ect of 
the long ocean voyage. 

Varieties of the tea plant. 

Whatever may be the opinions as to their origin, 
i. e., whether, as stoutly maintained by many British 
writers, all are derived from the indigenous Assam- 
ese stock, and owe their special characteristic to 
changes of climate and cultivation, as the result of 
their removal to other countries, there are great 
and practical differences between the several types 










Fig. 855. Tea bush in flower. 

of the tea plant. As extremes may be mentioned 
the tea tree of the Brahmaputra jungles, at- 
taining a height of thirty to forty feet, with light 
green, silky leaves, frequently nine inches in length 
by four inches in width, and the stunted bushes of 
far northern climates, hardly exceeding two feet 
in height, with narrow, dark green, leathery leaves, 
two or three inches by one-half inch in size. Be- 



tween them are innumerable variations of size and 
appearance. 

Experience has demonstrated that all the varie- 
ties of the tea plant except those from tropical 
climates which succumb to the cold of our winters, 
will flourish in the southern sea -board states. 
Those that have done best at Pinehurst are : 

(1) That stock which was introduced into this 
country fifty years ago, and has thus become thor- 
oughly acclimated, although liable to be cut to the 
ground by a recurrence oJf the phenomenal cold of 
1899, when the local thermometer fell below zero 
of Fahrenheit. Nevertheless, very few plants were 
killed thereby, and today the same gardens are as 
thrifty as ever. This type, which, from lack of 
more specific information, we call "Assam-hybrid," 
as being of an intermediate character, is capable of 
producing, under favorable conditions, 2,000 pounds 
of suitable leaf or 500 pounds of dry tea to the 
acre per annum. The leaf is well adapted to the 
making of black tea, and possesses most excellent 
cup qualities. 

(2) "Darjeeling," from the slopes of the Hima- 
layan mountains, the source of the best Indian 
teas, less productive and less hardy than the Assam- 
hybrid, but yielding a delightfully fragrant and 
delicate tea, either green or black according to the 
method of curing. 

(3) "Dragon's Pool," secured through the kindly 
ofiices of the United States Department of State 
and the Chinese government from a celebrated 
garden in China, the product of which commands a 
price prohibitive of exportation, except perhaps to 
Russia. The plants are dwarfish and the leaf small. 
It is made into green tea both here and in China, 
yielding a most delicate beverage both to the smell 
and to the taste, and requiring for the most fas- 
tidious neither cream nor sugar. 

(4) Among the varieties exciting the most in- 
terest is the " Shelter " tea, so called because it is 
grown under matting which excludes the direct 
sunlight. It is produced elsewhere only in Japan, 
where it is called "sugar" tea, because of its 
slightly sweet taste. This saccharine character is 
due to the storing up in the leaves of large quanti- 
ties of starch, which in the process of manufacture 
is converted into sugar. The sheltered foliage is 
blue and large. The leaves are very soft and silky. 
This tea commands a very high price in Japan, if 
sold at all. The best of it is reserved for the 
imperial court. 

(5) The gardens of Japanese and Kangra (British 
India) sorts afford most excellent green teas. Those 
made at Pinehurst from the former have been pro- 
nounced by the ablest tea-tasters of this country as 
not surpassed in their cup qualities by any imported 
from Japan; and a very prominent tea-planter from 
Kangra valley has recently tasted tea grown at 
Pinehurst from seed supplied by him, and has stated 
that it was fully the equal of the best in its original 
home. 

The gardens raised from seed secured from the 
highest altitudes of Ceylon have not developed 
sufficiently to warrant an opinion as to their adapt- 
ability to this climate, but they have yielded a 



TEA 



TEA 



633 



strong, flavory tea without astringent effect. The 
climates of Assam and the lower levels of Ceylon 
are too tropical for the production of tea seed 
suitable for this section. 

Great difficulty has been experienced in the 
attempt to establish gardens from Formosa seed. 
The very limited number of pbints raised must defer 
any definite opinion as to their utility here. It is 
now asserted that the bait Forraosan tea is derived 
from plants propagated by layers. 

If it be remembered that green tea is non-oxi- 
dized, and black tea is oxidized, it will readily 
be seen that those leaves which are less sus- 
ceptible to oxidation are better adapted for 
the production of the former sort ; and as 
the ordinary curing of tea involves the exposure of 
the leaf f jr a greater or less time to the atmosphere, 
whereby some oxidation is liable to occur, an in- 
herent proneness to this chemical change renders 
the making of green tea difficult. The black teas 
come chiefly from warmer climates, the greens 
from cooler climates. Either sort may be made 
from all tea-leaf, but each variety is better adapted 
for the production of the one or the other, or one of 
the numerous intermediate kinds of commercial tea. 

Relative values of different parts of the tea plant. 

The names and average weight of the leaves and 
stem on a young tea shoot, freshly plucked, are 
given below, beginning at its apex. ("Pekoe" in 
Chinese means "white hairs," referring to the 
appearance of the folded tip when dry.): 

Grains 

Flowery pekoe or tip J 

Orange pekoe leaf 1 

Pekoe leaf 2J 

First souchong leaf 5 

Second souchong leaf 8 

First congon leaf 9 

Second congon leaf 8 

Stem 16 

50 

It appears that the orange pekoe weighs twice 
as much as the tip ; the pekoe leaf almost twice as 
mucn as the tip and orange pekoe; the first souchong 
(corruption of Chinese for small or scarce sort) more 
than all the pekoes together ; the second souchong 
almost as much as every leaf above it, and the 
congons (corruption of Chinese for labor in rolling) 
are each as heavy as the second souchong. It takes 
50,000 pekoe tips to make a pound of dry tea, but 
less than 4,000 of second souchong or congon 
leaves. Therefore the estimates of the yield of an 
acre of tea depend to a considerable degree on the 
method of plucking, whether fine or coarse. Those 
before given, as the productiveness of the Pinehurst 
gardens, are the result of fine plucking, whereby 
only the pekoe tip and leaves, and very rarely the 
first souchong, are gathered. A leaf or two more 
from each .stem should greatly enhance the size of 
the crop, but would materially reduce the quality. 

The constituent principles which give intrinsic 
value to tea are contained in cells which have to 
be broken that they may be taken into solution by 
the hot water poured on the dried leaf. These cells 



yield to slight pressure in the young and tender 
leaf, but are so securely enveloped in the older leaf 
that they require severe rolling. Again, by the 
economy of nature the most valuable substances 




Fig. 856. Pinehurst tea-shoot from the Tigorons and productive 
type known as "Assam-hybrid." .Shows difference in size 
of leaves on same stem. One-half natural size. 

are being constantly withdrawn from the older 
tissue, to be deposited in parts that are younger and 
in more rapid growth and replaced by more common 
and abundant material. The newer, smaller leaf 
consequently contains more that is valuable and in 
a much more accessible form. Thus the teas made 
from the pekoe leaf are more valuable than those 
from souchong, and the latter than from congon. 

Culture. 

Soil. — Tea requires for its successful cultivation 
a deep, fertile soil, easily permeable to air and 
water, as also to its roots, and entirely free from 
stagnant water whether on the surface or within 
its reach. Quite the contrary to the pictures on 
our grandmothers' blue china, flat lands with a 
slight slope for drainage are best, as thereby denu- 
dation of the soil by .severe rains is avoided. The 
land must be diligently tilled, and con.sequently 
should be free from old roots and stumps. With 
virgin land it is better to raise two or three crops 
requiring deep cultivation before setting out the 
tea seedlings. 

Climate. — A copious and even rainfall through- 
out the cropping season is almost essential, but a 
milder climate does not require so much precipita- 
tion as a hotter one. At Pinehurst the total rain- 
fall for the six to seven months which cover the 
plucking season has slightly exceeded thirty inches 
during the past (rather dry) five years. In the 
great tea-producing regions of the Orient the rain- 
fall is double or triple that amount. The Pinehurst 
observations do not exhibit any marked dependence 
of the size of the crop on excessive rainfall, but 



634 



TEA 



TEA 



prolonged droughts seriously curtail the production. 
Downpours are certainly to be dreadt^d as of little 
utility and frequently very destructive. 

The mean temperature for the cropping season 
is about 7U° Fahr. When it falls below 70° Fahr. 
the yield is scant, especially if accompanied by a 
dearth of water, and the quality is higher. Unques- 
tionably, an equable amount of heat and rain is 
safest, but the largest yield has been obtained 
where both were at their highest. The occurrence 
of zero temperatures is destructive to all of the 
plant above ground unless it has entered into full 
hibernation and its stem is well protected by foli- 
age or snow. Bushes raised from tropical seed very 
largely succumb if the thermometer falls into the 
twenties. Late frosts in spring and cool nights in 
summer have a prejudicial effect on the crop. 




yn 






\ 'V 



> ?* ~ 






^'Mbi. 






Fig. 857. Plucking leaf in a young Daijeeling lea gaiden at 

The importation of tea seed from the Orient is 
attended with very considerable risk. Unless the 
seed be carefully gathered, packed and expedi- 
tiously forwarded, and unless it be zealously pro- 
tected from cold and excessive heat on arrival, and 
during its further transportation through this 
country, the chances of securing successful germi- 
nation are exceedingly small. 

Seeding. — The seed should be planted in the late 
winter or early spring in nurseries, in well-drained, 
ordinarily fertile garden soil, at distances of 3 x 4 
inches, at about two inches depth, and well cov- 
ered with pine or other straw as protection from 
the cold. Where droughts may be expected, it is 
desirable to command a handy water-supply for 
keeping the soil fairly moist. Later, when the 
shoots begin to appear, a moderate shelter from 
the sun should be raised above the beds and most 
of the straw removed ; with the advent of autumn 
the shelter should be gradually dispensed with. 
The beds must be kept clean of weeds and grass. 

Transplanting. — The seedlings may be allowed 
to grow until a foot or more in height, when they 
may be transplanted to the future tea garden, 
which here is best done in the late autumn. 

There are two ways of planting : (1) by checks, 



in single hills at distances conformable to the habit 
of the bush and the fertility of the soil, at 4x4 
feet to 6 X 6 feet, either rectangularly or alter- 
nately ("quincunx"), the latter being preferable 
as affording more plow-ways. Such planting re- 
quires L200 to 2,700 seedlings to the acre. Or (2) 
the plants are set out for hedges, say five feet by 
fifteen inches apart. The latter method requires 
much more hoeing, but is better adapted for slop- 
ing land, where, by running the rows at right 
angles to the declivity, the washing of the top 
soil is largely obviated. 

Suhgequent care. — The cultivation of tea in this 
country demands the substitution of plows and cul- 
tivators, drawn by horses or mules, for the hand- 
work with spades, forks and hoes in vogue in the 
Orient. It requires that the soil should be kept 
free from weeds and grass and as permea- 
ble to rainfall as possible, without injur- 
ing the surface roots of the plants. Where 
rainfall is excessive or the site too slop- 
ing, suitable measures must be taken to 
prevent the washing away of the top soil ; 
where danger of drought prevails, steps 
for the conservation of moisture are in 
place. Experimental artificial irrigation 
has not proved succe.ssful at Pinehurst, 
although theoretically suggested. Here 
it has been found much more urgent to 
get rid of water in the subsoil than to 
supply it superficially. 

Pruning. — Aside perhaps from differ- 
ences of individual opinion in the pro- 
cesses of manufacture, there is no subject 
on which tea-growers present greater 
divergence of views (and few can resist 
the temptation to rush into print thereon) 
p. than on pruning. The necessity of prun- 

ing lies in the evergreen character of the 
tea plant and its arborescent tendency under favor- 
able conditions of growth. Ordinarily, after the 
bush has attained a medium size the production of 
young leaf is small, but withal the growth upward 
would soon extend beyond the reach of the pluckers. 
Hence, both to facilitate the gathering of leaf and 
to stimulate the production of young growth by 
forcing nature to its utmost effort to restore the 
natural equilibrium between the roots, stems and 
leaves, the tea-planter deprives the bush of a greater 
or less quantity of the leaves, which constitute not 
only its lungs but also the physiological laboratory 
wherein the material for future growth is perfected. 
Usually it is not necessary during the first few years 
more than to trim the plant into proper shape, and 
afterward to cut back (in this climate, after the 
severest cold of the winter) the growth of the past 
season to within a few inches of the older wood. 
But this limitation does not suflice for the purposes 
already stated, and it becomes necessary every five 
or ten years to subject the bushes to a more vigor- 
ous pruning, perhaps to the very ground. Finally, 
where the winter temperature is liable to drop 
below 20° Fahr., it is advisable to substitute a 
clump or sucker-growth for the single-stem bushes 
of tropical climates, if necessary by the removal of 






TEA 



TEA 



635 



the main trunk, thus providing protection from the 
cold to the tenderer stems. 

As a result of pruning, at the axis of every 
remaining leaf there appears a tiny shoot which 
speedily develops into a new stem equipped with 
several leaves. From the axis of each of these 
latter springs yet another shoot which under favor- 
able conditions gives rise to another crop of leaf. 
These successive productions of young foliage are 
called "flushes," whose rapidity of recurrence 
depends on climate, soil and systems of cultivation 
and plucking. They afford the tea-planter the 
opportunity of gathering the young and tender 
leaf at frequent intervals throughout the growing 
season. The fact that upwards of twenty pluckings 
have been made at Pinehurst during the six months 
of cropping is due to the picking of only a small 
modicum of leaf from each new shoot, and the 
consequent readiness with which young foliage is 
produced. A large part of the world's tea is the 
result of a practical stripping of all the leaves 
and a good part of the stem ; but as such deple- 
tion removes the embryonic shoots in the axes of 
the leaves, the power of reproduction is greatly 
diminished. 

Plucking and production. — The plucking of leaf 
begins with a small topping during the first year 
after transplanting, and under favorable conditions 
should exhibit a progressive increment for a number 
of years. The fol'owing table shows the early 
croppings, expressed in pounds of dry tea per acre, 
of several sorts of tea on naturally fertile lands : 





Assiim- 
hybrid 


Darjeeling 


Chinese 


Kangra 


1902 . . . 


1 








1903 . . . 


34 








1904 . . . 


103 


2 


33 


no 


1905 . . . 


195 


55 


157 


203 


1906 . . . 


284 


92 


206 


209 



A comparison of the production of some older 
gardens, also expressed in pounds of dry tea per 
acre, since the phenomenal freeze of the spring of 
1899, affords the following : 





Assam 


■hybrid 


Chinese 


Darjeeling 




1 


2 


1 


2 


1 2 


1900 . . . 


63 . 


. 272 


135 . 


. 41 


147 . . 48 


1901 . 




60. 


. 347 


93. 


. 47 


183 . . 96 


1902 . 




159 . 


.440 


252 . 


. Ill 


292 . . 148 


1903 . 




145 . 


. 421 


205 . 


. 142 


264 . . 149 


1904 . 




89 . 


. 363 


140 . 


. 109 


264 . . 144 


1905 . 




135 . 


. 480 


170 . 


. 119 


326 . . 198 


1906 . 




176 . 


.382 


345 . 


. 193 


347 . . 225 



The plucking of the leaf generally extends in 
this climate from the beginning of May until into 
October, and is confined to the pekoe tip and leaves. 
The colored children who gather the young leaves 
as they are successively produced have occasion to 
revisit each garden every ten days to two weeks 



during the season. By careful training they become 
expert in their task, and easily equal, if not sur- 
pass, the average tea-pluckers of the Orient. But 
constant supervision as to their thoroughness is 
requisite not only in the gardens but also at the 
delivery of the leaf at the factory. 

The vitality of the tea plant, under favorable 
conditions, successfully overcomes the strenuous 
incursions of the pruner and plucker. Abundant 
proof has demonstrated that the same plant can be 
thus depleted for twenty-five to fifty years, without 
serious impairment ; indeed, it is asserted that in 
one Japanese garden the same bushes have yielded 
high-grade leaf for two hundred years. The irregu- 
larities in the productiveness of the older gardens, 
as shown in the above table, are preeminently due 
to meteorological variations. The greater yield of 
1902 was probably due to unusually high tempera- 
tures, the thermometrical readings having exceeded 
100° Fahr. on several days. 

Curing and handling. 

If it is remembered that all tea-leaf must be 
subjected to two processes, viz., rolling, to break 
the oily cells which contain the principles valuable 
for brewing the beverage and to spread them on 
the surface of the leaves, and drying, to prevent 
fermentation and decay ; that leaf thus prepared 
constitutes green tea, the nearest approach to the 
natural condition; and that the introduction of two 
additional processes, — withering of the green leaf, 
and oxidation, by exposure, after rolling, of the damp 
leaf to the atmospheric air, produces black tea, it 
will be readily seen how large an opportunity has 
been given for substituting mechanical for the 
old-time hand (and naked foot) processes of the 
far Orient. Indeed, at the present up-to-date tea 
factory, manual labor has been restricted to that 
final culling which removes objectionable leaf and 
adventitious matter. 

Intelligently to describe the many machines now 
in use, should necessarily consume too much time 
and space, but it may be permitted to refer to two 
useful ones invented at Pinehurst : 

The green-tea sterilizer consists of a rotary 
cylinder which satisfactorily sterilizes the "en- 
zymes " or soluble oxidizing ferments in the freshly 
plucked leaf, by directing a current of hot air (550° 
to 600° Fahr.) against it as it falls for several 
hundred times through the diameter of the tube on 
its passage through the length of the latter, until 
it is discharged in a flaccid condition, suitable for 
rolling and no longer liable to oxidize. 

The attritionizer imparts to the dried unoxidized 
leaf a gray color due to the friction of the par- 
ticles of tea on each other in a current of warm 
air, which otherwise can be secured only by adul- 
teration with foreign and generally deleterious 
coloring matters. 

The final mechanical process is the differentia- 
tion of the several sizes of the dry tea particles by 
means of sieves, and to them are given the names 
of the leaves of the tea shoot, as if separately 
plucked and prepared, — which is practically no- 
where done. If not previously chopped or cut, the 



636 



TEA 



TEASEL 



smaller the dry leaf particles the better is the 
brew. 

Enemies. 

Thus far the only enemies developed by the 
American tea experimentation have been the red- 
spider, during exceptionally dry vi'eather and on 
weak plants, and the mealy-bug on bushes in the dim 
light under the covering of the shelter-tea frames. 
Pruning and burning are the most effective reme- 
dies for these pests. Cattle, goats and the general 
farm-thief do not molest tea gardens ; and the dep- 
redations of the army-worm must be regarded as 
an advantage, as the worm spares the tea while 
destroying the grass. 

Quantity versus quality in the product. 

The production of large yields is generally at the 
expense of quality, as frequent flushes appear to 
interfere with the formation of those chemical 
combinations which impart value to the leaf. 
Nevertheless, the problem of quantity or quality 
steadily presents itself to the average tea-planter of 
the Orient, and the profit of production vacillates 
between the two. Of late there would seem to 
have been more money in poorer and cheaper teas. 
The price of tea has fallen to about half the price 
it held one generation ago. If the quality had been 
maintained, which under the circumstances was 
impossible, the only sufferers might have been the 
producers ; but as matters now stand, the poorer 
classes in losing their health from the consumption 
of inferior teas are most to be pitied. First came the 
terrible struggle of the Indian and Ceylon planters 
with China for the supremacy of the world's 
tea markets ; and once accustomed to a steady 
decline in price, the dealers, both wholesale and 
retail, have never ceased to demand yet greater 
cheapness of the commodity, even though incom- 
patible with the real enjoyment or healthfulness of 
the beverage. Good tea is imported into this coun- 
try and commands its proper price, but it plays a 
subordinate part to the great bulk of cheap, often 
harmfully astringent or worthless stuff made from 
inferior leaf. 

At the very commencement of the Pinehurst ex- 
perimentation, the impossibility as well as the 
undesirability of attempting to compete with the 
cheaper oriental teas was acknowledged because of 
the great difference in the price of common, un- 
skilled labor. It was foretold that success could 
be attained only by the production of high-class 
teas, the product of intelligent labor and suitable 
machinery. It was felt that the distinctly charac- 
teristic cup qualities of American teas, while 
operating against their introduction, must prove 
their main reliance because they precluded the 
substitution of foreign articles for them when once 
their use had become habitual. For this reason and 
because the Pinehur.st teas possess purity, strength 
and, withal, freedom from astringency, they have 
found favor in large sections of the country. The 
large variety of foreign tea plants, carefully 
selected from the best sources and intelligently 
cultivated, has enabled Pinehurst to place on the 



market a number of different teas, thus appealing 
to the tastes of all and solving the question as to 
the disposition of the output. 

Literature. 

Samuel Boildon, The Tea Industry in India ; A. J. 
Wallis and C. E. Tayler, Tea Machinery and Facto- 
ries; Claud Bald, Indian Tea: Its Culture and Manu- 
facture (1903); S. Ball, Cultivation and Manufac- 
ture of Tea (1848); John Ferguson, Ceylon in 1893; 
Robert Fortune, Three Years' Wanderings in the 
Northern Provinces of China (1847) ; John H. 
Blake, Tea Hints for Retailers (1903); Lieutenant- 
Colonel Eward Money, The Cultivation and Manu- 
facture of Tea (1883); David Crole, Tea,— A text- 
book of tea-planting and manufacture (1897); W. 
Kelway Barnber, Chemistry and Agriculture of 
Tea, including growth and manufacture (1893); 
The Tea Cyclopedia, compiled by the Editor of the 
"Indian Tea Gazette" (1881); The Tea-Planter's 
Vade Mecum, compiled by the Editor of the "Indian 
Tea Gazette"; Dr. Charles U. Shepard, Bulletins 
of the United States Department of Agriculture ; 
George F. Mitchell, Home-grown Tea, Farmers' 
Bulletin No. 301. 

TEASEL. Dipsacus Fullonum, Linn. Dipsaceae. 
Figs. 858-860. 

By C. W. aark. 

The teasel is a biennial plant, the heads of which 
are used in tearing or raising a nap on cloth. It 
is a stout herbaceous 
plant with opposite 
leaves and with flowers 
in heads or whorls. 
During the second sea- 
son the plant grows 
into a bush about six 
feet high, with numer- 
o u s branches (Fig. 
8-58), at the extremity 
of each of which a tea- 
sel forms. The main 
stalk produces the 
largest and strongest 
teasel, known as the 
"king." This is called 
a " male " teasel and is 
the only one of the 
kind on the plant, al- 
though there are u.su- 
ally a large number of 
"queens" or "medi- 
ums," as they are gen- 
erally known, at the 
extremities of the lat- 
eral branches. F'rom 
the subdivisions o f 
these laterals, smaller 
branches produce the 
"buttons," as the 
smallest teasels are termed. The male teasel sheds 
pollen over the others, without which fertile seed 
will not be formed. If the "king" be removed, the 




Fig. 858. FuUer's teasel, ma- 
ture plant. Larger heads 
ready for cutting, smaller 
ones still in bloom. 



TEASEL 



TEASEL 



637 



other teasels will be larger and for manufacturing 
purposes fully as good, but the seed will not germi- 
nate. Where the branches diverge from the main 
stalk the leaves grow together and form a cup 
holding a pint or more of water. It is interesting 
to note that without water in these cups perfect 
teasels will not be formed. 

History. 

The fuller's teasel is a native of the south of 
Europe, whence it was taken to other sections and 
is now cultivated to a large extent. In 1840, Wil- 
liam Snook, a resident of Onondaga county, New 
York, visited his former home in England and on 
his return brought with him teasel seed, and with 
the help of workmen from the teasel-growing sec- 
tions of England he began the culture of teasel in 
America. From this small beginning has sprung 
a busine.ss which, although it has not spread to any 
great extent beyond a radius of ten miles from 
the place where it originated, ranks as one of the 
important industries of that section. In more 
recent years the teasel has been grown in a small 
way in Oregon. The Oregon teasels, although of 
good quality, are not considered by manufacturers 
to be up to the standard of excellence of the New 
York product. 

Varieties. 

A number of species are known, all native of 
the temperate regions of the Old World. But two 
varieties are known in America, the Dipsacus Ful- 
loniLin or fuller's teasel, which is the only kind 
having a commercial value, and the wild teasel, D. 
sylvestris, which is a common wayside weed in 
many sections, and is said to have some value as 
a bee plant. 

Although there is but the one variety of teasel 
that has a commercial value, the market teasels 
vary considerably in quality according to the soil 
and climate in which they are grown. The dry 
climate and soil of France produce the most wiry 
hooks known. These are needed for blankets and 
deep-napped woolens. The moist soil of England 
produces the opposite extreme, but it is such a 
teasel as much of the English cloth requires. The 
German product, which is very similar to the Amer- 
ican, has a medium strength and is adapted to 
ordinary woolens. This variation causes a consid- 
erable interchange between the different countries. 
Broadcloth, which is almost entirely a foreign 
product, requires a small, fine teasel. This creates 
a demand for the "buttons" from this country. 
Blankets, on the other hand, are exclusively a 
domestic product and call for the "kings" both 
home-grown and foreign. 

Culture. 

The teasel seems to do its best on a limestone 
soil, which should be made clean by previous culti- 
vation. In the early spring the ground .should be 
thoroughly fitted and the seed sown in drills about 
three to three and a half feet apart. One to two 
pecks of seed per acre are used, commonly the 
smaller quantity. When the young plants appear 



they should be given clean cultivation, and should 
be thinned to stand eight or ten inches apart. It is 
customary to plant a half crop of corn with the 
teasels. This does not seem to injure the growth 
of the young plants and it gives some return from 
the land the first season. The stalks are usually 




Fig. 859. Teasel, near the end of the second year. 



left standing to hold the snow on the teasel plants 
during the winter. The second spring the field is 
usually given an early cultivation, after which 
nothing is done till the time of harvest. 

Harvesting and handling. — About August 1 the 
crop is ready to be harvested, when the plants have 
acquired their full size. The heads have blossomed 
and between the blossoms have formed the stiff, 
recurved hooks that give the plant its value. The 
heads should be cut as soon as possible after the 
blossoms have fallen. About three or four inches 
of stem is cut with the head. The implements for 
harvesting are a short knife, a pair of gloves to 
protect the hands and a large basket to hold the 
cut heads. As the heads do not ripen uniformly, it 
is necessary to go over the field two or three times 
to secure the entire crop in its best condition. As 
soon as cut, the heads are drawn to a building 
provided with ample ventilation and spread on 
scaffolds to dry. 

Yield. 

The average yield in America is about 100,000 
heads per acre ; in the countries of Europe two or 
even three times this yield is not uncommon. The 
reason for this is to be found in the high-priced 
land and the cheap labor of those countries. The 



638 



TEASEL 



TEOSINTE 



opposite conditions here render intensive cultiva- 
tion unprofitable. 

Marketing. 

From the grower the crop goes to the dealer or 
middleman. The price has varied from fifty cents 
per thousand (an unprofitable rate) to two dollars 
and even more, although the latter price has not 
been reached in many years. For the past few 
years the price has been ninety cents to one dollar 
per thousand. Considering that it requires two 
years to grow the crop and that much hand labor 
is required, any price under seventy-five cents will 
not return a fair margin of profit. 




Fig. 860. 

Although nominally sold by the thousand, the 
teasels are really sold by weight. A thousand of 
the dried teasels are estimated to weigh ten pounds. 
The dealers trim off the projecting spurs about the 
base, shorten the stem, assort them into several 
grades according to size and the quality of the 
hook, and pack them for shipment to the manufac- 
turer. 

Use. 

The teasel has been used from ancient times in 
raising a nap on cloth. At first the work was done 
in a rude way by hand. At present the teasels are 
arranged on a cylinder in such a way that the cloth 
passes slowly over them while the cylinder or 
" gig," as it is called, revolves in the opposite di- 
rection. Thus the recurved hooks catch the fibers 
of the wool, causing them to stand up from the 
surface of the cloth and form a nap, which in fine 
cloth is sheared to bring it to a uniform length. 
After a time the spaces between the hooks become 
filled with the fibers. They are then cleaned by 
machinery. By this means the teasel may be used 
several times before it becomes worthless. Al- 
though a number of machines have been invented to 
take the place of the teasel, nothing has been prac- 
tical enough to come into general use. The teasel 
hook is strong enough for the work and yet elastic 
enough to " give " before breaking the cloth, char- 
acteristics difficult to secure in a machine. 



TEOSINTE. Euchlmna Mexicana, Schrad. Also 

given as E. luxurians and Reana Ivxurians, 
Dur. GraminecE. Guatemala Grass. (Pronounced 
teosin'te.) Fig. 861. 

By IF. J. SpiUmaii. 

An annual forage plant closely related botani- 
cally to corn. The appearance and inflorescence 
are much like corn, but no true ear is formed ; 
the seed is produced on slender spikes in four or 
five leaf-axils near the center of the plant. A 
tassel is borne similar to that of corn. Some botan- 
ists hold it to be the original form of corn, with 
which it readily crosses. It is a rank grower, 
reaching a height of nine to fifteen feet, 
and bearing an abundance of leaves and 
tender stems. Thirty to sixty stalks are 
sometimes sent up from a single root. 
Some of the suckers attain nearly the 
same size as the main stem and mature 
at about the same time. Under favorable 
conditions, growthcontinues until checked 
by frost. 

Distribution. 

The successful growing of teosinte is 
restricted by soil and climatic conditions. 
It demands a rich soil with an abundance 
of moisture and a long, hot growing sea- 
son. Where these conditions do not pre- 
vail, it is easily superseded by sorghum, 
corn and other forage crops. The plant 
is a native of the warm parts of Mexico 
and Central and South America, though 
it was first cultivated in Australia. In 
the United States its best growth is made along 
the Gulf coast, in Florida and Louisiana, and in 
Georgia and Mississippi. It may be grown as far 
north as New Jersey and Kansas, though in the 
northern states it can scarcely be considered an 
economic forage plant. It has been grown with 
some success in Michigan and southern Oregon. In 
New York and Vermont it has not given satisfac- 
tion. In Texas it has given satisfaction, both as a 
green and as a dry feed. It here grows to a height 
of nine feet, and produces three crops a year, but 
it does not mature seed. 

It seldom matures seed north of latitude 30°. 
The seed raised in the United States is grown 
almost exclusively in the southernmost part of 
Florida, though seed has been matured at the 
Louisiana Experiment Station. 

Culture. 

The planting season is May or June, and it should 
not be delayed beyond this because of the long 
growing season required. Rich bottom land or any 
soil that will produce good crops of corn is most 
desirable. The drills are three to four feet apart, 
the plants one foot apart in the row. It is some- 
times advised to make the drills five feet apart and 
the hills three feet apart in the row, three or four 
seeds being planted in each hill. The richer the 
land the farther apart should the seeds be planted. 
One to three pounds of seed per acre is used, de- 



TEOSINTE 



TOBACCO 



639 



pending on the method of planting ; usually one 
pound per acre is sufficient. The seed is rather 
expensive, and must be purchased each year. 




Teosinte {Euchtania Mexicana). 



The crop is given much the same cultivation as 
corn, and is fertilized as for corn or sorghum. 
Fig. 861 illustrates the luxuriant growth. 

Harvesting and yield. 

Teosinte is seldom used in any way except as a 
soiling crop. Its great succulence and the fact 
that it is usually grown where there is much rain 
renders it nearly impossible to cure it for fodder. 
It has occasionally been ensiled and is said to make 
a fair quality of silage. When used as a soiling 
crop, it furnishes several cuttings during the season. 
It is best cut when four or five feet high, as it 
becomes less palatable if allowed to mature much 
beyond this. When grown for fodder it may be cut 
late in the season, and the amount of feed secured 
will be practically as great as that secured by 
cutting it several times during the season. 

When grown for seed in Florida, the plants are 
sometimes cut once or twice before they are 
allowed to run to seed. The seed is ready to har- 
vest in December. It is run through an ordinary 
grain thresher and sold by sample. 

The yields of forage are enormous, placing teo- 
sinte at the head of the grasses in the yields per 
acre. Harvests of eighteen to thirty tons per acre 
are not uncommon. When to this great yielding 
property is added the fact that the entire plant is 
relished by stock, its importance as a forage crop 
is readily understood. The stalks are tender and 
nutritious, and none of the plant is wa.sted. 

Although teosinte has been known for a long 
time, it has almost no standing as a farm crop in 
this country. It is utterly useless to plant it on 
any except moist, rich soil, and .such soil is not 
common in the section where it is grown. The fact 
that practically its sole use is for soiling purposes 
greatly limits its usefulness as a farm crop. 

Literature. 

Farmers' Bulletin No. 102, United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture ; Kansas Experiment Station, 
Bulletin No. 123 ; Florida Experiment Station, 
Bulletin No. 78. 



TOBACCO. Nicotiana Tabacum, Linn. Solanaeem. 
Figs. 862-880 ; also Figs. 178, and 108 in Vol. I. 

By A. D. Shamel. 

Tobacco is a plant of American origin, the leaves 
of which are used fur smoking, chewing, snuff 
and also medicinal purposes. The genus Nicotiana 
embraces about fifty species, but A'. Tabacum (from 
South America) supplies about all of the cultivated 
varieties of tobacco. Another .species, Nicotiana 
rustica, is occasionally found wild in Connecticut, 
New York, Colorado, and other states. It is com- 
monly grown in iVIexico for smoking purposes, 
being there perennial. 

Botanical characters. (Figs. 862, 863.) 

The tobacco flowers are arranged on a branching, 
determinate flower-head, which appears when the 
middle leaves are about half-grown, and continues 
to develop and produce new flowers during the 
remainder of the life of the plant. The calyx is 
green and five-parted. The corolla is tubular or 
funnel-shaped and delicately colored. It is compar- 
atively small from the basal end to a point about 
two-thirds the distance to the terminal end of the 
flower. At this point it enlarges suddenly to more 
than twice the size of the basal part. Its five petals 
coalesce to form the corolla tube, and separate only 
at the extreme end. The stamens are five in number. 
The ovary is two-celled. The early capsules always 
mature before flowering ceases. 

The tobacco flower is symmetrical. The number 
of sepals and stamens is always the same as the 




Fig. 862. Flowers of tobacco. 

number of petals, but these floral circles do not 
remain constant, varying rather indefinitely in 
different strains and even among individuals of the 
same strain. Trimerous flowers, or flowers with 



640 



TOBACCO 



TOBACCO 




Fig. 863. 



Flowers and seed-pod of 
tobacco. 



three parts in each flower circle, have been found 
growing on the same plant with pentamerous 
flowers, or those having live floral parts. This is 
the exception, however. 

History and distribution. 

The extreme antiquity of the use of the leaves of 
this plant for smoking purposes is indicated by the 

discovery of pipes 

J J '^'/741'i^^°* ^"^"^ other means 

''"■ " ' for smoking to- 

bacco in the pre- 
historic mounds of 
the United States, 
Mexico and Peru. 
Columbus, on his 
voyage.s, discov- 
ered the natives 
using tobacco for 
smoking, chewing 
and as a snufl^. In 
1558, Jean Nicot, 
the French Am- 
bassador to Por- 
tugal, sent a supply of tobacco seed to Queen Cath- 
erine de Medici, and to commemorate this service 
the generic name Nicotiana was given the plant. 
Killebrew states that early American explorers 
heard the plant called tobacco in Mexico, where it 
was cultivated extensively. The name "tobacco" 
also may have come from the name of the kind of 
pipe used by the Carribees, the " tobaco." 

The systematic cultivation of tobacco was begun 
in Virginia about 1G12, by John Rolfe. Among the 
early settlers in Virginia, at Jamestown and other 
places, tobacco was the common currency and the 
principal article of export. It is asserted by com- 
petent authorities that without this crop the first 
settlement in Virginia would have been a failure, 
and that tobacco was the foundation of the pros- 
perity of the state. The cultivation of the crop 
rapidly developed, so that in 1731 the export of 
tobacco from Virginia and Maryland reached 
60,000 hogsheads of 600 pounds each, yielding 
$1,875,000. 

The culture of tobacco in New England began at 
the time of the settlement of the country. Its cul- 
ture was opposed by many of the Puritan settlers, 




so that it did not develop to any great extent 
until about 1795. At this time, some of the settlers 
in the Connecticut valley, finding that the soil 
and climatic conditions were favorable for the 
development of a fine smoking tobacco, began 
to grow considerable areas. It was found that this 
tobacco, when manufactured into a roll, gave a 
delightful aroma and had a pleasant taste. In this 
way the first commercial cigars were made in the 
homes of the settlers, some of which were shipped 
for sale to New York and other thriving centers of 
population. About 1811 or 1812, the first cigar- 
manufacturing establishments were built at Wind- 
sor and Suttield. This section has remained the 
leading cigar-tobacco producing section until the 
present time. The industry in New England has 
had many changes during this period, but, as a 
whole, it remains one of the most profitable in the 




Fig. 865. 



Variation in tobacco seedlings, 
leiives. 



Kuuiid type of 



Showing variations in shape and type of tobacco 
seedlings. Pointed tj-pe of leaves. 



Connecticut valley. As a result of the importation 
of Cuban tobacco, and of the development of the 
Ohio and Pennsylvania tobacco-producing sections, 
where the tobacco has a superior aroma and flavor, 
the Connecticut valley tobacco has come to be 
largely used for cigar wrapper and binder purposes, 
the Ohio, Pennsylvania and imported Cuban to- 
baccos being used for cigar fillers. The New Eng- 
land tobaccos have a peculiar gloss, stretch and 
burn, which particularly fits them for cigar-wrap- 
per purposes, in addition to the fact that when 
wrapped on cigars they blend nicely with the best 
fillers. 

Extent of the industry. 

The widely varying types of soil in the tobacco 
districts, and the difi'erent varieties of tobacco, 
have made it possible to produce products suitable 
for the manufacture of the varied products de- 
manded by the consumei's. Some idea of the value 
of the crop may be gained from the estimate of the 
value of the crop in 1906, in the United States. 
About 796,099 acres of tobacco were grown, pro- 
ducing an average yield of 857.2 pounds to the 
acre, or a total of 682,428,530 pounds. The average 
value of the crop was about ten cents per pound, or a 
total of about $68,232,647. The value of the manu- 
factured products of tobacco in 1900 was $283,- 
076,546. The products may be divided into three 
general classes, of which the values were as fol- 
lows : Cigars and cigarettes, $160, 223,152 ; chew- 



TOBACCO 



TOBACCO 



641 



ing, smoking and snuff products, $103,754,362 ; 
stem-used and rehandled tobacco, $19,099,032. In 
the manufacture of these products, 142,277 persons 
were employed, who earned a total wage of $49,- 
852,484. In addition to the tobacco grown in 
the United States, there was imported into the 
United States during the year ended June 30, 
1906, $4,143,192 worth of tobacco in a manufac- 
tured condition, and $22,447,514 worth of unmanu- 
factured products, making a total value of imported 
tobacco of $26,590,706. In 1891, the tobacco in- 
dustry furnished almost $50,000,000 revenue to 
federal government, and this revenue now amounts 
to one-eighth of the total net receipts. Tobacco 
has now become one of the great staple crops of 
the United States, and is being looked on as a nec- 
essity rather than a luxury by the people. Its 
culture is rapidly extending to all quarters of the 
globe, and its use for smoking, chewing, snuff and 
medicinal purposes is increasing at a tremendous 
rate. 

Varieties. 

The character of the tobacco plant is profoundly 
affected by the conditions of soil and climate. The 
flavor, aroma, " burn " and texture of the leaf are 
particularly affected by these conditions, so that 
certain sections come to be recognized as specially 
adapted for growing a special type of tobacco. It 
has been asserted that the aroma of the leaf is 
specially influenced by climatic conditions, while 
texture is affected most seriously by soil condi- 
tions. For example, the light, thin, elastic, cigar- 
wrapper leaf varieties of New England when grown 
in the heavy clay soil of Tennessee assume the 
heavy non-elastic character of the Tennessee to- 
baccos. The fact that a change of seed from one 
section to others induces variability has been taken 
advantage of in the production of new varieties. 
An illustration is found in the origin of the White 
Burley variety. George Webb, of Brown county, 
Ohio, found a few striking light-colored plants in a 
field of tobacco grown from Red Burley seed. The 
Red Burley seed came from Kentucky, and when 
grown under difi'erent conditions in Ohio throw 
these sports. Mr. Webb saved the seed of these 
plants and set out a small field from them the 
following season. This tobacco proved so desirable 
that the culture gradually extended until White 
Burley has become the most extensively cultivated 
variety in the United States. Another typical illus- 
tration is the Uncle Sam Sumatra variety, produced 
by the writer. In 1903, in the Connecticut valley 
considerable areas were cultivated to a variety the 
seed of which was secured from Florida. The 
marked change of conditions induced tremendous 
variability. One of the types found in these fields 
was ideal from the cigar-wrapper standpoint. The 
leaves were beautifully rounded, of fine venation 
and color. It was distinct from every other type 
produced. Seed was saved under bag from these 
plants, and was found to produce uniform strains 
of tobacco. The best of these strains has been 
developed into an established variety which is now 
grown extensively, producing a better grade of 

B41 



tobacco for wrapper purposes than any heretofore 
grown. 

The tobacco flower is naturally self-fertile, and 
plants grown from self-fertilized seed are always 
stronger and more vigorous than those from cross- 
pollinated seed when the crossing is within the 
variety. The vitality of tobacco seed is retained 
with little loiss for several years, providing the 
seed is kept in a warm, dry place and in a glass or 
other safe receptacle. The writer has often secured 
plants from seed known to be more than twenty 
years old. However, it is not safe to depend on 
such seed for planting on an extensive scale. The 
loss of vitality in old seed is shown by slow ger- 
mination and other weak characters of the. plants. 













^ \^ -^S^'^"^-;^ 



Fig. 856. Tobacco plants left for seed. Near Hartford, Conn. 

The transmitting power of the tobacco plant is 
very marked. From .seed saved under bag, plants 
are produced resembling very closely and uniformly 
the character of the parent plants. For this reason 
it is possible to improve the varieties of tobacco by 
careful selection of seed plants of the type desired. 
If the crop does not vary enough as regards the 
individual plants to enable the grower or breeder 
to make the selection desired, this variation can be 
induced through a change of seed, hybridization or, 
to a slight extent, by the method of fertilization of 
the soil In saving seed from the selected plants, 
the flower-heads should be enclosed by a strong but 
light paper bag to prevent cross-pollination. The 
bag should be applied just before the flowers open, 
and can remain until the seed-heads are cut ofl" and 
hung up to dry. 

Cross-fertilization is easily efl'ected among the 
different varieties. By careful selection and propa- 
gation of the desirable forms that result, and con- 
tinued seed selection from these, new varieties are 
established. Indiscriminate crossing has been of 
very little use except in rare cases. The writer is 



642 



TOBACCO 



TOBACCO 



of the opinion that variation secured by means 
other than crossing is much more liltely to be 
effective and valuable from a practical standpoint. 

The principal varieties now grown in the United 
States are described in the following paragraphs, 
together with directions for their culture. The 
culture of the different varieties varies widely, 
according to the variety and the purpose for which 
it is grown. For this reason, a somewhat detailed 
description of the leading and most important 
kinds is essential. 

In a general way the varieties may be divided 
into the following classes : (1) Cigar wrapper and 
binder ; (2) cigar filler ; (3) chewing or plug ; (4) 
smoking ; (5) export tobaccos. In the following 
descriptive notes the last group is not discussed 
separately. 

DESCRIPTIONS OF VARIETIES 

Cigar-wrapper tobaccos. 

Sumatra (Fig. 867, 868). — This variety is used 
wholly for the production of high-grade cigar 
wrappers and is not considered of value for fillers. 
In the United States it is grown under slat or cloth 
shade. It is adapted to sandy 
loam soil. In western Florida, 
where it is grown e.xtensively, 
the surface soil is underlaid 
by a red clay subsoil. The 
leaves are very thin, of fine 
texture, with small veins, and 
vary from twelve to twenty 
inches in length and eight to 
sixteen inches in width. The 
plants bear sixteen to thirty 
erect leaves, with compara- 
tively long internodes. Under 
favorable conditions the 
plants reach a height of seven 
to nine feet. This variety pro- 
duces the best grade of do- 
mestic cigar wrappers. It is 
grown in western Florida, 
southern Georgia, and in the 
Connecticut valley. 

Connecticut Havana (Fig. 
869). — This variety is used 
for cigar wrappers and bind- 
ers, and the top leaves are 
frequently used for fillers in 
the inferior grades of domes- 
tic cigars. It is adapted to 
light alluvial, sandy soils, con- 
taining a small percentage of 
clay ; as a rule, the less the 
clay, the higher the yield of 
fine cigar wrappers. Where 
this variety is grown for 
fillers a rich clay yielding a heavy crop of leaf is 
probably the most desirable type of soil. The 
leaves are thin, of fine texture and delicate flavor, 
set very close together on the stalk, with very 
short internodes, and have a very erect habit of 
growth. The plants bear ten to fifteen leaves. 



varying in average length from twenty to thirty- 
two inches and in average width from ten to fifteen 
inches. This variety was secured by continued seed 
selection from crops grown from seed imported 
from Cuba, and is probably a cross between these 




Fig. 867, 
bacco 



Sumatra to- 
{ Uncle Sam 
variety) grown un- 
der shelter. Counee- 
ticut valley. 




868 Uniformity of Belgian type of Sumatra tobacco 
(from seed saved under bag), grown m Connecticut valley 
under cover. 

Cuban plants and the native Broadleaf of the Con- 
necticut valley. It is grown in the Connecticut 
valley, Wi-sconsin (mainly for binders), Ohio, Penn- 
sylvania and New York. It is one of the best gen- 
eral-purpose tobaccos. 

Connecticut Broadleaf. — This variety was for- 
merly known and generally recognized in the trade 
as Seedleaf. It is used for cigar wrappers and 
binders, and the lower grades, to a limited extent, 
for blending with other tobaccos for cigar fillers. 
It is adapted to sandy loam soil. It makes an 
e.xceedingly rapid growth. The leaves are very 
broad, sweet tasting, thin, elastic, silky, and with 
small veins. They are set very close together on 
the plant, and have a very characteristic drooping 
habit of growth. They vary in length from twenty- 
four to thirty-six inches and in width from twelve 
to twenty-two inches. The size of leaf varies 
greatly in different sections and with the different 
strains. The seed of this variety has been sent to 
many parts of the United States and a large num- 
ber of important varieties have been secured, as in 
the case of the Ohio Seedleaf, which can be traced 
directly to Connecticut Broadleaf seed. It is grown 
in the Connecticut valley. New Hampshire, Ver- 
mont, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, 
Minnesota, and, to a small extent, in Indiana and 
Illinois. 

Cigar-filler tobaccos. 

Cuban. — The Cuban variety is used for high- 
grade cigar wrappers which are grown under shade, 
but is generally grown outside for fillers. It is 
adapted to alluvial or sandy soil resting on red clay 
subsoil. This variety has a small leaf of fine tex- 
ture. The leaves are short and round, with small 
veins, medium to heavy body, varying from ten to 
eighteen inches in length, and six to fourteen 
inches in width. When this variety is taken north 
the influence of the climate and soil conditions 



TOBACCO 



TOBACCO 



643 



tends to promote the development of a large leaf 
at the expense of fineness of texture and quality. 
When grown from freshly imported seed in south- 
ern tobacco districts, the tobacco seems to retain 
the valuable qualities of flavor, aroma, smooth 
taste, and other characters of the imported Cuban 
tobacco. Whether these qualities can be retained 
by continued selection of seed from desirable plants 
is a subject for experimentation, but the evidence 
secured up to this time indicates that it is probable 
that in certain districts in the United States uni- 
form crops of Cuban tobacco having a highly desir- 
able flavor and aroma can be produced by the aid 
of systematic seed .selection. 

In the Connecticut valley this variety is grown 
under shade for cigar wrappers, the top leaves be- 
ing u.sed to a limited extent for cigar flllers, and it 
is grown for cigar fillers in Florida, Texas, Ohio 
and Georgia. In Florida and Texas it produces one 
of the best grades of domestic fillers. 

Zimmer Spanish. — This is largely used for cigar 
fillers, and is the most popular and extensively 
grown domestic filler. It is frequently used for 
blending with other tobaccos in cigar fillers. It is 
commonly thought to be a hybrid of the native 
Seedleaf and the Cuban variety. It is adapted to a 
light loam soil, and in the Miami valley, Ohio, 
where it is most extensively grown, the surface 
soil is underlaid by a red-brown clay loam. The 
leaves are medium in size, have good body and 
elasticity, with small veins, and resemble the 
Cuban variety. They are set close together on the 




Fig. 869. Havana seed plant. 

stalk, fourteen to twenty leaves to the plant. The 
plants reach an average height of about four 
feet. This variety produces an average yield of 
about six hundred pounds to the acre and brings an 
average price of about seven cents a pound. It is 
grown in Ohio and Wisconsin. 



Littk Dutch. — This variety is used for cigar fil- 
lers, making a cigar with an aroma resembling the 
Yara tobacco of eastern Cuba. It is adapted to 
clay loam soils. The seed was introduced into this 
country from Germany. Tht5 leaves ai-e small and 
narrow and the plants have a short habit of 
growth, producing a light yield. This tobacco 
requires careful curing and fermentation. It is 
grown in Ohio and to a limited extent in Pennsyl- 
vania. 

Plug tobaccos. 

fl'Tiite Burley. — White Burley is used for plug 
fillers and wrappers for smoking and for the manu- 
facture of cigarettes. It is adapted to well-drained, 
deep red clay loam soil. In Kentucky such soils 
are fairly rich in lime and produce good crops of 
corn, wheat, hemp and grass, but they deteriorate 
rapidly unless the fertility is maintained by the 
use of fertilizers and proper methods of cultiva- 
tion. The leaves are long and broad and have a 
white appearance in the field. They have a hori- 
zontal habit, the tips hanging down and often 
touching the ground. They vary in length from 
twenty-eight to thirty-six inches and in width 
from sixteen to twenty-four inches. The plants 
bear ten to eighteen leaves and reach an average 
height of about four feet in the field. This variety 
is a selection from the original Burley, the peculiar 
white, translucent appearance of the original plant 
having attracted the attention of the growers. 

The Red Burley and dark tobaccos of southern 
and western Kentucky and Tennessee are heavy 
tobaccos, nearly related to the White Burley. 
Because of their peculiar characteristics they are 
largely exported. Burley is grown in Kentucky, 
southern Ohio, Tennessee, and, to a limited extent, 
in North Carolina and Virginia. 

Orinoco and Yellow Mammoth. — These varieties 
are used for plug wrappers and fillers and are 
stemmed for export trade. They are adapted to 
rich, well-drained soils, doing especially well on 
alluvial soils underlaid with red clay subsoil. The 
Orinoco variety has short, broad leaves, while the 
Yellow Mammoth has large leaves, both varieties 
having a rapid rate of growth. The Little Orinoco 
type has a long, narrow, tapering leaf, and is the 
sweetest variety grown. The Yellow Mammoth is 
largely exported for Swiss trade, and its culture is 
mainly confined to Tennessee. The Orinoco type 
is grown in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, 
West Virginia and Missouri. 

Virginia tgpes (Blue Pryor, Sun-Cured and White 
Stem). — These are adapted to sandy soil, underlaid 
with red or yellow clay subsoils. They have very 
broad, large leaves of fine, silky texture, with 
rather tough fibers and usually have bright, fine 
colors. Some of the best grades are used for cigar 
wrappers and others for smoking purposes. They 
are grown in Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, 
Tennessee, Missouri and Indiana. 

Pipe tobaccos. 

North Carolina Bright Yellow. — This variety is 
used for manufacturing plug and smoking tobaccos, 



I 



644 



TOBACCO 



TOBACCO 



cigarettes and for export purposes. It is adapted 
to sandy soils, underlaid by a red or yellow clay 
subsoil. The deeper the sand the brij^hter the 
tobacco produced, and the nearer the surface the 
subsoil comes the darker in color is the tobacco. 
The leaves are light and spongy, of rather thick 
texture, set close together on the stem, with an 
erect habit of growth, but drooping at the ends, 
the tops often touching the ground. It is a modi- 
fied type of the native Maryland and Virginia 
tobaccos. It is grown in North Carolina, Maryland, 
Virginia and South Carolina. 

Maryland smoking. — The Maryland smoking 
variety is used for manufacturing and export pur- 
poses. It is adapted to clay loam and sandy soil. 
The leaves are thick and coarse in texture, but are 
light and chaffy when cured. They have a semi- 
erect habit of growth, drooping at the tips, and 
vary in length from twenty to thirty-six inches 
and in width from ten to twenty-six inches. The 
plants bear ten to eighteen leaves and reach an 
average height of about four feet. This variety 
was discovered in Maryland when the first settlers 
explored that region. It is mostly exported to 
France, Germany and Holland. It is grown in 
Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania. From the 
Maryland tobacco many of the important native 
varieties have been developed by growing in differ- 
ent sections of the country and by continued selec- 
tion of seed for a particular type. 

DIRECTIONS FOR CULTURE 

Sumatra tobacco. 

The seed-beds. — The place selected for the seed- 
bed for Sumatra tobacco should have a slightly 
southern exposure in order to get the full benefit 
of the warm rays of the sun in the early spring 
and should be permanent. The slope should be 
sufficient to insure perfect drainage at all times. 
It is desirable that the seed-bed be surrounded 
by board walls and covered with regular tobacco 
tenting cloth or glass sash. The cover will protect 
the tender plants from the cold north winds and 
produce more uniform and favorable conditions, in- 
suring early, rapid growth. 

The soil should be abundantly fertilized every 
spring and kept free from weeds and grass, as, 
under these conditions, it becomes better adapted 
to plant-bed purposes each succeeding year. The 
mo.st desirable soil seems to be a rich, friable, 
sandy loam. Deep plowing or spading should be 
avoided, the usual depth being four or five inches. 
The ground should be harrowed and stirred with 
■ hand-rakes until thoroughly pulverized, and all 
roots, tufts and clods of earth should be carefully 
removed. After this preparation, a liberal applica- 
tion of fertilizer rich in nitrogen and potash should 
be evenly distributed over the bed. A fertilizer 
containiijg 10 per cent of ammonia, 8 per cent of 
available phosphoric acid and 12 per cent of solu- 
ble potash is highly recommended. Chlorin in any 
form must be avoided. 

There is such a limited amount of plant-food in 
tobacco seed because of its small size, that the re- 



serve material for the nourishment of the young 
plants is soon exhausted ; consequently the tobacco 
seedlings are forced to prepare their own food 
much sooner than is the case with most other 
crops. For this reason it is absolutely necessary 
for tobacco-growers to have the soil and plant-food 
in the seed-beds in the best possible condition for 
use by the young plants, in order to aid the .slow- 
growing young plants during the critical period of 
the first stages of growth. After applying the 
fertilizer the bed should be thoroughly st;irred 
again and left very smooth, in which condition it is 
ready for the seed. 

It is customary to sow the seed at the rate of 
about one tablespoonful to 100 square yards of 
seed-bed. It is impracticable to sow the seed alone 
and it should be thoroughly mixed with wood- 
ashes, corn meal, land-plaster or commercial fertil- 
izer. In order to secure a uniform stand of plants, 
it is advisable to sow half of the seed lengthwise 
of the bed and the remainder crosswise. The proper 
time for sowing is from February 1 to March 1. 
Whenever practicable it is best to prepare the 
land and apply the fertilizer one to two weeks be- 
fore the sowing of the seed. After sowing, a light 
roller should be run over the bed, or some other 
means used to put the soil in a firm, compact con- 
dition, in which state it will retain its moisture, 
thus giving more favorable conditions for the 
germination of seed and the grovs'th of the young 
plants. 

The necessity of properly caring for the seed- 
bed can not be too strongly emphasized, since noth- 
ing is of more importance in securing a vigorous 
growth in the field than strong, healthy seedlings. 
They should be made to grow steadily and vigor- 
ously, without being checked until ready for trans- 
planting. In order to secure this condition, strict 
and constant attention must be given to watering, 
keeping down all weeds and grass and preventing the 
ravages of insect pests. In some cases it is necessary 
to use an additional application of fertilizer in the 
way of a top-dressing. The necessity for this is 
often indicated by the plants turning yellow. The 
fertilizer should be essentially of the same compo- 
sition as that previously used, and often gives 
best results when applied in a liquid form. This 
method of application makes it necessary to wash 
the fertilizer thoroughly into the soil by means of 
an abundant spray, and thus avoid injury to the 
tender plants. 

Whenever it is found that the plants are too 
thick in the bed, it is advisable to thin them out by 
drawing an ordinary rake across the bed, allowing 
it to sink to a depth of one-half to three-fourths of 
an inch. This can be done without seriously injur- 
ing the remaining plants and is, in fact, of posi- 
tive benefit to them. 

Some system should be provided for watering 
the plant-beds during spells of dry weather. Water 
should be applied in the form of a light spray. 
During the first two weeks of plant growth it is 
essential that the surface soil be kept comparatively 
moist at all times, for at this stage a few hours of 
hot sun, after the soil has become dry, will be 



■ 



TOBACCO 

sufficient to kill most of the plants. When irriga- 
tion is used in growing the general crop, a system 
of overhead spray nozzles has been found to give 
excellent results. In every case, before undertaking 
the process of weeding the bed, it is most 
important to water thoroughly. This will 
prevent any serious injury to the roots of 
the tobacco plants. 

The field crop. — The preparation of the 
field soil for Sumatra tobacco must be thor- 
ough and complete. The soil should be pul- 
verized by successive plowing and harrow- 
ing, and reduced to a fine condition before 
transplanting. Deep plowing and subsoiling 
cause a retention of moisture in the soil if 
the season is too dry, and at the same time 
afford the best opportunity for proper drain- 
age if there is an e.xcess of rainfall during 
the growing season. The disk-plow and 
disk-harrow have been used very success- 
fully in the preparation of tobacco soils, 
particularly where the content of clay is 
comparatively small. 

A very satisfactory fertilizer consists of 
1,000 pounds of cotton seed, 1,000 pounds of 
cottonseed meal, 300 pounds of carbonate of 
potash, 700 pounds of fine-ground bone and 800 
pounds of lime to the acre. The cotton seed should 
be put on the field after it has been plowed and 
three weeks or one month before it is finally pre- 
pared for transplanting. Wherever it can be had, 
cow manure should be used broadcast at the rate of 
twenty to twent,v-five loads per acre. This pro- 
motes very rapid growth and often becomes the 
means of securing a good crop on land badly in- 
fested with nematodes. This plant-food enables the 
plant to throw out new roots faster than the nema- 
todes can destroy the old ones. When no cover-crop 
is grown during the winter the land should be 
plowed frequently and kept thoroughly stirred. 
This destroys many of the nematodes. This con- 



TOBACCO 



645 



When produced for wrapper purposes, the 
imatra variety of tobacco is usually grown under 



shade. (Fig. ^.^._.. 
protect the crop 



tooacco IS usually grown under 

868.) The purpose of the shade is to 

from insects and other dangers 





Fig. 870. 



Seed-beds used for Connecticut Havana 
tobacco. 



stant cultivation also prevents, to some extent, the 
depredations of the thrips; it prevents the growth 
of grass and weeds, which serve as host plants for 
this insect. 



Fig. 871. Tobacco transplanting machine. See also Figs. 230, 843. 

and by reason of reducing the light to secure a 
thin leaf. The effect of the shade is also shown in 
influencing the humidity of the atmosphere and 
the temperature. The plants under shade show a 
much more rapid growth than the outside tobacco, 
and the leaves are finer, very thin and elastic, and 
with very small veins. Such characteristics in 
wrapper tobacco are desired by manufacturers. 

When transplanting the young plants to the field, 
it is desirable to make a selection of the best and 
most vigorous plants in the seed-bed. At this early 
stage of growth the mo.st vigorous plants having, 
the largest and best-shaped leaves, can be very easily 
distinguished by the grower and selected for the 
field. 

The ordinary distance for Sumatra under cloth 
is three feet three inches apart for rows, and twelve 
inches apart in the row. Under slat shades the 
distance between the plants in the row is usually 
increased to about fourteen inches. 

Before removing the young plants from the seed- 
bed, the bed should be thoroughly watered and the 
plants taken out with all possible care. In set- 
ting the plants in the field care should be taken to 
avoid binding and doubling the roots, and the 
necessary application of water .should not be over- 
looked. It is often found beneficial, just before 
transplanting, to water the soil where the plant is 
to be set, and to water again shortly after trans- 
planting. 

The cultivation of the crop should include the 
removal of all weeds from the field, particularly 
during the early stages of growth, and the keeping 
of a loose mulch on the surface of the soil. It is 
the custom to hoe the young plants twice and to 
use some form of cultivator at least once a week 
during the remainder of the .season until the plants 
have become too large for inter-tillage. In many 
instances it has been found desirable and practi- 



646 



TOBACCO 



TOBACCO 



cable to inter-till the tobacco until shortly before 
the top leaves are taken off. In dry seasons this 
serves to retain the soil moisture by preventing 
excess evaporation due to soil capillarity. 

When the plants begin to bud, all except the in- 
dividual plants saved for seed purposes should be 





\ ^J-y. ^ , -> 

Fig 87a Tobacco field in Louisiana 

topped. No very definite rule can be given for this 
process, but it is the custom to break off the top 
of the plant just below the first seed sucker. The 
height of topping must be governed largely by the 
local soil and climatic conditions. It is necessary 
to remove the suckers before they reach sufficient 
size seriously to injure or dwarf the plant or inter- 
fere in the development of the leaves. In most 
cases it will be found necessary to remove the 
suckers two or three times, and more frequently if 
the season is one which promotes rapid growth. 
If seed is to be saved on any of the plants, the 
flower-cluster should be covered with a light and 
strong paper bag l)efore any of the flowers blossom, 
in order to prevent cross-fertilization. The bags 
should be kept in good condition and not allowed 
to injure the top of the plant in any way. They 
should remain over the flowers until a sufficient 
number have been fertilized to produce a good 
supply of seed. 

The time for harvesting will depend to a consid- 
erable extent on the season. The ripeness of the 
leaves can be distinguished by the development of 
irregular, light yellowish colored patches over the 
surface, and a thickening and crumpling of the 
body of the leaves. The leaves should be harvested 
before they become overripe, and it is the usual 
practice to pick them at three or four different 
periods, the lower leaves maturing first, the middle 
leaves next, and the top leaves last, generally 
allowing six to eight days between each two pick- 
ings. After picking, the leaves are carried to the 
curing shed in baskets made for this purpose, and 
are strung on four-foot laths specially arranged 
for them, at the rate of thirty to forty leaves to 
the lath. The leaves are arranged back to back 
and face to face, and are regularly strung on the 
cord attached to the lath. The laths are then hung 
in the curing shed, where the leaves are allowed 
thoroughly to cure. When the tobacco is primed 



from the stalk, it should not take more than three 
weeks to cure ; when it is hung on the stalks, four 
to six weeks are necessary. 

The manipulation of the curing barn is governed 
entirely by the condition of the weather and the 
nature of the tobacco, so no fixed rules can be 
given. However, in a general way, it can 
be said that the barn should be opened 
during the day and kept closed at night. 
If there are frequent showers and but lit- 
tle sunshine, the barn should be kept 
closed and small fires started at points 
distributed throughout the building. 
[See under Connecticut Havana tobacco, 
following.] 

When the midribs are thoroughly cured 
the leaves are ready to be taken to the 
packing-house. To get the tobacco in 
condition to handle, all the ventilators 
should be left open for one night, being 
opened about six o'clock in the evening. 
Unless the night is a dry one, the tobacco 
will soften before morning and be in con- 
dition or " good order" ; that is, it will 
have taken up sufficient moisture to make 
it soft and pliable. The barn should then be tightly 
clo.sed, in order to retain the moisture, and the 
leaves taken from the laths and tied into hands of 
convenient size. The bottom, middle and top leaves 
should be kept separate in the barn. After the 
tobacco has been taken down and packed, it should 
be sent at once to the warehouse for fer- 
mentation. 

The fermentation of the tobacco is to be 
done in bulk, and this sweating process must 
be vyatched with unusual care, in order to 
prevent disaster to the crop. It is necessary 
to turn the bulk several times during the 
process of fermentation, in order to keep the 
temperature at the desired point. The ob- 
ject of turning the bulk is to reverse its 
construction, thereby bringing the top, bot- 
tom and outside layers into the middle of the 
new bulk. This plan will permit a uniform 
fermentation of all the tobacco in the bulk. 
A convenient and practical size of bulk con- 
tains 2,000 to 3,000 pounds. The tempera- 
ture of the center of the bulk should in 
no case be allowed to rise above 120° 
Fahr., and after the temperature falls 8° to 
10° the bulk should be turned. The desira- 
ble maximum tem- 
pera tu re is 115° 
Fahr . It usually 
takes six to eight 
weeks to complete 
the process of fer- 
mentation. After 
fermentation, the 
tobacco must be 
sized.sorted accord- 
ing to the different 
market grades, tied p^g j^j^ Tobacco seed separator. 

up in hands, and (xhis implement is explained 

packed. near the end of page 647.) 




TOBACCO 



TOBACCO 



647 



Connecliciit Havana tobacco. 

The seed-bed. — For this variety the seed-bed 
should be located about as for the Sumatra variety. 
A southern slope where good drainage can be 
secured is preferable, and a good, rich and friable 
soil is desirable. As a rule, 200 square feet of seed- 
bed space should be provided to furnish sufficient 
seedlings for an acre, although, if the tobacco is to 
be transferred at different periods a less area will 
be found to be sufficient. The seed-beds are gener- 
ally eight feet wide and as long as is necessary to 
furnish sufficient seedlings for the field. They are 
usually laid out from east to west. 

The framework of the seed-bed is made of 
2 .X 12-inch boards, set in the ground three to 
four inches, one side being sunk two inches lower 
than the other in order that the sash may lie in a 
slanting position, so that the plants will receive 
all of the sunlight possible. The best method of 
covering the bed is by means of glass in sash 
about three feet wide by eight feet long. These 
sash are laid over the top of the framework, and 
can be removed at any time when it is necessary. 
In some cases, heavy cheese-cloth or tobacco-cloth 
is substituted for the glass covering, but the tem- 
perature of the beds can not be regulated so well 
as with the glass cover, and the cloth should not 
be used when very early plants are desired. It is 
asserted by old tobacco-growers, however, that the 
plants raised under cloth are more hardy than those 
raised under glass, and it is a frequent practice to 
grow the early plants under glass and the later 
seedlings under cloth. 

A successful method of heating seed-beds is by 
the use of fresh horse manure. In this case the 
beds should be dug out two feet deep about a week 
before the time for sowing the seed. The fresh 
manure should be packed in this space to a depth 
of one and one-half feet and covered with six 
inches of sterilized soil. Another successful 
method of heating is by the use of hot-water or 
steam pipes, laid around the sides of the bed or 
under the surface of the soil. General experience 
has proved, however, that the manure beds are equal 
in value, if not superior, to the artificially heated 
ones, mainly from the fact that the heat is distrib- 
uted evenly through the soil, while, in the case of 
hot water or steam pipes, the surface of the bed or 
the air space is likely to be hot while the soil may 
remain cold and in poor condition for the growth 
of young plants. 

It is the usual practice in the North to sprout 
half of the quantity of seed used for sowing in 
moist, but not too wet, apple-tree punk or rotted 
coconut fiber about one week before the time for 
sowing the bed. For this purpose the seed is thor- 
oughly mixed with the punk and placed in a glass 
jar, which should be kept in a warm room. The 
seed will sprout quickly in this medium, and it is 
probable that earlier plants can be secured from 
such sprouted seed than from sowing the dry seed 
alone. The sprouted seed should be sown about the 
time the sprouts are one-eighth to one-fourth inch 
in length. Many growers sow the sprouted seed as 
soon as the seed-coats burst and the sprouts appear. 



If the sprouts become too large, they will be injured 
during the process of sowing. An equal quantity 
of dry seed should be mixed with the sprouted seed 
when the beds are ready for sowing. It has been 
found by comparative tests made by the Bureau of 
Plant Industry of the United States Department of 
Agriculture that in most cases the dry seed pro- 
duces plants about as early as the sprouted seed, 
and the plants from the dry seed are more uniform 
in size and apparently more hardy than those raised 
from the sprouted and dry seed combined. In order 
to get an even distribution of seed over the seed- 
bed in sowing, it is a good plan to mix the dry seed 
and the sprouted seed with several times their bulk 
of land plaster or gypsum, or, if this is not obtain- 
able, with corn meal or ashes. One to two table- 




Fig. 874. Cutting tobacco plants. Near Haitturd, Coun. 

spoonfuls of seed should be used for every 100 
square yards of seed-bed surface. 

It has been found in the experiments of the 
Bureau of Plant Industry that the light seed is 
undesirable and in every case should be separated 
from the heavy seed and discarded. In order to 
make a thorough and complete separation, it is 
necessary to use some form of a wind-blast ma- 
chine which will blow out the light seed without 
throwing out the heavy seed at the same time. In 
Fig. 873 is shown a satisfactory seed separator, 
by the use of which the light seed can be separated 
from the heavy seed and discarded, and the heavy 
seed used for sowing the seed-beds. The heavy seed 
produces the most vigorous and uniform young 
plants in the seed-beds. 

The Havana seed variety of tobacco is usually 
sown in the seed-bed from the middle of March to 
the middle of April, and the plants are ready for 
setting out from these beds May 10 to June 10. 
After sowing the seed, it is desirable to pack the 
surface of the bed carefully with a roller or heavy 
plank, in order to press the soil closely about the 



648 



TOBACCO 



TOBACCO 



seed. A good method is to cover the seed by 
lightly raking the surface with an ordinary garden 
rake, a method preferred by many experienced 
growers. 

One of the most important points in the raising of 
a successful crop of Havana tobacco is the care of 



^fffff0!^MS^^^Miimm^ 




Fig. 875. Load of tobacco in harvest field, Connecticut valley. 

the seed-bed. It is necessary to water the seed-bed 
frequently, usually once or twice every day during 
the early stages of growth. If the beds are artifi- 
cially heated, warm water should be used for this 
watering process, as cold water cools the beds and 
checks the growth of the young plants. The surface 
of the seed-bed should not be allowed to become dry, 
as a few hours of dry surface will kill all of the 
young plants. The water should be supplied in the 
form of a light spray, in order not to disturb the 
seed or the young plants in the bed or to pack the 
soil so that in drying it will cake and injure the 
plants. 

The temperature of the hotbeds .should be care- 
fully regulated, and in no case allowed to rise above 
100° Fahr. during the day, or fall below 70° Fahr. 
during the night. If it is possible to maintain an 
even temperature, the plants will make the most 
rapid growth, but it is a question whether they 
will be as hardy as when subjected to the fluctu- 
ating temperatures corresponding to the natural 
changes between night and day. The beds can be 
cooled when necessary by raising the sash if the 
temperature rises, or the temperature can be raised 
at night by using lanterns set five or six feet 
apart in the seed-bed, and by covering the sash 
with heavy cloth, as ordinary blankets, in oixler to 
retain the heat. After the young plants reach the 
proper size for setting out, usually five to six 
weeks after sowing in the seed-bed, the sash can be 
taken off most of the time during the day and the 
beds watered only when the plants begin to wilt. 
If the plants come up too quickly in any part of the 
seed-bed, they should be thinned out by using an 
ordinary garden rake, as for the Sumatra variety. 
It is necessary to keep out all weeds. Before 
pulling the weeds, the beds should be thoroughly 
watered. If flea-beetles or other biting insects 
attack the young plants in the seed - beds, apply 
the same treatment as with the Sumatra tobacco. 
If fungous diseases begin to grow in any part of 
the seed-bed, it should be thoroughly aired by ruLs- 
ing the sash during the day. If this method does 
not check the growth of the fungus, the beds 
should be sprayed with a solution of formalin (one 
part of formalin to 2,000 parts of water). An 
application of lime dusted over the beds will assist 
in preventing the spread of fungous diseases. 



The field crop. — The preparation of the field for 
the plants should be begun in the autumn, if possi- 
ble, by plowing the land two or three inches deep 
and sowing a leguminous cover-crop. The.se legu- 
minous cover-crops not only prevent washing and 
loss of fertility during the heavy rains of the fall 
and winter, but increase the fertility of the soil 
through the addition of the nitrogen in the tuber- 
cles of these plants and by reason of their exten- 
sive root development, which tends to break up 
and put the soil in the best possible tilth for the 
young plants. In the spring the land should be 
replowed, care being used to see that the cover-crop 
is thoroughly plowed under, with an application of 
well-rotted stable manure at the rate of twelve to 
fifteen tons to the acre. In addition to the use of 
stable manure, it has been found that the follow- 
ing or a similar fertilizer should be used in order 
to secure the best results : One ton of cottonseed 
meal, 200 pounds of carbonate of potash, 500 
pounds of starter and one barrel of lime to the 
agre. This should be sowed on the land after 
plowing and thoroughly worked into the soil with 
a disk-harrow or by some other means before the 
young plants are transplanted into the field. 

When the plants begin to bud, all except the 
individual plants saved for seed purposes should be 
topped. It is the custom to break the tops ofl' just 
below the first seed sucker. As a rule, the height 
of topping must be governed by local conditions, 
such as the soil fertility and the season. In most 
cases two or three of the top leaves are removed in 
topping. It is necessary to remove the suckers 
before they become injurious to the plant. It will 
usually be necessary to remove them two or three 
times during the season. It has been found in the 
tobacco-breeding investigations that by selecting 
seed from plants having few suckers, sucker- 
resistant types of tobacco can be secured, and it is 
recommended that in the case of all of the wrapper 
varieties of tobacco, particularly the Havana Seed 
tobacco, such a method of seed selection be followed. 







Near Hartford, Conn. 



Fig. 876. Tobacco— "Loading a horse. 

The time for harvesting this variety of tobacco 
varies with the season, but the ripeness of the 
leaves can be distinguished as for the Sumatra 
variety. By crumpling the leaf, if the surface 
breaks in straight lines, or "cracks," the leaf is 
said to be ready for cutting. 



TOBACCO 



TOBACCO 



64e 



The plants are usually cut with a regular tobacco 
hatchet (Fig. 874) or knife, and are strung on 
laths. Five or six plants are usually strung on 
each lath, after which they are hauled to the sheds 
in wagons specially prepared for this purpose. A 
wagon with special rack arranged for transporting 
the plants from the field to the curing shed is 
shown in Fig. 875. These laths are usually four 
feet in length, and are so hung in the curing shed 
that a space is left between each two plants in 
order to get a circulation of air. Common types of 
curing sheds are shown in Figs. 878-880. 




Fig. 877. Tobacco ricks. Filled carriers on way to curing 
barn. Tlie old method was a wheelbarrow which had to 
be run by each worker. Every time it was filled it had 
to be carried to end of row and emptied, — a slow and 
uuprotituble procedure. This saves much time and does 
with six workers about the work of twelve or more by 
the old method. 

The curing process requires, as a rule, four to 
six weeks. The manipulation of the barn or curing 
shed during this period is governed entirely by the 
conditions of weather and the nature of the 
tobacco, so that no fixed rules can be given. How- 
ever, in a general way it can be said that if the 
barn is filled with green tobacco and the weather 
is hot and dry, the ventilators should be open most 
of the time for about three day.s, by which time 
the tobacco should begin to yellow. The ventilators 
should be closed only to prevent too rapid curing 
during this period. The barn should then he opened 
at night and kept closed during the day. This is to 
prevent too rapid curing, which destroys the life 
of the leaf and produces uneven colors in the 
tobacco. If there are frequent showers and but 
little sunshine, the barn should be kept closed, and 
if there are indications of pole-burn or pole-sweat, 
small fires, at least two in every bent in the shed, 
should be started. In order to dry out the tobacco 
in as short a time as possible, these fires should be 
distributed throughout the shed and the tobacco 
above the fires protected by hoods. The best 
material for making these fires is probably char- 
coal or coke, but if these two materials can not be 
used, soft pine wood may be found to be satis- 
factory. In no case should hard wood be used, as 
certain odors are given off which it is impossible 
to get out of the tobacco, and these injure the 
quality and the sale of the crop. To get the best 
results, the tobacco during the curing process 
should be kept fairly moist and fairly dried out 
once in every twenty-four hours. 

After the curing process has been finished, the 
tobacco is usually sorted according to grade and 
color as laid down by the tobacco trade. The 
tobacco is then arranged in hands and packed in 
cases, where it is allowed to go through natural 
fermentation, or it is placed in a room which can 



be heated and is there put through a forced sweat. 
If the natural fermentation takes place it usually 
does not begin until the warm weather of the 
succeeding summer. Great care must be used in 
the fermenting processes that the tobacco is not 
damaged by the spread of fungous diseases, mold 
or other causes of injury to tobacco in cases. The 
cases are usually arranged to hold about 350 
pounds of tobacco. 

Connecticut Broadleaf. 

The seed-bed. — The method of sowing the seed, 
preparation of the seed-beds and treatment of the 
beds are practically the same for the Connecticut 
Broadleaf as for the Connecticut Havana variety. 
Many of the growers in the Connecticut valley 
prefer the tent cover for the seed-beds for this 
variety. The advantage in the cheese-cloth or light 
muslin cover for the seed-beds is that plants grown 
under such conditions are as a rule more hardy 
than plants raised under glass. As the Broadleaf 
plants make a very rapid growth in the seed-bed 
and field, hotbeds for the production of early seed- 
lings are not so essential as with other slower- 
growing varieties. To get an even sowing, mix one 
tablespoonful of seed with two quarts of ashes or 
meal for every 100 square yards of seed-bed, and 
lightly rake the surface of the bed so as barely to 
cover the the seed. If the seed is covered too deep, 
it will not germinate. 

The field crop. — The preparation of the land for 
field planting should be thorough and the soil 
should be in as good tilth as possible. Cover-crops, 
such as vetch, are desirable for plowing under. 
A disk-cultivator is a good implement to fine 
the surface soil, after which the land should be 
fitted with drag and harrow, in order to get the 
surface as level and fine as possible. The land is 
usually fertilized with well-rotted barnyard manure, 
at the rate of eight to twelve tons per acre, plowed 
under in the spring. Frequently, tobacco stems, at 
the rate of 500 to 600 pounds per acre, are used as 
a fertilizer in the Broadleaf sections. Most crops 
of Broadleaf tobacco are grown on these fertilizers 
alone, but in recent years the growers have begun 
to apply about one ton of cottonseed meal, 200 
pounds of carbonate of potash, and one to two 
barrels of lime per acre in addition to the usual 
tobacco starter. 

The seedlings of the Broadleaf variety are 
usually set in rows four feet apart and the plants 
twenty-two to twenty-four inches apart in the 
rows. In all cases water should be used in trans- 
planting, even if the ground be moist. If the plants 
are set by hand, one person distributes the plants 
at the proper distance along the rows, followed by 
a man or boy who, with a round stick, makes a 
hole for the plants. A third person sets the plants 
in the holes and presses the soil firmly about the 
roots, leaving the surface of the soil as loose as 
possible. As the plants are set, a cupful of water 
should be poured into the holes, and some growers 
prefer to add water to the plants directly after 
they are set, although this practice leaves the soil 
about the plants in such condition as to bake. 



650 



TOBACCO 



TOBACCO 



The Broadleaf plants are usually topped below the 
first large sucker. If it is found desirable to hasten 
the ripening process, the plants are topped low, 
although, if necessary to prevent the development 
of too thick leaves, the plants should be topped high. 
Usually the topping process is delayed until most of 
the flower-buds appear, so that the topping can all 
be done in one operation; but many growers prefer 
to remove the buds as soon as they appear, going 
over the field later and topping to the desired 
height. As soon as the suckers appear, they should 
be broken off, and, in order to do this ett'ectively, 
it is necessary to go over the field once a week 
after the plants have been topped. 

The time to harvest the crop can be determined 
only by experience with the strain which is grown. 
As a rule, a ripe leaf has a rough feeling to the 
touch, and there is a change in the color of the leaf 
from a dark to a lighter grec'n ; also, by folding 
the leaf between the fingers a ripe leaf will break 
easily. In the Broadleaf variety the plants are 
usually cut, and, as all the leaves on a plant are not 
ripe at one time, it is necessary to harvest the crop 
when the majority of the leaves are in the proper 
condition or about the time that the middle leaves 
are ripe. Overripe leaves lose their elasticity and 
strength, and are not suitable for cigar wrappers. 
The plants are speared on four-foot laths, using a 
detachable iron spearhead fitted in the end of the 
lath, placing four to six plants on each lath. 

The Broadleaf tobacco is air-cured, the process 
taking about six weeks. After harvesting, the plants 
are immediately hung in the barn, and the tempera- 
ture and humidity of these sheds must be closely 
watched and controlled by means of the ventilators. 
If the leaf cures too rapidly, the ventilators should 
be opened on moist days and nights and closed on 
dry days. If the curing process proceeds too slowly 
or the tobacco is liable to injury from pole-burn 
or other fungous diseases, the ventilators should 
be opened on dry days and closed on moist days and 
at night. In long-continued damp spells of weather, 
when the tobacco cannot be dried out by opening 
ihe ventilators during the day, small fires of soft 




Fig. 878. Curing shed for tobacco in Connecticut Valley. 

pine or charcoal should be used to drive off the 
excess of moisture and to raise the temperature in 
the barns. 

The Broadleaf tobacco is usually fermented in 
cases holding about 300 pounds, the hands of tobacco 
being laid in these cases with the butts of the 
hands on the outside and the tips in the center. 
The tobacco is then pressed down under moderate 



pressure, the tops of the boxes screwed on, and the 
cases kept in a room having an even temperature. 

Cuban tobacco. 

Cuban tobacco is grown under shade for wrapper 
purposes, and without shade when used as a filler 
for domestic cigars. The percentage of wrappers 
in this outdoor crop is not large, but when the 
leaves are primed the percentage is considerably 
increased. The preparation and care of the seed- 




Fig. 879. Tobacco-curing shed, showing provision for ventila- 
tion. Conuecticut vallev. 

beds and methods of cultivation are about the same 
as in the case of the Sumatra variety. The rows 
in the field are arranged about three feet four 
inches apart and the plants set about fourteen 
inches apart in the row. A greater distance results 
in thick, heavy leaves. If the plants are set too 
close, the leaves are too thin and lacking in body 
for filler purposes. 

No definite rule can be laid down as to the 
proper number of leaves to be left on the stalk 
when the plants are topped. This number varies 
with the height of the plant and the climatic con- 
ditions during the season. Fourteen to sixteen 
leaves, however, are considered desirable during 
the ordinary .season. The suckers begin to appear 
very soon after topping and should be removed 
every eight or ten days, or once a week when rains 
are frequent. 

The method of harvesting the southern Cuban 
tobacco is essentially the same as that practiced 
with the Connecticut Havana Seed tobacco. The 
number of plants to the lath, however, may be 
increased to eight or ten, when the growth is 
comparatively small. 

Some growers prefer to prime the Cuban to- 
bacco. This process is more expensive, but a 
thinner leaf is obtained, which makes it possible 
to use a certain percentage of leaves for wrapper 
purposes. There are no advantages in this system 
over the present method of cutting the plants, so 
far as the production of a filler leaf is concerned. 

Where the soil has been abundantly fertilized 
and the season is favorable, a profitable second 
crop of filler can be grown, which is commonly 
called a " sucker crop." A week after cutting, all 
the suckers should be broken from the old stump 
with the exception of one, which is to be allowed 
to remain and mature. It should be handled in 
exactly the same way as the original crop. The 
sucker crop ordinarily produces about one-half the 
yield of the main crop. Insects are always very 
much worse late in the season and become very 
troublesome in the sucker crop. 

Worms are usually very troublesome on this 
variety of tobacco and must be picked oflF and 



TOBACCO 



TOBACCO 



651 



destroyed as soon as they appear, or they can be 
poisoned with a very light spray of Paris green 
mixture. The " powder gun" has come into general 
use and is rapidly replacing the spray pump for 
poisoning the hornworm and budworm. The grow- 
ers who still employ the spray pump use one pound 
of Paris green and an equal quantity of quicklime 
to 100 gallons of water, this being sufficiently 
strong to kill the hornworms without injuring the 
leaves. If a stronger solution is u.sed there is 
danger of burning the leaves, so that patches of 
green will appear after curing. A mixture of one 
pound of Paris green to thirty pounds of lime or 
land-plaster (gypsum) is recommended for use in 
the powder gun. 

Zimmer Spanish and Little Dutch tobaccos. 

The preparation and care of the seed-bed for 
Zimmer Spanish and Little Dutch varieties, and the 
preparation of the soil, methods of transplanting 
and cultivating, harvesting, curing and ferment- 
ing are essentially the same as for Connecticut 
Havana. The plants should be set in rows three 
feet apart and the seedlings set fifteen to twenty 
inches apart in the rows. The plants should be 
topped so as to leave about sixteen leaves for each 
plant. The average yield of the Zimmer Spanish 
variety is about 600 pounds to the acre, while the 
yield of the Little Dutch variety is considerably 
less. 

Maryland smoking tobacco. 

The seed-bed should be located on a dark, friable, 
loamy soil with a southern exposure. The old 
method of burning the seed-bed has been largely 
abandoned, but, if used, care should be taken to 
burn only small timber and brush. A large quan- 
tity of ashes is detrimental to the growth of the 
young plants. All trees within thirty or thirty-five 
feet should be cut down and piled on the north and 
west sides of the bed for a partial protection 
against the cold winds. 

The sides of the bed should be eight to ten 
inches high, and wires three feet apart should be 
stretched across it. The beds can be covered with 
light cheese-cloth or tobacco-bed cloth, after the 
seed has been sown. The covering serves as a pro- 
tection against the ravages of flea -beetles and 
other insects, provided there are no open spaces 
around the bed. When cloth is not used for a 
covering, the beds must be closely guarded against 
the attacks of the flea-beetle. When this insect 
first makes its appearance, the plants should be 
treated with Paris green at the. rate of one pound 
to thirty pounds of land-plaster. The cloth cover- 
ing should be removed from the beds at least a 
week before transplanting, to prevent the injurious 
efliects of the radical change from the seed-bed to 
the open field. 

The bed should be spaded to a depth of four or 
five inches, and all roots and tufts carefully 
removed. The soil must be thoroughly pulverized 
with garden hoes, hand-rakes or other suitable 
implements. Before the last stirring, an application 
of a highly nitrogenous fertilizer should be evenly 



distributed over the bed and thoroughly incorpo- 
rated in the soil. A mixture of fifty pounds of 
nitrate of soda, forty pounds of fine-ground bone, 
and ten pounds of carbonate of potash, applied at 
the rate of thirty pounds per square rod, is highly 
recommended. In most cases it is advisable to 
replenish the plant-food with a top-dressing or 
fertilizer of the same composition as that of the 
first application. This should be applied in liquid 
form wherever it is possible to wash it in 
thoroughly: otherwi.se it is important to top-dress 
the beds only on hot, dry days. The top-dressing 
should be used when the plants are two to three 
inches high. 

Sow the seed at the rate of two tablespoonfuls to 
the square rod. It can best be uniformly distributed 
over the bed by mixing with wood-ashes or land- 
plaster, dividing it into two equal parts, and sowing 
half of it over the bed crosswise and the other half 
lengthwise. All weeds and grass should be removed. 
It is seldom necessary to water the plant-beds, 
except in the case of unusually dry weather. Water 
at this time is very essential. It should be applied 
as in the northern seed-beds, but less frequently, it 
being seldom neces.sary to water the beds more 
than twice a week. 



^^^ 










Fig. 880. Tobacco in curing shed. 

Care must be used to wet the seed-bed thoroughly 
before drawing; the plants, thus protecting the roots 
from injury. The mottled or mosaic tobacco, so 
common in Maryland tobacco-fields, is frequently 
due to the practice of drawing the plants when the 
soil is not thoroughly moistened. The plants should 
be set in the field in rows three and one-half feet 
apart and the plants twenty to thirty-five inches 
apart in the row. 

Tobacco should be preceded by a leguminous 
crop of some kind, hairy vetch being highly 
recommended for this purpose. In addition to the 
nitrogen from the leguminous crop, a fertilizer 
rich in potash and containing a moderate amount 
of phosphoric acid should be added before trans- 
planting. The best stand is secured in the field 
when the land has been plowed deeply and harrowed 
several times, thus leaving a thoroughly pulverized 
soil for the reception of the plants. The method 
of cultivation, topping, suckering, and harvesting 



652 



TOBACCO 



TOBACCO 



are essentially the same as in the case of the 
Connecticut Havana variety. 

North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia tobaccos. 

The methods of sowing the seed and of preparing 
and caring for the seed-bed are the same in the 
case of the North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia 
tobaccos as those used by the Maryland growers. 
The seed, however, may be sown at least a month 
earlier than in Maryland. 

Two systems of harvesting are in general use, 
both of which have certain advantages. One of 
these systems is to prime the leaves as fast as they 
ripen and string them on laths, allowing thirty to 
thirty-two leaves to the lath. The other and more 
common system is to cut the entire stalk and cure 
the leaves on it, as is done with the Connecticut 
Havana variety. 

The North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia 
tobaccos are usually flue -cured or fire -cured, 
for which purpose a special type of barn is used. 
The essential points of this barn are that it be 
practically air-tight and provided with one or two 
furnaces having iiues leading up through the center 
of the barn, giving a large heating surface. There 
should be at least two small ventilators on or near 
the top of the barn. 

As soon as the barn is filled with tobacco, fires 
should be started and the temperature raised to 
90° Fahr., where it should remain for twenty-four 
to thirty hours, during which time the tobacco 
becomes a uniformly bright yellow. Then the 
temperature is raised from 90° to 120° Fahr., for 
fifteen to twenty hours. This process is commonly 
known as "fixing the color." The temperature may 
then be increased gradually to 125° Fahr., at which 
point it should be maintained for about forty-eight 
hours. By this time the leaves should be almost, if 
not entirely yellow, but the stalk will still be green. 
In order to cure the stalk, the temperature can be 
raised to 175° Fahr., at the rate of five degrees an 
hour, where it should remain until the stalks are 
thoroughly dried. Great care should be taken 
during the entire process of curing not to allow 
the temperature to fall, for a lowering of the 
temperature during the process of curing invari- 
ably produces discoloration in some parts of the 
leaf. 

}mte Burlcy tobacco. 

The seed-bed should have a slightly southern 
exposure, in order to get the benefit of the warm 
rays of the sun in the early spring, and the beds 
should be protected from cold winds. The best soil 
for the White Burley tobacco is a rich, friable, 
virgin loam or sandy soil. The best method is to 
burn and prepare the seed-bed on old sod-lands. 
Many farmers select a spot in a vegetable-garden 
and cover it with virgin mold taken from the 
woods, and sow it, after thoroughly burning the 
land until it has a reddish or brick-like appearance, 
when it should be spaded up and thoroughly chopped 
over with hoes until it is fine and even. The ashes 
should not be raked off, but should be thoroughly 
mixed in with the soil. As soon as the ground can 



be worked in the spring, it should be lightly spaded 
and thoroughly loosened to a depth of two or three 
inches with harrows or hand-rakes. When in good 
condition, it should be marked off in beds about four 
or five feet wide and seeded. It is the usual custom 
with this variety to use a heaping tablespoonful of 
seed for every 100 square yards of seed-bed. After 
sowing, the best practice is to run a heavy hand- 
roller over the bed or press it with a board or with 
the feet. As a rule, the bed is tramped over with the 
feet until the surface is packed. The seed-bed is 
usually protected by a canvas covering to prevent 
the ravages of flea-beetles and to keep it moist 
and warm. 

The preparation of the land for the field crop is 
generally begun in the month of March, the usual 
practice being to turn under the soil with a two- 
horse plow to a depth of about eight inches. About 
the middle of April, a revolving disk or harrow is 
run over the land in order to cut the sod to pieces, 
after which the field is smoothed over with a slab 
drag. It is very rare for fertilizers or manure of 
any kind to be used in the White Burley districts. 
Tobacco stalks and tra.sh from the barnyard are 
preferred to any other fertilizer for this tobacco. 
Owing to the fact that the crop is grown for two 
years and the field is then put in rotation with 
other crops, the fertility of the soil is maintained. 

The tobacco plants are usually set after a shower, 
or, when there is no rain, they are set in the after- 
noon. The land is cultivated with a bull-tongue 
cultivator during the first week or so, and then 
cultivated every week with a double-.shovel culti- 
vator as long as it is possible to do so without 
injury to the plants. As soon as the cultivation is 
finished the plants are topped, leaving sixteen to 
twenty leaves on each plant. Four to five weeks 
after topping, the tobacco is usually fully ripe and 
the plants are cut with a tobacco cutter or butcher- 
knife. The stalks are split down the middle and 
strung on sticks four and one-third feet in length, 
after which they are taken to the tobacco barn 
and hung twelve inches apart on the tier poles. 
When fully cured, the tobacco is sorted, usually 
into six grades, and the different grades are tied 
into bundles of ten to twenty leaves and packed 
for the market. 

Enemies. 

Flea-beetle. — This insect is troublesome in the 
seed-bed. It is combated by a light spray of Paris 
green (1 pound of Paris green, 1 pound of quick- 
lime, 100 gallons of water, constantly stirred while 
in use). The same remedy can be applied to the 
hornworra when the seed-bed is open. 

Tobacco worm. — Two species of these worms 
attack the tobacco crop, — Phlegefhontius eelcus 
(northern), and Phkgethontius Carolina (southern). 
The eggs are deposited on both surfaces of the 
leaves and the young worms eat the leaves. Hand- 
picking, dusting with Paris green or spraying with 
Paris green (one pound to 160 gallons of water) 
are effective. 

Cutworms. — Several cutworms are troublesome, 
among them being Feltia jaeulifera, F. gladiaria, 



TOBACCO 



TRUCK-GROWING 



653 



and F. subgotkica. They cut off or eat up the 
young plants immediately after transplanting. 
Combating is done by sowing along the rows 
a mixture of bran and Paris green (1 pound of 
Paris green to 50 pounds of bran). A small quan- 
tity of molasses may be added to the mi.xture. 

Budwonn {Heliothis artniger) — This insect 
attacks the bud and tender leaves at the top 
ol the plant during the growing period. Hand- 
picking and dusting or spraying with Paris 
green are effective. 

Pole-burn appears as dark spots near the 
middle rib or veins of the leaves, and may 
spread very rapidly. Careful application of heat 
and ventilation of the sheds to reduce humidity 
are the remedies. 

Root -rot (Thielavia basicola). — This fungus 
occurs most in seed-beds where it may be de- 
stroyed by sterilizing the soil with heat or for- 
malin before the seed is sown. In the held, proper 
rotation of crops, drainage, the application of lime 
and fertilizers are suggested. 

Calico disease is not fully understood. Good 
cultivation, fertilization and favorable growing 
conditions are remedies. 

Literature. 

J. Carver, Culture of the Tobacco Plant, London ; 
John H. Cooke, Tobacco ; .J. L. P. Pevre, Le Tabac, 
Paris ; Chas. W. Saxton, Handbook of Tobacco Cul- 
ture, New York ; R. de Coin, History and Cultiva- 
tion of Cotton and Tobacco, London ; 0. Comes, 
Tobacco in Italia ; J. D. Cameron, A Sketch of the 
Tobacco Interests of North Carolina ; J. B. Kille- 
brew, Report on the Culture of Tobacco, United 
States Census, 1883 ; Edw. J. Beale, English To- 
bacco Culture, London ; Killebrew and Myrick, 
Tobacco Leaf, New York ; A. Nouvel, Notes Sur la 
Culture des Tabaes, Paris; D. Decobert, Culture 
de Tabac, Lille ; V. P. G. Demoor, Culture du 
Tabac, Luxembourg ; Nessler, Der Tabak, seine 
Bestandtheile und seine Behandlung ; Nessler, 
Landwirtschaftliche Versuchstationen ; Kissling, 
Tabakkunde ; Here, Le Tabak, Bulletins of the 
United States Department of Agriculture and 
Experiment Station reports, particularly from Con- 
necticut, Maryland, North Carolina and Kentucky. 
A large part of this article is adapted from Bulletin 
No. 91, Bureau of Plant Industry, United States 
Department of Agriculture, Varieties of Tobacco, 
by Shamel & Cobey, and Bulletin No. 96, Tobacco 
Breeding, by the same authors. 

TRUCK-GROWING. Figs. 881-886. 

By John W. Lloyd. 

Truck-growing has been distinguished from mar- 
ket-gardening proper as the growing of vegetables 
at such a distance from market that railroad or 
water transportation is required for reaching the 
market. It is usually practiced where land is low- 
priced as compared with that on which vegetables 
are grown within driving distance of the large 
city markets. Less intensive methods of culture 
are practiced and a smaller assortment of vege- 








Fig. 881. Truck crops demand heavy manuring. Manuring land 
for faU spinach after harvesting a crop of dill. 

tables is grown, but the acreage devoted to a sin- 
gle crop by an individual grower is usually larger 
in truck-growing than in market-gardening. Often 
only one or two truck crops are grown in a given 
locality, and these may constitute the "money 
crops " in a system of mixed farming, or in excep- 
tional cases large areas may be devoted to a single 
crop by a person who gives his whole attention to 
that one crop. The latter condition obtains only 
in regions e.specially adapted to the particular 
crop in question. 

The extension of vegetable-growing to a dis- 
tance from market has been brought about by the 
enormous increase in land values near cities, the 
demand for products earlier in the season, and the 
great extension of transportation facilities. The 
latter cause has resulted in the development of 
early vegetable-growing at the South for shipment 
to northern markets, while the former has resulted 
in the removal of the growing of staple, cool- 
season, late crops to locations more or less remote 
from the northern markets though perhaps in the 
same latitude. 

It is the purpose of the present article to discuss 
some of the administration features of the general 
farm type of truck-growing, rather than intensive 
and specialized market-gardening [for the latter, 




Fig. 882. Loading from field wagons to trucli wagon, near 
Creedmoor, N. Y. 

see Cyclopedia of American Horticulture, and 
special books]. Statistical data do not follow this 
more or less arbitrary division, however, and the 
census figures do not greatly elucidate such a 
discussion as this. 



654 



TRUCK-GROWING 



TRUCK-GROWING 



Factors detcrmininf) trucking regions. 

Considerations of soil and climate largely deter- 
mine the general location of truck-growing areas 
for given crops. Of these, the climate is the more 
important except in the case of a few crops 
requiring special soil conditions for their proper 
development. 

In nearly every state in the Union 
there are regions well adapted in soil 
and climate to the production of some 
vegetable crop or crops. However, by 
no means all localities adapted to the 
production of certain crops have be- 
come commercial centers for those 
crops. The exact location of truck- 
growing areas within a region adapted 
to the production of the crops is deter- 
mined by transportation facilities and 
the inclinations of the inhabitants. New 
shipping points are continually being 
developed by reason of the extension of 
railroad lines to new regions, and the 
enterprise of a few progressive men in 
each locality. 

It is only at points where a sufficient 
number of men are growing the same 
crop or crops that are marketed at the 
same season to enable shipments to be 
made in car-lots, that good shipping facilities and 
desirable freight rates can be secured. In the 
case of some crops, such as watermelons or late 
cabbage, the individual grower can ship in car- 
lots ; but with many crops, such as asparagus, 
green peas, muskmelons or tomatoes, an individual 
grower would usually be able to furnish only a 
small fraction of a car in any single shipment. In 
order, therefore, to develop a new shipping point, 
it is necessary that the men who wish to enter the 
trucking business induce a sufficient number of 
other men to grow the same crops to secure ade- 
quate shipping facilities. 

Marketing the product. 

Usually, the growers at a given shipping point 
are organized into a local association whose 
manager attends to the icing and loading of cars 
and other matters of business connected with the 
association. The methods employed by some of the 
most successful associations enable the individual 
grower to consign his products to any firm he may 
choose in the city to which the car is consigned, 



number of growers wish to patronize those markets. 
The products of the individual grower are sold on 
their own merits by the party he chooses. 

Truck crops grown at a distance from market 
are almost invariably handled by commission men 
located in the large cities, and the bulk of the 





^Uk^l^a^^ 



Fig. 883. Hotbeds for starting truck crops. 

the directors of the as.sociation usually determining 
at the beginning of the season what markets will 
be employed, though at any time during the season 
cars may be loaded for other markets, if a sufficient 



Fig. 884. View on marlcet-garden farm at Irondequoit, N. Y. 

products will necessarily continue to be handled 
through the large cities as distributing points, 
rath*r than consigned to small towns at a distance 
from the point of production. 

Trucking in relation to farm management. 

As an adjunct to general farming, truck-grow- 
ing is l"^coming an important factor in the agri- 
culture of many localities ; and it is on that basis 
that it is destined to hold a permanent place among 
the activities of rural people rather than as a 
system of single cropping partaking of the na- 
ture of bonanza farming, except possibly in the 
case of a few special crops demanding peculiar- 
ities of soil not favorable to the production of 
general farm crops. Specialization in its clcsest 
sense is a frequent outgrowth of good trucking 
soil and climate coupled with good transportation 
facilities. 

In general, truck crops demand heavy manuring 
and very thorough tillage. If a paying truck crop 
is to be grown, it is usually necessary so to enrich 
and work the soil that it will be richer in plant- 
food and in better condition for the production of 
subsequent crops after the truck crop has been 
grown, than it was before preparations were made 
for growing the truck crop. So well recognized is this 
fact by land owners in certain regions that they 
will allow a tenant the use of a piece of land for 
a full season without the payment of rent, pro- 
vided the area is to be planted to certain truck 
crops. 

A system of rotation which includes a truck 
crop every three or four years will usually result 
in increasing rather than diminishing the produc- 
tive capacity of the .soil. In a sandy region where 
watermelons thrive and winter wheat is the staple 



TRUCK-GROWING 



TRUCK-GROWING 



655 



grain crop, a rotation of wheat, clover and melons 
is highly satisfactory ; or, if corn also is grown, 
the rotation may be extended one year, and the 
corn planted on the clover sod. In case clover 




Fig. 885. Muskmelons for local market. 

does not thrive in the region, cowpeas are sown 
immediately after the wheat is harvested, and they 
leave the land in ideal condition for melons. On a 
clay soil in regions where clover does not thrive 
and wheat is not grown, but where muskmelons 
constitute an important money crop, the following 
rotation has given exceptionally good results : 
corn, cowpeas, melons, timothy. The melons are 
heavily manured, and the thorough tillage required 
by this crop leaves the land in ideal condition for 
seeding to timothy immediately after the melon 
harvest. Early tomatoes might be substituted for 
melons in the same rotation with almost as good 
results. 

In regions where manure is not obtainable, and 
the distance from large cities is too great to war- 
rant its shipment by rail, truck crops are some- 
times grown with commercial fertilizer as the 
source of plant-food. In such cases, the supply of 
humus in the soil must be kept up by the plowing 
■ under of green crops. It may be necessary to plow 
under a crop of cowpeas instead of harvesting it 
preparatory to growing a crop of melons or toma- 
toes, or to sow the land to rye after removing the 
cowpeas, and plow this under the following spring. 

For growing between the trees in young or- 
chards, truck crops are highly desirable, since they 
demand thorough tillage early in the season, do 
not shade the trees as would a crop of corn, and 
can be removed from the land in plenty of time to 
sow a cover-crop. 

The largest item of labor connected with the 
growing and handling of many truck crops is the 
harvesting and preparing for market. In the case 
of many crops, however, the harvest comes at a 
time when it does not interfere with the handling 
of the regular farm crops. For example, melons 
and tomatoes normally ripen after the corn is laid 
by, the wheat and oats harvested and the hay made, 
and usually may be disposed of before fall-plowing 
and the corn harvest begin. Winter onions con- 
stitute a crop which is planted in the dull season 
of early fall, and is harvested before regular farm 



work opens in the spring. Rhubarb also demands 
little attention at a time when general farm crops 
need special care. The growing of a reasonable 
acreage of carefully selected truck crops in connec- 
tion with general farming, therefore, may afford a 
means of giving regular employment to the same 
working force for the entire season. 

Although truck-growing and live-stock-farming 
may not appeal to the same type of men, neverthe- 
less there are some features about the two indus- 
tries which would make the combination a desir- 
able one. Truck crops demand large quantities of 
manure. This could be secured more readily by 
keeping an abundance of live-stock than by any 
other method. Live-stock demands more care and 
attention in the winter, while truck crops demand 
more attention in the summer, so that if the two 
lines of effort were combined, the farm labor could 
be distributed more uniformly through the year. 
The live-stock also furnishes a ready outlet for the 
refuse and unsalable vegetables, and the presence 
of this outlet would tend to improve the grading 
and leave less excuse for the shipment of culLs. 
Hogs are especially valuable in disposing of refuse 
vegetables, though nearly all classes of stock feed 
greedily on cull melons, tomatoes and cucumbers. 

Truck-growing demands greater special skill and 
closer attention to details, than does general farm- 
ing. The difference between an ordinary and a 
superior product, and consequently the difference 
between the prices of the two, is much greater 
in truck crops than in staple farm products. The 
niceties of grading and packing and their influence 
on prices are not fully appreciated by many who 
attempt to grow truck crops. It is only those who 
give attention to every detail of growing and 
marketing their crops with a view to putting a 
high-class product on the market in perfect condi- 
tion, that meet the highest success in the produc- 
tion of truck crops. 

Literature. 

The following are references to literature on 
general truck-growing : A. Oemler, Truck-Farming 




Fig. 886. A day's picking of fine cucumbers, 2S0 dozen. 

at the South ; P. H. Rolfs, Vegetable-Growing in 
the South for Northern Markets ; E. J. Wickson, 
The California Vegetables in Garden and Field ; 



656 



TRUCK-GROWING 



VELVET BEAN 



Thos. V. McCabe, Vegetable-Growing in Southern 
Illinois. Special truck crops are more fully treated 
in the following : F. M. Hexamer, Asparagus ; J. iVI. 
Lupton, Cabbage and Cauliflower for Profit ; C. L. 
Allen, Cabbage, Cauliflower and Allied Vegetables; 
A. A. Crozier, The Cauliflower ; T. Greiner, Celery 




Fig. 887. Leaf and part oJ raceme of velvet bean. 

for Profit ; E. J. Hollister, Livingston's Celery 
Book ; W. Atlee Burpee, How to Grow Melons for 
Market ; T. Greiner, Onions for Profit ; F. S. Thomp- 
son, Rhubarb or Pie-Plant Culture ; J. J. H. Greg- 
ory, Squashes ; R. H. Price, Sweet-potato Culture 
for Profit ; .J. W. Day, D. Cummins and A. I. Root, 
Tomato-Culture ; A. W. Livingston, Livingston and 
the Tomato. There are many other available books 
on the subject. An article on the transportation 
of truck crops will be found in Vol. IV. 

VELVET BEAN. Mucuna utilis, Wall, or M. 
pruriens, DC, var. utilis, Bailey. Leguminosm. 
Figs. 887-890. 

By H. Harold Hume. 

The velvet bean is a twining plant grown for its 
vegetative parts and for its seeds, both of which 
are used for feeding. The plant is also important 
as a cover-crop and for green-manuring. The 
casual observer would probably mistake the plant 
in its younger stages for one of the pole lima 
beans {Phaseolus lunatus), but a close examination 
would show many well-marked differences. It has 
become, in recent years, an important addition to 
the list of field crops in the Gulf coast sections of 
the United States, and along the Atlantic coast as 
far north as the coastal plain of North Carolina. 
It is likewise well adapted to the climatic condi- 
tions of Porto Rico, Cuba, coastal Mexico, Hawaii 
and other tropical regions. It is in climates where 



it has a very long growing season that it reaches 
its maximum growth. It is a native of India and 
appears to have been introduced into America 
about 1872 or 1877. 

The vine frequently reaches seventy-five feet or 
more in length, branching, smooth and rather slen- 
der. The leaves are large, four inches by three 
inches, and trifoliolate. The flowers are large and 
produced in racemes from the axils of the leaves. 
In general color they are purple. The pods are 
about three inches long, blunt pointed, slightly 
constricted between the seeds when mature, and 
covered with a thick coating of dark velvety hairs. 
From the latter character of the pods the plant 
takes its name. Each pod contain.^ three to six 
almo.st globular seeds, three-eighths or one-half 
inch in diameter. The beans are marked or splashed 
with dirty white color and are somewhat similar to 
castor-beans. Occasionally beans are found of a 
solid dull white or a solid brownish black color. 

Cidlure. 

Soil. — The velvet bean is not particular in its 
soil requirements. It may be grown successfully 
on any fairly well-drained soil, and is well adapted 
to the agricultural soils of the Gulf states. On 
lands containing a goodly amount of moisture it 
produces enormous yields. 

Fertilizers. — It is always best to use some 
fertilizer for the velvet bean. While capable of 
securing its own nitrogen, it is greatly benefited 
on most soils by 

applications of /^,-J'^i 

potash and phos- ^' '-^ 

phoric acid, and 
sometimes also 
by nitrogen. A 
mixture of sev- 
enty-five pounds 
of high-grade 
sulfate of potash 
and 200 pounds 
of acid phos- 
phate per acre, 
applied in the 
drill at the time 
of planting, is 
excellent. 

Planting. — It 
is best to plant 
the crop in rows 
four feet apart 
and allow the 
plants to stand 
two or three feet 
apart in the row. 
A half -peck of 
good seed is sufli- 
cient for an acre 
if planted in hills, although as much as a peck is 
sometimes used. Toward the northern limits of its 
growth, seed is not produced, as the crop is very 
tender and easily frosted, and sections so situated 
must depend on localities farther south for their 
seed supply. 




. Velvet bean pods. Nearly 
one-half natural size. 



VELVET BEAN 



VELVET BEAN 



657 



Place in the rotation. — When grown and fed on 
the land or plowed back into the soil, the velvet 
bean makes an excellent preparation for corn, 
cotton and sugar-cane. The nitrogen and humus 
supplied are of great value and the mechanical 
condition of the soil is vastly improved. 

The only crop in conjunction with which the 
velvet bean may be planted to advantage is corn. 
Planted at the same time or after the corn, it 
usually does not begin to run until the latter is 
well grown. In the rotation, the velvet bean.^ 
must generally be given the ground for one whole 
season. 

Two- or four-year rotations with corn and cotton 
may be arranged as follows: Two-year. — (1) co-.-n 
and velvet beans; (2) cotton. Four-year. — (1) 
corn; (2) velvet beans; (3) cotton; (4) velvet 
beans. 

Subsequent care. — After the beans are up, the 
ground should be cultivated two or three times to 
conserve moisture and keep down the weeds until 
the plants are well started. Then the vines grow 
rapidly, soon shade the ground and smother out 
all weeds and other vegetation that may attempt 
to grow. In a well-conducted rotation, the crop 
may be made to play no mean part in weed 
eradication. In fact, the vines take possession of 
and clamber over almost anything that may be 
growing on the land, and shrubs and small trees 
are often destroyed. The introduction of a bush 
variety would be a decided improvement in many 
ways. 

For seed production. — To secure a good crop of 
seed in the extreme South, the crop should be 
planted not later than the third week in April. 
Larger quantities of seed will be secured if the 
vines are given something to run on. An e.xcellent 
method is to plant them with corn and cut the 
corn just below the bottom ear as soon as it is 
matured, leaving the lower part of the stalks as a 
support. It is not best to leave the whole length 
of the corn-stalks, a.s the 
vines climb over them 
and the weifjjht of the 
growing pods will at last 
break them down. An- 
other method which may 
be used in a limited way 
is to set small poles along 
the rows, ten or twelve 
feet high. The vines may 
be cut around the poles 
and these lifted with 
the vines attached in 
harvesting. 

Harvesting. — From the 
nature of the growth, 
it can readily be understood that the velvet bean 
crop is one which cannot easily be converted into 
hay. It is best cut by means of a front-cut mowing 
machine. Each swath should be turned back with 
forks before the next one is cut. The best time to 
cut is when the pods are well formed, but before 
the beans begin to swell. The hay may be cured 
by the methods ordinarily used for cowpea hay. 

B42 



Because of the difficulties of harvesting, many 
persons prefer to turn the cattle and hogs into the 
field and allow them to graze. In the mild fall and 
winter climate of the South this is a splendid way 




Fig. 889. Velvet beans. 
Natural size. 










mm 





Fig. 890. Velvet beans in Florida, with com for support 
of vines. 

to handle the crop, and meat may be produced at 
a very low cost by this method. 

Yield. 

At the end of the growing season the ground is 
covered with a tangled mass of vines two or three 
feet deep. At a ccmservative estimate, the weight 
of green material will reach ten tons and the 
weight of dry hay three to four tons per acre. 
Under favorable conditions, a good yield of pods 
is eighty bushels, giving about forty bushels, or 
thereabouts, of shelled beans. 

Uses. 

As a stock-feed. — The velvet bean is rich in pro- 
tein, and good hay contains about 8 per cent of 
protein with a nutritive ration of 1 to 6. Meal 
may be made from the beans and pods ground 
together. This meal contains 17 per cent of pro- 
tein and 4J to 6 per cent of fat, while meal made 
from the beans alone contains 22.6 per cent of pro- 
tein and 6.6 per cent of fat. Both of these have 
been placed on the market in a limited way. As 
will be noted from the above, the hay in itself is 
a fairly well-balanced ration. The meal from either 
beans or beans and pods together must be classed 
with the concentrated foods, and should not be fed 
without other more bulky substances having a 
wider nutritive ratio. 

As a cover-crop. — Velvet beans have been used 
extensively as a cover-crop in orange, peach and 
pecan orchards. On poor lands they are admirably 
adapted for this purpose, as they collect large 
amounts of nitrogen and provide a great quantity 
of vegetable matter. Only a narrow space between 
the tree rows should be planted and the plants must 
be watched to prevent their climbing into and 
injuring the trees. Trees are frequently badly 
broken if this precaution is neglected. 

As a .soil renovator. — As a soil renovator, the 
velvet bean, for the regions in which it may be 
grown, has few equals and no superiors. It is not 
attacked by the root-knot producing nematodes, 



658 



VELVET BEAN 



VETCH 



nor is it subject to other diseases. It makes a very 
large growth of vegetable matter to be resolved 
into humus. On the basis of ten tons of green 
vines per acre, the crop contains 1.50 to 200 pounds 
of nitrogen with ten or twelve pounds in the roots 
alone. The nodules produced on the roots by the 
nitrogen-collecting bacteria are much larger than 
those found on the roots of our common legumes. 
They are brownish black in color, warty, broad, 
flat, and frequently measure an inch and a quarter 
across. The interior is greenish white or greenish 
pink in color. 

As an ornamental. — The rapid growth and the 
large clean foliage of the velvet bean gives it dis- 
tinct value as an annual ornamental covering for 
trellises and for porch screens. In fact, it was as 
an ornamental that the velvet bean was first used 
in this country. 

Literature. 

Bulletins Nos. 35 and 60, Florida Experiment 
Station ; Bulletins Nos. 104 and 120, Alabama 
Experiment Station ; Farmers' Bulletin, United 
States Department of Agriculture, Nos. 102 and 
300 ; Hume, Citrus Fruits and Their Culture, pages 
290-293 ; Shaw, Forage Crops, New York City. 

VETCH. Vicia spp. Leguminosce. Fig. 891, 892. 

By J. F. Duggar. 

The vetches are of importance as cover-crops 
and as stock-feed. They have never become very 
popular, partly because of the low trailing habit, 
and partly because of the high price of the seed. 
Most of the seed is procured in Europe. When over 
two years old it sometimes germinates poorly. 

Botanical characters. 

The vetches, with few exceptions, are slender, 
climbing plants, bearing tendrils at or near the 
extremity of each pinnate leaf. They are herba- 
ceous plants with weak stems, requiring the support 
of other plants, such as the small grains, when 
grown for hay. The numerous branches springing 
from a crown near the surface of the ground are 
usually two to five feet or more in length. Excep- 
tions are found in the broad bean (Vicia Faba, 
which see) and Narbonne vetch (F. Narboncnsis), 
which are erect, without tendrils, and with leaflets 
much larger than the typical vetches. The stipules 
are entire or half sagittate, or variously notched 
or cleft, and in many species marked with a dark 
reddish spot. The flowers are axillary, few or in 
racemes, chiefly shades of pink, violet, purple and 
white. The style is slender and its summit is 
capped with a bunch of hairs. The calyx tube is 
somewhat oblique, obtuse at base, with teeth about 
equal. The flatfish or roundish pod, containing 
numerous roundish seeds, bursts open when dry, 
splitting into two parts and spreading the seed 
widely. Britton gives the number of species as 
about 120, describes eleven as occurring in the 
northeastern part of North America, and notes that 
about twelve others occur in southern and western 
North America. 



Species of vetches. 

The three species of vetch most extensively 
employed in agriculture are hairy or sand vetch 
( Vicia villosa), common or smooth vetch, or spring 
tare ( V. saliva), and narrow-leaved vetch ( V. angus- 
tifulia). They are all annuals in the southern states, 
making their growth between September and May, 
and are treated either as winter or as summer 
crops as we go northward. 

Hairy or sand vetch {V. villo.?a. Fig. 891) is dis- 
tinguished by its dense coat of gray hairs covering 




Fig. 891. Hairy or winter vetch (Ficm liUosa). Enlarged 
flower, side view, on left. 

every part of the plant and by its racemes crowded 
with numerous slender, deep purple flowers. The 
seeds are small and black. It has usually afforded 
larger amounts of forage than other well-known 
vetches. 

Vicia saliva (Pig. 892) and V. anguslifolia have 
larger, more spreading flowers, borne singly or in 
pairs ; on the stipules are dark, glandular spots. 
They differ in that the former has obovate or 
oblong leaflets, while the latter has longer and 
narrower leaflets. V. anguslifolia has black seeds 
and pods. V. anguslifolia is specially valuable by 
reason of its greater earliness. 

Vina saliva, the spring vetch, is native in 
Europe and western Asia, and was cultivated by 
the Romans. It was introduced into America a 
hundred years ago, and was formerly cultivated in 
the northeastern part of the United States, where 
in certain sections it has proved succe.ssful. It is 
used as a soiling crop in northern Europe and 
Great Britian. It may be sown at the rate of five 
to eight pecks of seed per acre in April or May, 
with a bushel of oats or rye as a nurse crop. An 
acre of vetch and oats yields ordinarily six to eight 



VETCH 



VETCH 



659 



tons of green forage. At present it is little grown 
in this country except as a winter crop in some 
parts of the South, and in the states of Washing- 
ton, Oregon and northern California. The Alabama 
Station found that a successful crop of spring vetch 
stocked the soil with the proper root tubercles for 
hairy vetch. 

Stolley's vetch {Vicia Leavenworth ii) is a prom- 
ising annual legume that grows wild in central 
and western Texas. It is useful for early grazing 
in the spring, and stock are fond of it. It is also 
valuable as a soil mulch and green-manure. It is 
said to withstand drought. The leaves are small and 
the stems trailing. 

Three other plants known as vetches are some- 
times met with, and may here be mentioned. 
A winter vetch (Lathyrus hirsidus) resembles spring 
vetch in habit. It is grown in the South for late 
fall and early spring pasturage. It is not hardy 
north of Maryland. Its culture is much the same 
as that of spring vetch. It is cut for hay when in 
full bloom and cured as are cowpeas. Dakota vetch 
{Lotus Amerieanus or Hosackia) is used as native 
pasturage and hay in the Northwest. It is a bushy 
annual. Kidney vetch (AnthyUis Vulneraria) is a 
perennial legume grown in Europe on thin lime- 
stone soils. It gives little promise in this country. 
[See page 308.] 

Culture. 

Seeding. — The three principal vetches all seed 
fully, and if permitted to mature no reseeding of 
the land is necessary. Maturing and reseeding of 
hairy vetch is secured either by mowing the mixed 
crop of vetch and small grain while the vetch is 
still in the stage of early bloom, a slight second 
growth then usually affording sufficient seed, or 
by delaying the harvest until enough vetch seed 
has matured, these seeds either shattering during 
the mowing or being borne on parts of plants that 
escape the mower. 

In the Gulf states, hairy vetch seeds and dies in 
May, and the other agricultural species several 
weeks earlier. Immediately, the land is planted in 
other crops, as cowpeas, sorghum, sweet-potatoes, 
and the vetch seeds remaining in the ground do 
not sprout until August or September. Here the 
seed of any of the agricultural species is sown 
broadcast about September on land previously 
plowed, using two to four pecks of vetch seed and 
one bushel of beardless wheat or two bushels of 
oats per acre. When intended exclusively for graz- 
ing, one may use the above grains or rye. For 
hay, the earliest varieties of beardless wheat or 
Red Rust-proof oats are ready for mowing at the 
same time as the vetch. Rye and beardless barley 
mature before hairy vetch. Turf or grazing oats 
are too late for making vetch-and-oat hay on poor 
upland, but are suitable for this purpose when sown 
early on good land with hairy vetch. 

When used for pasturage, vetch must not be so 
closely grazed in May as to prohibit seed forma- 
tion: It seeds freely, more than one thousand seeds 
having been formed on a single thrifty plant. For 
pasturage, vetch is also sown on land not specially 



prepared, for example among growing cotton 
plants or where some cultivated crop has just been 
removed. In this case it is sown alone or with 
small grain and the seed covered by the use of a 
one-horse cultivator. 

Inoculation. — In most of the southern states, the 
vetches when first grown require' inoculation for 
best growth. This may be eft'ected by means of 
pure cultures from the laboratory or by the use of 
one peck to one ton of soil from a field or garden 
where the garden pea (Pisum) or any species of 
vetch has recently grown thriftily and borne tuber- 
cles. The seeds are dipped into water, into which 
a small amount of this soil has been stirred, thus 
depositing the nitrogen-fixing germs on at least a 
part of them. Usually a more thorough inocula- 
tion occurs when, in addition to this treatment of 
the seed, one-fourth to one ton per acre of pulver- 
ized inoculated soil is sown and promptly harrowed 
in. By means of inoculation on poor land where 
no vetch had previously been grown, the yield of 
vetch in the South has often been quadrupled. 
[Inoculation is discussed at length in Chapter XIII, 




Fig. 892. Spring vetch (Yieia saliva). 

Vol. I, and under Legumes in the present volume. 
Root nodules on the hairy vetch are pictured in 
Fig. 592.] 

Harvesting. — Hairy, common, narrow-leaved 
vetch and other species make fair yields of palat- 
able and nutritious hay. The hay is cured in the 
same way as alfalfa or clover. In the Gulf states 
narrow-leaved vetch is ready to cut in April, and 
hairy vetch early in May. Cutting should be done 
three or four days before the vetch is in full 
bloom. 



660 



VETCH 



WHEAT 



Uses. 

As stock-feed. — The vetches are very useful as 
pasture plants, cattle, horses sheep and swine 
usually eating them green or cured with avidity. 
There are, however, a few records of animals at 
first having refused to eat vetch. Sown in August 
or early September on rich land, hairy vetch may 
afford a little grazing in December and January, 
but ordinarily little grazing can be expected before 
February. 

Vetch seeds have been fed experimentally to 
cattle with satisfactory results, but they are too 
valuable for this use. Hairy vetch is also useful 
as a food for bees, and in the South as a means of 
subduing annual weeds that make their growth in 
spring. 

As a soil renovator and cover-crop. [See Cover- 
Crops, p. 258.] — All species and varieties of vetch 
are useful for improving the soil by means of the 
nitrogen which the plants take from the air through 
their tubercles and store up in the vegetation or 
in the soil. For this reason, also, they find use as 
cover-crops in orchards. In New York, hairy vetch 
remains green all winter and grows in the spring. 

Weedy character of vetches. 

Some species of vetch are likely to become 
weeds in wheat-fields, the seed ripening at the 
same time as wheat and being difficult to separate 
from wheat. At the Michigan station this habit of 
vetches was pronounced, but farther north, where 
the season is too short to permit complete maturity 
of vetch sown in the spring, and in those parts of 
the southern states where little wheat is grown, 
this danger may be disregarded. A part of the 
vetch seed may remain in the ground for several 
years and then germinate. 

Literature. 

Alabama (College) Experiment Station, Bulletins 
Nos. 87, 96, 105; Arkansas Experiment Station, 
Bulletin No. 68; Delaware Experiment Station, 
Bulletins Nos. 60, 61; Massachusetts (Hatch) 
Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 18; Louisiana 
Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 72; Michigan 
Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 227; Mississippi 
Experiment Station, Bulletins Nos. 20, 44; New 
York (Cornell) Station, Bulletin No. 198; United 
States Department of Agriculture, Farmers' Bulle- 
tins Nos. 18, 102, 147, and Circular No. 6, Division 
of Agrostology. 

WHEAT. Triticum sativum, Lam. Graminece. 
Figs. 893-908 ; also Fig. 563. 

By E. E. Elliott 
and T. L. Lyon. 

Wheat is a plant of 
vast economic impor- 
tance, widely distrib- 
uted over the civilized 
world and having a his- 
tory coincident with 
that of the human race. 
The grain is used 



largely for human food, chiefly as food-stuffs made 
from its flour, and in the form of breakfast foods. 
The by-products of its manufacture are used as 
stock-food. The grain, whole or ground, is also 
valuable for stock-feeding. 

By nature it is an annual, although cultivation 
and improvement have modified its habits to a large 
extent. The tribe Hordeas, in which wheat is 
included, is distinguished by its many-flowered 
spikelets which are arranged alternately on a stem 
or rachis, thus forming a spike. The close relation- 
ship of wheat with barley, rye, rice and other 
cereals having the familiar spike head is readily 
observable. 

The genus Triticum embraces wheat proper, but 
includes in its species and varieties several plants 
ditt'ering slightly in structure or habits of growth. 
These species and varieties are further broken up 
into types. Extensive studies of these with the 
object of classifying them on a rational basis have 
been made by scientists in recent years, but as yet 
a generally accepted arrangement has not been 
fully worked out. The classifications adopted are 
further confused with the distinctions made in the 
various markets of the world and the uses to 
which the grain is put. 

Botanical characters. 

Tlie wheat grain. — The wheat seed or berry is 
the part of the plant of greatest economic value. 
It is also the one means of reproducing the plant. 
The seed, or grain, as it is generally called, is 
a hard, dry, oblong fruit with a longitudinal fur- 
row on one side. The seed varies greatly in size, 
shape, color, hardness and composition, but retains 
under all conditions, di.stinct and common charac- 
teristics. In size and weight it varies so that the 
number of grains in a pound ranges from 8,000 to 
24,000, with a probable average of about 12,000. 
It is obvious that the number of seeds in a given 
quantity, either of weight or measure, will vary 
accordingly. Variations in the specific gravity 
range from 1.146 to 1.518. 

In general, the shape is oblong with one end 
slightly pointed, but in some types the ends of the 
grain are much elongated, the berry itself being 
flattened, while in others it more nearly approaches 
a sphere. In color there is a wide range, from the 
paler shades of yellow through what is called 
amber, to deep red. Color is considered to have a 
close relationship to hardness of the grain and its 
composition. 

The composition of wheat as reported by the Uni- 
ted States Department of Agriculture is as follows: 





Grain 




Straw 






Minimum 


Maximum 


Average 


Minimum 


Maximum 


Average 


Water 


7.1 


14.0 


10.5 


6.5 


17.9 


9.6 


Ash 


0.8 


3.6 


1.8 


3.0 


7.0 


4.2 


Protein 


8.1 


17.2 


11.9 


2.9 


5.0 


3.4 


Crude fiber .... 


.4 


3.1 


1.8 


34.3 


42.7 


38.1 


Nitrogen-free extract 


64.8 


78.6 


71.9 


31.0 


50.6 


43.4 


Fat 


1.3 


3.9 


2.1 


0.8 


1.8 


1.3 



WHEAT 



WHEAT 



661 



As will be noted, the grain contains 10 to 11 per 
cent of water. As a matter of fact, as grain is 
usually handled and shipped, the percentage of 
water would average much higher. It is well 
known that wheat transported from a dry climate 
to one more humid will absorb five to twenty-five 
per cent of additional weight in moisture. This is 
particularly true when shipments are made by 
water. As wheat is handled in milling it is custom- 
ary to add to it a considerable amount of water 
before being processed, as in its normal condition 
it is too dry. It will be seen that the grain has 
large absorptive powers ; and the same facts have 
been observed in the diiferent manufactures pro- 
duced from it. 

Of the mineral elements in wheat, fully one-half 
is phosphoric acid, while the greater part of the 
remainder, consisting of one-third of the whole, is 
potash. 

The wheat grain is characterized by a small 
embryo or germ, while the percentage of endo- 
sperm constitutes a very large proportion of the 
entire contents, the ratio being as one to thirteen. 
The embryo, while having a high nutritive value, 
is not a desired element in the manufacture of 
flour, although it is utilized to a considerable 
extent in the production of certain cereal foods 
and always constitutes a most valuable by-product. 

The endosperm is composed largely of pure starch 
cells which form the chief constituent of wheat- 
flour as usually made. However, it contains proteids, 
which by their presence add largely to the value 
of flour as usually prepared in the form of baker's 
bread. These proteids have been classified as fol- 
lows : (1) globulin, (2) albumin, (.3) proteose, (4) 
gliadin and (5) glutenin. For all practical purposes 
only the last two named are considered in the manu- 
facture of flour. These two proteids combined com- 
pose what is known as gluten. It is the gluten 
contained in the starchy parts of the wheat grain 
which distinguishes it from flour made from cer- 
tain other cereals, notably corn. Corn flour or meal 
is heavy and sodden when baked into bread as com- 
pared with flour made from wheat or rye. The dif- 
ference is due to the presence of gluten. In the 
process of bread-making the flour is made into a 
dough by the use of water and the addition of leav- 
ening. When fermentation sets in, or, to use the 
common phrase, the bread begins to rise, carbonic 
acid gas is formed; this is imprisoned in the dough, 
which e.xpands with the internal pressure and thus 
forms an open, porous loaf. The dough owes this 
elastic quality to the presence of the gluten. 
Gluten can be obtained from flour by washing the 
dough with water until all the starchy parts have 
been removed. The lump of gluten thus obtained 
will prove to be of a light, yellow color, tenacious 
and elastic. When dried, it will be semi-transparent, 
and closely resembles glue. The quantity of gluten 
in flour is important, but more depends on the 
quality. As it is not easy to determine the quality 
except by actual bread-making tests, millers usually 
select the wheats preferred on the basis of the per- 
centage of total gluten contained. 

In the manufacture of flour, the percentage of 



the grain recovered in the form of flour varies 
around'70 per cent. The lowest limit of the grades 
secured will depend on the markets open to the 
miller. The amount of merchantable flour recovered 
is also governed somewhat by the processes of mil- 
ling. There remain always the by-products, known 
in commerce under the various names of bran, 
shorts, or middlings. 

If a grain of wheat be cut into transverse sec- 
tions, the various parts of which it is composed will 
be clearly seen. The embryo, which is rejected in 
milling, will be shown lying along the side opposite 
that on which is the furrow. Covering the starchy 
parts of the grain are several layers of fiber or 
husk, also rejected in the milling process. These 
layers are technically known as the aleurone, 
nucellus, testa and pericarp, although these blend 
more or less into each other according to the con- 
dition of maturity of the grain. 

The wheat plant. — The wheat plant is strictly of 
artificial character and habits. This is well-illus- 
trated by the nature of its growth. It is probable 
that if cultivation should cease for even a few 
years the plant would perish from the face of the 
earth. Under normal conditions wheat completes 
its round of growth within the limits of each recur- 
ring season. Seeded in the spring it will mature a 
crop in twelve to twenty weeks, according to 
season and variety. Its nature has been so adjusted, 
however, that what are called fall or winter varie- 
ties are cultivated, to a large extent, throughout 
much of the producing area of the world. These 
varieties are sufficiently hardy to withstand the 
winter season, and when planted in the fall will 
mature the following year, one to two months 
earlier than those seeded in the spring. There 
is relatively no variation in the different types and 
varieties so far as manner of life and growth are 
concerned. 

In germinating, the seed or grain of wheat 
throws out a whorl of three temporary roots. With 
the development of the stalk, which immediately 
takes place, additional whorls are thrown out at 
each node. The permanent set of roots will be 
found near the surface branching outward and 
downward. 

If the wheat has been planted deep the stalk may 
exhaust itself in reaching the surface, anu, in the 
ca.se of alternate freezing and thawing, the sleider 
thread connecting the tiny plant at the surface 
with the parent seed may be separated too soon 
and the vitality of the plant be endangered. The 
roots of the growing plant may penetrate to a depth 
of four feet or more, a fact which is somewhat con- 
trary to the common opinion. 

While the stems of the wheat are hollow, it is 
not unusual for them to be more or less filled with 
pith. 

In winter varieties the stalks of the plant do 
not rise above the crown of leaves, which are first 
produced, until the advent of spring. The mat of 
blades which covers the ground serves the u.seful 
purpose of protecting the plant throughout the 
dormant period of the winter season. 

During the early growth the nodes are close 



662 



WHEAT 



WHEAT 



together, but soon the wheat begirs to joint or 
" shoot " and the stalks grow rapidly, T/hile the 
space between the nodes increases until the full 
height of the plant is attained. The range of the 
height varies from two to si.\ feet, and there does 
not appear to be any close relationship between 
this height of straw and the yield of gi'ain. The 
less moisture in the soil the smaller the proportion 
of straw to grain. As the plant attains develop- 
ment the spike pushes up until it ri.ses above the 
growth of foliage below, and a mature field of 
wheat shows a uniform surface of erect spikes. 
At this stage of growth the leaves at the surface 
of the ground, together with those attached to each 
node, wither and fall, the whole plant turning a 
golden yellow color. 

The ability of the wheat plant to tiller or stool, 
throwing up additional stalks, is a marked charac- 
teristic. It often occurs that such stools may show 
twenty to even one hundred stalks starting from a 
single grain. This habit of tillering is governed 
by the variety and also may be modified by the 
climatic conditions of the season. It will readily 
appear that what is called the " stand " of wheat 
may depend in a large measure on the freedom 
with which the plant may send up these addi- 
tional shoots. 

The wheat head. — A discussion of the variations 
existing in the different types of wheat as shown 
by a study of the spike or head will be given under 
the classification of varieties. A somewhat tech- 
nical description of the head is, however, necessary 
in order to make clear many references in this 
article. The description given is condensed from 
Bulletin No. 7, Bureau of Plant Industry, United 
States Department of Agriculture, p. 9. 

" The fiowering and fruiting cluster at the sum- 
mit of the stem of a wheat plant is called the 
' head ' or ' spike.' The part of the stem running 
through the spike, on which the flowers or kernels 
are borne, is called the 'rachis.' The rachis is 
divided by a number of joints, or nodes, and at 
these nodes on alternate sides of the rachis are 
attached the spikelets, — the several small second- 
ary spikes which together with the rachis make 
up the spike proper. The short branch running 
through each spikelet is known as the 'rachilla.' 
Inserted on the rachilla are several concave scales 
which are called the 'glumes.' The two lowest 




Fig. 893. Floret of wheat 
iTriticum sativum). 



grain, is subtended by a single glume, known as 

the ' flowering glume.' Each flowering glume has 

a longitudinal nerve which at the summit extends 

into a prominent ' awn ' or ' beard.' On the inner 

or creased side of the 

grain or berry, filling it 

very closely, and more or 

less hidden from view by 

the flowering glume, is 

borne the 'palea' or 'palet,' 

a thin scale with two 

nerves. The flowerless 

and flowering glumes and 

the palets are spoken of 

collectively as the 'chaff'." 

In Fig. 893 is shown a 

floret enlarged. 

In many varieties the 
outer glumes have their surfaces covered with 
short soft hairs which give the heads of wheat a 
velvety appearance. This velvet or fuzz, while 
present in many very productive types and varie- 
ties, is not considered by growers a desirable 
characteristic. 

It would be easy to make a classification of 
wheat based on the striking differences of the 
spike, and to some extent these are considered, but 
such division can hardly be said to have a botanical 
basis. 

Production. (T. L. Lyon.) 

The report of the Twelfth census of the United 
States states that in the decade 1890 to 1900, the 
area planted to wheat in this country increased 
from 33,579,514 acres to 52,588,574 acres, or 56.6 
per cent. In the preceding decade there had been 
a decrease of 5.2 per cent. The acreage reported in 
1900 was 48.4 per cent greater than that of 1880. 

The increase in production of wheat has been 
about proportional to that of acreage. The largest 
yield in this country for any one year was 748 
million bushels, produced in 1901. The yield per 
acre for the last three decades has remained prac- 
tically the same, but the value per bu.shel and 
consequently per acre has steadily declined. The 
cost of producing a bushel of wheat has likewise 
decreased in amount. These facts are brought out 
in the following table, taken from the Statistical 
Abstract of the United States for 1906 : 



Year 


Area 


Production 


Farm value, Dec. 1 


Average yield 
per acre 


Average farm 
value Dec. 1 
Per bushel 


1870 

1880 

1890 

1900 

1906 


Acres 
18,992,591 
37,986,717 
36,087,154 
42,495,385 
47,305,829 


Bushels 
235,884,700 
498,549,868 
399,262,000 
522,229,505 
735,260,970 


Dollars 
222,766,969 
474,201,850 
334,773,678 
323,525,177 
490,332,760 


Bushels 
12.4 
13.1 
11.1 
12.3 
15.5 


Cents 
94.4 
95.1 

83.8 
61.9 
66.7 



and outermost of these contain no flowers or 
kernels and are designated as the 'flowerless 
glumes.' Above these, arranged alternately, are 
borne the flowers, rarely less than two, or more 
than five. Each flower and, as it matures, each 



The United States leads all countries in the pro- 
duction of wheat. The other large wheat-producing 
countries are Russia, India, France and Austria- 
Hungary, while Canada and the Argentine Republic 
are rapidly increasing their output. Europe is still 



WHEAT 



WHEAT 



663 



the largest wheat-producer of any continent, rais- 
ing nearly twice as much as North and South 
America together. [For tables of "Yields of Wheat 
by Continents," see page 486.] 

During the last fifty years there has been a con- 
stant movement of the center of wheat production 
from east to west in the United States. This has 
proceeded much more rapidly than has the center 
of population. In 1850, New York was one of the 
great wheat-producing states, and the Genesee val- 
ley was the greatest wheat-growing region in the 
country. Since that time the wheat production of 
New York has decreased, according to the Twelfth 
census report, over 3,000,000 bushels, and its pro- 
portion of the total crop has declined from 1.3.1 
per cent to 1.6 per cent, while the four states 
which now produce the most wheat were, with the 
exception of Ohio, still unsettled. The latter state 
was also at one time the leader in wheat produc- 
tion, and the rich Miami valley succeeded the Gen- 
esee valley as a wheat region. But while Ohio is 
still a large producer of wheat, its relative produc- 
tion has declined from 14.4 per cent to 7.6 per cent. 

Southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois was 
once the great wheat-growing region of the coun- 
try, but this was again superseded by Minnesota 
and North Dakota. For the last few years Kansas 
has been producing more wheat than any other 
state. It seems probable that the great plains area 
of western Kansas and Nebraska, and of eastern 
Colorado and Wyoming and perhaps northern Texas, 
is to be the next great wheat-growing region. 

This gradual shifting of wheat-production in 
some of the wheat-growing states is brought out 
in the following table (from the Statistical 
Abstract, 1906): 



In Canada, the production of wheat has shown 
a rapid increase. In 1871 (Canada Yearbook, 1905), 
the total reported production was 16,723,873 
bushels; in 1881, it was 32,.350,269 bushels; in 
1891, 42,223,372 bushels; and in 1901 it had 
reached 55,572,368 bushels. The acreage in 1891 
was 2,701,246 and in 1901 was 4,224,-542. 
Ontario and Manitoba had much the largest out- 
put. The production by provinces for 1901 was: 
Ontario, 28,418,907 bushels; Manitoba, 18,353,013 
bushels; the Territories, 5,103,972 bushels; Que- 
bec, 1,968,203 bushels; Prince Edward Island, 
738,679 bushels; New Brunswick, 381,699 bushels; 
British Columbia, 359,419 bushels; Nova Scotia, 
248,476 bushels. As showing further the relative 
importance of wheat in the different provinces, 
the average production per farm in 1901 is given: 
Canada, 117.75 bushels; Manitoba, 576.92 bushels; 
the Territories, -223.73 bushels; Ontario, 153.24 
bushels; British Columbia, 60.51 bushels; Prince 
Edward Island, 56.12 bushels; Quebec, 15.11 bush- 
els; New Brunswick, 10.86 bushels; Nova Scotia, 
5.28 bushels. 

Types and varieties of wheat. (Figs. 894-901.) 

Cerealists as well as practical producers of 
grains are gradually losing sight of those classifi- 
cations of wheat which are based on purely 
botanical points. While not failing to recognize 
the scientific value in such analytical arrangements 
of the various differences discovered, they incline 
more and more to a study of those influences of 
soil, climate, moisture and cultivation which are 
now recognized as being the real causes of the 
existing differences, and to classify varieties on 
a geographical rather than botanical basis. Not- 





1882 


1885 


1890 


1895 


1900 


1906 


New York 

Wisconsin 

Illinois 

Minnesota 

North Dakota 


12,145,200 

23,145,400 

52,302,900 

33,030,500 

*1 1,460,000 

31,248,000 

18,300,000 

4,173,700 

1,598,200 


10,565,000 

15,665,000 

10,683,000 

34,285,000 

*27,9 13,000 

11,197,000 

19,828,000 

6,117,000 

2,395,000 


9,288,000 

13,096,000 

18,161,000 

38,356,000 

*40,41 1,000 

28,195,000 

15,315,000 

3,575,000 

1,777,000 


7,301,069 

8,616,218 

19,060,712 

65,584,155 

61,057,710 

22,919,566 

14,787,024 

2,081,640 

2,808,250 


6,496,166 

13,166,599 

17,982,068 

51,509,252 

tl3,176,213 

82,488,655 

24,801,900 

123,395,913 

7,207,117 


9,350,180 
4,690,816 
38,535,900 
55,801,591 
77,896,000 
81,830,611 
52,288,692 
14,126,186 
8,266,538 


Nebraska 

Texas 

Colorado 



* Including South Dakota. 

The seven states having the highest production 
of wheat in 1906, were: Kansas, 81,830,611 bush- 
els; North Dakota, 77,896,000 bushels; Minnesota, 
55,801,591 bushels; Nebraska, 52,288,692 bushels; 
Indiana, 48,080,925 bushels; Ohio, 43,202,100 
South Dakota, 41,955,400 bushels. 



+ Unusual. 

withstanding this, a statement of the botanical 
relationships has a proper place in this connection. 
Botanical classification. — The classification con- 
ceded to be the most acceptable is that made by 
Hackel, and the outline here given is that arranged 
by Hunt. (The Cereals in America, p. 48.) 



fmonococcum (1) Einkom. 



Triticnm . 



^pelta (2) Spelt, 
dicoccum (3) Emmer. 



sativum 



.tenaz 



Polonicum (8) Polish wheat. 



ivulgare (4) common wheat, 
compactum (5) Club or square-head wheat. 
turgidum (6) poulard wheat, 
durum (7) durum wheat. 



664 



WHEAT 



WHEAT 



Fig. 894. 
Einkom (Trit- 
icum mono - 

coccutn). 
Three-fourths 
natural size. 



It will be noted from the above that there are 
eight types recognized as members of this great 
family. Some of these are very closely related, 
while others are so distinct as to refuse to repro- 
duce by cross-fertilization. 

(1) Eiiikorn (T. monococcum). Fig. 
894. — This species of wheat has no 
English equivalent for the German 
name, nor has the plant been grown 
except in an experimental 
way in the United States. It 
most nearly approaches the 
assumed wild forms of wheat. 
The plant grows one and 
one-half to three feet in 
height ; the leaves are nar- 
row and heavy, stem slender 
and stiff, in color brownish 
green. The head is much 
flattened, compact, and heav- 
ily bearded, the grain being 
compressed until it shows an 
angular form. Einkorn has 
yet had no practical value 
for the American farmer. 

(2) Spell (T. sativum, var. 
Spelta) Fig. 895.— This is a 
very ancient form of wheat 
and has been cultivated for 
centuries in Europe and 
Africa. While still impor- 
tant in some European coun- 
tries, it has been replaced 
largely by other types of 
wheat. It grows to the usual 
height of the wheat plant, 
according to variety and 
local conditions. In many 
varieties it would appear at 
first glance to be one of the 
wheats in common use. An 
examination of the spike will 
reveal the reasons for its 
distinct classification. The 
spikelets do not break ofi' of 
the rachis and leave a zigzag- 
shaped terminal to the stalk, 
as in the case of common 
wheat, but they hold to- 
gether, and in separating 

from the rachis a part is broken off and 
remains attached to each spikelet. 

(3) Einmer (T. salivum, var. dicoccum). 
Fig. 896. — This is often confused with 
spelt and not easily distinguished. The 
stems are usually pithy and leaves covered 
with velvety hairs. The heads are flat- 
tened, two-rowed and bearded. Of the 
three types mentioned, emmer probably 
is better adapted to dry regions where 
spring grain is usually grown. It is valu- 
able as food for stock. 

(4) Common wheat (T. salivum, var. 
vulgare). Figs. 897, 898. — This is the com- 
mon type of wheat grown all over the 



world where wheat is produced. Closely akin to it is 
(5) Club wheal {T. sativum, -var. compaclum). Fig. 

899. — This sub-species has a short, compact head, 

and is the common wheat of the Pacific coast 

region, as well as of 

Chile and a few other 

countries. These Club 

wheats are chiefly of 

spring varieties and dif- 
fer from the 
common sorts 
principally in 
color and soft- 
ness of grain. 

(6) Poulard 
(T. sativum, 
var.turgidum). 
— This is grown 
in the Mediter- 
ranean region, 
and is distin- 
guished by its 
broad head, 
short bristling 
beards and stiff 
straw. The va- 
riety known as 
seven - headed 
r Egyptian 
wheat belongs 
to the sub-spe- 
cies. Poulard 
wheat is much 
like 

(7) Durum 
wheat (T. sati- 
vum, var. dur- 
um). Fig. 900. 
— This is often 
referred to 

,,,»,, as Macaroni 

W/ll wheat, since 

the flour from 
which is man- 
ufactured this 
and similar 

products is produced from this wheat. 
Durum wheat grows tall, and its broad, 
smooth leaves and heavily bearded heads 
attract attention. It is easily mistaken 
for barley, which it much resembles. The 
grains are large and pointed at each end 
and semi-transparent since the grain has 
less starch than common wheat. 

"Durum wheat has been imported, tested 
and distributed by the United States De- 
partment of Agriculture and the agricul- 
tural experiment stations of a number of 
states within the last ten years. To some 
extent varieties of durum wheat had been 
grown previous to that time under the 
name of Goose wheat, but had never at- 
tained much importance, owing to a lack 
of knowledge in this country regarding 
its value in commerce and manufacture. 




Fig. 896. Short head of em- 
mer ( T. sativum , var. dicoc- 
cum). Natural size. 



Fig. 895. Spelt 
(r. satirum, var.Spflfu) 
Three-fourths nat- 
ural size. 



WHEAT 



WHEAT 



665 



Through the efforts of these national and state 
institutions, a ready market for durum wheat has 
been developed, and the product is now exported to 
Europe in large quantities, and also utilized in this 
country for the manufacture of macaroni, spaghetti, 
and the like, and for blending with softer wheats in 
the milling of flour. During the season of 1906, a 
crop of 50,000 bushels of durum wheat was pro- 
duced. 

"The qualities that give value to durum wheat 
are its ability to withstand drought and its resist- 
ance to rust. It is being grown now in regions of 
light rainfall, under which conditions it produces 
larger yields than any other spring variety of wheat. 
It has not so far proved more productive than winter 
wheat, and consequently has not taken a place 
among the crops of the winter 
wheat region. 

"Some varieties of durum 
wheat have proved sufficiently 
hardy to live through the win- 
ter in southern Kansas, and by 
selection of hardy individuals 
its production will doubtless 
be extended northward. It has 
been grown as a winter wheat 
in an experimental way at the 
Nebraska Experiment Station 
for three years. If it can be 
developed into a successful 
winter wheat it will doubtless 
replace the com- 
mon varieties in 
much of the 
great plains re- 
^ gion." (T. L. 
Lyon.) 



0M, 






Fig. 897. 

Turkey-red wheat. 

Two-thirils n.itural 

size. 



Fig. 898. 

Jones Winter Fife 
wheat. Two- 
thirds natural 
size. 



Pig. 899. 
Club wheat. 
Two-thirds nat- 
ural size. 



(8) Pnlish wheat (T. Polonicum). Fig. 901.— The 
Polish wheat is characterized by having the palea 
of the lowest flower half as long as the flowering 
glume, while the outer glumes 
equal or exceed in length the 
flowering glumes. This wheat 
may have some value for arid 
climates, but is not productive. 
The plant is sometimes called 
Giant or Jerusalem rye, because 
of the resemblance of the seeds 
of the two. It can be used for 
the making of macaroni. It is 
grown in southern Europe. 

Geographical classification. — 
The United States Department 
of Agriculture, in 1895, made 
a collection of more than one 
thousand supposedly distinct 
varieties, but after testing 
these for several years it was 
found that very many were 
identical and that only one- 
fourth of the number were of 
any value to the American 
growers. It will be readily un- 
derstood that a single variety 
grown under the wide range 
of climate and varying condi- 
tions which are to be found 
in this country would in the 
course of a few generations 
show widely differing charac- 
teristics. Few cultivated plants 
are so susceptible to such in- 
fluences. 

In his "Basis for the Improve- 
ment of American Wheats," 
Carleton divided the entire 
country into districts accord- 
ing to the general character 
of the grains produced in each. 
A study of these districts 
reveals the fact that the va- 
rieties usually grown in any 
one given section will all pos- 
sess so nearly the same values 
as to warrant their classifica- 
tion together and thus give the 
product of each district a dis- 
tinctive character. According 
to the grouping we will have : 

(1) The soft wheat district, 
including mainly the New Eng- 
land and middle states. 

(2) Semi-hard winter wheat 
district, including the north 
central states. 

(3) The southern district, in- 
cluding the northern part of 
the southern states. 

(4) The hard spring wheat district, including 
the upper Mississippi river basin. 

(.5) The hard winter wheat district, including 
parts of the middle states of the plains. 






I 



-^) 



Fig. 900. 
Long -bearded 
durum wheat 

(T.satii'itm. var. 

dunlin). Two- 
thirds natural 



666 



WHEAT 



WHEAT 



(6) The durum wheat region, including parts of 
the southern states of the phiins. 

(7) The irrigated wheat district, scattered over 
the Rocl^y mountain region. 

(8) The white wheat district, including the 
larger part of the Pacific coast states. 

This classification recognizes certain qualifica- 
tions, chief among which are color of grain and 
percentage of gluten, which form the basis of the 
arrangement. Since these qualifications are largely 
afi^ected by the particular section of the country 
where the types are produced, it is a fair inference 
to speak of such a classifica- 
tion as a geographical one. 

From such a study as the 
above it can readily be seen 
that there is no single variety 
or even type that can be sug- 
gested as the best for the 
whole country, and even if a 
single variety were universally 
adopted it would be but a few 
years until it would be found 
as varying in character as the 
many sections where grown. 
So marked is this that markets 
have been created, and with 
the opening up of new areas, 
producing grain of unusual 
character, the milling industry 
has at times undergone a com- 
plete change. 

The production of varieties. 

The greater number of the 
common varieties of wheat are 
the result of chance rather 
than of any scientific effort 
for improvement. Wheat is a 
self-pollinating plant, and be- 
cause of this, rarely fails to 
reproduce true to its charac- 
teristics. As every grower 
knows, however, there will 
occasionally appear a new or 
even unusual form in a field of 
grain which may or may not 
resemble the variety among 
which it may be growing. Such 
forms are known as " sports," 
and are the result of accidental 
crosses between plants of the same or diff'erent 
varieties. It is probable that these occur more fre- 
quently than they are discovered and that close 
observation would reveal many new and superior 
varieties that are never isolated and reproduced as 
distinct varieties. Without doubt the great major- 
ity of our commonly known wheats have thus 
originated, and it is only within a comparatively 
recent period that what are known as "pedigree" 
or scientifically produced varieties have been 
placed in the hands of growers. Every wheat- 
growing region of the world has been explored for 
the best varieties it was able to produce, and it is 
safe to say that few promising varieties which can 



Fig. 901. 

Polish wheat ( T. Poloni 

cum). Two-tliirds 

natural size. 



be found anywhere remain to be tested. Vast 
improvement to the wheat crop has thus resulted, 
particularly through the introduction many years 
ago of what are known as Mediterranean varieties. 
With the reaching of the limit of po.ssibIe improve- 
ment by this means, attention is being more 
directed to the artificial production of new varie- 
ties and the future improvement of wheat, for par- 
ticular purposes as well as increased yield, will be 
secured by these means. 

As has already been proved, the varieties intro- 
duced from foreign lands have been found to be 
most valuable for producing new varieties by 
crossing. These wheats, coming as they do from 
those regions near the original habitat of the 
wheat plant, are found to have many of the very 
features it is desirable to reproduce. 

A study of the needs of any region is always the 
first requirement when new creations are to be pro- 
duced. If the region needs a hardier variety or one 
able to withstand some insect pest or disease ; if it 
needs a stiffer straw, or a head less likely to shat- 
ter, the proper combinations must be made to 
secure these. 

The second natural step will be the study of 
those varieties which may show the desired charac- 
teristics. It is not always the case that a perfect 
combination will result even when the parents with 
which the crossing is eff'ected present the desired 
characteristics. The resultant cro.ss may show a 
weakening instead of a strengthening of some 
desired quality. 

Rigid selection is the third step which must fol- 
low hybridization. It is not a difficult thing arti- 
ficially to produce new wheats, but the real task is 
found in selecting those of value and growing them 
true to the type secured. 

The good results secured by cross-fertilizing 
wheats in order to produce new varieties are 
numerous. Among these which almost always fol- 
low, are two : increased vigor and greater produc- 
tiveness. On the other hand, so great is the disturb- 
ance cau.sed by the crossing that difficulty often 
follows the efl^ort to select fixed types. 

Hybridizing uiieats. — The first step in cross- 
fertilizing wheat is to remove the anthers from 
all the flowers on the spike to be fertilized. This 
must be done while the anthers are yet green and 
the pollen immature. If the head of wheat is com- 
pact it is well to remove each alternate spikelet 
and also the less perfect ones at the base and tip 
of the spike. The work is done by using ordinary 
botanist's tweezers. Care must be taken not to 
break any of the anthers. It is best to protect the 
emasculated head by wrapping it with tissue paper. 
In a few days when the flowers on adjoining plants 
are seen to be ready to open, pollen may be 
brought from the chosen variety and deposited on 
the stigmas of the emasculated head, and this again 
protected as before. When ripe, the heads are 
threshed out by hand and the matured grains 
planted the following season. It often happens that 
the head is so injured in the process that the grain 
is shrunken or defective although still retaining 
yitality. Often it will be found that the work has 



WHEAT 



WHEAT 



667 



not been properly timed and cross-fertilization has 
not followed. By making several identical crosses 
a sufficient number of seeds can be secured for 
further plantings. 

Various methods of growing such seed are sug- 
gested. Whatever the method followed, it should 
permit of the greatest possible development of the 
plants from each individual seed. It will be found 
that a great difference will appear in the plants 
succeeding from the first cross. A close study of 
these will reveal that only certain ones will pos- 
sess the characters desired, and when these are 
planted and another generation secured, some will 
be found to reproduce as fixed types while others 
will show an unstable character. It is generally 
conceded by wheat-breeders that four to five years 
are necessary firmly to fix any desired type so 
that it will reproduce itself perfectly. 

Selection. — It is possible from a single cross to 
secure a considerable number of new varieties. As 
soon as these are secured they must be carefully 
studied before being finally selected as desirable 
types. This study may reveal that further crossing 
with either of the parents or other types is needed 
to effect the improvement desired. In fact, many 
of the standard pedigreed wheats of the country 
are the product of successive crosses and inbreed- 
ing. This is well illustrated in the well-known 
variety, Genesee Giant, which is the result of no 
less than eight successive cross-fertilizations. This 
process increases the necessity for the important 
work of selection since the variations secured are 
so numerous. 

Selection must begin with the individual plants. 
From these may be chosen the best and most per- 
fect heads. In any number of plants which are the 
result of a single cross the most vigorous and pro- 
ductive can easily be noted. When a fixed type is 
secured and decided on as worthy of propagation, 
the next step will be to increase the amount of 
seed as quickly as possible. Selection 
should not cease even then, for further 
improvement in the quality produced 
is possible. 

Practical methods of improving seed 
wheat. 

It is contended that the larger 
grains found in any variety are cap- 
able of increasing the yield, and many 
experiments go to show that this is a 
fact. It is probable that size alone 
cannot be depended on, but rather 
weight of the grain. For this reason 
a machine has been devi.sed to take 
the place of the screening machines usually em- 
ployed. This machine has a cylinder which throws 
the grain by centrifugal force. The heavier grains 
naturally travel the farthest and the grain is 
graded by a series of receptacles into which it 
falls. Screening either by the use of a fanning mill 
or a perforated cylinder is also a good practice. 

Other factors enter into the improvement of 
wheat. Among these will be its treatment for pre- 
venting smut and the use of fertilizers. It may 



also be benefited by being changed to a more con- 
genial climate or soil. 

Soil. 

Wheat grows in a very great variety of soils, 
ranging from the stiff clays of the New England 
region to the volcanic ash of the Pacific coast. 
With such a great variation no set rule or method 
for preparation can be advised. In general, soils 
which are full of organic matter, loose in texture 
and dark in color are not so well suited for wheat- 
growing as the lighter clay and drift soils. As a 
rule, over much of the area devoted to wheat-grow- 
ing, crop rotation or the use of some amendment to 
the soil is essential. In regions where this is not 
followed it is often customary to practice what is 
known as summer-fallowing. 

Land intended for winter wheat should be plowed 
as early in the preceding season as possible. This 
permits of more thorough preparation of the soil 
and also of the absorption of moisture during the 
summer. Surface cultivation should be followed, 
particularly after each rain. The depth of the 
plowing should not be less than four inches nor 
more than eight inches. In regions where corn is 
a leading crop it is customary to .seed such fields 
without replowing, specially designed tools for pre- 
paring the soil and seeding between the rows of 
corn being used. This allows of the economical 
use of the land, and the crops secured are gener- 
ally equal to those secured by more e.xpensive 
methods of preparation. Fig. 902 shows a field 
terraced to prevent soil washing. 

When spring wheat is grown, the land should be 
plowed in the fall preceding or as soon as possible 
in the spring. Thorough preparation of the soil is 
important in all cases. 

Fertilizers. (T. L. Lyon). 
On the older soils of the eastern states, extend- 











902 Terrace farming to prevent soil washing 

ing as far west as Ohio and Kentucky, barnyard 
manure or commercial fertilizer is commonly 
applied to the land for wheat or for some crop in 
the rotation of which wheat forms a course. The 
same is true of eastern Canada, including the prov- 
ince of Ontario. West of this, commercial fertili- 
zers are used very little, although barnyard manure 
is used on grass-land and for cultivated crops in 
all the country lying east of the semi-arid region. 
On the light soils of the prairie region barnyard 



668 



WHEAT 



WHEAT 



manure plowed under immediately 'oefore seeding 
to wlieat is likely to make the soil too loose for the 
best yield of that crop. 

Summer-fallowing is practiced extensively in the 
semi-arid regions, where the crop is not irrigated. 
A considerable proportion of the wheat of North 
America is now produced in regions having an 
annual rainfall of less than twenty inches. The 
soil of these regions is usually very deep, so that 
there is little loss of moisture by percolation ; 
almost all of the rainfall that does not run off the 
surface or pass through the tissues of the plant is 
lost by evaporation from the soil. The effect of 
the summer-fallow is to conserve a large part of 
the rainfall during the year the land is kept fal- 
lowed, and thus greatly to increase the supply of 
soil moisture for the following crop. In very dry 
regions it is customary to fallow every other year, 
but where the rainfall is not so meager, two or 
three crops intervene. Summer-fallowing is very 
destructive to the humus, but it increases the supply 
of easily soluble plant-food materials, and these, 
with the greater moisture supply, produce much 
larger crops than can be secured when the land is 
cropped continuously. Barnyard manure cannot be 
used in this region for the wheat crop. 

Wheat is raised under these conditions in central 
and western Kansas, Nebraska, most of the 
Dakotas, eastern Washington, Oregon and Califor- 
nia, and in Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan. 
Experiments indicate that the use of commercial 
fertilizers for wheat or other cereal crop is not of 
immediate profit in this region, and as barnyard 
manure dries out the soil the problem of maintain- 
ing fertility is a serious one. Doubtless it is to be 
accomplished by seeding to perennial grasses or 
legumes for a period of years. In the eastern 
states, where the rainfall is ample and where the 
soluble plant-food materials are continually leached 
from the soil, commercial fertilizers are used with 
profit, either on the wheat crop direct or on a 
preceding crop. Throughout much of this region 
wheat is grown because it is useful in filling out a 
rotation or in providing a nurse crop for grass 
and clover rather than because it is profitable in 
itself. 

If wheat follows corn the land should receive 
ten to thirty loads of barnyard manure before 
plowing for the latter crop. This is much better 
than applying manure directly to wheat, which, 
however, will generally be benefited by an appli- 
cation of commercial fertilizer. The nature and 
amount of such fertilizer will depend largely on 
the character of the soil. The only accurate 
method of ascertaining the manurial requirements 
for any particular soil is to conduct a test on the 
soil in question. 

A complete fertilizer, that is, one containing 
nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, is generally 
preferable to one containing only one or two 
of these substances. On a light, well-drained soil, 
relatively more phosphoric acid is needed, while on 
a heavy moist soil more nitrogen, preferably in 
the form of nitrate, should be used. Two to four 
hundred pounds of what is known to the trade as 



a 4-12-4 fertilizer is frequently used. The form 
in which the phosphoric acid is combined does not 
make much difi'erence if the material is very finely 
ground. 

Place in the rotation. (T. L. Lyon.) 

Wheat should always be grown in a rotation 
with other crops. It is particularly benefited by 
such treatment and suffers in productiveness very 
rapidly when grown continuously on the same soil. 
Wheat yields begin to decrease on the prairie soils 
within a few years after they are broken, while 
corn will continue to yield without diminution for 
ten, twenty or even thirty years on some of the 
rich prairie soils. 

The rotations in which wheat is grown vary in 
different parts of the country. In the New England 
and north Atlantic states, where corn is raised 
largely for silage, a system consisting of corn, 
wheat, clover is frequently followed. This is well 
suited to dairy-farming. Where oats are needed, 
they usually follow directly after corn and precede 
wheat, making the rotation corn, oats, wheat, clo- 
ver. Potatoes are frequently substituted for corn. 

In the corn-belt states, when wheat is raised the 
rotation is usually corn two years, oats, wheat, clo- 
ver, except where spring wheat is grown, when it 
is often used to alternate with corn ; thus, — corn, 
spring wheat, using no other crop in the rotation. 
This is not an ideal system, but experience has 
shown that it is better than raising corn continu- 
ously. This method is also being followed at present 
with winter wheat by drilling the wheat between 
the corn rows with a one-horse drill. The corn- 
stalks are pastured in winter, so that the wheat 
can be harvested the following summer. 

In the semi-arid region the tendency is to rotate 
wheat with a summer-fallow, using the latter every 
two to four years. It is probable that this will be 
replaced in time by a rotation including a peren- 
nial grass or legume left on the land for several 
years, and alternating wheat with other small 
grains suited to the region as well as the summer- 
fallow. 

On the irrigated lands, sugar-beets or potatoes 
are usually the cultivated crops. These follow 
alfalfa, which has been down for at lea.st three or 
four years. Wheat follows the cultivated crop. A 
typical rotation is alfalfa (three or more year.s), 
sugar-beets, wheat. Where peas are raised for 
sheep, as is becoming common in Colorado, a good 
rotation is peas, potatoes, wheat. 

Seed and seeding. 

The great importance of securing good seed 
is evident. While eflforts should not be neglected 
to improve the character of well-known varieties 
and to create new ones of superior merit, it must 
not be forgotten that the maximum of production 
from the varieties now in common use has by no 
means been reached. Much remains to be learned 
of the adaptability of existing wheats and the best 
methods of cultivating and handling the crop. 

The wheat-grower cannot be too painstaking in 
tha selection of his seed wheat. By employing the 



WHEAT 



WHEAT 



669 






"-is,"*;; 



methods previously mentioned of cleaning and 
grading the seed, improvement is sure to follow. 
Shriveled wheat will germinate, but the best results 
cannot be expected from such seed. In many 
regions it is absolutely necessary to treat the 
seed with some chemical to destroy the germs of 

smut. [See below under 

Enemies.] 

Seeding. — The time for 
sowing will depend on the 
climatic variations and on 
the dangers of attack 
from the Hessian fly. 
With fall wheat, time 
must be allowed for suffi- 
cient growth of the young 
plants to be able to with- 
stand the rigors of win- 
ter. Wheat has the abil- 
ity to germinate and grow 
at comparatively low tem- 
peratures, but due care 
should be exercised not to 
subject the early growth 
either to severe frost or 

to sudden changes of the season. No best time for 
seeding can be given for any locality. As a rule, 
the depth of seeding will vary with the porosity of 
the soil— the lighter the soil the greater the depth. 
The seed should be planted not less than one nor 
more than three inches deep, and by the use of such 
machinery as will place it uniformly and secure 
perfect covering by the soil. 

Many factors enter into the question of the 
proper amount of seed to sow per acre. The yield 
will not depend on the quantity of seed sown, for 
the differences in varieties are very great ; size of 
seed, quality, condition of seed-bed and time of 
seeding, character of the soil and climatic influ- 
ences all have to be considered. Repeated experi- 
ments in many states lead to the conclusion that 
six to eight pecks would be the proper range for 
quantity. 

As a rule, wheat is not cultivated after being 
planted. The practice of harrowing, once followed 



on the surface and thereby retain the moisture, as 
well as give the plants better conditions for growth. 

Harvesting (Figs. 903, 904). 

The period of growth needed to bring the wheat 
plant from seeding to maturity varies greatly. With 







3^ 




r — •(-/»-■ ,, 







:v^'* 



aajs 






,.»/. ■■"■(..*"'/-."■ 



Fig. 903. Wheat stacks. Farm of Alex. Speers, on the Eagle Hills, Sask. 

in England, has never been universally adopted in 
America. There are some wheat-growing sections 
where it is an advantage to harrow winter-sown 
land in the spring in order to break up the crust 



Fig. 904. A Pennsylvania wheat-field. 

fall-sown grain there is a long dormant period of 
almost if not quite half a year when there are few 
indications of activity or even life. With spring- 
sown grain where the growth is continuous and 
unbroken, the period will range from ninety to one 
hundred and twenty days. In the United States, 
harvesting begins in Texas as early as May, but 
may continue as late as September or even October 
in North Dakota and Washington. In the eastern 
states grain must be cut as soon as sufficiently ripe, 
and the entire crop must be put in the shock within 
a brief period. West of the Rocky mountains, where 
little or no rain falls during the summer months, 
harvesting is pursued more deliberately, and as the 
Club varieties are largely grown in these regions, 
the fields are often left standing for weeks or even 
months after the wheat is fully ripe. 

Harvesting machinery. — The methods employed in 
harvesting wheat have undergone great changes 
during the past century. From the hand sickle, 
with which it was possible to reap 
_ _.,^ I but a small area each day, to the 
.:-,?^^^| perfected harvester or the great 
-..' ■ ' ii^ combined machine, is but a brief 
step in point of time, but it rep- 
resents a wonderful advance in 
human invention and application. 
At the present time machinery of 
some kind is universally used in 
America for harvesting wheat. So 
perfect is this that the grain is 
scarcely touched by the human 
hand during the entire harvesting 
process. Until within twenty 
years of the close of the past cen- 
tury the most perfect machine in 
use was the self-rake reaper, which mechanically 
cut and placed the wheat in bundles on the ground 
ready to be bound in bundles by hand. This machine 
was replaced by the self-binder, which at first used 



f^;^b^^ 



670 



WHEAT 



WHEAT 



wire instead of twine. When a proper knotting 
device had been devised, the self-binder made pos- 
sible a great expansion of the wheat industry. In 
many parts of the West the header is commonly 
used, but only in those regions where the wheat 
can be left standing after maturity until it can be 
harvested. With this machine only sufficient straw 
is cut to insure gathering the heads of the grain. 
The header cuts ten to twelve feet wide, and is 
pushed forward through the grain by six or eight 
horses. The headed grain may be taken immediately 
to the thresher or shocked. 

The threshing of grain where the header or self- 
binder is used is generally done by threshers oper- 



succeeding crop becoming infected through the 
blossoms. No satisfactory treatment has as yet 
been worked out. The stinking smut or "bunt" 
(caused by TiUetia tritici or T. fwtcns) destroys 
only the kernel. It may be prevented by the use of 
either of the following solutions : 

(1) Formalin : Use a solution of one pound of 
formalin to fifty gallons of water. Sprinkle the 
wheat, covering afterwards with cloths soaked in 
the solution, or immerse the sacks for thirty 
minutes. 

(2) Blue Stone. Make a solution of copper sul- 
fate at the rate of one pound to five gallons of 
water ; immerse the sacks for ten minutes and 






Fig. 905. 

Hessian fly {Mayetiola destructor) ^ 
adult female. (From Webster.) 



Fig. 906. 

Hessian fly; adult male. 

(From Marlatt.) 



Fig. 907. 

Hessian fly; side view of female. 

(B'rom Burgess.) 



ated by steam- or horse-power. Various devices 
calculated to reduce manual labor to a minimum 
are employed in this connection : self-feeders, band 
cutters, straw carriers, elevators and sackers are 
all used, and even attachments to bale the straw 
for mai'ket directly from the thre.sher. By far the 
larger part of the wheat crop in the United States 
is cut by the binder and threshed directly from 
the field. 

Enemies. 

Insects. — The wheat plant has many enemies to 
contend with in the form of insect pests, fungous 
diseases and weeds of many sorts. The two most 
injurious insect enemies are the chinch-bug and the 
Hessian fly (Figs. 905-907). The annual losses 
caused by these two pests in the wheat-fields of 
the United States is beyond estimate, but will run 
into millions of dollars. Remedies to counteract 
their ravages are largely preventive ; in the case 
of the chinch-bug, by clean tillage and rotation of 
crops, and of the Hessian fly by late seeding, burn- 
ing .stubble and otherwise hindering the propaga- 
tion of the brood. Other insect pests may at times 
cause local damage to the wheat crop, but are of 
less importance. 

Diseases. — Two rusts commonly occur on wheat, 
the early orange leaf-rust (Puceinia rubigo-rera) 
and the late stem-rust (Puceinia graminis, occurring 
also on oats). These rusts may also destroy the 
crop within a few days. Rust is now being con- 
trolled by growing resistant varieties. Of wheat 
smuts there are two: The loose smut (Ustilago 
tritici) matures its spores at blossoming time, the 



then drain and dry. Care must be taken to 
apply the solution to all vessels and machinery 
used wherever the seed might become infested by 
contact. 

Loose smut is not controlled by either of these 
methods. No entirely satisfactory method is known. 
A modified form of hot-water treatment is recom- 
mended. 

Literature. 

Klippert, The Wheat Plant ; Sargent, Corn Plants; 
Lyon and Montgomery, Examining and Grading 
Grains ; Hunt, The Cereals in America ; Snyder, 
Chemistry of Plant and Animal Life ; Edgar, The 
Story of a Grain of Wheat ; Jago, Milling of 
Wheat ; Kornicke and Werner, Handbuch d e s 
Getreidebaues ; Schindler, Der Weizen in Seinem 
Beziehung zum Klima ; Salms-Laubach, Weizen 
und Tulpe, und deren Geschichte, Leipzig, 1899 ; 
Report of the Twelfth Census of the United States. 
Bulletins of the Division of Physiology and Pathology 
of the United States Department of Agriculture : 
No. 16, Carleton, Cereal Rusts of the United States ; 
No. 24, Carleton, Basis for the Improvement of 
American Wheats ; No. 29, Hays, Plant Breeding. 
Bulletins of the Bureau of Plant Industry : No. 3, 
Carleton, Macaroni Wheats; No. 47, Scofield, 
Description of Wheat Varieties ; No. 78, Lyon, 
Improving the Quality of Wheat ; No. 79, Harter, 
Variability of Wheat Varieties in Resistance to 
Toxic Salts. Office of Experiment Stations, Bulletin 
No. 11. The experiment station publications, and 
many others that may be traced through the Ex- 
periment Station Record. 



INDEX 



Abaca, for fiber, 2S6, 2S7 ; for paper, 507, 

Aberdeen rotation, 107. 

Abies balsaniea. 322, 506. 

Abies prandis, 625. 

Abies pectinata, 625. 

Absinthe, 49G, 499. 

Abvitilon Avicennn? for fiber, 2S3. 

Acacia, 301 ; Angico, 62S; Arabica, 627; binervata, 62S; 
Catechu, 26S, 627; Cavenia. 62S; Cebil, 62S; dcalbata, 
628; decurrens, 628; Giiarensls, 628; horrida. 628; leu- 
cophlcea, 628; longifolia, 628; moUissima, 628; penni- 
nervia, 628; prominens, 628; pycnantha, 628; saligna, 
628; Timbo, 628. 

Acer dasvcarpum, 321, 428. 

Acer NegLindo (Fig. 450j, 321. 

Acer rubruni, 428. 

Acer saccharinum, 321, 428. 

Acetylene liglit, elTect on plants, 24. 

Achard quoted, 3(1, 588. 

Achiote, 267. 

Acid colors, 271. 

Acid content of plants, effect of shade on, 121. 

Aconite, 457. 

Acorns for hogs on Pacific slope, 455. 

Acrocystis Batatas, 622. 

Acrostalaginus albus (Fig. 56), 38. 

Adansonia, for paper, 503, 504, 506. 

Adulteration, testrng seed for, 141, 142. 

Adventitious buds, 6. 

African kino, 629. 

African millet, 578. 

African oa'< for tannin, 625. 

Agarics, 476, 477. 

Agaricus campestris, 474, 476. 

Agave, 290, 291; for fiber. 2*^1; for paper. 503; atro- 
virens, 291; caTulescens, 20i); cantula. 291; colllna^ 
291; Kerchcevc!, 290; Le.^h.'guilla, 290; loi:)hantha 
290; Potosin:*, '^91; rigida, var. elongata, 287; rigida, 
var. Sisalana, 287; Tequilana, 291; univittata, 290; 
vivipara, 291. 

Agee, Alva, quoted, 264. 

Agronomy, defined, 191. 

Agropyron (or Agropyrum), botanical characters, 366; 
cristatum, 76; oecidentale, 376, 452; repens. 375. 376, 
(See Quack-grass); tenerum, 376, 452, {Sec Slender 
wheat-grass). 

Agrostemnia Githago (Fig. 144), 113. 

Agrostis, 365, 366; alba, 371, (See Red-top); canina, 
371, (See Rhode Island bent-grass); vulgaris, 371. 

Aguiar dye, 268. 

Aich root, 267. 

Ailanthus glandulosa, 626. 

Aino millet, 469. 470; nt.tes, 136. 

Air environment of plants, 21. 

Akerman, .-\lfred, article by, 330. 

Al root, 267. 

Alabama, crop rotation systems in, 100. 

Alabama Experiment Station, (juoted, 261, 264, 266, 
586. 

Alaska )upine, 455. 

Albertson, E., quoted, 481. 

Alcohol, industrial (denatured), 186-188; from corn, 
412; wood, 186. 

Alder bark, for dve, 267; for cannin, 629. 

Ale, 188-190. 

Aleppo galls for tannin, 625. 
Aleppo pine for tannin, 624. 
Aletia argillacea, 252. 

Alfalfa, 192-197, 456; analysis, 518; barley as nurse crop 
for, 203; as cover-crop, 259, 351; as green-manure 



for sugar-beets, 590; introduction of varieties, 72, 74; 
notes, 438, 456; on Pacific coast, 452. 453; in Pa- 
louse country, 455; perennial character, 10; in Plains 
region, 452; in its plant relations, 2; planting dates, 
138-140; in Rocky mountain states, 452, 454; m rota- 
tion, 88, 94-96, 100, 101, 104-108; in seed miictures, 
440, 441 ; .seed notes. 133, 135, 141, 143, 439; seed-lest- 
ing, 141, 142; for silage, 414; for soiling, 570. 572,573; 
in timothy region, 443, 446; yields, 153-155. 

Alfalfa, Turkestan, introduction notes, 78. 

Allilaria, 107, 198; Pacific coast, 455; Southwest, 454. 

Alfileria, 197, 198. 

Alfilerilla, 197, 198. 

Algic, nowerless plants. 2; phothosynthetic processes 
as affected by colored light, 27. 

Algarobillo, 77; for tannin, 627, 628. 

Alizarine, 230, 267-269. 

Alkali saccaton, 453. 

Alkaline conditions, breeding plants for, 59; soils in 
relation to potato-scab and fla.x-wilt, 48. 

Alkanet. 267. 

Alkanna tinctoria, 267. 

Allium Cepa. (^SVe Onion.) 

Allspice, 457, 586, 587. 

Almonds, bitter, 495-497. 

Almud, 244. 

Alnus firma, 629; glutinosa, 629; for dve, 267; mari- 
tima. 629; Ncpi.lensis, 629; nitida, 629. 

Aloe, 267, 268, 45S; for fiber. 291 ; arborescens, 267; lu- 
cida, 267; spicata, 267; Succotrina, 267; vera, 267; 
vert, 289. 

Aloi quoted, 32. 

Alopecurus, botanical characters, 366. 

Alopccurus pratensis, 370. (See Meadow foxtail.) 

Alpinia Galanga. 268. 

Alpinia ofhcinarum, 268. 

Alsike clover. (See Clover, alsike.) 

Altcrnaria blight, 360. 

Altcrnaria solani, 523. 

AlthiT-a rosea, 268. 

Alumina in soil, 13. 

Aman paddy, place in rotation, 109. 

,'\rnanita Cifsarea, 477. 

Amanita muscaria, 167, 477. 

Amanita phalloides, 167, 477. 

Amarantus chlorostacliys (Fig. 135), 110. 

Amarantus retroflexus. (See Pigweed.) 

Ambari fiber, 286. 

Ambrosia artemisia?folia (Fig. 136), 111. 

American gum, 412. 

American larch (Fig. 429), 310. 

Amitosis, 11. 

Ammonia, effect of electricity on amount in soil, 31. 

Ammoniacal carbonate of copper, formula, 39. 

Amniophila, 366. 

Anunophila arenaria, 370, 371. 

Aniiielopsis C|uinquefolia, 270. 

Amygdalin, 496. 

Aiiacliaris (Fig. 23), 11. 

An;i'Sthetics, efi"cct on plant growth, 29. 

Ananas sativus, 291. 

Anbury of cabbage. 223, 550. 

Anchusa tinctoria, 267. 

Andira .\raroba, 268. 

Andira inermis for coffee shade, 243. 

Andropogon furcatus, 376; HaU'i>ensis, 367; notes, 574, 
(See Johnson-grass); muricatus, 497; Nardus, 498 
rufus, 76; Sorghum, 367, 3S4. 574, (.Sec Sorghum) 
Sorglmm, var. technicus, 216, 217; squarrosus, 497 
Virginicus, 306. 



If there is any disagreement between the index and the text in the rendering of : 
the index is to hold. A very few names are affected in spelling or capitalizing. 

(671) 



binomina! Latin name. 



672 



INDEX 



Anemone, Japanese, for farm garden, 274. 

Anethol, 460. 

Angelica sylvestris, 76. 

Aiigica bark, 628. 

Angiosperms, 2. 

Angoumois rotation system, 107. 

Aniline, black, 271; colors, 267. 

Animal husbandry, relation to forage-cropping, 304- 
306. 

Anise, 457, 458; for oil, 495, 496; vinegar, 185. 

Annatto, 267. 

Annual plants, 10; flowering period, 17; number, 3, 
4. 

Annual saltbush, 565, 

Anotto, 267. 

Anthemis Cotula (Fig. 146), 113. 

Anther, structure, 17. 

Antlionomus grantiis, 252. 

Antlioxanthum, 366. 

Anthoxanthuni odoratum, 370. (.Sec Sweet vernal- 
grass.) 

Anthracnose on alfalfa, 195; bean, 210, 211; cotton, 
251. 

Anthurium, shading, 122. 

Anthyllis Vulneraria, 659. (See Kidney vetch.) 

Ants in coffee plantations, 245. 

Aphid, on coffee, 245; treatment for, 281. 

Aphis, cabbage-, 223. 

Apio, 76. 

Apios tuberosa, 520. 

Apiurn graveolens, 268. 

Apium Petroselinum. (See Parsley.) 

Apocynum cannabinum, 286. 

Apparetic acid, 596. 

Appert, Nicholas, quoted, 157, 165. 

Apple, barrel, legal size, 152; blight, 47, 50-52; box, 
legal size, 152; butter, 163; canker, 39; for canning, 
162, 172; chops, 176; cider, 183; clons, 57; diseases, 
51, 346; dried, legal weight, 149; effect of electricity 
on, 31 ; evaporating, 174, 176; for farm garden, varie- 
ties, 275, 276; fruit-buds, 6; fruit formation, 7; hand- 
ling, 355, .356; jelly, 104; juice, 178-180; leaf-buds, 
6; legal weiglit, 149; picking, 355; pomace as silage, 
414; propagation notes, 131; for relislies, 173; sauce, 
163; scab, 48; seeds, legal weight, 148; shipping, 357; 
soil, 275; variation in hybrids, 6.3; varieties from 
sports, 58, 61; for vinegar, 185, 1S6; wild, in pre- 
serves, 165. 

Apple, dwarf, 277. 

Apple, Russian, introduction, 71. 

Apples of Sodom, 625. 

Apricots, candied, 162; for canning, 160; fruit-buds, 6; 
oil from, 49.5, 496. 

Aquatic plants, adaptation to water environment, 19. 

Arachis hypoga^a, .514. 

Aralia Ginseng, 357. 

Aralia quinquefolia, 357. 

Aramina fiber, 285. 

Arboriculture defined, 312. 

Arborvita;, in Canada, 319; gathering seed, 327; in 
swamps, 320. 

Arc light, electric, response of plants to, 22-24. 

Archangelica officinalis, 76. 

Archil, 267. 

Arctic-grass, 375. 

Arctostaphylos Manzanita, 628. 

Arctostaphylos Uva-Ursi, 628. 

Areca palms as house-plants, 129. 

Arhar, place in rotation, 108, 109. 

Arid legions, breeding plants for, 59. 

Arizona nnllet, 453. 

Arkansas, crop rotation systems in, 100. 

Arkansas Experiment Station quoted, 518. 

Army-worm, in alfalfa, 195; methods of control, 40, 42; 
in oats, 492. 

Aromatic plants, 457-467; effect of shade on products, 
121 ; in their plant relations, 4. 

Arrabidaea Chica, 268. 

Arracacha, 74, 76. 

Arracachia esculenta, 76. 

Arrhenatherum, 366. 

Arrhenatherum elatius, 370. (See Tall oat-grass.) 

Arriba cacao, 226. 



Arrow-root, 199, 227. 

Arsenate of lead, use, 44, 281. 

Arsenate of soda as herbicide, 117. 

Arsenic, vvliite, as herbicide, 117; for biting insects, 44; 

formula, 38. 
Arsenical compounds as herbicides, 11.5, 117, 118. 
Arsenite of copper, 44. 
Arsenite of lime, formula, 38; with Bordeaux mixture, 

39. 
Arsenate of soda for Bordeaux mixture, formula, 38. 
Artemisia Absintliium, 269, 498. 
Artichoke, for canning, 160; flowers as food parts, 7; 

French bur, 72; Jerusalem, 542; planting dates, 

138-140; seed per acre, 135. 
Artocarpus integrifolia, 269. 
Asbarg, 267. 

Asclepias Cornuti (Fig. 160), 116. 
Ash, black, 341, 342; for farm woodlot, 327; mountain, 

328, 329; regeneration, 325, 326; seedmg, 329; white, 

329, 332, 341,342. 
Asparagine, 596. 

Asparagus, for canning, 159, 160, 170, 172; effect of 
acetylene light on, 25; etherization of, 29; notes, 147 
perennial plant, 10; place in farm garden, 273 
planting dates, 138-140; rust, 51; seed notes, 133 
shading, 122; shipping, 6.54; stem for fnod, 6. 

Asparagus plumosus for window-b(jx, 130. 

Asparagus Sprengeri as a house plant, 129, 130. 

Aspen, .508; in Canada, 319. 

Aspcrula tinctoria, 268. 

Assam rubber, 558. 

Aster, for farm garden, 274; flower formation, 7. 

Astilbe Japonica, effect of etherization, 29. 

Astragalus crassicarpus, 306. 

Astragalus falcatus, 76. 

Astrebla pectinata, 76. 

Atkinson, A., quoted, 103. 

Atkinson, George F., article by, 392; quoted, 474. 

Atomizers for house spraying, 46. 

Atrijilex canescens, 310, 565; confertifolia, 565; hali- 
moides, 565; holocarpa, 565; leptocarpa, 565; num- 
mularia, 565; Nuttallii, 565; semibaccata, 565; trun- 
cata, 56.5; volutans, 565. 

Atropa Belladonna, 459. 

Atropine, 459. 

Attalo, 267. 

Aus |iaddy, place in rotation, 108, 109. 

Australian brome-grass, 374, 375. 

Australian kinos, 627. 

Australian oats, 375. 

Australian rye-grass, 375. 

Australian saltbush, 565. 

Australian wattles, 628. 

Avena, 366; barbata, 373; fatua, 373, 485, (See Wild 
oat); fatua var. glabrata, 373; nuda, 487;sativa, 371, 
373, 485. (See Oats.) 

Avignon-Korner, 270. 

Awnless brome-grass. (See Brome-grass.) 

Aypi, 227. 

Avrsliire (.Scotland), crop rotation systems in, 106. 

Azafran, 270. 

Babool, 627. 

Babul, 627. 

Bachelor's button for farm garden, 274. 

Bacillus earotovorus. 542, 550. 

Bacillus radicicola, 392. 

Bacteria, effect of electricity on, 33; as flowerless 
plants, 2; formaldehyde for, 49; formation of carbon 
dioxid by, 18; in insect control, 40; relation to pre- 
serving and canning, 161, 171; reproduction in, 19. 

Bacterium phaseoli, 210. 

Bacteroids, 392, 393. 

Bagasse, sugar-cane, 608; for paper, 505, 506. 

Bahama redwood, 267. 

Bahia wood, 267. 

Bailey, Dr., quoted, 566. 

Bailey, L. H., quoted, 22-24, 57, 65, 399, 481. 

Bain, Samuel M., article by, 395. 

Bajra, place in rotation, 109. 

Ba'kan, 627. 

Baker, J. G., quoted, 519. 

Balata rubber, 554, 559. 



INDEX 



673 



Balaustines, 629. 

Bald cypress (Fig. 431), 316. 

Ball, Carleton R., article by, 574. 

Balsam for farm garden, 274. 

Balsam fir, in Canada, 319; for oil, 495; for paper, 503, 
505-507; in swamps, 320; tolerant character, 323. 

Balsamocarpon, 627. 

Bambax. (See Bombax.) 

Bamboo, fiber, 281; introductions, 72; for paper, 503, 
504, 506; for screening plants, 123. 

Banana, 199-201 ; dwarf, 200; fiber, 2S1 ; fiber for paper, 
503; notes, 7-9, 5S6. 

Bands for control of canker-worms, 42; for codling- 
moth, 42. 

Banksia integrifolia, 629. 

Banksia serrata, 629. 

Baobab tree, 506. 

Baphia nitida, 267. 

Baphorhiza tinctoria, 267. 

Barbecue, 225. 

Barberry, 267; notes, 7; in preserves, 165. 

Bark, formation, 9; for paper, 503; for tannin, 623. 

Bark-beetle, hickory, 343. 

Barley, 202-206, 376; for brewing, 188-190; clover- 
seeding in, 238; as cover-crop, 259, 275, 277, 350, 351 ; 
effect of copper sulfate on, 118; effect of el""*-': '.'.giit 
on, 22; effect of electricity on, 31; effect of iodid of 
potassium on, 28; for hay on Pacific coast, 453; in- 
specting, 364; introductions, 72; nitrogen require- 
ments, 320; in its plant relations, 2; planting dates, 
138-140; in rotation, 88, 89, 99-109, 203, 297; seed 
disinfection, 49; seed notes, 132, 133, 135; for soiling, 
571; smut, treatment, 50; straw for paper, 509; 
straw for weaving, 293; weight, legal, 149, 152; 
yields, 153-155. 

Barley-and-peas, as cover-crop, 275, 277; seed per acre, 
135; for soiling, 571,572. 

Barley-grass, small, 455. 

Barley, wild, eradicating, 118. 

Barnyard grass. 369, 446, 470. 

Barnyard millet, 369, 469-473; for soiling, 571; notes, 
136. 

Barometric pressure in relation to sap rise in plants, 15. 

Barrett, O. W., quoted, 74, 245. 

Barrows, Anna, articles by, 161, 173. 

Barwood, 267. 

Basic colors, 271, 272. 

Basil, 457. 

Basket, fibers, 281 ; mills, 341 ; willows, 341. 

Basswood, marketing, 341 ; seed notes, 328, 329; shade- 
enduring character, 326. 

Bast, defined, 9; function, 15. 

Bastard hemp, 267. 

Bastard saffron, 270. 

Batatas edulis, 613. 

Bavaria, crop rotation systems in, 107. 

Beach-grass, 371. 

Beach rye in Alaska, 455. 

Beal, quoted, 141, 447. 

Bean, broad, 212-214; introduction, 73; notes, 4, 658; 
in Robertson mixture, 612. 

Bean, Carob, introduction, 73, 75. 

Bean, field, 206-212; anthracnose, 49, 51; blight, 210; 
bush, 25, 206; for canning, 159, 160, 165, 171-173; 
as cover-crop, 350, 351 ; effect of electric incandes- 
cent light on, 24; effect of electricity on, 31; in farm 
garden, 279, 280; influence of environment, 59; kid- 
ney, 107; mildew, 51; nativity, 4; notes, 7; in plant 
relations, 2; planting dates, 138-140; pole, 25; races 
of, 57; in rotation, 100-108, 207; seed-growing, 145, 
146; seed notes, 132, 133, 135; snap, 206; storage 
notes, 137; treatment with copper sulfate, 118; 
weevil, 211; weight, legal, 149, 152; wild, 454; 
yields, 153-155. 

Bean, lima, for canning, 160; notes, 656. 

Bean, Magothy Bay, 309; in rotation, 106. 

Bean, velvet, 656-658. (See Velvet bean.) 

Bearberry for tannin, 628. 

Beard-grass. 306. 

Beccaria quoted, 32. 

Beckwith's clover, 454, 

Bedamier bark, 627. 

Bedda nuts, 627. 

B43 



Beech, diseases, 345, 346; plant-food requirements, 
320; regeneration, 325; utilizing, 341. 

Beech-wheat. 217. 

Beefwoods. 629. 

Beer, 188-190; notes, 184. 

Bees, as carriers of plant diseases, 50; cross-poUenation 
by, 56, 236; hairy vetch as food for, 660. 

Beetle, striped, control, 42, 43. 

Beets, for canning, 160; cattle, 542; composition, 543; 
effect of acetylene light on, 25; effect of electricity 
on, 31; in farm garden, 279, 280; field, 542; notes, 5, 
10, 588; pickled, 173; in plant relations, 3; propaga- 
tion notes, 147, 148; pulji for silage, 414; pulji waste 
for paper, 503; in rotation, 106-108; seed note.s, 132, 
133, 135; treatment for leaf-spot, 51; weight, legal 
149, 152. 

Beet-sugar, manufacture, 595-599; for alcohol, 186 
notes, 588, 589, 591 ; world production, 610. 

Beggarweed, 214. 215; as cover-crop. 259, 350, 351 
notes. 450; seed notes, 133, 135, 148; iu rotation, 89, 
101 ; in .Southwest, 454. 

Begnall, Capt. Richard, quoted, 402. 

Begonias, effect of acetvl^r.^ I'ght on, 25; as house 
plants, 129; notes, 502." 

Beijerinck quoted, 392. 

Beleric, 627. 

Belgium, crop rotation systems in, 107, 

Bell, George, quoted, 107. 

Bell, W. F., quoted, 107. 

Belladonna, 457, 459. 

Bene, 501. 

Bengal, crop rotation systems in, 108, 109. 

Bengal grain, 306. 

Bengal-grass, 369. 

Bent-grass, 371; seed per acre, 135; treatment with 
copper sulfate, 118. 

Bentley, C. H., article by, 158. 

Berberin dye. 269. 

Berberis Aquifolium, 269. 

Berberis Japonica. 631. 

Berberis \'ulgaris. 267. 

Bere, place in rotation, 107. 

Bergamot. importations. 496. 

Berkley, M. J., mentioned, 36. 

Bermuda-grass, 371. 441. 449; adaptation. 260; per- 
centage of purity and germination of seed, 133. 

Berry, Wilton G.. quoted. 267. 

Berseem, 215, 216, 235; notes, 2, 72, 79; seed per acre, 
135. 

Bertholon quoted, 30, 32. 

Bessey, E. A., quoted, 74. 

Beta maritima, 588. 

Beta vulgaris, 542, 588. 

Betel vine, in rotation, 109. 

Betula alba, 629. 

Betula lenta, 497. 

Beverage-producing plants in their plant relations, 4. 

Bidens frondosa (Fig. 137), 111. 

Biennial plants, notes, 3, 4, 10, 17. 

Big tree for tannin, 625. 

Big wheels, use in transporting logs, 336. 

Bigelow, W. H., quoted, 178. 

Bignonia Chica, 268. 

Bilberry. 267; red, 268. 

Bimlipitam jute, 286. 

Bindweed, 112, 217; eradicating, 118. 

Bingo-i fiber, 292. 

Birch, in Canada, 319; diseases, 345; intolerant char- 
acter, 323; market, 341 ; place in forest rotation, 324; 
regeneration, 325; seed notes, 328, 329; sweet, 497; 
for tannin. 629 ; yellow, 332. 

Birch-bark tar. 629. 

I^ird cherry, place in forest rotation, 324. 

Bird peppers. 465. 

Bird-seed rape. 530. 

Bird's-eye maple, cause of appearance, 16, 

Bird's-foot clover, 306. 

Bird's-foot trefoil, 78, 306. 

Birds as insect-destroyers, 40. 

Bisulfid of carbon for stored seeds, 137. 

Bitter almonds. 495-497, 

Bixa Orellana. 267. 

Black fly on coffee, 245. 



674 



INDEX 



Black grama, 453. 

Black-knot, notes, 47. 

Black medic, 235, 455, 456. 

Black mold, universal, on hops, 3S3. 

Black oak for tannin, 625. 

Black-rot of cabbage seed, 222, 223 ; of sweet-potatoes, 

622. 
Black rust of rye, 563. 
Black stem-rust of wheat, 492. 
Black wattle. 628. 

Blackberry, for canning, 160; in farm garden, 277, 278; 
fruit formation, 7; notes, 16; in its plant relations, 2, 
4; varieties for home planting, 278, 279; weight, 
legal, 148. 
Blackthorn, 270. 
Bladder saltbush, 565. 
Blauholz, 269. 

Bleeding heart for farm garden, 274. 
Blennodia lasiocarpa, 77. 
Blight, as affected by drainage, 50; of potato, 523; of 

sugar-beets, 594; treatment, 281. 
Blissus leucopterus, 563. 
Blister-beetle on potato, 524. 
Bloek-gambier, 627. 
Blondeau quoted, 31. 
Blood cup, 268. 
Bloodroot for tannin, 629. 
Blood-wood, 627. 
Blueberries, legal weight, 148. 
Blue grama-grass, 454, 

Bl le-grass, Canada. (See Canada blue-grass.) 
Blue-grass. Kentucky. (See Kentucky blue-grass.) 
Blue gum for tannin, 627. 

Blue-joint, 376; on Pacific slope, 455; in Rocky Moun- 
tain region, 454. 
Blue lupine, 398. 
Blue spirea for farm garden, 274. 
Blue-stem (Agropyron occidcvtaU), 376, 452. 
Blue-stem (Andropogon furcatus), 376, 453. 
Blue-stem (Calatnayrnslis Canadensis), 376. 
Blue-stem, feather, 453. 
Blue-stems in Great Plains region, 454. 
Blue-stone treatment for wheat smut, 67''' 
Blue-top in Alaska. 455. 
Blue vitriol as an herbicide, 115. 
Boehmeria nivea, 284, 508. 
Boehmeria tenacissima, 285, 508. 
Boehmer's timothy, 79. 
Bogue, E. E., article by, 333. 
Bohemian horseradish (Fig. 93), 73. 
Bois de fernambuoc, 267. 
Bois de santal, 270. 
Bois du cam, 267. 
Bois du Japon, 270. 
Bois du sang. 269. 
Bois jaune, 268. 
Bois jaune de Hongrie, 268. 
Bokhara clover, 467. 
Boletus, 477. 
Boletus edulis, 477. 
Boletus felleus, 168. 

Bolley, Henry L., article by, 46; quoted, 298, 300. 
Boll-rot in cotton, 251. 
Bombay, crop rotation .systems in, 109. 
Bombax Malabaricum, 293. (Bambax, by error.) 
Bone meal for plants, 128. 
Bonnier quoted, 24. 

Bordeaux mixture, formula for, 39; for farm garden, 
281; with Paris green, 38; as a plant stimulant, 
28; precautions 45; with white arsenic for biting 
insects, 44. 
Bordley, John Beale, quoted, 104. 
Borecole, .388. 

Borer, control of, 42, 43; in locust, 343, 344; in sugar- 
cane, 610. 
Boston fern as house-plant, 129. 
Boston ivy, notes, 16. 
Botany Bay, 627, 
Boussingault quoted, 393. 
Bowstring hemp, 291. 

Box-elder, regeneration, 325; seed notes, 328, 329. 
Box myrtle, 267. 
Boykin, E. B., article by, 247. 



Boze quoted, 30. 
Bran, legal weight, 149. 

Brassica alba, 311, 587; arvensis (Fig. 143), 113, (See 
Mustard, wild) ; campestris, 500, 548, 549; eradicat- 
ing, 118; campestris, var. oleifera, 548, 549; cam- 
pestris, var. rutabaga, 547-549; eaulorapa, (See 
Kohlrabi) ; Napus, 499, 500, 530; nigra, 587 ; oleracea, 
221-223; oleracea var. acephala, 388, (See Kale.); 
oleracea var. botrytis, 221 ; oleracea var. bvillata, 
221 ; oleracea capitata, 221 ; oleracea var. eaulorapa, 
389; oleracea var. gemmifera, 221 ; oleracea, var. syl- 
vestris, 221 ; Rapa, 500, 547-549 ; Rapa, var. depressa, 
547-549; Rapa, var. hvbrida, 542, 547,549; Rapa, 
var. oleifera, 548, 549; Sinapistrum, 513. 

Brazilein, 270. 

Brazilettowood, 267. 

Brazilin, 270. 

Brazilwood, 267; yellow, 268. 

Broad-fruit, fruit formation, 7. 

Breeding of plants, 53-69. (See Plant-breeding.) 

Breeding, to prevent plant diseases, 52; seed crops 
146. 

Brescia rotation system, 108. 

Brewers' grains, 205; rice, 537. 

Brewing, 188-190. 

Britton, quoted, 658. 

Broad bean. (See Bean, broad.) 

Broad-leaved wattle, 628. 

Broccoli, 221. 

Brome, awnless. (See Brome-grass.) 

Bromc-gr.xss, 374, 375, 452; in mixtures, 441; notes, 
437-442; in Pacific slope, 4.55; in Rocky mountain 
region, 454; in rotation, 100, 105; seed notes, 133, 
135; sown with clover, 239; in timothy region, 445; 
weight, legal, 148. 

Bromelia fibers, 291. 

Bromelia Karatas, 291. 

Bromelia Pincpiin, 291. 

Bromelia sylvestris, 291. 

Bromus, 366. 

Bromus inermis, 374. (See Brome-grass.) 

Bromus raceraosus var. commutatus, 375. 

Bromus .secalinus, 374, 375. (See Cheat and Chess.) 

Bromus unioloides, 375, 450. (See Rescue-grass.) 

Brooks, \V. P., quoted, 102. 

Broom for paper, 503. 

Broom-corn, 216, 217; notes, 574, 575; planting dates, 
138-140; seed per acre, 135; weight, legal, 149; yield, 
153-155. 

Broom-corn millet, 369, 470; in Plains region, 452. 

Broom rapes, on hemp, 379. 

Broom setlge, 306. 

Brovissonetia papyrifera, 508. 

Brown, E., article by, 141 ; quoted, 75. 

Brown Egyptian corn, 579. 

Brown-eyed disease of coffee, 244. 

Brown, .1. B., quoted 566. 

Brown rot of turnips, 550. 

Brown-tail moth, notes, 40. 

Browsing, protecting woodlots from, 331. 

Bruchophagus funebris, 237. 

Bruchus fisorum, 513. 

Bruchus obtectus, 211. 

Brunchorst tjuoted, 30. 

Brusca. 628. 

Brussels sprouts, 221 ; for canning, 160. 

Bucare tree for coffee shade, 243. 

Bucciniimi, 270. 

Bnchner quoted, 188. 

Buchu leaves, 45S. 

Buckthorn, 267. 

Buckwheat, 217-221; as cover-crop, 89, 2.59, 350, 351; 
for dye, 268; effect of electricity, 31; effect of thun- 
der-storms, 32; in its plant relations, 3; planting 
dates, 138-140; in rotation, 87, 103, 106, 108, 220; 
seed notes, 132, 133, 135; weight, legal, 149, 152; 
wild, eradicating, 118; vields, 153-155. 

Bud, adventitious, 6, 16; dormant, 6; flower, (3; fruit, 6; 
leaf, 6; protection, 16; sports, selection, 69; winter, 6. 

Bud-moth, control, 43. 

Budworm. on corn, 412; on tobacco, 651, 653. 

Budd. Professor, nientioned, 71. 

Buffalo-grass, 365, 453, 454. 



INDEX 



675 



Buffalo pea, 306. 

BufFum, B. C, quoted, 106. 

Buliri cotton, place in rotation. 100. 

Bulbs, for hogs on Pacific slope, 435; for the window- 
box, 129, 1.30. 

Bull, G. P . article by, 293. 

Bull-pine in Canada, 319. 

Bumble-bees, cross-fertilization of red clover by, 236. 

Bunch drop-seed grass, 453. 

Bunch-grasses, 365. 

Bundles, vascular and fibrovascular, 9, 15. 

Bur artichoke, French, introduction, 72 

Burbank, Luther, mentioned, 53, 57. 

Bur-clover, 232, 235; notes, 456; on Pacific coast, 455; 
seed notes, 135, 142, 143, 441. 

Burdock, 112, 457,458. 

Burdwan division India, crop rotation systems in, 109. 

Bureau of Chemistry quoted, 267. 

Bureau of Plant Industry quoted, 455, 647, 662. 

Bureau of Statistics quoted, 403. 

Burgundies. 182. 

Burnet, 306. 

Bumette, F. H., quoted, 102. 

Burning fields to destroy weeds. 111. 

Burtis. F. C, quoted, 104. 

Bush-fruits, place in farm garden, 273; pruning, 351. 

Butea frondosa, 269, 629. 

Butea superba, 269. 

Butter, effect of feeding rape on, 532. 

Buttercup, 268, 447. 

Butternut, quantity of seed to sow, 329 ; regeneration, 
325. 

Butterprint, 283. 

Cabbage, 221-223; aphis, 223; for canning, 160; dry 
matter in, 540; for dye, 268; diseases, notes, 51 ; effect 
of incandescent gas light on, 26; in farm garden, 279, 
280; longe\'ity, 10, 132; looper, 223; maggot, 43; 
notes, 54S; in its plant relations, 2; planting dates 
138-140; propagation notes, 147, 148; protection 
from insects, 42; root-maggot, 223, 389; in rotation, 
100-106; seed notes, 132, 133, 135; shipping, 6.54; 
for soiling, .571; as trap crop for harlequin-bug, 43; 
weight, legal. 148; wild, 221; worms, 38, 223, 389; 
yields, 153-1.55. 

Cabbage, thousand-headed. (.See Kale.) 

Cabinet evaporators, 175. 

Cabulla fiber plant, 290. 

Cacao (name of the tree and the unmanufactured pro- 
duct), 224-226; introduction, 74. (See Cocoa.) 

Cacti, as forage, 226, 227; modifications for environ- 
ment. 19; notes. 454; spineless, 226. 

Ciesalpinia. for tannin. 627; Brasiliensis, 267; brevifolia, 
77, 627; Cacalaco. 627; Campechianum, 627; coriaria, 
77, 627; dig>Tia, 627; Sappan, 270. 

Co-sar weed for fiber, 285. 

Cajanus Indicus, place in rotation, 108, 109. 

Cajeput, importations, 496. 

Caladium, shading, 122. 

Caladium Colocasia, 629. 

Calamagrostis Canadensis, 376. 

Calandra Orvza?, '537. 

Calendar, planting, 137-140. 

Calendula, 457. 

Caliatur wood, 270. 

Calico disease of tobacco, 653. 

Calico-printing, 272. 

California, canning industry in. 1.58-161; crop rotation 
systems, 100. 

California fescue, 455. 

California millet, 469. 

California oaks for tannin, 625. 

California swamp pine for tannin, 624. 

California wheat, 576. 

Callas, water requirements, 129. 

Calli, 78. 

Caltha palusfris, 269. 

Calvatia cyathiforme, 478. 

Calvatia gigautea, 478. 

Calyx, defined, 7; structure, 17. 

Cambium, defined, 9; structure and function, 16. 

Camellia .Taponica, 631. 

Camellia Thea, 631; C. \iridis, 631. 



Camerarius quoted, 57. 

Camomile, 457; importations, 496. 

Cainpechv wood, 269. 

Camphor; 457, 458, 459; oil, 459. 

Caniphora officinalis, 459. 

Camwood, 267, 268. 

Canada, crop rotation systems in, 99, 100. 

Canada blue-grass, 373, 447; as adulterant, 142; notes, 
436-138; seed, legal weight, 152; seed notes, 133, 
143, 144, 483, 441; soil for, 437. 

Canada Department of Agriculture quoted, 152. 

Canada Experimental Farms quoted, 468. 

Canada field-pea, 510. (See Field-pea.) 

Canada thistle (Fig. 161\ 116, 377. 

Canadian vellow root, 268 

Canaigrc. 623, 624, 628. 

Canary-grass, 370. 

Canary seed, legai weight, 148. 

Candia valonia. 625. 

Candied fruit, 162, 163. 

Candytuft for window-box, 130. 

Cane-sugar manufacture, 608-610. 

Canhamo Braziliensis Perini, 286. 

Canina corn, 399. 

Canker-worm, control, 38, 41, 42, 44. 

Canna, for arrow-root, 199; notes, 502. 

Canna Achiras, 199; edulis, 199: flaccida, 199; glauca, 
199; Indica, 199. 

Cannabis sati%'a, 377. 

Canners, relation to growers, 158. 

Canning, 157-177. 

Canning-house refuse as silage, 414. 

Cantaloupe melon, legal weight, 148. 

Canvas for paper, 504. 

Canyon live-oak, 625. 

Caovitchouc, 554-559. 

Cape aloe, 267. 

Cape sumac for tannin, 629. 

Caper, for dye, 268; spineless, 77. 

Cai)illarity in relation to sap rise in plants. 15. 

Capital required for timber production, 322, 323. 

Capoelasan, 78. 

Capparis inermis, 77. 

Capparis spinosa, 268. 

Caprifying insect, introduction, 74. 

Capriola Dactvlon, 371. 

Capsella Bursa-pastoris (Fig. 139), 112. 

Capsicum, importations, 587. 

Capsicum annimm, 464. 

Cai^sicum frutescens, 464. (See Chilies.) 

Caramanian valonia, 625. 

Caramel for dye, 268. 

Caraguata fiber plant, 291. 

Caraway, 457, 45S, 460; importations, 496; notes, 497; 
for oil, 495; seed, percentage of purity and germina- 
tion, 133. 

Carbolic acid as an herbicide, 115-117. 

Carbolineum as wood preservative, 347. 

Carbon bisulfid, for fumigation, 45; for stored seeds, 137. 

Carbon dioxid, formation and use in plants, IS; relation 
to leaf processes, 13, 14. 

Carbonic acid in relation to plant growth, 12, 13. 

Cardamons, 586. 

Cariatur wood, 270. 

Carica heteroplivUa, 77. 

Carleton, M. A, article by, 469; quoted, 73, 74, 665. 

Carludovica palmata, 292. 

Carlyle ciuoted, 572. 

Carman quoted, 57. 

C.arminic acid, 268. 

Carmoy quoted, 30. 

Carnations, effect of acetylene light on, 25; notes, 502; 
selection of bud-sports for new varieties, 69. 

Carob bean, introduction, 73, 75. 

Carpel, defined, 7: structure, 17. 

Carpet fibers, 283, 285. 

Carpet -gra.ss, 449; notes, 451 : seeding notes, 441. 

Carrot. 540; for canning, 160; for dye, 268; effect of 
electric arc light on, 23; eradicating. 112; in farm 
garden, 280; notes, 5; place in rotation, 100, 10.5, 
107-109; planting dates. 13S-140; seed notes, 132, 
1.33, 135;forsoiling, 571, 573; weight, legal, 149, 152; 
wild, 455; vields, 153-155. 



676 



INDEX 



Carruthers, Dr., quoted, 436. 
Carse rotation system, 107. 
Cartliame, 270. ' 
Carthamus tinctorius, 270. 
Cartier quoted, 402. 
Carum Canii, 460. 
Caryopteris for farm garden, 274. 
Casagha, 629. 
Cascalote, 627. 
Cascara, 458. 
Caseara Sagrada, 457. 

Cassava, 227-229; for arrow-root, 199; introductions, 
75; notes, 451; propagation, 131, 147, 148; seed per 
acre, 135. 
Cassia, buds, 586, 587; importations, 496; for tannin, 

627. 
Cassia auriculata, 627. 
Cassia Cliamaecrista, 309. 
Cassia Fistula, 627. 
Castanea Americana, 625. 
Castanea dentata (Fig. 448), 320. 
Castanea vesea, 626. 
Castilloa elastica, 554, 557. 

Castor-bean, 229-231 ; longevity, 10; notes, 457, 458, 
499; oil, notes, 499, 500; place in rotation, 104; 
weight, legal, 149, 152. 
Casuarina equisetifolia. 629. 
Casuarina leterifolia. 629. 
Catalpa speciosa for farm woodlot, 327. 
Catalpa, western (F^g. 441), 318. 
Catch-crop. 25S, 259. 
Catchup, 173. 
Catechin, 268. 
Catechu, 268; pale, 626. 
Caterpillars, 44; in cotton, 251. 
Catmint, 460. 

Catnip, 457, 460; for oil, 495. 
Catsup, 173. 
Cat-tail millet, 471. 
Cattle, for logging, 337; horn-fly, 40. 
Cauliflower, 221; for canning, 160, 161 ; in farm garden, 
279, 280; notes, 7; seed, purity and germination, 133; 
shading, 122. 
Cauline, 268. 

Caustic soda as an herbicide, 117, 118. 
Cavanaugh, G. W., quoted, 210, 512. 
Cayenne pepper, 465; importation, 587. 
Ceara rubber, 554, 558. 
Cecidomyia destructor, 563, 670. (The Hessian fly is 

also named in the genus Mayetiola.) 
Cedar, for farm woodlot, 316; freedom from disease, 
345; longevity, 346; marketing, 341; in its plant 
relations, 2. 
Cedar, red, handling seed, 327, 328, 329; notes, 323; 

oil from, 496. 
Cedar, white, 323; oil from, 495, 496. 
Ceiba grandiflora, 293. 
Ceiba pentandra, 293. 

Celery, blight, 51 ; for canning, 160; for dye, 268 ; etiola- 
tion, 20; in farm garden, 280; notes, 7; place in rota- 
tion, 105; pits, 553; propagation notes, 147, 148; 
seed, purity and germination, 133; shading, 122. 
Cell, plant, structure and function, 8, 11; bast, 15; col- 
lecting, 14; conveving, 14; palisade, 14; wood, 12, 15. 
Cellars, root, 550-554. 
Centaurea .lacea, 77. 
Centaurea Melitensis (Fig. 138), 112. 
Centgener, defined, 298; method of plant selection, 62; 

test of power, 63. 
Central American rubber, 557. 
C^pe, 477. 

Ceratocystis fimbriata, 622. 
Ceratonia Siliqua (Fig. 99), 75. 
Cercospora beticola, 594. 
Cercospora coffeicola, 244. 

Cereals, amount of food elements taken by, 20; as 
cover-crops, 89; growing seeds, 144; for hay, 449, 
453; in their plant relations, 2, 4; treatment with 
copper sulfate, 118; versus root crops, 540. 
Ceriops Roxburghiana, 627. 

Chsetochloa, botanical characters, 366; glauca, 369; 
Italica, 369, 469, 470; Italica, var. Germanica, 469; 
viridis, 369. 



Chamcerops humilis, 293. 

Chamberlain, W. I., article by, 430. 

Chamberlin, G. M., Jr., article by, 595. 

Chamomile, for dye, 268; treatment with copper sulfate, 

118. 
Champagne, 182; cider, 183; notes, 181. 
Chard, notes, 543, 588. 
Chari, place in rotation, 109. 
Charleston lawn grass, 369. 

Charlock, eradicating, 115, 117, 118; in turnip and cab- 
bage seed, 548.' 
Charring for wood preservation, 347. 
Cliav root, 268. 
Cheat, 374, 375. 

Cheese, effect of feeding rape on, .532. 
Cheese-cloth screens for plants, 123. 
Cheeses (Fig. 154), 114. 
Cheiranthus Cheiri, 270. 
Chelidoine juice, 268. 
Chelidonium majus, 268. 
Chemical substances as plant stimuli, 19. 
Ch&ne vert, 479. 

Chenopodiaccaj in its plant relations. 3. 
Chenopodium album (Fig. 134), 110. (-See Lamb's- 

quarter.) 
Chenopodium anthelminticum, 466. 
Chls root, 268. 
Cherri vello, 268. 

Cherry, black, 459; candied, 162; for canning, 160; 
diseases, 346; evaporating, 174; for the farm garden, 
275, 276; oil, 495; in its plant relations, 4; for pre- 
serves, 162; seed notes, 328, 329; soil for, 275; varie- 
ties for home-planting, 276; weights, legal, 148. 
Chess, 112, 374, 375; eliminating by crop rotation, 86; 

soft, 455. 
Chestnut, crossing, .56; fruit formation, 7; longevity, 
346; in middle .Atlantic states. 318; for paper, 505; 
regeneration, 325; shade-enduring character, 326; 
for tannin. 341, 623-626; timber worm, 344, 345; 
weiglit, legal, 14S. 
Chestnut oak, regeneration, 326; for tannin, 623, 625. 
Chevalon, 77. 
Chica-red, 268. 
Chick-pea, 306; place in rotation, 108, 109; seed notes, 

132, 135. 
Chickweed, eradicating. 118; seed notes, 141. 
Chicory root, 230, 231 ; propagation notes, 131 ; seed 

notes, 132, 135. 
Child, Mrs. Lydia Maria, quoted, 162. 
Chilli sauce, 173. 

Chillies, 457, 458, 465; place in rotation, 109. 
China aster for farm garden, 274. 
China-grass, 284 ; for paper, 503, 508. 
China jute, 283, 284. 
China vine for dye, 269. 
Chinch-bug, control, 40, 42; on corn, 413; oats, 492; 

rice, 537; rye, 563; sorghum, 582; wheat,670. 
Chinese galls for tannin, 626. 
Chinese green, 268. 
Chinese yam, 306. 

Chinese yellow, 268; berries, 270. , 
Ch'ing ma for fiber, 283. 
Chloris virgata, 77. 

Chloroform, effect on plant growth, 29. 
Chloropliora tinctoria, 268. 
Chlorophyll, action, 11, 13, 14; for dye, 268; effect of 

electric light on content of plants, 23, 24. 
Chlorospleniura seruginosum, 268. 
Chocolate, 224. 
Chodat quoted, 31. 
Chondromcter, use, 363. 
Chowchow, 173. 
Chromatin, function, 11. 
Chrome orange, 270. 
Chrome yellow. 270. 
Chromosomes, 11, 17. 
Chrysamic acid, 268. 

Chrysanthemum, effect of electric light on, 22; for 
farm garden, 274; notes, 57, 502; selection of bud- 
sports for new varieties, 69. 
Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum, 447. 
Chrysocharis livida, 245. 
Chrysophanic acid, 270. 



INDEX 



677 



Chufa, 307; legal weight, 148. 

Chuna, 306. 

Churco, 628. 

Chutney, 173. 

Cicer arietinum, 306; place in rotation, lOS, 109. 

Cichorium Intybus, 231. 

Cicuta maculata, 114. 

Cider, 181-183; apple sauce, 163; for fruit butters, 163; 
notes, 177; statistics, 157, 158, 177. 

Cincliona barli, 458. 

Cinnamon, 457, 586, 587; cliips, 587; importations, 496; 
vera, 587. 

Citrange, development, 67. 

Citron, candied, 162. 

Citron, Corsican, introduction, 73, 75. 

Citronella, 498; importations, 496. 

Citrous fruits, handling, 356; plant relations, 2; shad- 
ing, 122. 

Citrus trifoliata, introduction, 73. 

Cladonia, 267. 

Claret, 182. 

Clark, C. W., article by, 636. 

Clark, Geo. M., quoted, 436. 

Clark, y. A., article by, 215. 

Clavaria aurea, 478. 

Clavaria botrytcs, 478. 

Clavaria formosa, 478. 

Claviceps purpurea, 563. 

Cleistanthus collinus, 628. 

Clematis, formation of tendril, 16; notes, 7. 

Cleyera Japonica, 631. 

Climatic conditions in relation to plant diseases, 48. 

Clinton, L. A., quoted, 100. 

Clons defined, 57. 

Close quoted, 26, 27. 

Close-pollination defined, 423. 

Clostrydium Pasteurianum, 395. 

Cloth-covered houses for plants, 119-123. 

Clover, 232-239; barley as nurse crop, 203; as cover- 
crop, 259, 260, 305, 350, 351 ; flower midge, 237; in 
Great Basin region, 455; hay, analysis, 518; insect 
control, 42; introduction into England, 304; in 
meadows and pastures, 442-453; notes, 7, 19; in 
Pacific coast region, 453; place in the rotation, 203, 
207, 220, 297, 305; in its plant relations, 2; planting 
dates, 138-140; seed fly, 237; seed notes, 132, 141, 
144, 441 ; seed-testing. 141 ; seed weight, legal, 149, 
152; sickness, 232; silage, 414, 569; for soiling, 570- 
573; yieUis, 153-155. 

Clover, alsike, 233, 234, 239; as adulterant of red 
clover seed, 236; in mixture for cover-crop, 351; 
notes, 437, 4.38, 445; place in rotation, 100; seed 
notes, 133, 135, 136, 142, 143, 237, 439-441 ; soil for, 
437; for soiling, 573; time of maturity, 436; yellow 
trefoil seed as an adulterant, 142. 

Clover, bur-. (.See Bur-clover.) 

Clover, crimson, 234, 239, 446; as cover-crop, 89, 259, 
260, 305, 351; place in rotation, 101, 102, 104, 106, 
249; seed notes, 133, 136, 142, 143; yellow trefoil 
seed as adulterant, 142. 

Clover, Florida, 214. 215, 309. 

Clover, Egyptian, 79, 215. 216, 235; seed per acre, 135. 

Clover, Ladino, introduction, 75. 

Clover, mammoth, rate of seeding for cover-crop, 351. 

Clover, red, 233, 238, 444; as cover-crop, 259, 351; 
longevity, 10; in mixtures, 136, 440, 441; note.s, 437, 
438; place in rotation, 89, 99-108; a rotation crop, 
88; seed adulteration, 142; seed-growing. 23.5-237; 
seed notes, 133, 135, 142, 143, 439; soil for, 438; for 
soiling, 571-.573; time of maturity, 436; in timothy 
region, 443-445. 

Clover, Swedish, 233, 234. 

Clover, sweet. {.See Melilotus.) 

Clover, Uganda, 80. 

Clover, white, 234, 239; Giant Broad-leaved, 234; large, 
467; in mixtures, 136, 440, 441 ; notes, 437, 43S; on 
Pacific coast, 455; seed notes, 133, 135, 439; soil for, 
437; time of maturity, 436. 

Clover, wild, 45.5. 

Clover, vellow, 23.5; seed per acre, 135. 

Cloves, 457, 4.58, 586, 587. 

Clubfoot, 392. 

Clubroot, 550; of cabbage, 223. 



Cnicus arvensis (Fig. 161), 116. 

Cnicus lanceolatus (Fig. 151), 113. 

Coal-tar, creosote as wood preservative, 347; method 

of insect control, 42; products as herbicides, 115. 
Cobiea scandens, effect of acetylene light on, 25. 
Cobb, N. A., article bv, 599. 
Coburn, F. D., article by, 195. 
Coccerin, 268. 
Coccionella, 268. 
Coecoloba uvifera, 628. 
Coccus cacti, 268. 
Coccus ilicis, 269. 
Coccus lacca;, 269. 
Cochenille, 268. 
Cochineal, 268. 

Cockle, eliminating by crop rotation, 86. 
Coco palm for fiber, 292. 
Cocoa (the manufactured product, — chocolate from 

which the oil has been extracted), 224; butter, 

notes, 499. (.See Cacao.) 
Coconut, fiber, 292; for paper, 503; seed dissemination, 

18; for tannin, 626. 
Cocos nucifera, 292, 626. 
Codeine, 463. 

Codlin-moth, control, 38, 41, 42, 44; notes, 40. (By en- 
tomologists the sjielling codling-moth is preferred, 

and it is so used in Singerland's article.) 
Coffee, 239-246; blight, 244, 245; leaf miner, 245; 

root-rot, 245; scale, 245; tree, treatment of seed, 

328. 
Coffea Arabica, 239. 
Coffea Liberica, 239. 
Coe, Stephen, quoted, 206. 
Coe, Tunis H., quoted, 206. 
Coir, 292. 

Cole, J. S., quoted, 103. 
Coleseed, 307. 

Coleus, effect of acetylene light on, 25. 
CoUard seed, percentage of purity and germination, 

133. 
Collenchyma, 8, 16. 

CoUetotrichuin Lindemuthianum, 210, 211. 
CoUetotrichum trifolii on alfalfa, 195. 
Collins, G. N., articles by, 199, 224. 
CoUybia Shiitake, 474. 

Colocasia antiquorum, var. esculenta, 629. 
Color of plants, effect of shade on, 120. 
Color-lake, formation, 271. 
Colorado, crop rotation systems in, 100; fruits for 

home-planting, 276; grapes for, 279; small- fruits for, 

279. 
Colorado grass, 450. 
Colorado potato-beetle, 524. 
Colorado river hemp, 286. 
Coloroil liglit, effect on plants, 27. 
Coloring n:iaterials, 267-273. 
Colpoon compressum, 270, 629. 
Columbine for farm garden, 274. 
Columbus, quoted, 249, 404, 640. 
Columella quoted, 222. 
Colza, 530, 549; for forage, 307; notes, 548; for oil, 

500. 
Comfrey, prickly, 309. 
Composite, family, medicinal and condimental plants 

in, 457; flower described, 7. 
Composting crop refuse, precautions, 51. 
Comptonia asplenifolia, 629. 
Condimental plants, 457-467. 
Conifers, effect on electrical potential of atmosphere, 

34; raising from seed, 329, 330; for tannin, 624. 
Conifie, 114. 
Conium, 458. 
Conium maculatum, 114. 

Connecticut, crop rotation systems in, 100, 101. 
Connecticut (Storrs) Experiment Station quoted, 265, 

305, 5S4. 
Conner, C. M., quoted, 101. 
Convolvulacea* in its plant relations, 3. 
Convolvulus arvensis (Fig. 155), 114. 
Convolvulus Batatas, 613. 

Cooperative management of woodlots, 316, 317. 
Cooper-Hewitt mercury vapor electric light, effect on 

plants, 26, 27. 



678 



INDEX 



Copaiva (Copaifora) publiflora, 270. 

Copper, etfect on growth of plants, 28. 

Copper sulfate, formula, 39; as an herbicide, 115, 117, 
118; for seed disinfection, 49. 

Copperas, effect on plant growth, 28. 

Coppice, 313; regeneration by, 326. 

Coprinns, 476. 

Coprinus atrainentarius, 476. 

Coprinus comatus, 476. 

Coral hydnum, 478. 

Corbett", L. C, article.s by, 147, 514, 550; quoted, 25, 
26. 

Corchorus capsularis. 282, 507. 

Corchorus olitorius, 282, .507. 

Cord, size of. 340. 

Cordage, fibers for, (See Fiber plants) ; for paper, (See 
Paper-making plants). 

Coriander, 457, 458; importations, 496; for oil, 495. 

Coriaria myrtifolia, 626. 

Coriaria ruscifolia for tannin, 626. 

Cork formation. 16. 

Cork oak for tannin, 625. 

Corn. (See Maize.) 

Corn-belt, rotation for, 101. 

Cornel cherry (Fig. 380), 274. 

Cornell Experiment Station ciuoted, 118, 539, 543, 549, 
550. 

Cornflower, for farm garden, 274 ; treatment witli cop- 
per sulfate, 118. 

Cornus Mas (Fig. 380), 274. 

Corolla, defined, 7; structure. 17. 

Corrosive sublimate for seed disinfection, 49, 50; as 
wood preservative, 347. 

Corsican citron (Fig. 98), 75. 

Cortex, 12; defined, 9; nature and function, 16. 

Corticium vagum solani, 523. 

Cosmos for farm garden, 274. 

Costa Rica redw'ood, 269. 

Cotinin, 268. 

Cotton, 247-258, 281. 282; boll weevil, 40, 43, 251, 252; 
boll worm, 251. 252; breeding notes, 58, 68. 69; 
colors, direct, 271; hybridizing notes. 63, 68; intro- 
duction of Egyptian varieties, 73 ; Mexican boll weevil, 
251 2,52; notes, 7, 490; for paper, 503, 504, 507; place 
in rotation, 83, 88, 99-106, 108, 109, 214, 249, 443; in 
its plant relations, 3; planting dates, 138-140; races, 
57; root bark, 457; root-rot. 47, 51, 52; seed, legal 
weight. 148, 149; seed notes, 133, 135; seed, value, 
249, 254; stalks for paper, 503-505; square borers, 
2.52; varieties resistant to boll weevil. 43; varieties 
from snorts. 61; wilt (distribution chart), 524; 
worm, 44, 252; yields. 153-155. 

Cotton-belt, grasses and clovers in, 447-450. 

Cotton, buhri. place in rotation, 109. 

Cottonseed meal notes, 499. (.See Cotton.) 

Cottonseed oil, 2.53, 409. .500; cake, 2.53. 

Cottonwood, for farm woodlot. 327; intolerant char- 
acter, 323; for paper, 503, 505, 507; planting seed, 
328. 

Cotyledons. 8. 

Couch-grass, 376; in hops, 383; treatment with copper 
sulfate, lis. 

Cover, growing plants under, 119-130. 

Cover-crops, 89, 258-260; for garden, 275, 277; for 

orchard, 350,351. 
Cow cabbage, 389. 
Cow clover. 2.33. 

Cowpea. 260-267; compared with soybean, 582, 586; 
in cotton-belt, 447, 448; as cover-crop, 259, 260, 266, 
350, 351; as green-manure, 93, 655; hay, analysis, 
518; influence of environment on character, .59; 
notes, 443; place in rotation, 83, 88, 98-106, 108, 109, 
249; planting dates, 138-140; .seed notes. 133, 135, 
136; for silage. 414, 415; for soiling, 570-572; and 
sorghum for soiling, 572, 573; wilt, 264, 266; yields, 
153-15.5. 
Cows, quantity of soiling crops for, 573; rape for, 

532, 
Crabapple, for preserves, 160; varieties for home-plant- 
ing, 276. 
Crab-grass. 368, 449, 450; with cowpeas, 265; seeding 

notes, 441 ; weed in alfalfa, 194. 
Craig, John, quoted, 24, 25. 



Crajina, 268. 

Cranberry, for canning, 165; for dye, 268; legal weight, 

1.50. 
Crape myrtle for farm garden, 274. 
Crattegus (Jxyacantlia, 270. 
Creeping bent-grass, 371 ; cjuantity of seed in mixtures, 

1,36. 
Creeping hop clover, 235. 
Creosote busli in Southwest, 453. 
Creo.sote, coal-tar, a.s wood preservative, 347. 
Crepe, 5.57. 

Crepidodera cucumeris, .524. 
Cress, effect of electric light on, 23; of electricity, 30; 

hairy-podded, 77; longcvitv, 10; seed notes, '.33. 
Crested dog'.s-tail, .373; notes", 437. 
Crib root cellar, 551. 
Crickets in sweet-potatoes, 622. 
Crimson clover. (.S'ee Clover, crimson.) 
Crin vegetal fiber, 281, 293. 
Crocus for farm garden, 274. 
Crocus sativus, 270. 
Crop management, 81-118. 
Cross-pollination, 55-57. 
Crossing as a cause of variation in plants, 54, 59; meth 

ods, 55-57. 
Crotalaria juncea, 509. (See Sunn hemp.) 
Croton seed, 457. 

Crowfoot family, medicinal plants in, 457. 
Crown rust of onts. 492. 
Crows in corn-field.s. 413. 
Crucifer^ in its plant relations, 2, 4. 
Cubaba.st fiber, 281. 

Cucumber, 279, 280; diseases, 51; effect of acetylene 
light, 25; glasshouses for, 125; pickles, 173; protec- 
tion from insects, 42; seed notes, 133, 145, 146; 
striped beetle, 529; weight, legal, 148. 
Cucurbita ficifolia, 4. 
Cucurbita maxima, 529. 
Cucurbita moschata, 4. 
Cucurbita Pepo, 529. 
Cudbear, 268. 
Cudbcard, 268. 

Culture, clean, to destroy insect pests, 43. 
Curcuma, 270, 586. 
Curcuma longa, 270. 
Curcuma rotunda, 270. 
Curled dock, seed notes, 141. 
Curly mesquit, 4.53. 

Curly top of sugar-beets, 594. 

Currant, 278, 279; for canning, 160; evaporating. 174; 
jam, 16.3; jellv, 164; notes, 7; for preserves, 105; 
weight, legal, 148; worms, 38, 39, 44, 278. 

Curtain fibers, 285. 

Curtidor bark, 628. 

Curtis, .1. G., article by, 418. 

Cuscus, 497. 

Cutch, 627, 628. 

Cutworm, 42, 43; in coffee, 243; corn, 413; cotton, 251, 
252 ; sweet-potatoes, 622 ; tobacco, 652. 

Cyanin, 268. 

Cyclamen, for the house, 129. 

Cylas formicarius, 622. 

Cyllcne robiniae, 344. 

Cynotlon, botanical characters, 366. 

Cynodon Dactylon, 371. 449. (.See Bermuda-grass.) 

Cynosurus, botanical characters, 366. 

Cynosurus cristatus, 373. (See Crested dog's-tail. "I 

Cyperus, 129; psculentus, 307; Itevigatus, place in rotii- 
"tion, 108; tegetiformis, 292; tegetum, 292. 

Cypress, freedom from disease. 345; longevity. 346; 
Monterey, for coffee shade, 243. 

Cytisus, 393. 

Cytisus proliferus var. albus, 311. 

Cytisus scoparius, 310. 

Cytoplasm, 11. 

Dacca, crop rotation systems in, 109. 

Dacca fiber. 283. 

Dactylis. botanical characters, 366. 

Dactylis glomerata, 373. (See Orchard-grass.) 

Dxmonorops Draco, 268. 

Daggett, Ezra, quoted, 157. 

Dairy-farm, rotation for, 305. 



INDEX 



679 



Daisy, English, for farm garden, 274; eradicating, 112; 

wliite, 447. 
Dakota vetcli, 659. 
Dallis grass, 451. 

Daniping-off fungus, 47, 346; of cotton, 252; formalde- 
hyde treatment of seed for, .50; of tree .seedlings, 330. 
Dandelion, 457; eradicating, 112; method ^f dissemina- 
tion, IS; stem characteristics, 6; treatment with cop- 
per sulfate, 118. 
Danthonia spicata, 438. 
Darwin, quoted, 18. 236; potato, 519. 
Darwinian principle, the, 54. 
Dasyneura !eguininicf)la. 237. 
Date palm as house plant, 129. 
Dates, introrluetion of varieties, 72. 
Datisca cannabiiia, 267. 

Daucus Caret a, 540. 

Dawley. F. E., article by, 197. 

Day, G. E.. quoted, 99. 

DaV lily (Fig. 76), 56. 

Dean, W. S., quoted, 612. 

DeBarv quoted, 395. 

DeCandolle quoted, 3, 31, 221, 404, 514, 520, 560, 613. 

DeCandolle, A., c]uoted, .560. 

DeCandolle, Pyrannis, quoted, 84. 

DeClieux quoted, 240. 

DeLacepede quoted, 30. 

De la Vega, G., quoted, 520. 

DeNouville, Marquis, quoted, 405. 

D'Ormoy quoted, .30. 

DeRozieres quoted, 31. 

DeSaussure quoted, 30. 

DeSoto quoted, 405. 

DeVries quoted. 61, 62; mutation theory, 57. 

Deccan hemp, 286. 

Deciduous trees, effect on electrical potential of atmos- 
phere, 34. 

Deherain quot<?d, 22. 

Delaware, crop rotation systems in, 101. 

Delphinium Zalil, 267. 

Dena'tireci alcohol, 186-188. 

Dendropogon usncoides, 293. 

Denton, A. A., quoted, 579. 

Department of Commerce and Labor quoted, 14S-151. 

Desert plants, characteristics, 19. 

Desi fiber. 283. 

Desmodium tortuosmn. 214, 21-'>. 

Destroying Angel, 477. 

Deutzias for farm gartien, 274. 

Dewberries, variety for home-planting in South, 279. 

Dewey, Lyster H.,' article by, 281 ; quoted, 247. 

Dewitt, Moses, quoted, 197. 

Dextrine, 412. 

Dhaineha, place in rotation, 108, 109. 

Dhoura. (See Durra.) 

Dhura. (See Durra.) 

Dhurra. (Sec Durra.) 

Dicotyledons, 8 ; arrangement of fibrovascular bundles, 
15; structure, 16. 

Dictamnus for farm garden, 274. 

Digitalis. (See Foxglove.) 

Digitalis purpurea, 461. 

Dioecious plants described, 18. 

Dioscorea glabra, 306. 

Dioscorides quoted, 564. 

Diplaehne fusea, 77, 

Dipsacus Fullonum, 636. 

Dipsacus sylvestris, 637. 

Diseases, forest and timber, 345-347. 

Diseases, plant, 35-53; crop rotation in relation to, 86. 

Distillate .ipray formula, 38. 

Divi-divi, 77; for tannin, 027. 

Di\-ision of Rotany r|uoted, 548. 

Di^■^sion of Entomology (]uoted, 594. 

Dock, 112, 217; curly; IIS; eradicating, 118; yellow, 
457. 

Dodder, in alfalfa, 195; eradicating, 118. 

Dodson quoted. 262, 265. 

Doggett, C. S., article. 267. 

Dog's-tail, crested, 373, 437. 

Doliehos biflorus, place in rotation, 108. 

Dominant trees, 332. 

T)oornbosch, 628. 



Dorsett. P. H., quoted, 09. 

Doryphora decemlineata, 524. 

Doucin stocks for dwarf ajiplcs, 277. 

Douglas fir in Canada, 319. 

Doura. (See Durra.) 

Dourah. (See Durra.) 

Doyle log rule. 3.38. 

Doyle-Seribner log rule, 338. 

Draeiena Cinnabari, 268. 

Draca?na indivisa for tiie house, 129. 

Dragon's blood (palm), 268. 

Dragon's blood (Socotra), 268. 

Drainage, placing ditches, 91 ; in relation to plant 

diseases, 47. 
Drepanocarpus Senegalensis, 629. 
Dried fruits, 174-177. 
Drop-seetl grass, bunch, 453. 
Drosera Whittakerii, 270. 
Drug plants, 457-467. 
Drumming, 337. 
Duckwheat, 217. 
Ducts, nature and fimetion, 15. 
Duges, Prof., quoted, 399. 

Duggar, B. M., articles by, 119, 474; notes by, 167. 
Duggar, J. F., articles by, 260, 467, 582, 658; quoted, 

100. 
Duhamel quoted, 32. 
Dura. (See Durra.) 
Durra, 384-388; notes, 574, 575, 579; seed per acre, 

136. 
Durrah. (See Durra.) 
Durrha for dye, 270. (See Durra.) 
Durvim wheat, 663, 664. 
Dust-sprav, 40, 45. 
Du Tirol, 268. 
Duvarnier quoted, 30. 
IJuvel, .J. W. T., quoted, 132. 
Dwarf elder for dye, 268. 
Dwarf fruit trees, 277. 
Dwarf juniper for tannin, 625. 
Dwarf milo, 579. (See Milo.) 
Dwarf palmetto for tannin, 626. 
Dwarf simiac for tannin, 626. 
Dyer's broom, 268. 
Dyer's rocket, 270. 
Dyer's saffron, 270. 
Dyer's woodruff, 268. 
Dyes and dyeing, 267-273; notes, 4, 

Earle, F. S., quoted, 245. 

Earth almond, 307. 

Earth-nut, 514. 

East Indian kino, 629. 

Ebermaj-er quoted, 320. 

Echinacea, 457. 

Ecliinus Philippinensis, 269. 

Kdgcworthia Gardneri, .508. (See Fig. 92.) 

Kdilile boletus, 477. 

Eggplant, notes, 2; seed purity and germination, 133; 

temperatures for, 280. 
Egypt, crop rotation systems in, 108. 
Egyptian clover, 79, 215, 216, 235; seed per acre, 135. 
Egyptian corn, 384-386, 579, 
Egyptian lupine, 398. 
Egyptian millet, 471. 
Egyptian wheat, 576, 664. 
Eiiikorn, 663, 664. 
Elandsbochjes, 628. 
Elder, dwarf, for dye, 268. 
I';i(lerberry for dye! 268. 
]\Klerblow wine, 181. 
Elecampane, 457. 

Electric arc light, response of plants to, 22-24. 
Electric incandescent light for plants, 24. 
Electric light, Cooper-Hewitt mercury vapor, effect on 

pl.ints, 26, 27. 
Electrical potential of the atmosphere, 34. 
Electricity, effect on plants, 19, 30-35. 
Electro-horticultvire, 22. 
Elephantorrhiza Burche'lii, 628. 
Elevators, grain, .364, 365. 
Elfx-ing quoted, 30. 
Elliott, E. E., article by, 660. 



680 



INDEX 



Elliott s Sida, 307. 

Ellsworth quoted, 70. 

Elm, in Canada, 319; market, 341, 342; red, 328; 
regeneration, 325; rock, 342; seed notes, 328, 329; 
treatment for leaf-beetle, 44; white, 328. 

EIodea(Fig. 23), 11. 

Encyclopedia Americana quoted, 534. 

Emblie myrobolans, 628. 

Embryo-sac, 17. 

Emmer, 663, 664. 

Endive, effect of electric light on, 23, 24; effect of elec- 
tricity on germination of seed, 30, 31; seed notes, 
133. 

Endodermis, 12. 

Endogens defined, 8. 

Endosperm, formation, 17. 

Enfield, Edward, quoted, 404. 

England, crop rotation systems in, 106, 107, 

EngU'inann quoted, 27. 

English l^Iue-grass, 446; legal weight of seed, 149, 

English daisy for farm garden, 274. 

English dwarf V)can, 212-214. 

English ivy, notes, 7, 15, 16. 

English oak for tannin, 625. 

English potato. {See Potato.) 

Englisli turnips, legal weight, 151. 

Ensiling processes, 568. 

Environment of plants, 19-21; relation to plant-breed- 
ing, 59. 

Eosines, 271. 

Epicauta vittata, 524. 

Epitrix cucumeris (Fig. 65), 43, 524, 

Eragrostis Abyssinica, 311. 

Erigeron Philadelphicus, 447. 

Ergot, 563. 

Erica arborea for screening plants, 123, 

Erodium H(.trys. 107. 

Erodium cicutarium, 197, 198. 

Erodium moschatiun, 197. 

Erodium Texanum, 197. 

Ervum Lens. {See Lentil.) 

Erwin, A. T., quoted, 276, 278, 279. 

Erythrina micropteryx for cofTee shade, 243. 

Esparcet, 564. 

Esparsette, 564. 

Esparto, fiber, 281 ; for paper, 503, 504, 507. 

Espinillo, 628. 

Essences, 496. 

Ether, effect on plants, 29. 

Etherization of plants, 29. 

Etiolation of plants, 20, 120. 

Eucalyptol, 496. 

Eucalyptus, bark for tannin, 627; for oil, 495, 496; citri- 
odoi-a, 627; corymlx.sa. 269, 627; Globulus, 627; leu- 
coxylon, 627; longifdlia, 627; macrorhyncha, 270; 
obliqua, 627; occidcntalis, 627; rostrata, 627. 

Euchlcena, botanical characters, 366. 

Euchla?na luxurians, 638. 

Euchla?na Mexicana, 367, 638. {See Teosinte.) 

Eucommia ulmoides, 77. 

Eupsalis minuta, 344. 

Europe, crop rotation systems in, 107. 

Eutrema hederrefolia, 77. 

Eutrema Wasabi, 77. 

Evaporating, as a home industry, 174-177; in Califor- 
nia, 165. 

Evaporation from leaves controlled, 13. 

Evelyn quoted, 520. 

Evening primrose (Fig. 149), 113. 

Evergreen oak for tannin, 625. 

Evergreens, oils from, 494. 

Everlasting flowering pea, 391. 

Everlasting grass, 453. 

Evernia, 267. 

Exocarpus cupressiformis, 629. 

Exogens defined, 8. 

Expressed products, 177-190; notes, 156. 

Extracted products, 177-190; notes, 156. 

Faba vulgaris, 212-214; effect of electricity on, 32. 
Fagopyrum emarginatum, 217. 
Fagopyrum esculentum, 217-221. 
Fagopyrmn Tataricum, 217. 



Fagus Americana (Fig. 437), 317, 

Fagus ferruginea (Fig. 437), 317. * 

Fairchild, David, article by, 70. 

Fairchild, Thomas, quoted, 57. 

Fairy clubs, 477. 

Fairv cup, 268. 

Fallow, place in rotation, 100, 101, 104-109; notes, 
668. 

Fallowing, summer-, 83; to eradicate weeds, 111; for 
wheat, 668. 

False red-top, 374. 

Families, plant, explained, 2; number, 3. 

Farm garden, 273-281. 

Farm management, 90-98. 

Farm and Trades School, The, quoted, 553, 

Farmer's Register quoted, 105. 

Fats in leaves, 13. 

Feather blue-stem, 453. 

Feed, legal weight, 14S. 

Feeding system, relation of forage-cropping to, 304. 

Felling trees, 335. 

Feltia gladiaria, 652. 

Feltia jaculifera, 652. 

Feltia subgotliica, 653. 

Fencing as related to farm management, 90. 

Fennel, 457, 458, 460; importations, 496; for oil, 495. 

Fenugreek, 457 ; for forage, 307 ; introduction, 72 ; 
small, SO. 

Fermentation, as effected by electricity, 33; in relation 
to canning, 170; to preserving, 161. 

Ferments, in relation to plant nutrition, 19; to pre- 
served products, 161. 

Fern, Boston, as house plant, 129; climbing, for window- 
box, 130; effect of acetylene light on, 25; notes, 2, 19, 
130; shade plant, 20; shading, 122. 

Fernanibourgwood, 267. 

Fernambuck wood, 267. 

Fernow, B. E., article by, 313. 

Fertility, soil, relation of crop rotation to, 86. 

Fertilizer, commercial, handling on farm, 96, 97; as 
herbicide, 115; in relation to crop rotation, 86; in 
relation to plant diseases, 50; rotation of, 88. 

Fertilization, explained, 17. 

Fescue, 374; fine-leaved, 374; hard, 374, 436, 438; 
meadow, seed notes, 133; sheep's, notes, 133. {See 
Sheep's fescue.) 

Festuca, botanical characters, 366. 

Festuca duriuscula, 374; elatior, 374, {See Tall fescue); 
elatior pratensis, 374; hetcrophylla, 374; ovina, 374, 
{See Shi'fp's fescue); pabularis, 77; rubra, 374, {See 
Red fescuqj; tenuifolia, 374. 

Fiber plants, 281-293; in their plant relations, 4. 

Fibers, notes, 9. 

Ficus t'lastica. 554, 558; for the house, 129. 

Field crop, distinction from forest crops, 317, 321, 322; 
growing and transplanting plants, 147, 148. 

Field-pea, 510-513; planting dates, 138-140; seed per 
acre, 136; for silage, 414; yields, 153-155. {See Pea.) 

Fields, layout of, 90. 

Figs, beggarweed as cover-crop for, 215; introduction 
of Kahili varieties, 74; notes, 7; for preserves, 160; 
varieties for planting, 276. 

Filao bark, 629. 

Filaree, 197, 198. 

Fiorin grass, 371. 

Fique fiber, 289. 

Fir, balsam, for oil, 495; in Canada, 319; diseases, 345; 
for farm woodlot, 316; longevity, 346; lowland, for 
tannin, 625; nitrogen requirements, 320; in its plant 
relations, 2; silver, for tannin, 625. 

Fire-blight of apple, infectious disease, 47. 

Fire-lines in forests, 330, 331. 

Fireweed, 455. 

Firewood, securing, 339. 

Fischer quoted, 188. 

Fisetholz, 268. 

Fish-oil soap for sucking insects, 44. 

Fisitin dvc, 268. 

Fitchner quoted. 31. 34. 

Fixter, .John, article by, 212. 

Flammarion quoted, 27. 

Flat pea, 307. 

Flat-stem grass, 373. 



INDEX 



681 



Flavin, 26S. 

Flax, 293-302; effect of electric light on, 22; for fiber, 
281, 282; notes, 3, 499; for paper, 503, 504, 506, 507; 
place in rotation, 103-105, 107, lOS; planting dates, 
138-140; rust, 300; seed notes, 49, 132, 133, 136, 363; 
straw 51, 293; weight of seed, legal, 150, 152; wilt, 
47, 48-52, 300; yields, 153-155. 

Flaxseed oil, 500; manufacture, 300, 301, 

Flea-beetle, on cabbage, 223; potato, 524; sweet- 
potatoes, 622, 623; tobacco, 651, 652; turnips, 550. 

Flemingia congesta, 270. 

Flies, as carriers of plant diseases, 50; control, 41, 43. 

Flooded gum, 627. 

Floriculture, 502, 503. 

Florida clover, 214, 215, 309. 

Florida, crop rotation systems in, 101. 

Florida moss for fiber, 281, 293. 

Flour-moth, hydrocyanic acid gas for, 45. 

Flower, buds, 6, 17; effect of shade on development, 
121 ; in farm garden, 273, 274; farming, 502; notes, 7; 
structure and function, 17, 18. 

Flowering plants, 2; notes, 17; number of economic 
importance, 3. 

Flowerless plants, 2; number of economic importance, 
3. 

Flowers of sulfur for mildew, 130. 

Flue evaporators, 176. 

Fluorin, effect on plant growth, 28. 

Fly agaric, 477. 

Fly, green, on house-plants, 130. 

Fceniculum officinale, 460. 

Fodder, defined, 303; notes, 4. 

Foliage plants for the house, 129, 

Food, plant-, environment of plants, 20, 21 ; method of 
elaboration and use, 18, 19. 

Food supply, law of, in plant-breeding, 57. 

Forage crops, 303-311; notes, 4, 7; place in rotation, 
93, 94; seeds, growing, 144. 

Forcing-houses, construction, 123-128. 

Forest, 312-347; distribution, 317-319, 343; factors in 
timber production, 319-323; the farm woodlot, 313- 
319; fires, in insect control, 40; fires, protection from, 
330, 331 ; harvesting and marketing the timber crop, 
333-342; insect enemies of woodlot trees, 343-345; 
land, ab.solute, 321; practical protection and im- 
provement of the woodlot, .330-333; raising the tim- 
ber crop, 323-330; timber diseases, 345-347. 

Forestry, 312. 

Forget-me-not, for dye, 26S; for farm garden, 274. 

Forinaldeiiyde treatment, 49, 50; of barley smut, 204; 
of oat smut, 492, 

Formalin treatment, of cabbage seeds for black-rot, 
222; for flax-wilt, 300; of smut, 670. 

Forster quoted, 31. 

Fowl meadow-grass, 374, 445; in mixtures, 440; soil 
for, 437, 

Foxglove, 457,458,461. 

Foxtail, 299, 369; in alfalfa, 194; meadow (Sec Meadow 
foxtail); mountain, 454; yellow, 369. 

Foxtail millet, 469—472; in Plains regions, 452; notes, 
136 (See Hungarian-grass). 

France, crop rotation systems in, 107, 108. 

Frank quoted, 392, 393. 

Fraser quoted, 572. 

Fra^er, S., articles by, 99, 221, 434, 519, 529, 539. 

Fraxinus Americana (Fig. 435), 317. 

Fream, Dr., quoted, 436. 

Freda quoted, 32. 

Freesias for the window-box, 130. 

French berries, 270. 

French, H. T., quoted, 101. 

French purple dye, 268. 

French sumac for tannin, 626. 

French weed in flax-fields, 299. 

Frost, explanation of effect on plants, 21. 

Fruit, botanical notes, 4, 7, 18; buds, 6; butter, 163; 
candied, 162, 163; canning, 157-177; dried, 161; 
dwarf trees, 277; effect of electricity on, 30; effect of 
shade on development, 121; handling and shipping, 
355-357; juices, 177-190; packages, legal size, 1.52; 
preserving, 157-177; p\irees, 163; syrups, 164; trees, 
crossing, 56; varieties for planting, 276, 

Fruit-garden, 273-279. 



Fruit-growing, 348-355. 

Fuchsia (Fig. 40), 17. 

Fuller's teasel, 636-638. 

Fumigation, 45. 

Fungi, 36, 346; effect of orange light on, 27; effect ol 

zinc salts on, 28 ; in insect control, 40 ; notes 2, 36, 37 ; 

in relation to plant growth, 1.3. 
Fungicides, 37, 39, 40; as plant stimulants, 28. 
Funkia (Fig. 76), 56. 
Funtumia elastica, 558. 
Furcnea foetida, 289, 508. 
Furcra^a gigantea, 289. 
Furze, 307; dwarf, SO. 
Fusanus acuminatus, 629. 
Fusanus comprcssus, 629. 
Fusariura lini. (See Flax wilt.) 
Fusarium oxysporum, 523. 
Fustel, 268. 
Fustic, 268, 269. 

Gaban wood, 268. 

Galangal (Chinese), 268. 

Galangal (Javan), 268. 

Galleta, 453. 

Galloway, Dr. B. T., quoted, 69. 

Galls, formation, 21. 

Galton qvioted, 60. 

Galvanotropism, 30. 

Gambler, 626 ; extract, 626. 

Gamboge, 268. 

Gandhjiki, 267. 

Garancin dye, 268. 

Garbanzo, 306. 

Garcinia Celebica, 77 ; Cochinchinensis, 77, 78; Hanburyi, 

268; Mangostana, 78; Morella, 268. 
Garden, farm, 273-281. 
Gardenia grandiflora, 268. 
Gardini quoted, 30. 
Garman quoted, 586. 

Gas light, incandescent, effect on plants, 25, 26. 
Gas-plant for farm garden, 274. 
Gaude, 270. 

Gaultheria procumbens, 498, 
Gelbholz, 268. 
(ielechia operculella, 524. 
Genepi des alpes, 269. 
Genera, plant, number, 3. 
Genista tinctoria, 268. 
Gentian dye, 26J. 
Gentiana lut* i, 1168. 
Genus, explained, 2. 
Geor^iia, crop rotation systems in, 101. 
Georgia Depart] lent of Agriculture quoted, 578, 579. 
Georgia Experiment Station quoted, 262, 263, 264. 
Geranium, effect of r.cetylene light on, 25; for the house, 

129, 130. 
Gerard, W. R., quoted, 520. 
Gerarde, quoted, 520. 
German ivy for window-box, 130, 
German millet, 4^9, 470, 471. 
Germ-cell, purity of, 54. 

Germination, percentage of seeds, 131-133; tests, 141. 
Giant puffball, 478. 
Giant rye, 665. 
Giant rye-grass, 455. ' 
Giant si)urrv, 588. 
Gibb, Charles, quoted, 71. 
Gilbert quoted, 393. 

Gilmore, J W., article by, 389; notes by, 568. 
Gingelly, place in rotation, 109. 
Ginger, 586, 587; place in rotation, 109; root, candien 

163. 
Ginseng, American, 357-362; effect of shade on, 12n, 

notes, 4.57. 
Glasshouses for vegetable crops, 123-128. 
Gleason, M. B., quoted, 178. 
Gleditschia triacanthos, 392. 
Glucose, 412. 
Glutamin, 596. 
Glycine hispida, 582. 

Glj'cyrrhiza gl.abr.i, 462. (See Liquorice.) 
Goa powder, 268. 
Goats, digestibility of soybean forage, 583. 



682 



INDEX 



Goffart, M., quoted, 506. 

Golden Glow riidbeckia for farm garden, 274. 

Golden seal, 457, 461, 462; for dye, 268. 

Golden wattle, 628. 

Goldenrod for farm garden, 274; .lotes, 7. 

Gonagra, 62S. 

Goober, 514. 

Goose wheat, 664. 

Gooseberry, 278, 279; for canning, 160; effect of Bor-- 
deau.K mixture on composition, 28; mildew, 51; 
notes, 7, 61 ; for relishes, 173; weiglit, legal, 150. 

Gophers in alfalfa, 195; protecting tree seedlings from, 
330. 

Gorse, 307; modifications for en\'iromnent, 19; place 
in rotation, 108. 

Gosnold quoted, 486. 

Gossypium, 247-258; arboreum, 282; Barbadense, 247, 
282; herbaoeum, 247, 282; hirsutum, 247, 282; Peru- 
vianum, 2S2; Wightianum, 282. 

Grain, 362-305; elevators, 364, 365; notes, 98, 131; in 
rotation, 92-96, 101-104, 106, 108; seed testing, 141; 
for soiling, 570; smut of sorghum, 582. 

Graines d'Avignon, 270. 

Graines de perse, 270. 

Graines jaunes, 270. 

Graines de kermes, 209. 

Gram, 78, 306; place in rotation, 108, 109. 

Grama, black, 453 ; blue, 454. 

Grama-grasses, 4.53. 

Graminece in its plant relations, 2, 4. 

Grandeau quoted, 34. 

Grape, 279; antliracnose, 51 ; brandy, 180; for canning, 
160; effect of Bordeaux mixture, 28; of electric arc 
light, 22; of electricity, 32; leaf-hoppers, 42; notes, 4, 
7, 16. 131; phylloxera plant louse, 43; place in rota- 
tion, 107 ; for relishes, 1 73 ; root-worm, 44 ; rot, 47, 51 ; 
shipping, 357; sugar, 181 ; weight, legal, 148. 

Grape-fruit in its plant relations, 3. 

Grape-juice, 178-181 ; in preserves, 165. 

Grasses, 365-377, 434-455; barley as nurse crop, 203; 
notes, 2, 8, 9, 10, 19, 20; for paper, 505 ; place in 
rotation, 88, 89, 92-96, 101-108, 305; relation to soil 
management, 92; seed notes, 141, 144, 439, 440; seed 
treatment, 49, 50; for silage, 414; for soiling, 571; 
temperature for 280; treatment with copper sulfate, 
118. 

Grasshoppers, in alfalfa, 195; control, 41, 42; in corn, 
413; in cowpeas, 260; in oats, 492; in soybeans, 580. 

Gravity as a plant stimulus, 19. 

Gray saltbush, 505. 

Grazing, protecting woodlots from, 331. 

Greasewood, 455. 

Great Britain, crop rotation systems in, 106. 

Greek valonia, 025. 

Greeks, notes, 41. 

Grnen aphis on sorghum, 582. 

Green arsenite, 44. 

Green flowers, formation, 21. 

Green fly on house-plants, 130. 

Orrenhouse, contriiction, 123-128; fumigation, 45. 

Green-manure crops, 258, 259; place in rotation, 85, 86, 

Green, Samuel B., article by, 323. 

Greens, leaves as food parts, 7. 

GreuNnlle, Sir Richard, quoted, 520. 

Grevillea robusta for coffee shade, 243. 

Grevillca striata, 629. 

Grey stones, defined, 549. 

Griffiths quoted, 28. 

Grisdale, J. H., quoted, 100, 533. 

Grits, 412. 

Ground-nut, 514, 520. 

Ground-pea, 514. 

Ground wood for paper, 504, 505, 507. 

Grub, white, control, 42, 43. 

Guaba tree for shade in coffee plantations, 243L 

Guama tree for coffee shade, 243. 

Guatemala gra.ss, 638. 

Guavas, legal weight, 148. 

Guaxima for fiber, 285. 

Guilandina crista, 267. 

Guilandina echinata, 269, 270. 

Guinea-grass, 368, 451 ; seed per acre, 136. 



Guizotia Abyssinica. (See Niger.) 

Guizotia oleifera, 501. 

Gujarat crop rotation sj'stem, 109. 

Gum, American, 412; black, 342; red, 345; tree, 346. 

Gurler silo, 568. 

Gussow quoted, 232. 

Gutta-percha, 554, 559. 

Gutters, freeing from weeds, 117. 

Gymnosperms, 2. 

Gyjisum as a plant stimulant, 28. 

*jypsy-moth, 40, 44. 

Haake quoted, 30. 

Haberlandt quoted, 132. 

Hackcl quoted, 500, 574, 663. 

Ha?matein flye, 260. 

Ha;matoxylon Campecliianum, 269, 627. 

Hagi, 30S. 

Hagy, 308. 

Hair-grass, 454, 455. 

Hairy-podded cress, 77. 

Hairy vetch, 658; seed per acre, 136. 

Half-sugar mangel, 542, 544; dry matter in, 640. 

Hallet quoted, 02. 

Halsted, B. 1)., quoted, 67. 551. 

Hammond, Harry, quoted, 269. 

Hancornia. 554. 

Hannoki, 629. 

Hansen, N. F., qvioted, 74, 193. 

Harlequin cabbage-bug, 223; control, 43. 

Harmala red, 268. 

Harper, J. N., article by, 377; quoted, 102. 

Harris, T. J., quoted, 199. 

Harshbcrger, John W., article by, 398; quoted, 404 

Hart, B. L., article bv, 357. 

Hart, J. H., article by, 554. 

Hartley, C. P., article by, 402. 

Hat fibers, 281, 292. 

Hat palm, 292. 

Hawaii, coffee in, 246. 

Hawkweed, eradicating, 112, 115, 118.' 

Hawthorn, b.andling the seed, .328. 

Hay, notes, 7; place in rotation, 99-103, 105-107. 

Hays quoted, 57, 62. 

Heart fungus, red, of trees, 346. 

Heartsease for dye, 268. 

Heat, environment of plants, 21 ; as plant stimulus, 19. 

Heath, for screening plants, 123. 

Heath honeysuckle for tannin, 629. 

Heather for paper, 503. 

Heating systems for greenhouses, 126-128. 

Hedeoma pulegioides, 463. 

Hedera Heli.x (Fig. 33), 14. 

Hedges, placing on farm, 91. 

Hedysarum coronarium, 310. 

Hegler quoted, 30. 

Heiianthus annuus, 611. 

Helianthus tuberosus, 542. 

Heliothis armiger, 252, 421, 653 

Heliotrope, garden, 460. 

Hellebore, 39; for currant-worms, 44; for farm garden, 

281 ; for flies, 41 ; for insects, 43. 
Hellriegel quoted, 393. 
Helmert quoted, 31. 
Hemlock, 310, .342; in Canada, 319; longevity, 346; for 

paper, 503, 505, 507; poison, 114; for tannin, 623, 

624; water, 114. 
Hemp, 281, 282, 377-380; bastard, 267; crossing, 56; 

for paper, 503, 504, 507; place of hemp in rotation, 

102, 107; seed notes, 133, 136; weight of seed, legal, 

150, 152. 
Hemp-nettle, eradicating, 118. 
Hemp, sunn. (Sec Sunn hemp.) 
Henbane, 457. 

Henequen fiber, 287, 288 ; for paper, 509. 
Henry quoted, 201, 529, 560. 
Herb vinegar, 185. 
Herbicides, 115-118. 

Herd's-grass, 370, 371; legal weight, 150. 
Heredity, laws of, importance in plant-breeding, 57, 58 
Heriot quoted, 402. 
Heron 's-bill, 197, 198. 
Herriot, Thomas, quoted, 520. 



INDEX 



683 



Hertfordshire rotation system, 106. 

Herv^-Mangon quoted, 22. 

Hessian fly, 41, 43; parasites of, 40; in rye, 563; in 

wlieat, 670. (See Cecidoinyia and Mayetiola.) 
Hcterodera radicicola, 266, 586. 
Hevea Brasiliensis, 554, 555-557. 
Hibiscus, for farm garden, 274, 
Hibiscus cannabinus, 286. 
Hiclcory, 328, 329; bark-beetle, 343; market, 341; nuts, 

legal weight, 148; regeneration, 325; shade-enduring 

character, 326; shagbark (Fig. 445), 319; for tannin, 

628. 
Hicoria ovata (Fig. 445), 319. 

Hieracium aurantiacum, 447; eradicating, 112, 118. 
Higgins, J. E., article by, 629. 
Highland oak for tannin, 625. 
Hillman, F. H., article bv, 141. 
Hills, J. L., article by, 427. 
Hiltner quoted, 393. 
Hind. Kaiphal, 629. 
Hitclicock, A. S., article by, 365. 
Hoai-hoa, 270. 
Hoang-pe-pi, 268. 
Hcang-teng, 268. 
Hoang-tschi, 268. 
Hog millet, 369, 473; notes, 133. 
Hogs, alfalfa for, 453; rotation for feeding, 100; on 

truck-farm, 655. 
Holcus, botanical characters, 366. 
Holcus lanatus, 371. {See Velvet-grass.) 
Holdefleiss quoted, 31. 
Holland, crop rotation systems in, 108. 
Holland yellow wood, 268. 

Hollyhock, 268; for farm garden, 274; longevity, 10. 
Holmes, G. K., quoted, 101. 
Holy clover, 564. 
Hominy, 412; legal weight, 148. 
Hood, S. C, notes by, 463, 465, 466. 
Hoopcoop, 395. 

Hop clover, 232, 233; creeping, 235; low, 395. 
Hop hornbean (Fig. 436), 317. 
Hop medic, 456. 
Hopi corn (Fig. 603), 401. 
Hopkins, A. D., article by, 343 ; quoted, 236. 
Hopkins, Cyril G., article by, 421 ; quoted, 57, 101, 584. 
Hopper-dozers, 42. 
Hops, 380-384; aphis, 383; evaporating, 176; grub, 

383; longe^^ty, 132; notes, 7, 17. 
Hordeum, botanical characters, 366 ; coeleste, 202 ; dis- 

tiehum, 202 ; hexastichum, 202 ; medum, 202 ; sati\'um, 

202, 376, (See Barley); spontaneum, 202; vulgare, 

202, 376, {See Barley) ; Zeocriton, 202. 
Hornbeam, a tolerant tree, 323. 
Horn-fly, cattle, 40. 
Hornworm on tobacco, 651, 652. 
Horrida corona, 537. 
Horse bean, 212-214. 
Horse-chestnut for dye, 268. 
Horse-radish, Bohemian, introduction, 73; Japanese, 

77; legal weight, 148; for oil, 495. 
Horse-tails, treatment with copper sulfate, 118. 
Hot-water treatment, 49, 50; of barley smut, 204; of oat 

smut, 492. 
House-flies, control, 43, 44. 
House plants, 128-130. 

Hou-sehold insects, hydrocyanic acid gas for, 45. 
Houses for plants, 119-130. 
Hovey quoted, 57. 
H ickleberries, evaporating, 174. 
Humboldt quoted, 31. 

Hume, H. Harold, articles by, 214, 526, 656. 
Humidity, effect of shading on, 121, 122. 
Humulus Lupulus, 380. 
Humus, maintaining by crop rotation, 85. 
Hungarian berries, 270. 
Hungarian brome-grass, 374, 375. 
Hungarian-grass, 369, 452; seed notes, 136, 150; for 

soiling, 571. (See Foxtail miUet.) 
Hungarian millet, 469, 470, 473; place in rotation, 103. 
Hunn, Charles E., article bv, 128. 
Hunt quoted, 488, 490, 493", 663. 
Hunter quoted, 573. 



Hurd, W. D., quoted, 102. 

Husk corn (Fig. 598), 399. 

Hutchison, Dr. Robert, quoted, 162, 164. 

Hyacinth, 129, 130; effect of electricity on, 30; for farm 

garden, 274. 
Hyacinth bean for farm garden, 274. 
Hybridization, 63-68; law of results, 54; notes, 59. 
Hybrids, defined, 63; fixation of, 68, 69; Mendel's law 

of, 64-67. 
Hybrid-turnip, 542, 547, 549, 550; dry matter in, 540. 
Hydnum coralloides, 478. 
Hydnum erinaceus, 478. 
Hydnum repandum, 478. 
Hj'draecia immanis, 383. 
Hydrangea for farm garden, 274. 
Hydrastis Canadensis, 268, 461. 
Hydrocyanic acid gas for fumigation, 45, 137. 
Hyssop, 457. 

Idaho, crop rotation systems in, 101. 

Idaho pea, 306. 

Ilex Paraguensis, 78. 

Illinois, crop rotation systems in, 101. 

Illinois Experiment Station quoted, 419, 488, 490. 

Illinois Grain and Warehouse Commission quoted, 493. 

Imbural, 268. 

Imphee, 576. 

Inbreeding, 60. 

Incandescent electric light, experiments with, 24; gas 
light, effect on plants, 25, 26. 

India, crop rotation systems, 108, 109. 

India relish, 173. 

India rubber, 558. 

India-wheat, 217. 

Indian bread, 480. 

Indian corn, 398-427. (See Maize.) 

Indian hemp, 286. 

Indian loaf, 480. 

Indian mallow, 283. 

Indian oak for tannin, 625. 

Indian potato, 45.5. 

Indian saffron, 270. 

Indian shot, 199. 

Indian tobacco, 462. 

Indian yellow, 268. 

Indiana, crop rotation systems in, 101. 

Indigo, 267, 268, 270, 271 ; place in rotation, 108, 109. 

Indigofera Anil, 268. 

Individual, unity of, importance in plant-breeding, 58. 

Industrial alcohol, 186-188. 

Inga Feuillei, 628. 

Inga Inicuil for coffee shade, 243. 

Inga laurina for coffee sliade, 243. 

Inga vera for coffee shade, 243. 

Ingenhousz quoted, 30. 

Inheritance and environment, 21. 

Ink caps, 476. 

Inoculation, soil-, 394. 

Inodes casearia, 292. 

Insect flowers, 4.57. 

Insecticides, 37-39, 41. 

Insectivorous plants, nutrition in, 19. 

Insect-resisting plants, development of, 43. 

Insects, and diseases, 35-53; crop rotation to destroy, 
86; enemies of woodlot trees, 343-345; on house 
plants, 130. 

International Encyclopedia, quoted 486. 

Intolerant trees, 323. 

Introduction, plant, 70-80. 

lodid of potassium, effect on plant growth, 28. 

lodin, effect on plant growtli, 28. 

Iodine weed, 45.5. 

Iowa, crop rotation systems in, 101 ; fruits for home- 
planting, 276; grapes for home-planting, 279; small 
fruits for home-planting. 278. 

Iowa Experiment Station quoted, 491. 

Ipecac, 457; weed, 309. 

Ipecacuanha, 458. 

Ipomcea Batatas, 613. 

Ipomcea fastigiata, 613. 

Ipomcea pandurata, 613. 

Ire rubber, 558. 

Ireland, crop rotation systems in, 107. 



684 



INDEX 



Iris, for farm garden, 274 ; notes, 19. 

Iris ensata, var. pabularia, 308. 

Iris pabularia, 308. 

Irish potato. {See Potato.) 

Iron, effect on growth of plants, 12, 20, 2S; oxid, 270; 

sulfate, 28. 29. 
Iron-bark, Victorian, 627. 
Iron cowpea, 264. 
Ironwood (Fig. 436), 317. 
Irrigation ditches, placing on farm, 91. 
Irritability in plants, 19. 
Isambert, Dr., quoted, 240. 
Isatis Lusitanica, 270. 
Isatis tinctoria, 270. 
Istle fiber. (See Ixtle fiber.) 
Italian berries, 270. 
Italian rye-grass, 375, 446, 447; notes, 437, 439; on 

Pacific coast, 453. 
Italy, crop rotation systems in, 108. 
Ivy," 130; poison, 7. 114, 115, 117, 118. 
Ixtle fiber, 281, 286, 290. 

Jack fruit, 269. 

Jackson, Samuel, quoted, 197. 

Jackwood for dye, 269. 

Jadoo fiber, 292". 

Jallabert quoted, 30, 34. 

Jam. 163; notes, 160, 162. 

Jamaica redwood, 267. 

Jamrosa bark, 627. 

Jam-sticking, 336. 

Janipha Manihot, 227. 

Japan clover, 395-397, 450; as cover-crop, 305; seed 

per acre, 135. (See Lespedeza.) 
Japan rose for farm garden, 274. 
Japan wood, 270. 

Japanese, anemone for farm garden, 274. 
.Japanese barnyard millet, 369. 
Japanese cane, 451. 
Japanese clover, 395. 
Japanese galls for tannin, 626. 
Japanese matting rush plants, 72, 
Japanese millet, 446, 469. 
Jaragua, 76. 

Jardine, W. M., quoted, 105. 
Jarrilla, 77. 

Jars for preserves, 166. 
Jasmine importations, 496. 
Jatropha Manihot, 227. 
Jaumave istle fiber, 290. 
Jaime indien, 268. 
Java plum for coffee shade, 243. 
Jelly, 163, 164; notes, 160. 
Jersev cabbage, 3S9. 
Jersey kale, 389. 
Jerusalem artichoke, 542. 
Jerusalem corn, 384, 385, 386. 
Jerusalem rye, 665. 
Jimson weed, 457. 
Jipi-japa plant for fiber, 292. 
Joflro quoted, 32, .34. 
Johnson quoted, 132. 
Johnson-grass, 365, 367, 448, 449; notes, 194, 574; 

place in lotation, 443; seed per acre, 136; weight, 

legal, 148. 
Joint-grass, 371. 

Jones, L. R., article by, 115; quoted, 440, 441, 526. 
Jong kcutong, 269. 
Jonquils, effect of electricity on, 30. 
Jordan quoted, 571. 
Juar, place in rotation, 108, 109. 
Juglans cinerea (P'ig. 433), 316. 
Juglans nigra (Fig. 432), 316. 
Juices, fruit, 177-190. 
Juncus Balticus, 452. 
Juncus effusus, 292. 

June-grass, 445. (See Kentucky blue-grass.) 
June-grass, prairie, 455. 
Juniper, 495; dwarf, for tannin, 625; importations, 

496. 
Juniperus communis, 625. 
Juniperus Virginiana (Fig. 453), 322. 
Jupati palm for fiber, 292. 



Jute, fiber, 281-284; for paper, 503, 504, 507; place in 

rotation, 108, 109. 
Jute butts, 281, 283; for paper, 504. 

Kafir, 384-388, 574, 575, 578, 579 ; fodder, 581 ; introduc- 
tions, 72; place in rotation, 101, 102, 104; in Plains 
region, 452; planting dates, 138-140; seed notes, 133, 
136; for soiling, 572; weight, legal, 140. 

Kaiphal, 267. 

Kalai, place in rotation, 109. 

Kale, 221, 388, 389; eradicating, 117; notes, 2; .seed 
notes, 133, 136; thousand-headed, 100, 573: weight, 
legal, 148. 

Kamala for dye, 269. 

Kambe wood, 267. 

Kameela for dye, 269. 

Kames, 480. 

Kansas, crop rotation systems in, 101, 102. 

Kansas Experiment Station, quoted, 385, 387, 585, 612. 

Kanwait, 270. 

Kaoliangs, 574. 

Kapok fiber, 281, 293. 

Karoobosch, 78. 

Kath, 627, 628. 

Kearney, T. H., quoted, 74. 

Keeney & Son, N. B.. quoted, 511. 

Kellerman quoted, 394. 

Kenilworth ivy for window-box, 130. 

Kennedy, P. Beveridge, articles by, 453, 565. 

Kenncy, Seth H., quoted, 577. 

Kensett, Thomas, quoted, 157. 

Kentia as house plant, 129. 

Kentucky, crop rotation systems in, 102. 

Kentucky blue-grass, 365, 373, 438-441, 445; in 
Alaska, 455; in Great Basin region, 455; notes, 4.36, 
437; on Pacific coast, 455; place in rotation, 102, 203 
in Rocky mountain region, 454; seed-growing, 144 
seed notes, 133, 135. 136, 142, 143; weed in alfalfa 
194; weight, legal, 149. 

Kentucky cofTee-tree, 391. 

Kentucky Experiment Station quoted, 584. 

Kermes berries, for dye, 269; false, 269. 

Kermes oak for tannin, 625. 

Kerosene, as an herbicide, 115; for sucking insects, 44, 
45. 

Kerosene emulsion, 38; use in farm garden, 281. 

Kerria for farm garden, 274. 

Ketchup, home-made, 173. 

Keyr quoted, 596. 

Khas, 498. 

Khesari, place in rotation, 108, 109. 

Khuschus, 497. 

Khus-khus, 497. 

Kiam-tsau for fiber, 292. 

Kickxia, 559. 

Kidney vetch, 308, 659; seed per acre, 136. 

Killebrew quoted, 640. 

Kiln evaporators, 175, 176. 

King-grass, 395. 

King quoted, 490, 568, 569. 

Kinney quoted, 33. 

Kino, "for dye, 269; African, 629; East Indian, 629. 

Kirchner quoted, 394. 

Kitchiner, Dr. William, quoted, 173. 

Kitjap, 173. 

Kliphout for tannin, 626. 

Klugh, G. F., notes by, 458, 463, 465, 466. 

Knapp, S. A., article by, 534; quoted, 74. 

Knapsack sprayers, 46. 

Knapweed, meadow, 77. 

Knight, Thomas Andrew, quoted, 57. 

Knoppern, 625. 

Knotted tree, 629. 

Knotweed, 217; notes, 3. 

Kodarsi, 628. 

Kodo, place in rotation, 109. 

Kohlrabi, 389-.391 ; compared with cabbage, 221 ; dry 
matter in, 540; in farm garden, 280; place in rotation, 
100; planting, 138-140; seed per acre, 136; stem for 
food, 6; yields, 153-155. 

Koelreuter quoted, 57. 

Konhan crop-rotation system, 109. 

Koosa, 497. 



INDEX 



685 



Korean millet, 470. 

Kraf brown paper, 504. 

Krayenhoff quoted, 30. 

Kreutzbeeren, 270. 

Krisliuni for forage, 308. 

Kruppelboom, 629. 

Kukui tree for coffee shade, 243. 

Kumquat, in its plant relations, 3. 

Kunkel quoted, 30. 

Kurthi, place in rotation, 108. 

Kuskus, 497. 

Labor supply, relation to crop rotation scheme, 87; to 
timber production, 321, 322. 

Lac-dve, 269. 

Lac-lac, 269. 

Lactuca sativa, effect of electricity on, 32. 

Lactuca Scariola (Fig. 147), 113. 

Ladino clover, 234. 

Ladv-bird beetle, 40. 

Lady's delight, 268. 

Lakes, defined, 271. 

Lambs, rape for, 532. 

Lamb's-quarter, eradicating, 118; in flax-fields, 299, 

Lamson, Sterling, quoted, 197. 

Land-plaster, legal weight, 148. 

Landolphia, i)54, 559. 

Lanes, arrangement on farm, 90. 

Langworthy quoted, 586. 

Lapacho for dye, 269. 

Lappa major (Fig. 152), 114. 

Larch, bark extract, 625; for farm woodlot, 316; notes. 
2; for tannin, 625. 

Larix .\mericana (Fig. 429), 316. 

Larix Europtea, 625. 

Larkspur, 457 ; for farm garden, 274. 

La Salle quoted, 405. 

Lath screen for plants, 122, 123. 

Lathrop, Mr. Barbour, quoted, 73, 74. 

Lathyrus hirsutus, 659; sativus, place in rotation, 108, 
109; sylvestris, 307; sylvestris var. Wagneri, 307; 
Tingitanus, 311. 

Laurel family, spice plants in, 457, 586. 

Larus Lingue, 629. 

Lavender, 495 ; importations, 496. 

Lawes and Gilbert quoted, 393, 533. 

Lawn, red fescue in, 447; red-top in mixtures, 445; 
Rhode Island bent-gra.ss in, 447; weeds, 118. 

Laws for control of insect pests, 41. 

Lavout of the farm, 90. 

Leaf, 7, 13-15; buds, 6, 17. 

Leaf-blight of cotton, 251, 252. 

Leaf-hoppers, control by hopper-dozers, 42; of sugar- 
cane, 610. 

Leaf-miner of coffee, 245. 

Leaf-spot, on alfalfa, 195; cotton, 251, 252; cowpeas, 
266 ; sugar-beets, 594. 

Leather, 623. 

Lecanium hemisphericum on coffee, 245. 

Lecanora, 267. 269. 

Lecanora tinctoria, 268. 

LeDuc, Hon. Wm. G., quoted, 631. 

Le Renard quoted, 28. 

Leeks, effect of acetylene light on, 25. 

Legumes, 391-395; "place in rotation, 93, 94, 96, 106, 
108, 109; relation to soil management, 92; subsoil 
feeders, 85. 

Leguminos:e in its plant relations, 2, 4. 

Leguminous trees, seed treatment, 328; for shade in 
coffee plantations, 243. 

Lein, 293. 

Lemon, 355; candied, 163; notes, 2; oil, 494, 495, 496; 
for preserves. 160; scab, 51. 

Lemstrom quoted, 32, 34. 

Lens eseulenta, 308. 

Lenticels, 16. 

Lentil, 308; longevity of seed, 132; place in rotation, 
108, 109. 

Lepidium Virginicum in flax-fields, 299. 

Lespedeza, 395-.397; planting dates, 138-140; seed 
notes, 135, 136, 441 ; vields, 153-155 (See Japan Clo- 
ver) ; bicolor, 308, 396; sericea, 396; striata, 395-397; 
Striata, var. lata, 396. 



Less, 78. 

Lettuce, 279, 280; diseases, 51 ; effect of acetylene light, 
25; effect of Cooper-Hewitt mercury vapor electric 
light, 26; effect of electric arc light, 23, 24; effect of 
electric incandescent light, 24; effect of electricity, 
30, 33; effect of incandescent gas light, 26; notes, 7; 
place in rotation, 105; seed notes, 132, 133; shading, 
121, 122. 

Leucadendron argenteum, 629. 

Leucoptera coffeella, 245. 

Leucospermum conocarpum, 629. 

Levisticum officinale, 463. 

Lichens, flowerless plants, 2. 

Licorice, 457. (See Liquorice.) 

Light in relation to plants, 20, 22-27; effect of colored, 
on plants, 27; as a plant stimulus, 19; response of 
plants to artificial, 22-27. 

Light-demanding trees, 323. 

Lignum santalum, 270. 

Ligustrum vulgare, 270. 

Lilac, 274; effect of electric light, 22; effect of etheriza- 
tion, 29. 

Lilium longifiorum, effect of etherization, 29. 

Lily, 274: effect of acetylene light, 25. 

Lima bean, for canning, 160; pole, notes, 656. 

Lima wood, 269. 

Lime, 12, 20; cake, 598; for insects, 43; salt and sulfur 
solution, 45; seed disinfectant, 50; and sulfur wash, 
37, 281; weight, legal, 150. 

Lime (fruit) in its plant relations, 3; importations, 496. 

Lin, 293. 

LinacecB in its plant relations, 3. 

Linaria vulgaris (Fig. 164), 116. 

Lindley quoted, 32. 

Lindsev quoted, 573. 

Linen, 293, 301, 302. 

Linon, 293. 

Linseed, cake, notes, 499; oil manufacture, 300, 301, 
499, 500; place in rotation, 108, 109; weight, legal, 
150. 

Linum angustifolium, 294. 

Linum usitatissimum, 293-302. 

Liquorice, 462; for dye, 269. (See Licorice). 

Liquors, 177-190. 

Liriodendron Tulipifera (Fig. 446), 320. 

Litmus for dye, 269. 

Live-oak, notes, 479. 

Live-for-ever, 441. 

Live-stock, in Gulf coast region, 450; relation to forage- 
cropping, 304-306; relation to truck-growing, 655. 

Liverworts, 2, 19. 

Livingston quoted, 58. 

Livingston, Robert, quoted, 197. 

Llin, 293. 

Lloyd quoted, 441. 

Llovd, John W., article by, 653. 

Lobelia, 457, 462, 463; for window-box, 130. 

Lobelia inflata, 462. 

Locust, 327, 391 ; borer, 343, 344; black (Fig. 438), 318; 
honey, 392; notes, 7; seed notes, 328. 

Lodge-pole pine in Canada, 319. 

Loew quoted, 28. 

Log rules, 338, 340. 

Logan-berries for preserves, 160. 

Logging, 336, 337. 

Logwood, 267, 269; for tannin, 627. 

Lohardaga. crop rotation systems in, 109. 

Lokandi, 270. 

Lokoa, 268. 

Loligo tunicata, 270. 

Lolium botanical characters, 366. 

Lolium Italicum, 375. 

Lolium multiflorum, 375. (Sec Italian rye-grass.) 

Lolium perenne, 375. (See Perennial rye-grass.) 

Lomatiol, 269. 

London purple, formula, 39. 

London quoted, 520. 

Longworth, NichoIa.s, quoted, 182. 

Loomis, A. M., article by, 178. 

Lopez root, 269. 

Loring, Dr., quoted, 631. 

Lothian rotation system, 107. 

Lotus Americanus, 659. 



686 



INDEX 



Lotus comiculatus, 78, 306. 

Lotus tetragonolobus, 310. 

Lotus uHginosus, 78. 

Louis XIV quoted, 240. 

Louisiana, crop rotation systems in, 102. 

Louisiana Experiment Station quoted, 83, 261, 262, 

263, 576. 
Lovage, 457, 463. 
Love-vine in alfalfa, 195. 
Lowland fir for tannin, 625. 
Loxopteryngium Lorentzii, 626. 
Lucerne, 192-197. 
Lumber, markets, 340; notes, 156. 
Lumbering, development, 342; waste in, 337, 338. (See 

Forest.) 
Lupine, 393, 39S; Alaska, 455; notes, 85; planting 

dates, 138-140; relation to soil-inoculation, 393; seed 

notes, 1,36; in Southwest, 453; wild, 455. 
Lupinus affinis, 398; albus, 397, 398; hirsutus, 398; 

leucophyllus, 398; luteus, 398; piiosus, var. caeruleus, 

398 ; piiosus, var. roseus, 398 ; sericeus, 398 ; tennis, 

398. 
Lupulin, 380. 

Lychnis for farm garden, 274. 
Lychnis Githago (Fig. 144), 113. 
Lydgate quoted, 510. 
Lygeum Spartura, 507. 
Lygodium scandens for window-box, 130. 
Lyon, T. Lyttleton, articles by, 230, 660; quoted, 441. 

Macaroni wheat, 664. (See Durum wheat.) 

Maccagno quoted, 32. 

Mace, 586, 587. 

Maclurin dye, 268. 

Mackintosh, R. S., quoted, 276, 279. 

Macoun, W. T., quoted, 276, 278, 279. 

Macrospore, 17. 

Madder, 267, 269. 

Madeiras, 182. 

Madia sativa, 311. 

Maercker quoted, 31. 

Magne.sium, 12; lime as an antidote, 20. 

Magnesium carbonate, effect on growth of potatoes, 29. 

Magothv Bay bean, 309; place in rotation, 106. 

Maguey fiber, 289, 291. 

Mahim crop rotation system, 109. 

Mahiz, 398. 

Mahogany, 391 . 

Maine, crop rotation systems in, 102. 

Mainbray, Dr., quoted, 30. 

Mairs quoted, 572. 

Maiz de Coyote, 402. 

Maize, 367," 398-427; bill-bugs, 414; black smut, 51; 
breeding, 421-427 ; for canning, 160; cause of different 
colored kernels, 1 7 ; cost of raising, 322 ; as cover-crop, 
350, 351 ; and cowpeas for silage, 265, 266; crop rota- 
tion for control of insects, 42; crossing, 56; dangers of 
inbreeding, 60; for denatured alcohol, 186, 187; 
dent, composition, 560; De Vries' experiments, 61, 62; 
direction of rows, 90; evaporating, 174; iibrovascular 
bundles in, 9; handling the grain, 98; hybridizing, 63, 
67, 68; longevity of seed, 132; meal, legal weight, 149; 
meal vs. root crops, 540; notes, 2, 4, 10, 63; oil, 412, 
499, 500; place in rotation, 82, 94-96, 99-109, 203, 
207, 214, 249, 297, 305; planting dates, 138-140; 
planting notes, 137; popcorn, 418-421; production, 
385; races, 57; root-louse, 414; root-worm, 421 ; roots, 
length, 12; rules for grading and inspecting, 36i5; seed 
disinfection, 49, ,50; growing, 144vseed notes, 133, 
135, seed, rules for registry in Ohio Plant Breeders' 
Association, 55; for silage,' 414-418, 568, 569; smut, 
414, 420; for soiling, 570-573; with soybeans, for si- 
lage, 583 ; stalk-borers, 414; stalks, for paper, 503-506; 
storage notes, 137; temperature for, 280; treatment 
with copper sulfate, 118; varieties from accidental 
hybridization, 61; with velvet beans, 657; weight, 
legal, 149, 150, 1.52; worm, 421 ; yields, 153-155, 390, 
486. 

Maize, sweet, 402; for canning, 159, 165, 171, 172; in 
farm garden, 279, 280; place in rotation, 102, 105; 
seed notes, 133, 145, 146; for soiUng, 572, 573. 

Majagua fiber, 286. 

Maliner kren, introduction, 73. 



Mallet bark, 627. 
Mallow, round-leaved, 112. 
Malpighia punicifolia, 629. 

Malt, 188, 189; barlcyfor, 202,205; sprouts, 205; statis- 
tics, 158; weight, legal, 150, 152. 
Malva rotundifolia, 268. 
Malva sylvestris, 268. 
MalvaceiE in its plant relations, 3. 
Mammoth red clover, 233, 239; seed-growing, 237; seed 

notes, 135. 
Management, crop, 81-118; farm, 90-98. 
Mandioca, 227. 

Mand's Wonder forage plant, 369, 471. (See Pearl 
millet.) 

Manganese, effect on plant growth, 28; oxid, 270. 

Manganous sulfate, effect on plant growth, 28; on pota- 
toes, 29. 

Mangel, .542-546; composition, 390; dry matter in, 540; 
notes, 3; place in rotation, 99, 100, 103, 106, 107; 
planting dates, 138-140; seed per acre, 136; for soil- 
ing, 573; weight, legal, 149; yields, 153-155. 

Mangel-wurzel. (.See Mangel.) 

Mangifera Indica, 629. 

Mangle {Rhizophora Mangle) for tannin, 627. 

Mang-koudur, 269. 

Mango, introduction notes, 72; for tannin, 629. 

Mangosteen, introduction of tropical, 73. 

Mangrove for tannin, 623, 627. 

Mangrutta, 629. 

Manihot Aipi, 227. 

Manihot Glaziovii, 554, 558. 

Manihot utilissima. (See Cassava.) 

Manila hemp, 286; notes, 9; for paper, 503-505, 507. 

Manila maguey fiber, 291. 

Manioc, 227. 

Mann quoted, 32. 

Manna-grass, 455. 

Manufacture of crop products, 156-190. 

Manure, 93-97; for house plants, 128; in relation to 
plant diseases, 50; spreader, 97. 

Manuring crops, notes, 4. 

Manzanita, 628; berries for hogs on Pacific slope, 455. 

Map of the farm, 91. 

Maple, in Canada, 319; hard, 323, 326, 328; marketing, 
341; notes, 15; red, 328, 428; regeneration of, 32.5, 
326; rock, 428; seed notes, 329; silver, 428; soft, 323, 
328, 329; sugar, 329, 428; swamp, 428. 

Maple-sugar, 427-434. 

Maple-syrup, 427-434. 

Maranta arundinacea, 199. 

Maranta nobilis, 199. 

Marat quoted, 30. 

Marchel, 479. 

Marggraff quoted, 588. 

Marigold, for farm garden, 274; marsh, for dye, 269. 

Marisi, 398. 

Marjoram, 457; for oil, 495. 

Marmalade, 163. 

Marrowfat pea, notes, 582. 

Marsh marigold for dye, 269. 

Marsh rosemary, 629. 

Marshmallow root, 457. 

Martin, Sir Mordaunt, rotation system, 106. 

Martin, T. E., quoted, 525, 526. 

Martin wood, 269. 

Maryland, crop rotation systems in, 102. 

Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station quoted, 
34, 305, 468, 566, 586. 

Massachusetts Agricultural Society quoted, 569. 

Massachusetts, crop rotation systems in, 102. 

Mastick, 73. 

Mat rush for fiber, 292. 

Mat<5, 78. 

Matricaria ChamomiUa, 268. 

Matricario, 268. 

Matthew quoted, 32. 

Matting, fibers, 281, 292; rush plants, introduction 
notes, 72; screens for plants, 123. 

Maurandia for window-box, 130. 

Mauritius hemp, 286, 289, 290; for paper, 508. 

Maw seed, 463. 

Maxwell dust-spray, formula, 40. 

May beetles in coflee, 245. 



INDEX 



687 



May, D. W., quoted, 105. 

Mayptiola destructor, 670. (See Cecidomyia.) 

Maynanl, S. T., article by, 274. 

Mavwccd, seed notes, 141. 

Maze quoted, 393. 

M'Alpine quoted, 236. 

McBrvde, Prof., quoted, 566. 

MfCai-lliv quoted, 396. 

M.CIellaud, ('. K., quoted, 104. 

McDonald, M., article by, 483. 

McGowan spray-tiozzle, 46. 

McLoud quoted, 31. 

Meadow barley-grass, 455. 

Meadow fescvie, .374, 446; in mixtures, 440, 441 ; notes, 
437, 43S; on Pacific coa.st, 4.53; place in rotation, 99 
seed notes, 1,36, 142, 143, 439, 440; soil for, 437, 43S 
time of maturity, 4.36. 

Meadow foxtail, 370; in mixtures, 440, 441 ; notes, 437, 
438; seed notes, 439; soil for, 437; time of maturity, 
4.36. 

Meadow knapweed, 77. 

Meadows, anil ]5astures, 434-455; native, of plains and 
ranges, 453-455; ]3ermanent, notes, 136; place in 
rotation, 89, 95, 99-101, 103, 104, 106, 107, 297. 

Meal, legal weiglit. 148. 

Mealy bugs on coffee, 245; on house plants, 130; kero- 
sene emulsion for, 38. 

Mean's grass, 448. 

Mechanical wood for paper, 507. 

Medic, 78, 456; black, 235, 455. 

Medirago Arabica, 143; denticulata, 143, 392, 4.56; fal- 
cata, 78, 193; lupulina, 142, 4.56; maculata, 456; 
media, 45fi; sativa, 78, 192-197, 456; turbinata, 456. 

I.Iedicinal plants, 457-467, notes, 4. 

Mediimi red clover, 233. 

Mefivillary rays, 15. 

Meibomia tortuosa. 214, 215. 

Meigs, Henry, quoted, 197. 

Melam psora lini, 300. 

Melic-grass, 455. 

Melilot, 78. 

Melilotus, 467, 468; as cover-crop, 259, 350, 351; plant- 
ing dates, 138-140; seed notes, 133-136; yields, 
155-155. 

Melilotus alba, 467. 

Melilotus Indica, 467. 

Melilotus macrostachys, 78, 467. 

Melilotus officinalis, 467, 

Melinis minutiflora, 78. 

Melon, anthracnosc, 51; crossmg, 56; effect of electric 
arc light, 22; mildew, 51; musk, seed notes, 133; 
notes, 7; place in rotation, 101, 109; protection from 
insects, 42; seed notes, 133, 145. 

Menon quoted, 30. 

Mendel's law, 54, .55, .57, 64-67. 

Mentha arvensls glabrata, 404 ; arvensis piperascens, 464 ; 
piperita. 463; spicata, 497; viridis, 497. 

Menthol, 464, 496. 

Mercerization, 253. 

Mercier, W. I?,, article by, 257. 

Mercury vajior electric light, Cooper-Hewitt, effect on 
plants, 26, 27. 

Mesquit, 308; beans, 453; grass in Southwest, 453. 

Metabolism defined, 11. 

Mexcal, 291. 

Mexican clover, 309, 450, 451 ; seeding notes, 441. 

Mexican cottonboU-weevil, 251, 252. 

Mexican wheat, 576. 

Meyer, C. A., quoted, 357. 

Meyei, Franlc N., quoted, 75. 

Miani C)Uoted, 28. 

Michaux quoted, 631. 

Michigan big wheels, use in transporting logs, 336. 

Michigan, cro]) rotatioli systems in, 102. 

Michigan Experiment Station cjuoted, 308, 584, 586. 

Microspores, 17. 

Middlings, legal weight, 148. 

Mignonette for window-box, 130. 

Mildew of barley, 204; cotton, 251, 252; cowjieas, 266; 
hops, ,383; house plants, 130; potassium sultid solu- 
tion for, 39, 40. 

Milk, as affected by thunder-storms, 32; effect of feed- 
ing rape on, 532." 



Milk thistle (Fig. 148), 113. 

Milk-vetches, 453; on Pacific coast, 455. 

Milkweed (Fig. 160), 116. 

Miller, M. F., quoted, 103. 

Millet, 369, 469-474; Aino, 136; barnyard, (See Barn- 
yard millet); as co\'er-crop, 350, 351; foxtail (See 
Foxtail millets); German, 136, 265; hog, 1.33, 369-473; 
Japanese barnyard, legal weight, 148; panicle, 136; 
pearl, (See Pearl millet) ; place in rotation, 101-103, 
105, 107-109; in Plains region, 452; planting dates, 
138-140; proso, 136; seed notes, 49, 132, 133, 144; 
for silage, 414; .smut, 50, 473; for soiling, 570, 571, 
573; with soybean for silage, 583; weight, legal, 150; 
yields, 153-1.55. 

Millipedes on ginseng, destroying, 360. 

Milo, 384-386; in Plains region, 452; seed per acre, 136. 

Milo maize, 578. (See Milo.) 

Mimosa, 391 ; for tannin, 627. 

Mimusops globosa, 554, 559. 

Minnesota, crop rotation systems in, 102, 103. 

Minnesota Experiment Station quoted, 298, 302, 305. 

Minibari, 629. 

Mint, American, 463; black, 463; julep, 495; white, 463. 

Mint family, medicinal and condimental plants in, 457; 
oil plants in, 494. 

Miscanthus condensatus, 78. 

Miscible oil fungicides, 38. 

Mission grape vines, 279. 

Mission grass, 369. 

Mississippi, croj) rotation systems in, 103. 

Mississippi Experiment Station, quoted, 265, 468. 

Missouri, crop rotation systems in, 103. 

Missouri Experiment Station quoted, 40. 

Mistletoe, 346; notes, 1, 19. 

Mitchell, Charles, quoted, 157. 

Mitchell grass, 76. 

Mites, distillate spray for, 38. 

Mitosis, 11. 

Mitotic spindle, 11. 

Mitsumata, 508. 

Moca trees for coffee shade, 243. 

Mock-orange for farm garden, 274. 

Modiola, 309. 

Modiola decumbens, 309. 

Moghania congesta, 270. 

Mohar millet, 470. 

Mohn Kuchen, 463. 

Molasses, 581, 599, 609; for alcohol, 186, 187. 

Mola.sses grass, 78. 

Molds, formaldehyde treatment, 49, 50; relation to pre- 
serves, 161 ; reproduction in, 19. 

Molina fiber, 289. 

Molle for tannin, 626. 

Monahan quote<l, 33. 

Mongoose, 610. 

Monkey bread tree, 506. 

Monnier, Dr. Le, tpioted, 498. 

Monocotyledons, 8; arrangement of fibrovascular bun- 
dles, 1.5; structure, 16. 

MoncEcious plants, described, 18. 

Mfjutana, crop rotation systems in, 103. 

Monterey cypress for coffee shade, 243. 

Monterey pine for tannin, 624. 

Montgomery, E. G., article by, 385; quoted, 399. 

Moore quoted, 393, 394. 

Moore, R. A., article by, 202. 

Moorva fiber, 291. 

Morchella esculenta, 478. 

Mordant, colors, 271, 272; defined, 271. 

Morels, 478. 

Morgan, H. A., quoted, 105. 

MoriUe, 479, 

Morin dye, 268. 

Morinda citrifolia, 267. 

Morinda tinctoria, 267. 

Morinda umbellata, 269. 

Morning-glory, 274; notes, 3, 7, 17. 

Morphine, 463. 

Morris, Mr., quoted, 566. 

Morton citrange (Fig. 86), 67 

Morus tinctoria. 268. 

Mosquito control, 43; notes, 44. (See Index, Vol. I.) 

Mosses, notes, 2, 19. 



INDEX 



Moths, carbon bisulfid for, 45. 

Mountain asli, 629. 

Mountain foxtail, 454. 

Mountain rye-grass, 455. 

Mountain timothy, 454. 

Mountain wormwood, 269 

Mucuna pruriens, var. iitilis, 656. 

Mucuna iitilis, 656. 

Mulberry, paper, 503, 508 ; for fiber, 281 ; planting seeds 
328; riotes, 7. 

Mullein, 10 (Fig. 153, p. 114). 

Mummy corns, 402, 

Munjeet, 269. 

Munsterberg quoted, 25. 

Murier des teinturiers, 268. 

Murva fiber, 291. 

Musa Cavendishii, 200; paradisiaea, 200; paradisiaca 
normalis, 200; paradisiaca sapientum. 200; sapien- 
tum, place in rotation, 109; textilis, 286, 507. 

Mu.shrooms, 447-480; catchup, 173; notes, 1 ; poisonous, 
114; preserving and preparing, 167, 168; under 
shade, 120. 

Musk clover, 197. 

Musk filaree, 197. 

Muskmelon, seed-growing, 146; shipping, 654; in rota- 
tion, 655. {See Melon.) 

Musquash-root, 114. 

Must, in wine-making, 182. 

Mustard, 587; black, 141, 457; effect of electrical .stimu- 
lation on seed germination, 30; eradicatnig, 115; 
notes, 2, 457; oil, 495; place in rotation, lOS, 109; .seed 
notes, 132, 133, 548; as trap-crop for harleciuin-bug, 
43; weight, legal, 14S;white, 259, 311, 457; wild, 117, 
118,299, 513. 

Musuri, place in rotation, 109. 

Mutations, 54, 57, 58. 

Murex, 270. 

Myoporuni deserti, 78. 

Myoporum, sweet-fruited, 78. 

Myosotis i)alustris, 268. 

Myrica asplenifolia, 629; integrifolia, 267; Nagi, 267, 
629; rubra, 267; sapida, 267. 

Myrobolan tannins, 627. 

Myrtle, berry for dye, 269; box, 267; crape, for farm 
garden, 274; effect of current electricity on, 30; notes, 
586. 

Myrtus communis, 269. 

Nagli, place in rotation, 109. 

Nalta jute, 282, 283. 

Napa thistle (Fig. 138), 112. 

Narainganj fiber, 283. 

Narbonne vetch, 80, 658. 

Narcissus, 129, 130, 274; effect of acetylene light on, 25; 

of electricity, 30; of etherization, 29. 
Narrow-leaved vetch, 658. 
Na,stoika, 268. 

Nasturtiimi for farm garden, 274. 
Natal grass, 451. 
Native Bread, 480. 
Naucite, 629. 
Nauclea, 626. 
Neale, A. T., quoted, 101. 
Neck-rot of vice, 537. 
Nectarines, for canning, 160; copper sulfate solution for, 

39. 
Nectarophora destructor, 513. 
Needle-grass, 453, 454, 455. 
Nematode, on coffee, 245; cowpea, 266; ginseng, 361; 

soybeans, 586; sugar-cane, 610 
Neocosmo.jpora vasinfecta, 524. 
Neocosmospora vasinfecta, var. racheiphila, 266. 
Nepeta Cataria, 460. 
Nephelium lappaceum, 78. 
Nephelium mutabile, 78. 
Nettle for dye, 269. 

New Hampshire, crop rotation systems in, 103. 
New Jersey, crop rotation systems in, 103. 
New Jersey Experiment Station quoted, 305. 
New York Agricultural Experiment Station quoted, 

185. 
New York Cornell Station quoted, 387, 390. 
New York, crop rotation systems in, 103, 104. 



New Zealand flax. {See New Zealand hemp.) 

New Zealand liemp, 286, 289; for paper, 503, 504, 508. 

Nicaragua wood, 269. 

Nicot, Jean, 640. 

Nicotiana, for farm garden, 274. 

Nicotiana rustica, 639. 

Nicotiana Tabacum, 639; effect of electricity on, 32. 

Niger, 500; seed, place in rotation, 109. 

Nightshade family in its plant relations, 2. 

Nitric acid in relation to plant growth, 12. 

Nitrogen, content of plants as affected bv electric light, 
23; correcting over-supply, 20; effect of shade on as- 
similation, 120, 121; fixation by bacteria, 391-395; 
relation to leaf action, 15; requirements of farm and 
forest crops, 320. 

Nobbe quoted, 393, 523. 

Noilulcs, h'Kume root, 392-395. 

Nollft (inotcd, 30, 34. 

Nomenclature of plants, 2. 

Norfolk Agricultural Society quoted, 569. 

Norfolk crop rotation system, 84, 88, 106. 

North American field crops, 191-670. 

North Carolina, crop rotation systems in, 104. 

Nortli Carolina Department of Agriculture quoted, 
516. 

North Carolina Experiment Station quoted, 387, 441. 

North Dakota, crop rotation svsfems in, 104. 

North Dakota Experiment Station quoted, 298. 299. 
300. 

Norway spruce for tannin, 625. 

Nozzles, spray, 46. 

Nucellus, 17." 

Nucleus, cell, function, 11; action, 17. 

Nurseries, 481-485. 

Nut galls for tannin, 625. 

Nut-grass, 112, 395. 

Nutmeg, 586, 587. 

Nutrition of plants, 18, 19. 

Nuts for hogs on Pacific slope, 455. 

Nuttall's salt sage, 565. 

Oak, 79, 327; bark for tannin, 623; black, for tannin, 
625; California, 625; diseases, 345, 346; in Middle 
Atlantic states, 318; poison, 114; red, 346; regenera- 
tion, 325, 326; scarlet (Fig. 444), 319; silky, 243; 
tannins, 625; timber-worm, 343, 344; tolerant char- 
acter, 323; utilizing, 342; white, 346, (Fig. 442, 
p. 319). 

Oakum for paper, 504. . 

Oakwood extract, 625, 626. 

Oat-grass, tall, (See Tall oat-grass) ; false, 455 ; on Pacific 
coast, 455; place in rotation, 99; seeding notes, 136. 

Oats, 373, 4S5-494; clover sown in, 238; as cover-crop, 
259, 260, 275, 350, 351 ; growth and production after 
various crops, 213, 214; for hay on Pacific coa.st, 453; 
introductions for Ala-ska, 72; notes, 2, 443; and peas, 
136, 275, 570-573; place in rotation, 82, 87, 89, 99~ 
108, 220, 249, 297, 305; planting dates, 138-140; 
races, 57; seed notes, 49, 132, 133, 1.36; self-fertiliza- 
tion in, 68; smut, 50, 491, 492; for soilmg, 570-573; 
Straw for paper, 509; varieties and the control of 
rust, 48; and vetch for soiling, 571, 573; weight, legal, 
150; wild, 373, 453, 455, 485; yields, 153-155. 

Oca, 78. 

CEnothera biennis, photosynthetic processes in, 120. 

Ohia tree for cotTee shade, 243. 

Ohio, crop rotation systems in, 104. 

Ohio Experiment Station quoted, 487, 488, 489, 490. 

Ohio Plant Breeders' As.sociation quoted, 55. 

Oil, of bitter almonds, 495; cake, sunflower, 612; fatty, 
499-501; in leaves, 13; miscible, 38, 45; of sesame, 
501; soluble, 38, 45; of vitriol as an herbicide, 117; 
volatile, 494-499. 

Oil-bearing plants, 494-502; notes, 4. 

Oilseed crops, place in rotation, 108, 109. 

Okeepenauk, 480. 

Oklahoma, crop rotation systems in, 104. 

Oklalioma Experiment Station quoted, 385. 

Okra, fiber, 281 ; seed notes, 133. 

Oldenlandia umbellata, 268. 

Olea Europiea, 501. 

Olin, W. H., quoted, 100. 

Olive, oil notes, 499, 500; scab, 51. 



INDEX 



689 



Olona fiber, 286. 

Onion, 147, 148, 280, 655; for canning, 160; for dye, 
269; effect of acetylene light on, 25; longevity, 10; 
maggot, 43; notes, 6; place in rotation, 102; seed- 
growing, 144; seed notes. 1.33; smut, 50; storage 
houses, 552, 553; weight, legal, 150, 152. 

Ono quoted, 28. 

Onobrychis Caput-galli, 564. 

Onobrychis sativa, 564. 

Onobrychis viciajfolia, 564. 

Ononis, 78. 

Ononis a veil ana, 78. 

Ontario Agricviltural College quoted, 440. 

Ontario, crop rotation systems in, 99, 100; fruits for 
home-planting, 276; grapes for, 279; small-fruits for, 
278. 

Ontario Experiment Station quoted, 489. 

Oospora scabies, 523. 

Open furrow oat-seeding, 493, 494. 

Openauk, 520. 

Opium poppy, 458, 463. 

Opuntia basilaris, 226; cra.ssa, 226; decumbens, 226; 
Ficus-lndica, 226 (Fig. 96, p. 74.); filipendula, 226; 
inama'na, 226; inermis, 226; macrocarpa, 226; micro- 
dasys, 226; Pes-corvi, 226; Rafinesquii, 226; robusta, 
226; rubescens, 226; rufida, 226; tomentosa, 226; 
Treleasii, 226; vulgaris, 226. 

Orange, candied, 163; diseases, 51; flowers, importa- 
tions, 496; hvbrids, 63, 64, 67; importations, 496; 
juice, 178-180; notes, 2, 7; oil, 494, 495; orchard, 
velvet beans as cover-crop for, 657 ; for preserving, 
160; selection of vegetative parts, 69; time to pick, 
355. 

Orange Free State, 578. 

Orange hawkweed, 447. 

Orange rust of oats, 492; of rye, 563. 

Orchard, 89; rotation systems, 348, 349; spray, 44; 
spraying machinerv, 46 

Orchard-grass, 373, 438-441, 445; notes, 437; in Pacific 
coast region, 453; place in rotation, 99; seed-growing, 
144; seed, legal wciglit, 1.50; seed notes, 132, 133, 136, 
142-144; time of maturity, 436. 

Orchid family, medicinal plants in, 457. 

Orchids, notes, 9, 122. 

Orchilla, 267. 

Orcin, 267. 

Oregon, crop rotation systems in, 104. 

Oregon grape root for dye, 269. 

Orel clover, 233. 

Orenetto, 267. 

Orchil, 267. 

Organization of a commercial nursery business, 483- 
485. 

Oricello, 267. 

Origanum, importations, 496. 

Oriean, 267. 

Ornamental-leaved beets, notes, 588. 

Ornamentals, 502, 503 ; notes, 4. 

Ornithopus sativus, 566. 

Orseille, 267. 

Oryza botanical characters, 366. 

Oryza rufipogon, 53.5. 

Oryza sativa, 369, 534. (See Rice.) 

Osage orange seed, legal weight, 150. 

Osmosis in relation to sap rise, 15. 

Osterhout, W^. J. V., article bv, 11. 

Ostrya Virginica (Fig. 436), 317. 

Osyris compressa, 629. 

Oungkoudon, 269. 

Oural patti, 270. 

Ourouparia gambier, 268. 

Ovary, structure, 17. 

Ovules, 17. 

Oxalis crenata, 78. 

Oxalis gigantca, 628. 

Oxeye dasies, 441. 

Oyster catchup, 173. 

Oyster mushroom, 477. 

Pacific post oak, for tannin, 625. 
Package, the fruit, 356. 
Packing-house for fruits, 353. 
Paddock, W., quoted, 276, 279. 

B44 



Paddy, 537; aman, 109; aus, 108, 109. 

Pacts quoted, 30. 

Paint-brush, eradicating, 112. 

Palaman, crop rotation systems in, 109. 

Pale catechu, 626. 

Palm, for the house, 129; notes, 8, 9, 502; oil, 499 
scales on, 130; shading, 122; tannins, 626. 

Palma istle fiber, 290. 

Palina samandoca for fiber, 290. 

Palmer, Dr., quoted, 402. 

Palmetto, dwarf, for tannin, 626 ; leaf screens for plants, 
123; saw, for fiber, 293; for tannin, 623. 

Panama crimson dye, 269. 

Panama rubber, 557. 

Panax Ginseng, 357. 

Panax quinquefolium, 357. 

Pandanus fiber, 281. 

Panicum, botanical characters, 365, 366; colonum, 470; 
Crus-galli, 369, 469, (See Barnyard grass) ; f rumen- 
taccum, 369, 470; Italicum, 368; maximum, 368, (See 
Guinea-grass) ; miliaceum, 369, 469, (See Broom-corn 
millet) ; molle, 78, 368, (See Para-grass.) 

Pansy, 274 ; for dye, 268. 

Papaver Rhtvas, 270. 

Papaver somniferum, 463. 

Paper, aramina for, 285; notes, 72, 156; soft wood for, 
341. 

Paper-making plants, 503-510. 

Paper mulberry, 508; fiber, 281. 

Paper plant (mitsumata), introduction, 72. 

Paprika, 457, 464. 

Para-grass, 78, 368, 451 ; place in rotation, 105; seed per 
acre, 136. 

Para rubber, 554, 555-557. 

Paradise stocks for dwarf apples, 277. 

Paraguay tea, 78. 

Parasite, defined, 1 ; notes, 19. 

Parasitism, comj>lete, 395. 

Parenchyma, 8; bast, 15; wood, 1.5. 

Paris green, 38, 44; for farm garden, 281. 

Paritium tiliaceum, 286. 

Parloa, Miss, quoted, 164, 166. 

Parlor ivy, 130. 

Parmelia parietina, 270. 

Parsley, for dye, 269; effect of acetylene light on, 25 
seed notes, i33; worm, 542. 

Par.snip, 546, 547; for canning, 160; dry matter in, 540 
notes, 5, 10; planting dates, 1.3S-141); seed notes, 132, 
133, 136; temperature for, 280; water, 114; weight 
legal, 150, 152; yields, 153-155. 

Parsnip family, aromatic plants in, 457; oil plants in, 
494. 

Parthenocissus quinquefolia, 270. 

Partridge pea, 309; place in rotation, 106. 

Paspalum, botanical characters, 366; compressum, 451 ; 
digitaria, 78; dilatatum, 368, 449, 451, (^'ce Water- 
grass); grass, 451; scrobiculatum, place in rotation, 
109. 

Passiflora edulis (Fig. 97), 74. 

Passion fruit, introduction, 73, 74. 

Pastel, 270. 

Pasteur quoted, 157. 

Pastinaca sativa, 546. 

Pastures, and meadows, 434—455; native, 453-455; 
notes, 136, 304; place in rotation, 92-96, 99-101, 103- 
108, 297. 

Pasture soiling, 303. 

Pasture thistle (Fig. 151), 113. 

Patio, 225. 

Patullo's rotation svstem, 107. 

Paulin quoted, 31, 32. 

Pay pa v, 628. 

Pea. {.See Peas.) 

Pea-vine red clover, 233. 

Peach, 275, 276; candied, 162; for canning, 160; dis- 
eases, 51; dried, legal weight, 150; evaporating, 174; 
handling the fruit, 356; leaf-curl, 45; notes, 6; oil from, 
495, 496; orcliard, beggarweed as cover-crop, 21.5; 
orchard, rotation scheme, 349; orchard, velvet bean 
as cover-crop, 657; Paris green spray, 44; soil, 27.5; 
treatment with copper sulfate,"39; varieties for home- 
planting, 276; varieties from sports, 58, 61. 

Peachwood for dye, 269. 



690 



INDEX 



Peanut, 514-519; introduction of varieties, 72; notes, 
490, 501; oil, 499, 501, 517; place in rotation, 101, 104, 
106; planting dates, 138-140; seed, longevity, 132; 
weight, legal, 150. 

Pear, 275, 276; blight, 50-52; for canning, 160, 172; 
clons of, 57; diseases, 51; dwarf, 277; effect of elec- 
tricity on, 31; evaporating, 174, 176; handling, 356; 
hybrids, 63; juice, 181; notes, 6, 7; picking, 355; for 
preserves, 162, 165; shipping, 357; soil, 275; varieties 
for home-planting, 276; varieties from sports, 58, 61 ; 
weight, legal, 150. 

Pearl barley, 205. 

Pearl millet, 369, 471; notes, 133, 136. 

Peas, 510-514; aphis, 513; and barley as cover-crop, 
275, 277; and barley for soiling, 571, 572; bug, 513; 
for eannmg, 159, 160, 170, 172; as cover-crop, 89, 
259, 260, 350, 351; country, place in rotation, 108; 
dwarf, effect of electric arc hght on, 23, 24; effect of 
acetylene light on, 25; effect of electricity on, 31; 
evaporating, 174; garden, 279, 280; green, shipping, 
654; a green-manure crop, 93; louse, 513; mildew, 51 ; 
moth, 513; notes, 2, 7, 16; and oats as cover-crop, 
275; and oats for soiling, 570-573; perennial, 274; 
place in rotation, 99-109 ; races, 57 ; relation to soil- 
inoculation, 393; securing nitrogenous food, 19; seed- 
growing, 145, 146; seed notes, 132, 133; split, 513; 
storage notes, 137; treatment with copper sulfate, 
118; weight, legal, 151, 152; wild, 455. (See Field- 
pea.) 

Peat for paper, 503. 

Pecan, 276; orchard, velvet bean as cover-crop, 657. 

Pectin bodies, notes, 164. 

Pectose, notes, 164. 

Pedigree breeding, 62, 63. 

Peganum Harmala, 268. 

Pcgemyia fusciecps, 379. 

Pelargoniums, effect of electric light on, 22. 

Pencilaria, 369. (See Pearl millet.) 

Penicillaria, 471. 

Penicellaria spicata, 369. 

Penicilium, effect of electricity on, 32. 

Pennisetum, botanical characters, 366. 

Pennisetum spicatum, 369, 471. 

Pennisetum typhoideum, 369. 

Pennsylvania, crop rotation systems in, 104, 105. 

Pennsylvania Experiment Station quoted, 387. 

Penny-grass, eradicating, 118. 

Pennyroyal, 457, 463, 495. 

Pentzia, introduction, 72. 

Pentzia virgata, 78. 

Peony for farm garden, 274. 

Pepper, black, 457, 580, 587; buckwheat hulls as adult- 
erant, 221; notes, 2; paprika, introduction of Hun- 
garian, 73, 74; red, 457, 458, 464, 586, 587; white, 
586, 587. 

Pepper family, notes, .586. 

Pepper-gra.ss," in flax-fields, 299; seed notes, 141. 

Pepper tree for tannin, 626. 

Pepperidge, 342. 

Peppermint, 457, 463; importations, 496; oil, 458, 495, 
496. 

Peppermint tree, 627. 

Peppers, 147, 14S; notes, 7; temperature for, 280. 

Pepys quoted, 16.3. 

Perennial pea for farm paiden, 274. 

Perennial plants, 10; flowering period, 17; numoer, 3, 4. 

Perennial red clover, 233. 

Perennial rye-grass, 375, 447; notes, 437, 439, 440. 

Perfumery plants in their plant relations, 4. 

Pericarp defined, 7. 

P^rrgord truffle, 479. 

Perkin, W. H., quoted, 267. 

Pernambuco wood, 267. 

Perrine, Dr. Henry, ciuoted, 70. 

Perry, 181. 

Persea, 629. 

Perseo, 268. 

Persian berries, 270. 

Persian goat-skins, 627; sheep-skins, 627. 

Persimmons, .Japanese, varieties for planting, 276. 
Peruvian cotton, 282. 

Petals, 7; coloring, 17. 

Petiole defined, 7. 



Petroleum, crude, as an herbicide, 115; for sucking 
insects, 44, 45. 

Petunia for farm garden, 274. 

Phacelotheca diplospora, 582. 

Phacelotheca reiliana, 582. 

Phalaris, 366. 

Phalaris arundinacea, 369, 370. (See Reed Canary- 
grass.) 

Phalaris Canariensis, 370. (See Canary-grass.) 

Phaseolus lunatus, 656; nanus, 200; radiatus, place in 
rotation, 109; viridissimus, 78; vulgaris, 206-212; 
notes, 4. 

Phelps, Charles S., article by, 304; quoted, 571. 

Piilegethontius Carolina, 652. 

Phlegethontius celeus, 652. 

Phleum, botanical characters, 365, 366. 

Phlcum Boehmeri, 79. 

Plileum pratense, 370. (See Timothy.) 

Phloem, 9. 

Plilox, 274. 

Phlox Drummondii, 274. 

Phcenix reclinata, as house-plant, 129. 

Phorbia brassica^, 223. 

Phormium fiber, 281. 289. 

Phormium tenax, 289, 508. 

Phorodon humuli, .383. 

Phosphoric acid, effect of electricity on amount in soil, 
31 ; in relation to plant growth, 12. 

Phosphorus, in fruit formation, 20; relation to root 
action, 15. 

Photosynthesis, 14; as affected by acetvlene light, 25; 
artificial light, 22-27; colored lights, 27. 

Phycomvces nitens, effect of electricity on, 30. 

Phyllanthus Emblica, 628. 

PhvUodia defined, 391. 

Phyllotaxv, 15, 191. 

Phyllotreta vittata, 223, 550- 

Phylloxera plant-louse, resistance of grape roots to, 43. 

Physiology of the plant, 5-35. 

Phytolacca Americana, 269. 

Phytolacca decandra, 269. 

Pliytoniyxa leguminosarum, 392. 

Phytoplithora infestans, 523. 

Pia.ssaba fiber, 281. 

PicaliUi, 173. 

Picea alba, 509; for tannin, 625; excelsa(Fig. 456), 322, 
625; mariana (Fig. 457), 322; nigra, 509; rubra, 509; 
Sitchensis, 625. 

Pickering's Chronological History of Plants quoted, 
404. 

Pickles, home-made, 173; statistics, 177. 

Pie-plant, wild, 628. 

Pieris rapa?, 223. 

Pieters, Adrian ,J., quoted, 71. 

Pigeon berries. 269. 

Pigeon-grass, 369; seed notes, 141. 

Pigeon pea, place in rotation, 108, 109. 

Pigeon weed, 309. 

Pigment, formation, 271; printing, 272. 

Pigs, rape for, 532. 

Pigweed, 112; in flax-fields, 299; seed notes, 141; treat- 
ment with copper sulfate, IIS. 

Pigweed family in its plant relations, 3. 

Pilang, 628. 

Pilobolus, effect of orange light on, 27. 

Pimento, ,586, 587. 

Pimpinella Anisum, 458. 

Pin-clover, 197, 198. 

Pin-grass, 197, 198. 

Pina clotli, 292. 

Pindar, 514. 

Pine, 316; bark for tannin, 624 ; diseases, 345 ; gathering 
seed, 327; grey, 508; in Gulf states, 318; Jack, 323, 
327; longevity, 346; long-'eaf, 495, 497, 508; nitrogen 
requirements', 320; Norwav (Fig. 460), 323; notes, 2; 
for paper, 503-505, 507, 508; place in forest rotation, 
324; plant-food requirements, 320; red, 323; regenera- 
tion, .325, 3:^6; Scotch, 325, 329; short-leaf, 329; 
soils for, 320; weevil, 343; >vhite, 318, 319, 327, 329, 
331, 342, 508; vellow, 505. 

Pineapple, candied, 162; disease of sugar-cane, 610; 
fiber, 291 ; notes, 7; shading, 122. 

Pink lupine, 398. 



\ 



INDEX 



691 



Pinks for farm garden, 274; longevity, 10. 

Pinnela fiber plant, 291. 

Pinus (livaricata (Fig. 462), 323; ITalepensis, 624; muri- 
cata, 624; palnstris, 497, 508; rad lata, 624; rcsinosa 
(Fig. 460), 323; Strobus (Fig. 459), 323, SOS, (.See 
Pine, wliitc); svlvestris (Fig. 461), 323. 

Piouri dye, 268. " 

Piper, C. v., articles by, 564, 566, 587. 

Piper Betel, place in rotation, 109. 

Piper nigrum, 586. 

Piptadenia macrocarpa, 628. 

Pistache, 79. 

Pistachio-nut, 73, 74. 

Pistacia Lentiscus, 626. 

Pistacia orientalis, 626. 

Pistacia Terebintiuis, 626. 

Pistacia ^■e^a, 79, 626. 

Pistacio, 79. 

Pistil, 7; structure, 17. 

Pisum ar\'ense, ]ilace in rotation, 108. 

Pisum sativtmi, van. arvense, 510. 

Pita fiber. 281, 291. 

Pita floja fiber, 289. 

Pith, 9. 

Pitti, 270. 

Piuri dye, 268. 

Plant, i-35; en\ironment, 19-21 ; growing under shade, 
119-123; growth, 19; growth as affected by electricity, 
30-35; growth, stimulation by weak poisons, 28, 29; 
irritability, 10; longevity, 10; movement, 19; nutri- 
tion and respiration, IS, 19; societies, 10; structure, 
life processes and environment, 11-21. 

Plant-breeding, 53-69; relation to diseases, 52; relation 
to plant introduction, 73. 

Plant-breeding societies, 55. 

Plant diseases, 46-53. 

Plant introduction, 70-80. 

Plant lice, 38, 40, 43-45; in cotton, 251, 252. 

Plant-louse, phyllo.xera, resistance of grape roots to, 43. 

Plantain, 112, 200; notes, 6; place in rotation, 109; in 
Southwest. 454. 

Planting notes, 131-148. 

Plants, growing and transplanting field-crop, 147, 148; 
in residence windows, 128-130. 

Plasmodiophora brassic.T, 223, 392, 550. 

Plastering hair, legal weight, 150. 

Pleurotus ostreatus, 477. 

Pliny quoted, 222, 540, 560, 564. 

Plum, 275, 276; for canning, 160; curculio, 43, 44; dis- 
eases, 51; e\'aporating, 174; .Java, 243; notes, 4; 
pocket disease, 47; Paris green sprav, 44; for relishes, 
173; seed notes, 328, 329; weight, legal, 148. 

Plume moth in sweet-potatoes, 622. 

Plur-annual plants, 10. 

Plusia brassicie, 223. 

Poa, botanical characters, 365, 366; arachnifera, 373, 
{See Texas blue-gra.ss) ; compressa, (See Canada blue- 
grass) ; flava, 374 ; Mulalensis, 79 ; nemoralis, 373, (See 
Wood meadow-grass) ; pratensis, 373, (See Kentucky 
blue-grass) ; serotina. .374, 445; triflora, 373, 374, 445, 
(See Fowl meadow-grass) ; trivialis, 374, (See Rough- 
stalked meadow-grass) ; gaban, 268. 

Pod corn, 402. 

Poi, 630. 

Poinciana, roval, 391. 

Poison hemlock (Fig. 168), 117. 

Poison ivy (Fig. 169), 117. 

Poison oak (Fig. 170), 118. 

Poison sumac (Fig. 171), IIS. 

Poisonous plants, 114. 

Poisons, stimulation of plant growth by means of weak, 
28, 29. 

Poke berries, 269. 

Pokctawes, 402. 

Polcburn of tobacco, 653. 

Polish wheat, 663, 665. 

Pollen, 17, IS; tube, 17. 

Pollination, 55-57; notes, 18. 

Polyanthus for farm garden, 274. 

Polygala, 79. 

Polygala butyracca, 79. 

Polygala Senega, 465. 

Polygonaceoe in its plant relations, 3. 



Polygonum, 217; amphibium, 628; a^^culare (Fig. 141), 
112; Bistorta, 628; Ilydropiper, 62S; Persicaria, (5c< 
Smartweed) : Sachalinense, 310; Woyrichii, 79. 

Polypudium vulgare, jjliotosynthetic processes in, 120. 

Polypotly, photosynthctic processes in, 120. 

Polyporus borealis (I'igs. 493, 494), 346; igniarius, 346/ 
Mylittoe, 480; Sapurema, 480; tubcraster, 480. 

Pomace, 180. 

Pome-fruits, 2, 6. 

Pomegranate, for tannin, 629; varieties for planting, 
276. 

Popcorn, 402, 418-421; seed per acre, 136: weight, 
legal, 148. 

Poplar, bark for tannin, 629; buds for dye, 270; diseases, 
346; intolerant character, 323; marketing, 341; for 
paper, 503-505, 507, 508 ; place in foresti rotatiou 
324; regeneration, 326; in Southwest, 453. 

Poppy, 274-; for dye, 270; place in rotation, 109; seed 
457; treatment with copper sulfate, 1 18. 

Populus deltoides, 507 (Fig. 449, p. 321.) 

Populus grandidentata, 508. 

Popidus tremuloides, 508. 

Porter, 189. 

Porto Rico, coffee in, 245, 246; crop rotation system^ 
105. 

Portugal berries, 269. 

Portulaca, for farm garden, 274. 

Portulaca oleracea (Fig. 140), 112. 

Portulacaria afra, 79. 

Port wine, 182. 

Posts, cutting, 339. 

Potash, 12; effect of electric light on content of plant, 
23; effect of electricity on amount in soil, 31. 

Potassium, 20; bichromate, 28; nitrate, 31 ; sulfid, 39. 

Potato, 519-528; for alcohol, 1S6; aquatic, 79; bag, 
legal size, 152; beetle, 38, 40, 43, 44; black scale, 523; 
blight, 47, 48, 50, 523; for canning, 160; clons of, 57; 
composition, 542; diseases, 51 ; dry-rot, 523; effect of 
electricity on, 31, 32; effect of weak poisons on 
growth, 29; in Europe, 526, 527; evaporating, 174; 
in farm garden, 279, 280; growers' rotation, 102; in- 
sect enemies, 42, 524; longevity, 10; modifications for 
environment, 19; nitrogen requirements, 320; notes, 
2, 5, 6, 20, 51 ; place in the rotation, 99-109, 207, 220; 
planting dates, 138-140; propagation notes, 131; 
rosette, 523; rot, 49, 50, 52; scab, 47-50, 523; seed per 
acre, 136; in South, 527, 528; spraying machinery, 
46; storage houses for, 552, 553; treatment with cop- 
per sulfate, 118; weights, legal, 151, 152; yields, 153- 
155. 

Potato family, drug and condimental plants in, 457. 

Potentilla Tormentilla, 629. 

Poterium Sanguisorba, 306. 

Poulard wheat, 663, 664. 

Powder gun, 4.5, 651. 

Powell, G. Harold, article by, 355. 

Prairie dogs in alfalfa, 195; fires as an aid in insect con- 
trol, 40. 

Prentiss, H. V., quoted, 206. 

Prepotencv, test for, 63. 

Frescott, Samuel C, articles by, 168, 181, 188. 

Prescott's Confpiest of Mexico ([uoted, 404, 405. 

Preserved products, 157-177; notes, 156. 

Preserves, 160, 162; statistics, 177. 

Preserving, 157-177; notes, 179. 

Press-cake, 609. 

Prickly comfrey, 309. 

Prickly lettuce (Fig. 147), 113. 

Pricklv pear, 73, 74; burner, 227; for dye, 270; as tor 
age, 226, 227; notes, 454. 

Prillieux quoted, 22. 

Primrose, 129; evening, 120, 141. 

Pringle quotetl, 57. 

Privet berries for dye, 270. 

Propagation of plants, 19; of field-crop, 147. 

Proso millet, 469-473; notes, 136. 

Prosopis juliflora, 308. 

Protea grandiflora, 629. 

Protea mellifera, 629. 

Protection of farm woodlot. 330, 331. 

Proteids, in leaves, 13, 15; utilization, 18.- 

Prothallium, 19. 

Protoplasm, 1 1 ; effect of electricity on plant, 34. 



692 



INDEX 



Provisorio, 76. 

Pruim bast, 270, 629. 

Prunes, legal weiglit, 14S. 

Pruning, the farm woodlut, 331 ; fruit trees, 351 ; notes, 

6,7; self, 16. 
Prunus Amygdalus, var. amara, 496. 
Prunus serotina, 459. 
Prussian blue, 270. 
Pseud-annual plants, 10. 
Pseudomonas campestri.s, 223, 550. 
Pseudoraonas radicicola, 393. 
Pseudopeziza medicaginis on alfalfa, 195. 
Pterocarpus Indicus, 270. 
Pterocarpus Marsupium, 269, 629. 
Pterocarpus santalinus, 270. 
Pterocarpus Senegalensis, 629. 
Pterophorus monodactylus, 622. 
Puccinia graniinis, 670. 
Puccinia rubigo-vera, 670. 
Puffballs, 478. 
Pulqvie, 291. 

Pulse crops, place in rotation, 108, 109. 
Pulse family, in its plant relations, 2. 
Pulvinaria psidii on coffee, 244. 
Pumpkin, 529, 530; for canning, 160; evaporating, 174; 

notes, 7, 10; planting dates, 138-140; seed notes, 132, 

133, 136; yields, 153-155. 
Pumps for .spraying, 4.5, 46. 
Punica Granatum, 629. 
Punjab, crop rotation systems in, 109. 
Puree dye, 268. 
Purees, fruit, 163. 
Puriri, 270. 

Purity of seeds, 131-133, testing for, 141. 
Purple, French, dye, 268. 
Purple heart, 270. 
Purpura, 270. 
Purpurin, 268. 
Purrea Arabica, 268. 
Purslane, 112; seed notes, 141. 
Puslcy, 112. 

Pyrethrum, 457; powder for house flies, 44. 
Pyrogallol, effect on plant growth, 29. 
Pyrus Aucuparia, 629. 
Pyrus Japonica, 631. 

Quack-grass, 112, 376; eradicating, 377, 447; in hops, 
383 ; notes, 6, 437. 

Quandonv, 629. 

Quebec, fruits for home-planting, 276; grapes for, 279; 
small-fruits for, 278. 

Quebrachia Lorentzii, 270. 

Quebracho, 270; for tannin, 623, 626. 

Quercetin, 268, 628. 

Quercitron, 270, 625. 

Quercus ^gilops, 625; alba (Fig. 442), 319, 625; Cali- 
fornica, 625; Cerris, 625; chrysolepsis, 625; coccif- 
era, 479, 625; coccinea (Fig. 444), 319; cornea, 79; 
densiflora, 625; Garrvana, 625; Gra;ca, 625; Ilex, 479, 
625; incana, 625: infectoria, 625; lobata, 625; macro- 
lep,si3, 625; Mirbecki, 625; nigra, 625; penduculata, 
625 ; Prinus, 625 ; Pscudosuber, 625 ; pubescens, 625 ; 
rubra (Fig. 443), 319, 625; sessiliflora, 479, 625; Su- 
ber, 625 ; Toza, 625 ; Ungeri, 625 ; velutina for dye, 
270; Wislizeni, 625. 

Quicklime as a soil fungicide, 611. 

Quinces, for canning, 160; evaporating, 174; for marma- 
lade 163; for preserves, 162; stocks for dwarf apples, 
277; weight, legal, 148. 

Quincy, Josiah, quoted, 569, 570, 571. 

Quinine, 458. 

Quitch-grass, 376. 

Rabbit-brush, 454. 

Rabbit-foot clover, 235. 

Rabbits as soybean p)est, 586. 

Races, defined, 57. 

Radish, 279, 280; effect of acetylene light, 25; Cooper- 
Hewitt mercury vapor electric light, 26, 27 ; electric 
arc light, 23; electric incandescent light, 24; electric- 
ity, 31, .33; incandescent gas light, 26; iodid of potas- 
sium, 28; longevity, 10; maggot, 43; notes. 2; seed 
notes, 133; wild, eradicating, 118; insects, 42. 



Raffia, 281, 292. 

R.<igs for paper, 504, 505, 507. 

Ragweed, 112; eradicating. 118. 

Rain as an aid in controlling insects, 40. 

Raleigli, Sir Walter, quoted, 520. 

Ramalina, 267. 

Rambutan, 78. 

Ramelas for dye, 269. 

Ramie, fiber, 281, 284, 285; for paper, 503, 504, 508 
ribbons, 284. 

Randall grass, 374. 

Rane, V.W., quoted, 23, 24. 

Ranunculus acris (Fig. 166), 116. 

Ranunculus bulbosus, 268, 447. 

Rape, 530-534, 549; as cover-crop. 89, 259, 260, 305, 
350, 351 ; effect of electricitv on, .31 ; as green-manure 
crop, 93; notes, 2, 500, 548; oil, 499, 500, 530, 533; 
place in rotation, 99-103, 108; planting dates, 138- 
140; seed notes, 132, 133, 136; for soiling, 570, .572, 
573; summer, 307; treatment with copper sulfate, 
118; weight of seed, legal, 148; yields, 153-155. 

Raphia Rulfia, 292. 

Raphia tu-digira, 292. 

Rasjiherry, 277, 278; anthracnose, 39, 51; evaporating, 
174, 176, 177; notes, 2, 4, 7; preserves, 165; weight, 
legal, 148. 

Rats in coffee plantations, 245; in sugar-cane, 610. 

Rawson, W. W., quoted, 24. 

Reana luxurians, 638. (See Teosinte.) 

Receptacle of flower defined, 7. 

Red beet, 543. 

Red Cebil, 628. 

Red clover. (See Clover, red.) 

Red corn, field, for dve, 270. 

Redding, R. .1., quoted, 101. 

Red dock, 628. 

Red fescue, 374, 447, 455; seed notes, 136. 

Red gum, 627. 

Red heart fungus of trees, 346. 

Red oak for tannin, 625. 

Red rice, 535. 

Redroot (Fig. 135), 110. 

Red-rot of sugar-cane, 610. 

Red rust of cotton, 252; of hops, 383. 

Red sandalwood, 270. 

Red Sanders wood, 270. 

Red spider, 38; on cotton, 251; on house plants, 130; on 
tea, 636. 

Red-top, 371, 444, 445; notes, 437, 438, 442; place in 
rotation, 105; seed-growing, 144; seed notes, 133, 136, 
143, 439-441 ; for soiling, 571 ; time of maturity, 436; 
wcedv character, 447; weight, legal, 151. 

Redwoods, 270; freedom from disease, 345; longevity, 
346; regeneration by coppice, 326; for tannin, 625. 

Reed canary-grass, 370, 454. 

Reed-grass on Pacific coast, 455. 

Reed, Howard S., article by, 28. 

Reed, W. C, quoted, 481. 

Reeds for paper, 503. 

Reinke quoted, 27. 

Reproduction, plant, 19. 

Rescue-grass, 375, 450; seed notes, 136, 441. 

Reseda Luteola, 270. 

Resin, red, 268. 

Respiration of plants, 18, 19; intra-raolecular, 18. 

Ressons quoted, 240. 

Rhamnus Alaternus, 270; cathartica, 267, 270 ; Dahurica, 
268; infectoria, 270; saxatilis, 270; tinctoria, 268. 

Rhea, fiber, 285; for paper, 503, 508. 

Rheum officinale. (See Rhubarb.) 

Rhine wines, 182, 183. 

Rhizobacterium Japonicum, 394. 

Rhizobium leguminosarum, 392. 

Rhizoctonia solani, 523. 

Rhizophora Mangle for tannin, 627. 

Rhizophora mucronata, 627. 

Rhizopus nigricans, 622. 

Rhodamines, 271. 

Rhode Island bent-grass, 371, 447. 

Rhode Island, crop rotation systems in, 105. 

Rhodes grass, 77. 

Rhubard, 7, 273, 655; canning, 165; dye, 270; etheriza- 
tion, 29; shading, 122; weight, 148; wine, 181. 



INDEX 



693 



Rhus aromatica, 626; Canadensis, 626; copallina, 623; 
Coriaria, 270, 626; Cotinus, 26S, 026; diversiloba, 
114; glabra, 626; hirta, 270; for tannin, 626; Meto- 
pium, 626; pumila, 626; semialata, 625, 626; Tliun- 
bcrgii, 626; Toxicodendron (Fig. 109), 114, 117, 626; 
tvpliina for tannin, 626; venenata (Fig. 171), 114, 
I'lS. 

Ribbon cane, Straightnecked, 577; Texas Seeded, 578. 

Ribbon-grass, 370. 

Rice, 369, 534-539 ; grub, 537 ; introductions, 72-74 ; 
notes, 2; place in rotation, 101, 102, 10>*, 109; plant- 
ing dates, 138-140; red, 535; rough, legal weight, 
151 ; seed notes, 133, 136 ; stalk borer, 537 ; straw, 
for paper, 509; straw for %veaving, 293; weevil, 537; 
wild, 535; wonns, 537; yields, 153-155. 

Rice corn, 384, 385; legal weight, 151. 

Richards c|Uotcd, 28. 

Richard.sonia scabra, 309. 

Ricinus communis, 229-231. 

Ricketts quoted, 57. 

Ridley, H. N., article by, 554. 

Rimpau quoted, 62. 

Rind disease of sugar-cane, 610. 

Ring, annual, 8, 16. 

Ringing, 16. 

Roads, arrangement on farm, 90. 

Roadsides, mowing, 112. 

Roadways, freeing from weeds, 117. 

Roberts quoted, 481. 

Robertson mixture, 612, 613, 

Robinia, 393. 

Robinia Pseudacacia (Fig. 438), 318. 

Rocella, 269. 

Rocella fuciformis, 267. 

Rocella Montagnei, 267. 

Rocella tinctoria, 267. 

Rock oak bark for tannin, 623. 

Rocket, dyers, 270. 

Rocky moimtain clo^'er, 454. 

Rogers quoted, 57. 

Rolfe, .John, quoted, 640. 

Rolfs, P. H., quoted, 75. 

Romans, method of controlling grasshoppers, 41. 

Root, 11-13; excretions, S4; feeding, 12; forms, 5; 
hairs, 12; ])ressure, 15; selective action, 20; storage of 
food in, 17. 

Root cellars, 550-554. 

Root crops, 539-550; notes, 4; place in rotation, 99, 100, 
103, 105-107. 

Root-galls. (.Sec Nematode worms.) 

Root of the Holv Ghost, 76. 

Root-knot of cotton, 251, 252. 

Root-maggot, of cabbage, 223; on kale, 389. 

Root-rot, of alfalfa, 195; coffee, 245; taro, 631; tobacco, 
653. 

Rootstocks, storage of food in, 17. 

Root-tubercles, legume, 392-395; notes, 13. 

Root-worm of corn, 412. 

Rope, fibers, 285; manila paper, 287, 507. 

Rosacea^ in its plant relations, 2. 

Rose, chafer, 44; effect of electric light, 22; haws, 173; 
moss, for farm garden, 274; notes, 502; selection of 
bud-sports, 69; wild, 118. 

Rose family, 2; oil plants in, 494. 

Rosemary, importations, 496. 

Rose of Sharon for farm garden, 274. 

Roses, attar of, importations, 496. 

Ross quoted, 31. 

Rotation, croji, 81-89, 92-96, 99-109; for control of 
insects, 42; for control of plant diseases, 48; for dairy- 
farm, 305; to eradicate weeds, 115; for improvement 
of cotton soils, 250; as related to balance of plant-food 
in soil, 20, 21; relation to forage-cropping, 305; rela- 
tionship to plant associations, 10; systems, 443; tri- 
ennial system, 98, 99. 

Rotation of fertilizers, 88. 

Rotation, forest, 323, 324. 

Rotation, orchard, 348, 349. 

Rothamsted quoted, 83, 232, 436; rotation system, 106. 

Rothholz, 267. 

Rots, treatment for, 281. 

Rottlera for dye, 269. 

Rottlera tinctoria, 269. 



Roucou, 267. 

Roughage defined, 303. 

Rougii-stalked meatlow-grass, 374. 

Ruuland ciuoted, 30. 

Round grass for fiber, 292. 

Round-leaved saltbush, 565. 

Rove, 025. • 

Rowen grass for soiling, 571. 

Royal mushroom, 477. 

Royal poinciana, 391. 

Rubber, 554-559 ; Eucommia ulmoides for, 77 ; plant for 
the house, 129. 

Rubia cordifolia, 269. 

Rubia tinctoria, 269. 

Rubinow, I. M., 108. 

Rue, for dye, 270. 

Rue familv in its plant relations, 2. 

Rug fibers, 283. 

Rumex, 217. 

Rumex crispus (Fig. 162), 116. 

Rumex iiymenosepalus, 628. 

Rumex maritimus, 628. 

Ruminants, digestibility of soybean forage, 583. 

Rural Branching Sorghum, 578, 579. 

Rural New Yorker (pioted, 578. 

Rushes, 452; in Great Basin, 455; on Pacific slope, 455; 
in Rocky mountain region, 454; for weaving, 281. 

Rusk citrange (Fig. 86), 67. 

Russia, crop rotation systems in, 108. 

Ru.ssian brome-grass, 374. 

Russian linen, 302. 

Russian thistle, 309. 

Rust, 47, 50; barley, 204; cotton, 251; oats, 492; rye, 
563; sugar-cane, 610; treatment for, 281; of wheat, 
670. 

Ruta graveolens, 270. 

Rutabaga, 547-550; dry matter in, 540; notes, 2; for oil, 
500; place in rotation, 99, 100. 103, 106; planting 
dates, 138-140; seed notes, 136; for soiling, 573; 
weight, legal, 151; yield.s, 153-155. 

Rutace:B in its plant relations, 2. 

Rye, 375, 5.59-563; as cover-crop, 89, 259, 260, 305, 350, 
351 ; effect of electricity on, 31 ; as green-manure, 65.5; 
meal, legal weight, 151; nitrogen requirement, 320; 
notes, 2; place in rotation, 87, 100-108, 305; planting 
dates, 138-140; seed notes, 132, 133, 136; for soiling, 
571, 572; straw, .563; straw, for paper, 509, 563; straw, 
for weaving, 293; treatment with copper sulfate, 118; 
and vetch, 573, 6.59; weight, legal, 152; wild, 453, 
454. 4.55; yields, 153-155. 

Rye-grass, 375, 446, 447; Giant, 455; Italian, 375, 446; 
Italian, on Pacific coast, 45.5; Italian, seed notes, 133, 
136, 142, 144. 148; perennial or English, 375, 447; 
perennial, on Pacific coast, 455; (jerennial, seed notes, 
133, 133, 142, 144; place in rotation, 106, 107;in Rocky 
mountain region, 454; seed per acre, 136. 

Sabal Adansoni, 626. 

Sabal serrulata, 626. 

Sacaline, 310. 

Saccaton in Southwest, 453. 

Saccharine sorghums, 575-578. 

Saccharomyces cerevisiie, 181, 188. 

Saccharomyccs ellipsoideus, 181, 188. 

Saccharum, botanical characters, 366. 

Saccharum officinarum, 367, 599. (See Sugar-cane.) 

Sacci fiber, 287. 

Sachs quoted, 27. 

Sacking fibers, 283, 285, 288. 

Safflower for dye, 270; place in rotation, 109. 

Safford quoted, 613. 

Saffron, dyer's, 270; place in rotation, 107. 

Safran bStard, 270. 

Safran d'Inde, 270. 

Sage, 457; for dye, 270; legal weight, 148; for oil, 495. 

Sage, salt, 565. 

Sagebrush, 454, 455. 

Sainfoin, 564, 565; place in rotation, 106-108; planting 

dates, 138-140; seed notes, l33, 136. 
Saintfoin, 564. 
Saki, 538. 

Salads, legal weight, 148; notes, 7. 
Salicornia herbacea, 310. 



694 



INDEX 



Salix arenaria, 629. 

Salix Russelliana, 629. 

Salsify seed, percentage of purity and germination, 133. 

Salsola Tragus, 309. 

Salt, as an herbicide, 115, 117, 118; for insects, 43; legal 

weiglit, 151. 
Salt sage, Nuttall's, 565. 
Saltbrushes, 565. 
Saltbushes, 565, 566; in Great Basin, 455; on Pacific 

coast, 455; in Southwest, 454. 
Saltgrass, 453, 455. 
Salvia officinalis, 270. 
Samar, place in rotation, 108. 
Sambucus Canadensis, 268. 
Sambucus Ebuhis, 268. 
Sambucus nigra, 268. 
Sambucus pubens, 268. 
Samphire, 310. 
Samuel a carnerosana, 290. 
Sanborn, .1. W., article by, 566. 
Sand, legal weight, 148. 
Sand lucern, 193, 456; seed per acre, 136. 
Sand spurry, 588. 
Sand vetch, 658. 
Sandalwood for dye, 270. 
Sandelholz, 270. 
Sanders wood, red, 270. 
Santalum acuminatus, 629. 
Sanitary prevention of plant diseases, 51, 52. 
San Jos(5 scale, 38, 41, 45. 
Sansevieria fiber, 281, 286, 291. 
Sansevieria Guineensis, 291. 
Sansevieria longiflora, 291. 
Sansevieria Roxburghiana, 291. 
Sandsten quoted, 29. 
Santalin dye, 270. 
Santalwood, 270. 
Sanwa millet, 470. 
Sap rise in plants, 15. 
Sapan wood, 270. 
Sappan wood, 270. 
Saprophyte, defined, 1 ; nutrition, 19. 
Sassafras, 457, 465; for oil, 495. 
Sassafras officinale, 465. 
Satyr's Beard, 478. 
Sauces, statistics, 177. 
Sauer kraut, 173. 
Saunders quoted, 67. 
Saunders wood, 270. 
Sauterncs, 182. 
Savory, 457. 

Sawdust for alcoliol, 186. 
Sawfiies in sweet-potatoes, 622, 623. 
Sawmills, 335, 336; portable, 341. 
Saw palmetto for fiber, 293; for tannin, 626. 
Saw-wort, 270. 

Saxifrage for window-box, 130. 
Sayavee, 268. 
Scale-insects, 44; on house plants, 130; treatment, 38- 

44, 45, 281. 
Schinus .\roeira, 626, 
Schinus Molle, 626. 

Schrader's brome-grass, 375. {See Rescue-grass.) 
Schroeter quoted, 392. 
Scluibert quoted, 107. 
Schwankliard quoted, 30. 
Scirpus(Fig. 39), 16. 
Sclerencliyma, 8, 16. 
Sclerotinia ciborioides, 232. 
Scofield, C. S., article by, 362; quoted, 74. 
Scoke berries, 269. 
Scolytus quadrispinosus, 343. 
Score-card for plant-breeding, 62, 63. 
Scotch bean, 212-214. 
Scotch broom, 310. 

Scotland crop rotation systems in, 106, 107. 
Screens for shading plants, 122, 123. 
Screw-bean, 453. 
Screw-pine fiber, 281. 
Scribner log rule, 338. 
Scrub saltbush, 565. 
Sea lavender, 629. 
Seaside Grape, 628. 



Secale, botanical characters, 366. 

Secale cereale, 375, 559. (See Rye.) 

Secale montanum, 560. 

Sedges, 9 ; in Alaska, 455 ; in Great Basin, 455; on Pacific 

slope, 4.55; in Rocky mountain region, 454. 
Seed-bearing plants, 2, 4. 
Seed-bed, notes, 133, 135. 
Seedle-ss varieties, 58. 
Seeds, breeding, 146; crops, growing, 141-146; effect of 

electricity on, 30-35; germination, 18; grass, 439-441 ; 

machinery for, 141; methods of dissemination, 18; 

mixing, 440; mixtures, 440, 441; notes and tables, 

131-155; testing, 132, 141-144, 280; treatment for 

diseases, 48-50; type and handling as related to plant 

diseases, 48-50, 52. 
Selaginella, shading, 122, 

Selection, 54, 60-63, 69; to avoid diseases, 52. 
Self-heal, 112. 

Self-pollination defined, 423. 
Semasia nitricana, 513. 
Senebier quoted, 31. 
Seneca snakeroot, 457, 465. 
Senecio, treatment with copper sulfate, 118. 
Senji, place in rotation, 109. 
Sensitive pea, 309. 

Sensitive plant, cause or movement in, 19. 
Sepals defined, 7; function, 17. 
Sepia, 270. 
Sepia officinalis, 270. 
Sec|Uoia gigantea, 625. 

Sequoia sempervircns (Fig. 458), 323, 625. 
Seragunge fiber, 283. 
Serajganj fiber, 283. 
Sereh of sugar-cane, 610. 

Serradella, 566; as cover-crop, 259; relation to soil- 
inoculation, 393; seed per acre, 136. 
Serratula tinctoria, 270. 
Sesame, .501. 
Sesamum Indicum, 501. 

Sesbania aculeata, place in rotation, 108, 109. 
Sesbania macrocarpa, 286. 
Setaria, 369. 

Seven-headed wheat, 664. 
Shad scale, 310, 565. 
Shade-enduring trees, 323. 
Shading of plants, 119-123. 
Shagbark hickory (Fig. 445), 319. 
Shag mane, 476. 
Shakers quoted, 463. 
Shallu sorghums, 575, 576. 
Shama millet, 470. 
Shamel, A. D., article by, 639. 
Sheath, conducting, in plant, 14. 
Sheep, digestibility of soybean forage, 583; pasturing 

to eradicate weeds. 111; rape for, 532; rotation for, 

100; in Wyoming, 4.54. 
Sheep's fescue, 374, 447; in Rocky mountain region, 

454; seed notes, 133, 136, 439, 442; on upper Pacific 

coast, 455. 
Shellac, 229. 

Shelter-tents for plants, 123. 
Shepard, Charles U., article by, 631. 
Shepherd's knot, 629. 

Shepherd's-purse, eradicating, 118; seed notes, 141. 
Sheppard quoted, 31. 
Shepperd, J. H., quoted, 104. 
Shepperson, A. B., quoted, 250, 253. 
Sherries, 182, 183. 
Shichito-i fiber, 292. 
Shiitake, 474. 
Shorts, legal weight, 151. 
Shutt, Frank T., quoted, 213. 
Siberian fescue, 455. 
Sicilian sumac for tannin, 626. 
Sida EUiottii, 307. 
Side-oats grama, 454. 
Siemens, C. W., quoted, 22. 
Sieve-tubes, 9, 15. 
Sigaud de la Fond quoted, 30. 
Silage, 414-418, 566-569; cutters, 568, 569; defined, 

303; relation to forage-cropping, 305; sorghum, 581. 
Silica in soil, 13. 
Silk-cotton tree for fiber, 293. 



INDEX 



695 



Silk grass, 291. 

Silk-oak as a house plant, 129; for coffee shade, 243. 

Silk, printing. 272. 

Silk rubber, 55S. 

Silo construction, 414, 415, 567. 

Silver busli, SO. 

Silver fir for tannin, 625. 

Silver-top, 455. 

Silver tree, 629. 

SilWculture cicfined, 312. 

Silybum Marianuni (l"ig. 148), 113. 

Simul-alu, 227. 

Sinamay, 2S7. 

Singapore Botanic Gardens quoted, 554. 

Siphanta acuta in coffee, 244. 

Sisal, 281, 286-288; introduction, 72; notes, 9; for paper, 
504, 509. 

Sitka spruce for tannin. 625. 

Skidder, steam, use in logjjing, 337. 

Skunks to destroy hop grub, 383. 

Slender fescue, 374. 

Slender saltbusli. 565. 

Slender wlieat -grass, 376, 452. 

Slime-molds, 392. 

Slingerland, M. V., article by, 40. 

Slough-grass, 454, 455. 

Smallage, 268. 

Small-fruits, 277-279; handling, 356; picking, 355; 
pruning, 351; rotation svstem for, 349; shipping, 357; 
soil for, 275. 

Smartweed, 217, 62S; in flax-fields, 299; seed notes, 141. 

Smilax, 7. 

Smith, C. B., article by, 235. 

Smith, H. W., article by, 388. 

Smith, Junius, quoted, 631. 

Smith, Landgrave Thomas, quoted, 534. 

Smooth brome-grass, 374, 375. 

Smooth sumac for tannin, 626. 

Smooth vetch, 658. 

Smut, 50; barley, 204; oat, 491, 492; rice, 537; rye, 563; 
sorghum, 582; sugar-cane, 610; wheat, 670. 

Smyrna valonia, 625. 

Snail clover, 456. 

Snails on ginseng, destroying, 361. 

Snook, William, quoted, 637. 

Snoubar, 624. 
. Snowball for farm garden, 274. 

Snowdrop for farm garden, 274. 

Snowflake for farm garden, 274. 

Snow-grass, 454. 

Snuff, 640, 641. 

Soapsuds spray for mealy bugs, 130. 

Societies of plants, 10. 

Soda, caustic, as an herbicide, 117, 118. 

Soda wood fiber for jiaper, 505. 

Sodium ehlorid as an herbicide, 115. 

Soft corn, 402. 

Soft rot, of carrot, 542, 550; ginseng, 361; sweet-pota- 
toes, 622. 

Sohne quoted, 31, 34. 

Soil, charging with electricity, 33; cleaning by crop 
rotation, 86; conditions and handling in relation to 
plant disease?, 47; for coniferous trees, 329; fertility, 
relation of crop rotation to, 86; fertility, relation of 
forage-cropping to, 305; for forests, 3i4, 320, 321; 
improvement by cover-crops, 259; inoculation, 394; 
management, 91, 92; moisture as affected by shading, 
121. 122; rendering sterile, 115; rot, of sweet-pota- 
toes, 622. 

Soiling, 569-574; defined, 303. 

Soja bean. (See Soybean.) 

Solanaceae in its plant relations, 2. 

Solanum cardiophyllum, 519; Commersoni, 79, 519; 
Jamesii, 519; Maglia, 519; oxycarpum, 519; tubero- 
sum, 519. 

Solidago (Fig. 158), 116. 

Song-kou-long, 269. 

Soorangee, 267. 

Sophora Japonica, 270. 
Sorbus Americana (Fig. 434), 317. 
Sorbus Aucuparia, 629. 
Sore-shin of cotton, 251, 252. 
Sorgho, 576; red dye, 27a 



Sorghum, 366, 367, 574-.582; amber, with cowpeas, 
265, 266; in cotton-belt, 45(): and cowpeas, for soil- 
ing, 572, 573; as green-manure, 93; notes, 2; place in 
rotation, 101, 102, 104, 105; in Plains region, 452; 
planting dates, 138-140; ami peas, seed per acre, 
136; seed, legal weight, 151; seed notes, 133-136; si- 
lage, 414; soiling, 570, 571, 573; syrup, 580-582: 
yields, 153-155. 

Sorghinn Halepense, 367. {See .Jolmson-grass.) 

Sorglium vulgare, 108, 109, 216, 217, 367, 384, 574. {See 
Sorghimi.) 

Sorrel, 217. 

Souchet, 270. 

Sour clover, 467. 

South Dakota, crop rotation systems in, 105. 

Sow-thistle, eradicating, 118. 

Soybean, 582-586; as cover-crop, 259, 260, 350, 351; 
with cowpeas, 265; as green-manure plant, 93; place 
in rotation, 101, 102, 104; planting daces, 1,38-140; in 
relation to soil-inoculation, 394; root-tubercles, 392; 
seed notes, 132, 133, 136; silage, 414, 415; soiling, 570, 
571; weight, legal, 149; yields, 153-155. 

Spaghetti, 665. 

Spanish berries, 270. 

Spanish chestnut for tannin, 626. 

Spanisli clover, 309. 

Spanish trefoil for dye, 270. 

Sparrows, protecting tree seedlings from, 33QL 

Spearmint, 457; for oil, 495, 497. 

Species, explained, 2; number, 3, 4. 

Spelt, 663, 664; legal weight, 148. 

Spergula arvensis, 587. 

Spergula maxima, 588. 

Speschnew quoted, 31. 

Sphserotheca castagnei on hops, 383. 

Spice-producing plants, 586, 587. 

Spider, red, 130. {See Red spider.) 

Spike, importations, 496. 

Spillman, W. J., articles by, 442, 638. 

Spilosoma Virginica, 586. 

Spiltz. (See Spelt.) 

Spinach, 280; for canning, 160; for dye, 270; effect of 
acetylene light, 25; electric incandescent light, 24; 
electric light, 23; electricity, 30, 31; mcandescent gas 
light, 26; place in rotation, 105; seed notes, 133; 
weight, legal, 148. 

Spinacia oleracea. {See Spinach.) 

Spindle, mitotic, 11. 

Spiny salt sage, 565. 

Spireas for farm garden, 274, 

Split peas, 510. 

Sponge mushroom, 479. 

Spore-bearing plants, 2. 

Spores, 19. 

Sporobolus Lindleyi, 79. 

Sports, defined, 54; importance, 58, 

Spotted clover, 456. 

Spray, distillate, formula, 38. 

Spraying, to destroy weeds. 111; machinery, 45, 46; for 
plant diseases, 50, 51. 

Spring tare, 658. 

Spring vetch. {See Vetch.) 

Sprout-lands, 313. 

Spruce, 316, 327; black (Fig. 457), .322; in Canada, 319; 
diseases, 345; nitrogen requirements, 320; Norway, 
327, 329; notes, 2; for paper, 503, 505, 507, 509; re- 
generation, 325, 326; Sitka, for tannin, 625; tolerant 
character, 323; white, 327. 

Spurge family, medicinal plants in, 457. 

Spurge, treatment with copper sulfate, 118. 

Spurred rye, 563. 

Spurrv, 587, 588; as cover-crop, 259; seed notes, 133, 

136". 
Square-pod pea, 310. 

Squash, 529, 530; bug, 529; for canning, 160; diseases, 
51; in farm garden, 279, 280; insect control, 42, 43; 
notes, 4, 7, 12, 16; place in rotation, 102; planting 
dates, 138-1*0; seed-growing, 145, 146; seed notes, 
132, 133. 
Squaw corn (Fig. 604), 401- 
Squirrel-tail grass, 455. 
St. .-Augustine grass, 369, 450. 
St. Martha wood, 269. 



696 



INDEX 



St. John's Bread, introduction, 73, 75. 

Stag-iiorn mushrooms, 477. 

Staghorn sumac for tannin, 626. 

Stamens, defined, 7; structure and function, 17. 

Starch, arrow-root for, 199; cassava, 227, 22S; corn, 412; 
grains, 11 ; in leaves, 13, 14; utilization in plants, 18. 

Starchy-sweet corn, 402. 

Starne.-:, Hugh N., articles by, 98, 493; quoted, 262, 
489. 

Statice Limonum, 629. 

Stebler and Schroeter quoted, 439. 

Steers, digestibility of soybean forage, 583. 

Steinpilz, 477. 

Steinwender, Stoffregen & Companv quoted, 239. 

Stellaria media (Fig. 142, p. 112), 118. 

Stem, plant, structure and function. 15-17, 

Stem-rot of cabbage, 223. 

Stenotaphrum Americanum, 369. 

Stcnotaphnun dimidiatum, 369. 

Stenotaphrum secundatum, 369. {See St. Augustine 
gra.ss.) 

Stick tight (Fig. 137), 111. 

Stigma, function, 17. 

Stilbum flavidum on coffee, 245. 

Stimulants, in their plant relations, 4. 

Stimuli, response of plants to, 19, 22-35. 

Stinco, 626. 

Stink-bug, 42, 43, 44. 

Stinking-smut, of onions, 49, 50; of wheat, 47, 49-51. 

Stipa tenacissima, 507. 

Stock (plant) for farm garden, 274. 

Stock-farm, rotation schemes for, 93-95. 

Stock-pea, 510. 

Stolley vetch, 659; in Southwest, 454. 

Stomate, structure and function, 13, 14. 

Stone, A. L., articles bv, 485, 530. 

Stone clover, 235, 467." 

Stone, G. E., articles by, 21, 30. 

Stone, J. L., articles by, 206, 217, 510. 

Storage houses, 550-554; seeds, 137. 

Stout, 189. 

Strains, defined, 57. 

Stramonium, 457, 458. 

Straw, for paoer, 503-506, 509; for screening plants, 
123; for weaving, 281, 293. 

Strawberries, 277-279; for canning, 160; clons of, 57; 
effect of acetylene light, 2.5; of electric arc light, 22; 
of shading, 121 ; notes, 2, 7, 10; place in rotation, 101, 
103; for preserves, 162; propagation notes, 131; 
weight, legal, 148. 

Stringy-bark, 627; for dve, 270. 

Sturtevant, Dr. E. L., quoted, 3, 402. 

Succory, 231, 232. 

Suffolk rotation systems, 106. 

Sugar, fermentation, 188; in plants, 13-15; maple-, 
427-434; sorghum, 581, 582. 

Sugar-beet, 588-599; for alcohol, 186; breeding notes, 
61; composition, 543; dry matter in, 540; effect of 
electricity on, 31; of incandescent gas light, 26; im- 
provemeiit, 544; place in rotation, 100, 103-105, 108; 
planting dates, 138-140; seed notes, 133, 136; treat- 
ment with copper sulfate, 118; varieties for stock- 
feeding, 545, 547; weiglit, legal, 149; yields, 153-155. 

Sugar-cane, 599-611 ; baga.sse for paper, 503-506; notes, 
2, 6; place in rotation, 102, 105, 108, 109; planting 
dates, 138-140; propagation notes, 131, 147, 148; 
seed notes, 136; seed, weight, legal, 148; jdelds, 153- 
155. 

Sugar plants in their plant relations, 4. 

Sulfate, of iron, effect on plant growth, 28; of potassium, 
spray for mildew. 130. 

Sulfite wood fiber for paper, 505. 

Sulfur, for insects, 43; in relation to leaf action, 15; as a 
seed disinfectant, 50. 

Sulfur colors, 271. 

Sulfuric acid, as an herbicide, 117; in relation to plant 
growth, 12. 

Sulla, 310. 

Sullivan, Gen., mentioned, 540. 

Sumac, Cape, for dve, 270; poison, 114; Sicilian, for dye, 
270; for tannin, 623-625; Virginian, for dye, 270. 

Sumbawa wood, 270. 

Summer-fallowing notes. 668. 



Summer rape, 307. 

Sundew for dye, 270. 

Sun drying fruit, 174. 

Sunflower. 491, 611-613; for farm garden, 274; notes, 7; 
on Pacific slope, 455; seed notes, 133, 136; silage, 414! 

Sunlight in relation to leaf activities, 13, 14, 15. 

Sunn hemp, for fiber, 285, 286; for paper, 503, 504, 509; 
place in rotation, 108, 109. 

Sunscald, cause, 20. 

Surangee, 267. 

Surat, crop rotation system, 109. 

Suzuki c^uoted, 28. 

Sveti-sorse, place in rotation, 108. 

Swamp pine, California, for tannin, 624. 

Swan river corn (Fig. .599), 399. 

Swedish clover, 233, 234. 

Swedish turnip, 307, 547-550. 

Swedes, place in rotation, 100. (Sec Swedish turnip.) 

Sweet alyssum for farm garden, 274; for window-box. 
130. 

Sweetbay, 457. 

Sweet birch, oil from, 495. 

Sweet clover. (.Sec Clover, sweet.) 

Sweet corn. (.See Maize, sweet.) 

Sweet fern, 629. 

Sweet flag, candied, 163. 

Sweet-pea, 391; cupid, 61; for farm garden, 274; seed 
notes, 133. 

Sweet-potato, 613-623; for industrial alcohol, 187; 
notes, 3, 520; place in rotation, 101, 103, 105; plant- 
ing dates, 138-140; propagation notes, 131, 147, 148; 
seed per acre, 136; storage houses, 551-553: weight, 
legal, 151; yields, 15.3-155. 

Sweet sultan for farm garden, 274. 

Sweet vernal-grass, 370, 437. 

Swingle, W. T., quoted, 74. 

Switch-grass, 453, 454. 

Sycamore, freedom from disease, 345. 

Sylvestre quoted, 30. 

Symbiosis, IS, 394, 395. 

Symphytum asperrinium, 309. 

Syntherisma sanguinalis, 366-368, 449. (See Crab- 
grass.) 

Syringa for farm garden, 274. 

Syringa vulgaris, effect of etherization, 29. 

Syrup, fruit, 164; maple-, 427, 434; sorghum, 580- 
582. 

Tacca pinnatifida for arrow-root, 199. 

Taft, L. R., article bv, 123. 

Tagasate, 311. 

Taigu wood, 269. 

Taliaferro, W. T. L., quoted, 102. 

Tall fescue, 374; seeding, 438. 

Tall meadow oat-grass, 136. 

Tall oat-grass, 370, 439-442, 446; notes, 437; time of 

maturity, 436. 
Tall tallow-weed, 454. 
Tallow- weed, 454. 
Tamarack, gathering seed, 327. 
Tamarix Africana, 628. 
Tamarix articulata, 628. 
Tampico fiber, 290. 
Tanacetum vulgare, 465. 
Tanbark oak, 62.5. 
Tanghadi bark, 627. 
Tangier pea, 311. 
Tannier, 80. 

Tannic acid, effect on plant growth, 29. 
Tannin, 623-629; algarobillo for, 77. 
Tanning materials, 623—629. 
Tansy, 457, 465, 466. 
Tan-u, 227. 

Tapioca, cassava for, 227. 
Taproot, nature, 12. 
Tare, spring, 658. 
Tarello, C, quoted, 108. 
Taro, 629-631. 

Tartaric acid, formation, 180. 
Tarweed, 311. 
Tawheri bark, 628. 
Taxodium di.stichum (Fig. 431), 316. 
Taylor, F. W., quoted, 103. 



INDEX 



697 



Tea, 631-636; notes, 122. 

Teasel, 636-638; notes, 10; place in rotation, 107; seed 
per acre, 136. 

Tecoma Lapacho, 269. 

Teff, 311. 

Temperature, changes as an aid in insect control, 40; 
effect of shadingon, 122; relation to plant growth, 21. 

Tendril, 16. 

TenEyck, A. M., articles, 90, 611; quoted, 101, 3S7. 

Tengah bark, 627. 

Tennessee, crop rotation systems in, 105. 

Tennis courts, freeing from weeds, 117. 

Tent caterpillar, 38, 42. 

Tents, shelter, for plants, 123. 

Teosinte, 367, 398, 399, 638, 639; seed notes, 133, 
136. 

Tequila azul, 291. 

Terebinth, 73. 

Terfa, 480. 

Terfezia leonis, 479. 

Teri pod, 627. 

Terminalia Bellerica, 627; Catappa, 627; Chebula, 627; 
Mauritiana, 627; Oliveri, 627; tomentosa, 627. 

Terra Japonica, 626. 

Terra merita, 270. 

Terra orellana, 267. 

Terragon, 185, 457. 

Terry's 3-course rotation, 104. 

Tesu" dye, 629. 

Texas blue-grass, 373, 450; notes, 441. 

Texas Experiment Station quoted, 263. 

Texas Seeded Ribbon Cane, 578. 

Textile fibers, 281-292. 

Textile plants in their plant relations, 4. 

Thann leaves, 627. 

Thea Bohea, 631. 

Thea Sinensis, 631. 

Thea viridis, 631. 

Theobroma angustifolia, 224. 

Theobroma Cacao, 224. 

Theobroma pentagona, 224. 

Thesium Colpoon, 629. 

Thielavia basicola, 653. 

Thistle, bull, 10; Canada, 112; field, 118; flower forma- 
tion, 7; pasture (Fig. 151), 113. 

Thlaspi ar\'ense in flax-fields, 299. 

Thorn, black, planting seed, 329. 

Thornber, J. J., article bv, 197. 

Thousand-headed kale, 388, 389. 

Thread, fibers for, 281. 

Thrips, kerosene emulsion for, 38. 

Thunder-storms in relation to plant growth, 32. 

Thuya occidentalis (Fig. 430), 316. 

ThjTne, 457, 466; importations, 496; oil of, 496. 

ThVmol, 466, 496. 

Ti-hoang, 268. 

Til, 108, 501. 

Tilia Americana (Fig. 440), 318. 

Tillage, for control of tliseases, 48; of insects, 42; of 
orchards. 349, 350 ; relation to fertility, 91 ; tools, 135. 

Tillandsia usneoides, 293. 

Tilletia ftetens, 670. 

Tilletia tritici, 670. 

Timber crops in their plant relations, 4. 

Timber diseases, 345-347; for worms, 343, 344. 

Timiriazeff quoted, 27. 

Timothy, 370, 443, 444; as adulterant of red clover 
seed, 236; Boehmer's, 79; and clover seeding, 136, 
239; hay analysis, 518; in mixtures, 4404, 441 ; moun- 
tain, 454; notes, 437, 438, 442; on Pacific coast, 453; 
place in rotation, 99-105, 203; planting dates, 138- 
140; seed-growing, 144; .seed notes, 132, 133, 136, 
143, 439-441; seed-testing, 141; seed weight, legal, 
151, 152; soil for, 437, 438; for soiling, 571, 572; time 
of maturity, 436; wild, 453, 454; yields, 153-155. 

Timothy region, grasses and clovers in, 443—447. 

Tinampipi, 287. 

Tinctorial plants in their plant relations, 4. 

Tjamara laut, 629. 

Toad-flax (Fig. 164), 116. 

Toadstool, notes. 474. 

Tobacco, 639-653; denatured alcohol for, 187; effect of 
weak poisons on growth, 28; fertilization in, 60, 68; 



for insects, 43-45; introductions, 73; notes, 2, 4, 457; 
place in rotation, 101, 102, 104, 106, 108, 109; plant- 
ing dates, 138-140; propagation notes, 147, 14S; seed 
notes, 133, 136; shading, 122, 123; stalks for pajier, 
503, 504; water, formula, 38; worm, 622, 652; yields, 
153-155. 

Tocalote (Fig. 138), 112. 

Toddalia aculeata, 269. 

Tomato, 147, 148; candied, 160; for canning, 159, 160, 
165, 171, 172; di.sease, 51 ; effect of acetylene light, 25 
of electric arc light, 22; of incandescent gaslight, 26 
glasshouses for, 125; notes. 2, 7, 10, 61, 133, 655 
pickled, 173; place in rotation, 100, 103, 105, seed- 
growing, 145, 146; shipping, 654; temperature for, 
280; weight, legal, 151. ^ -^ 

Tormentilla erecta, 629. 

Torquemada quoted, 405. 

Torpedo bug in coffee, 244. 

Tortoise beetles on sweet-potatoes, 622, 623. 

Torus of flower defined, 7. 

Touchardia latifolia, 286. 

Tournesol dye, 269. 

Tow, 302. 

Towai, 628. 

Ton-nsend, C. O., article by, 588. 

Tracheids, 15. 

Tracy, S. M., articles bv, 199, 227; quoted, 396, 397, 
451. 

Tracy, W. W., article by, 144. 

Trametes pini, 346. 

Transmitting power of plants, test for, 63. 

Transpiration controlled, 13. 

Trap-crops, use in control of insects, 43. 

Traube quoted, 188. 

Tree clover, 232. 

Trees, felling, 335; injury by electric wires, 33, 34; plac- 
ing on farm, 91 ; the reach for light, 20; seed-planting, 
328, 329. 

Trefoil, bird's-foot or yellow, 78, 142, 306; place in rota- 
tion, 106; Spanisli, for dye, 270. 

Trichinium nobile, SO. 

Trichinium obo\'atum, SO. 

Trichobaris trinotata, 524. 

Trichola^na rosea, 451, 452. 

Tricondylus ilicifolia, 269. 

Tricondylus myricoides, 269. 

Triennial crop rotation system, 98 99. 

Trifolium agrarium, 235; Alexandrinum, 79, 215, 216, 
232; arvense, 235: aureum, 235; Bcckwithii, 235 
hybridum, 2.32, 233, 234; incarnatuni, 232, 234 
.Johnstoni, 80; magnum, 233; medium, 2.33; pra- 
tense, 232, 233; pratense var. foliosum, 233; pra- 
tense var. perenne, 233; procurnbens, 235, 39.5; 
repens, 232, 234; repens var. latus, 234; Wormki- 
oldii, 235. 

Trigonella, 80. 

Trigonella corniculata, 80; gladiata, 80. 

Trigonella Fcenum-Graecum. (See Fenugreek.) 

Triticum, botanical characters, 365, 366; monococcum, 
663, 664; Polonicum, 663, 665: sativum, 375, 660; 
notes, 32, (See Wheat); sativiun \'ar. comjiactum, 
663, 664; sativum var. dicoccum, 66.3, 664; sativum 
var. durum, 663, 664; sativum var. Spelta, 663, 664; 
sativum var. Tenax, 663; sativum var. turgidum, 
663, 664; sativum var. vulgare, 663, 664. 

Truck-growing, 653-656. 

True, R. H., articles bv, 457, 494, 586. 

Truffles. 474, 479, 4S0. 

Trumpet creeper, 7. 

Tschinkel quoted, 31, 34. 

Tsuga Canadensis (Fig. 454), 322, 507, 624. 

Tsuga heterophylla, 624. 

Tuber jestivum, 479. 

Tuber magnatum, 479. 

Tuber melanosporum, 479. 

Tuber melanosporum, var. h grosses vermes, 479. 

Tubercles, legume root-, 392-395. 

Tubers, for hogs on Pacific slope, 455; storage of food 
in, 17. 

Tuckahoe, 480. 

Tugwar, 628. 

Tula istle fiber, 290. 

Tules, 455. 



698 



INDEX 



Tulip for farm garden, 274. 

Tulip tree (Fig. 44G), 320. 

TuU, Jfthro, clean tillage system, 84. 

Tulwali, 628. 

Tuna, introduction, 73, 74. 

Tunglu-bok, 227. 

Turbuli, 268. 

Turf oats, seeding notes, 441 ; with vetch, 659. 

Turkey oak for tannin, 62.5. 

Turkey red, dye, 269; oil, 230. 

Turkish galls for tannin, 625. 

Turkish sumac, 626. 

Turmeric, 270, 586, 587. 

Turnip, 280, 547-550; for canning, 160; as cover-crop, 
259, 260, 350, 351; described, 548; dry matter con- 
tent, 540, 548; effect of electricity on, 30, 31 ; hybrid, 
seed per acre, 136; notes, 2, 5; pickled, 173; place in 
rotation, 89, 100-102, 104, 106-108; planting dates, 
138-140; seeil notes, 132, 133, 136; for soiling, 571, 
573; tliin-rootod, 548; treatment with copper sulfate 
118; weight, legal, 151, 152; wild, 118, 548; yields 
153-155. 

Turpentine oil, 495, 497. 

Turwar, 627. 

Tusser, Thomas, quoted, 162. 

Tussock-moths, control, 42. 

Tutu bark for tannin, 626. 

Twine, binding, from flax, 302; fibers. (See Fiber plants.) 

Twich-grass, 376. 

Tvehea phaseoli, 586. 

Tyndall quoted, 157. 

Udo (Fig. 13), 8; introduction, 72. 

Uganda clover, SO. 

Ule.x Europa-us, 307. 

Ulex nanus, 80. 

Ullucus tuberosus, SO. 

XJlmus Americana (Fig. 447), 320. 

Umbrella plant, 129. 

Uncaria Gambler, 626. 

Underwood, W. L., quoted, 170, 171. 

United States, crop rotation systems in, 100-106. 

United States Department of Agriculture quoted, 132, 

387, 396, 485, 486, 487, 579, 583, 592, 660, 665. 
Unity of individual; importance in breeding, 50. 
Urena lobata, 285. 

Uromyces appendiculatus (Fig. 57), 38. 
Usnea, 267. 

Ustilaginoidea virens, 537. 
Ustilago aven;c, 491 ; Crameri, 473; hordei, 204; laevis, 

491 ; nuda, 204; tritici, 670; zeae, 414, 420. 
Utah, crop rotation systems in, 105. 

Vaccinium membranaceum, 267. 

Vaccinium Myrtillus, 267. 

Vaccinium Vitis-Idiea, 268. 

Valerian, 457, 466; importations, 496. 

Valeriana officinalis, 466. 

Valonia for tannin, 625. 

Vanilla, 4.57; introductions, 74, 75. 

Van Leenhoff, J. W., article by, 239. 

Van Mons ([uoted, 57. 

Van Troostwvck quoted, 30. 

Van Wagenen, Jared, .Jr., articles by, 380, 414, 659. 

Variation, in plant-breeding, 54, 58. 

Varieties, classification of, 57; notes, 2, 4. 

Variolaria, 267, 269. 

Varlo, crop rotation plan, 89. 

Varro quoted, 566. 

Vascular plants defined, 8. 

Vassalli quoted, 31. 

Vegetable-garden, 274. 275, 279-281. 

Vegetable-growing. (See Truck-growing.) 

Vegetaolc-houses, construction, 12.3-128. 

Vegetables, 273; canning and preserving, 157-177; 

notes, 4; place in the rotation, 101 ; propagation notes, 

144-146. 
Veitch, F. P., articles bv, 503, 623. 
Velvet bean, 656-658; as cover-crop, 259, 350, 351; 

notes, 451 ; rotation, 89, 101 ; seed notes, 133, 136. 
Velvet-grass, 371, 447; on Pacific coast, 453, 455; seed 

notes, 133; weight, of seed, legal, 148. 
Velvet-leaf, 283. 



Venetian simiac, 626. 
Venice, cro]> rotation systems in, 108. 
Vcntilago Madras-patana, 270. 
Verbascum Thapsus (Fig. 153), 114. 
Verbena, for farm garden, 274. 
Verbena familv, oil plants in, 494. 
Vermilion, 269, 271. 

Vermont Experiment Station quoted, 569. 
Vcrmorel sprav nozzle, 46. 

Vetch, 80, 658-660; biennial, 80; as cover-crop, 89, 259, 
350, 351, 649; as green-manure crop, 93; hairy, notes, 
213, 441; hedge, SO; kidnev, 308; narrow-leaved, 80; 
Narbonne, 80; notes, 2; and oats, 571, 573, 658, 659; 
on Pacific coast, 455; place in rotation, 103-106, 108; 
planting dates, 138-140; and rye, 573; scarlet, 80; 
seeding notes, 133, 136; for soiling, 570; spring, root 
tubercles on, 392; spring, seed notes, 136; and wheat, 
573; wild, 454; yields, 153-155. 
Vetiver, 497, 498. 
Vctiveria zizanioides, 497. 

Vicia angustifolia, 80, 658; biennis, 80; calcarata, 
80; Ervilia, 80; I'aba, 212-214, 65S; fulgens, 80: 
hirta, 80; Leavenworthii, 659; macrocarpa, SO; Nar- 
bonensis, 80, 658; sativa, 658; sepium, SO; villosa, 
658. 
Vigna Catjang, 261. (See Cowpea.) 
Vigna Sinensis, 261. 
Vigna imguiculata, 260. 
Vilmorin quoted, 61, 76, 540. 
Vinall, H. N., article by, 397. 

Vinegar, 173, 181, 18.3-186; statistics, 157, 158, 177. 
Vineyards, machinery for spraying, 46. 
Vinson quoted, 198. 
Viola tricolor, var. arvense, 268. 
Violet, 502; diseases, 51. 
Virginia creeper, for dye, 270; notes, 7. 
Virginia, crop rotation systems in, 105, 106. 
Vitex littoralis, 270. 
Vitis vinifcra, 626. 
Voelcker quoted, 108. 
Vogel quoted, 628. 
Volvaria bombycina, 476. 
Von Breda quoted, 30. 
Von Schrenk, Herman, article by, 345. 
Voorhees, E. B., article by, 258; quoted, 103. 
Vouacapoua Araroba, 268. 

Waagenboom, 629. 

Waid, 270. 

Wiiifa, 270. 

Waite, M. B., article by, 613. 

Wallflower, 270. 

Wall liclien for dve, 270. 

Walnut, black, 325, 328, 329, 342; catchup, 173; dis- 
eases, 346; notes, 7; weight, legal, 148. 

Wandering jew for window-box, 130. 

Warai, place in rotation, 109. 

Waras, 270. 

Warburton, C. W., articles bv, 216, 385, 580. 

Warren, G. F., article by, 174. 

Wasabi, dry-land, 77. 

Washington, George, quoted, 82, 83. 

Water, in relation to plant activities, 19, 20. 

Water foxtail, 455. 

Water hemlock (Fig. 167), 116. (See Hemlock.) 

Watermelon, 116; place in rotation, 100, 101, 654, 655; 
shipping, 654. 

Water parsley, 309. 

Water-supply, relation of forest cover to, 315. 

Watkins, Dr. J. H., quoted, 384, 578. 

Watson quoted, 398. 

Watson, G. C, quoted, 104, 572. 

Wattles for tannin, 628. 

Wau, 270. 

Weakes quoted, 31 . 

Webb, George, quoted, 641. 
Webber, Herbert .]., articles bv, 57, 247. 
Web-worm, in alfalfa, 195; corn, 413; cotton, 252. 
Weed-killers, chemical, 11.5-118. 

Weeds, and the management of them, 110-118; eradi- 
cating by crop rotation, Sd; in meadows, 447; in rela- 
tion to plant diseases, 50. 
Weeping willow, 628. 



INDEX 



699 



Weevil, bean-, 211; in coffee, 245; pea. 513; in sweet- 
potatoes, 622; white pine, 343. 

Weigela for farm garden, 274. 

Weights, legal, of agricultural products, 14S-152. 

Weinmannia glabra, 628. 

Weinmannia niacrostachya, 628. 

Weinmannia racemosa, 628. 

Welch, Dr. Thomas B., quoted, 178. 

Weld, 270. 

West Virginia, crop rotation systems in, 106. 

Westgate, J. M., article bv, 192. 

Whale-oil soap, 38; for insects, 43, 44, 130, 281. 

Wheat, 375, 660-670; belt, rotation for, 94, 101 ; breed- 
ing notes, 62; with clover, 238; composition, 560; cost 
of raising, 322; as cover-crop, 259, 260, 350, 351 ; crop 
rotation for control of insects, 42; direction of drills, 
90; diseases, 670; durum, introduction, 73; effect of 
electricity on, 30, 31 ; effect of iodid of potassium on 
28; effect of tannic acid, 29; effect of pyrogallol, 29 
fertilization in, 60, 68; for hay on Pacific coast, 453 
hybrids, 63, 68; India-, 217; insect enemies, 670 
lowered quality by improper handling, 98; new varie- 
ties from sports, 58, 61 ; nitrogen requirements, 320 
notes, 2, 4, 443, 444; in the Palouse country, 455 
place in rotation, 82, 87, 89, 93, 94, 96, 99-109, 207 
220, 249, 297. 668; planting dates, 138-140; races, 57 
rust, 47, 48, SO, 52, 670; seed-growing, 144; seed notes 
49, 132, 133, 136; smut, 47, 49, 50, 670; for soiling 
571, 572; storing in pits, 566; straw, for paper, 519 
straw for weaving, 293; trap-crop for hessian fly, 43 
treatment with copper sulfate, 118; varieties and the 
control of rust, 48; varieties resistant to he.ssian fly, 
43; and vetch, 573; weight, legal, 151, 152; yields, 
153-155, 486. 

Wheat-grass, 376; bunch, 455; false, 455; in Rocky 
mountain region, 454; slender, 376. 452; in South- 
west, 453; western, 453-455; wild, 455. 

Wheeler, C. F., article bv, 306. 

Wheeler, H. J., quoted, 105. 

Whin, 307; in rotation, 108. 

Whisky from corn, 412. 

White birch for tannin, 629. 

White clover. (See Clover, white.) 

White Egyptian corn, 384-386, 579. 

White-fly, hydrocyanic acid gas for, 45. 

White gum,"627. 

White lupine, 397, 398. 

White melilot, 467. 

White milo, 386. 

White milo maize, 578. 

White mustard, 259, 311. 

White spruce for tannin, 625. 

White thorn, 270. 

White-top, 453, 455. 

White oak for tannin, 625. 

White-weed, 447. 

Whitney quoted, 248. 

Whortleberry, 267. 

Wiancko, A. T., quoted, 101. 

Wickson, E. J., quoted, 100. 

Wilcox, E. Mead, article by, 229. 

Wild oat, 373, 4.!;5, 485; on Pacific coast, 453. 

Wild pie-plant, 628. 

Wild rice, 535. 

Wild rve, 454, 455; in Southwest, 453. 

Wiley,"H. W., article by, 186. 

Willits citrange (Fig. 86), 67. 

Willfarth quoted, 393. 

Williams, W. M., quoted, 164. 

Willow, bark for tannin, 629; for basketry, 341 ; intoler- 
ant character, 323; planting, 328; regeneration, 325, 
326; in Southwest, 453. 

Willughbeia, 554. 

Wilson, A. D., quoted, 102. 

Wilt, 50; of cotton, 251, 252; of cowpea, 264, 266; of 
ginseng, 360; of house plants, 130. 

Wind, en^•ironment of plants, 21; as an aid in insect 
control, 40. 

Windbreak, forest as, 315. 

Window, boxes, 129, 130; gardening, 128-130; plants. 
128-130. 



Windsor bean, 212-214. 

Wine, 181-183; statistics, 158, 177, 178. 

Wing, Joseph E., article by, 237; quoted, 104. 

Winterfat in Southwest, 454. 

Wintergreen, 494, 495, 498. 

Wire-grass (Cynodon Dacti/lon), 371. 

Wire-grass (Poa corftprcssa), 373. 

Wireworms, 42, 43, 86; in corn, 414; in popcorn, 
421. 

Wisconsin, crop rotation systems in, 106. 

Wisconsin Experiment Station quoted, 532. 

Wise quoted, 520. 

Witch balls, 446. 

Witches' brooms, 21. 

Withycombe, James, quoted, 104. 

Witsen, Nicholas, quoted, 240. 

Woad, 270; place in rotation, 107. 

Woll, F. W., article b.v, 569; quoted, 569. 

WoUny quoted, 31. 

Wongschy, 268. 

Wood, ashes for plants, 128; for paper, 503-505; paren- 
chyma, 15; treating to prevent decay, 347. 

Wood alcohol, 186. 

Wood and Berry quoted, 548. 

Wood-oil tree, introduction, 72. 

Woodlot, farm, 312-347. 

Woodman's Handbook quoted, 340. 

Woodruff, dyer's, 268. 

Wool, printing, 272. 

Wooly-butt, 627. 

Wormseed, American, 458, 466; oil of, 496, 498. 

Wormwood, 457; mountain, for dye, 269; oil, 495, 496, 
498, 499. 

Woronin quoted, 392. 

Wougsky, 268. 

Wyoming, crop rotation systems in, 106. 

Xanthosoma atrovirens, 80. 
Xanthosoma sagittiefolium, 80. 
Xylem, 9. 

Yams for industrial alcohol, 187. 

Yangmce, 267. 

Yaray palm for fiber, 292. 

Yarn, fibers for, 281 ; printing, 272. 

Yarrow (Fig. 165), 116. 

Yautia, 72, 74, 80. 

Yaxci fiber, 28S. 

Yeasts, 181; destroyed by formaldehyde, 49; notes, 2; 

in relation to preserves, 161. 
Yellow berries, 270. 
Yellow clover. (See Clover, yellow.) 
Yellow lupine, 398. 

Yellow milo, 384-386, 579. (See UVo.) 
Yellow trefoil, 306; seed notes, 142. 
Yellow weed, 270. 
Yew, for tannin, 625; notes, 2. 
Yields of farm crops, 131-155. 
Young, T. B., notes by, 464, 466. 
Yucca, 227; for farm garden, 274; fiber, 281. 
Yucca Treculeana, 290. 

Zagrammosoma multilineata, 245. 

Zapupe azul, 291. 

Zapupe fiber, 291. 

Zavitz quoted, 489. 

Zea, botanical characters, 366; amylacea, 402; amylea, 

saccharata, 402; canina, 398, 399, 402; everta, '402- 

418; indentata, 402; indurata, 402; Mays, 367, 398; 

effect of electricity on, 32, (See Maize) ; saccharata, 

402; tunicata, 402. 
Zigzag clover, 233. 
Zinc salts, effect on growth of mold fungi and aigss, 

28. 
Zinnia for farm garden, 274. 
Zingiber officinale. (See Ginger.) 
Zizania aqviatica, 535. 
Zon, Raphael, article by, 319. 
Zoogloea, defined, 392. 
Zootechny, defined, 191. 
Zuntz quoted, 539, 



imTTin 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



0DQ5bfll4D30 




